One tool I bought earlier this year is the CycleOPS heart monitor. I needed a new heart rate monitor anyway, since the old Garmin monitor was acting up quite a bit last year. The new monitor will estimate power from my heart rate and registers as both an ant+ power and heart rate monitor on the Garmin. This is a cheap way to test if a power monitor is for me.
Another tool I'm testing out is a website, Strava. This website will give me some numbers derived from the power meter to help decide when I'm ready to exercise more, do a recovery ride or take a break altogether.
In years past I just rode as often and put on as many miles as I could. The old method wasn't allowing for any recovery, I think this is why my speed started decreasing towards the end of last year. Reading a bit I discovered the importance of recovery rides and the intensity of workout rides. So I'm making sure that any workout ride has plenty of high intensity segments and my recovery rides have zero intensity. I'm new to all of this, but I'm hoping it'll all come together in time to help make the National 24 hour challenge a success, even though I'm only now starting to prepare for it.
I chose the hilly Hamburg community 50 mile course for today's ride since it has plenty of steep climbs for a mandatory high intensity workout. The temps were in the mid to high 80s today which was great since it would help me become acclimated to the hot temps I may see next month. I'm also testing some arm coolers and have some leg coolers on order. Hopefully these will help to prevent any sunburns this year.
The ride was fantastic, I plan on riding this course at least once a week to better my hill climbing. I also plan some high intensity flat courses, since it seems hill climbing uses different muscles then a flat course.
Click here for ride details.
Ride summary from Strava:
