I've always had problems getting good times when it's windy even though 99% of the my rides are in a loop. Even thought the wind will be at my back for part of the ride, the cross wind wreaks havoc. I'd rather have zero wind. Even a slight wind tends to ruin my ride if my goal is speed related. Mostly I train by heart rate but am only recently trying to squeeze as much speed out of a low HR as possible - partly due to this thread.stormer94 said:Well, Now I went further today for a section, and did a loop to average things out as you have been (I'm starting to be of the mind that a loop is a better test). about 20 minutes of riding. 14.4mph av HR of 109 or 60% of max. Not as good as before. You're getting faster, and I'm going to ****...
Although I have some new thoughts on the "loop" idea. If it's windy like it was here today, out of a 20 minute ride 13 of which was into the wind on the way out, and 7 of which was with the wind on the way back. Almost seems as though a person should ride the same time, not the same distance to get a speed reading, otherwise the into the wind leg is taking up more than it's share of the average.
If I take the average of the fast section with the average of the slow section, it works out to 15.5mph average. When you calculate the time in, it slows it down because you are in the slow section longer. That way worked out to be 14.4mph avg as a loop.
-Hmmmmm.
Yesterday I went out with the goal of sustaining an AvgHR of 65% of MaxHR, which is 125 BPM for me, for an hour. I got lucky on the first try by hitting the target 125 BPM but it was a little windy so my speed wasn't much better than the day before when the ride averaged 60% MaxHR. I'm using larger gears and a slower cadence (~60 - 70 RPMs) for these rides, which is much slower than I normally pedal. However, it is only at these lower cadences that my HR will stay below 75% for the same speed. Spinning seems to not be the way to go for me. As I get more fit that trend will most likely reverse.
Ride on August 9th: (Specialized Sequoia)
Total Ride Time = 00:59:59 (cyclometer)
Total AvgHR = 125 BPM (65.44% of MaxHR of 191) 01:00:01 (HRM)
Time in Zone (134 - 153) = 00:00:42
HR above 153 = 00:00:00
HR below 134 = 00:59:19.2
Distance = 15.19 Miles Avg Speed = 15.1 MPH
Max Speed = 18.6MPH
Weather.com states we're going to have nice weather for several days so I'm going to try some 50 mile rides while trying to keep the HR down. Seems I can do it for an hour but it's time for a real test.
