Wednesday, January 2, 2013

There's Nothing Like Setting a New PB on New Year's Day - On A Recovery Ride, Nonetheless !

The title says it all!  One of my biking buddies, Mike, and I decided to ride for the 3rd day in a row - and it was the 1st day of the New Year, 2013 - we figured to do a nice little recovery ride.  That's where you just spin along in a comfortable gear, talking all the time - and never trying to work too hard - even on the climbs.

We thought we'd do 25 to 30 miles (it ended up smack in the middle - 27 miles for me, 28 miles for Mike, who rode down to my house to meet me - and then rode back after dropping me off at my house at the end of the ride).  And, we decided on doing the ride down to the harbor area of Santa Cruz (Crow's Nest Restaurant, to be exact) via Glen Canyon and then back the same route.  That would be a 21-mile round trip, so we thought we'd do a couple of loops around Scotts Valley (Scotts Valley Drive and Green Hills Road) to get those extra miles (and a little extra climbing feet) done.

And, we stuck to the plan - until we didn't.  Well, Mike stuck to the plan - but then, he's in a lot better shape than I am right now.  I'm the one that veered off the plan, but it was totally unintentional!  As planned, we did an easy spin down to the Crow's Nest Restaurant in Santa Cruz - and, as planned, we noodled our way back towards Scotts Valley at an easy, conversational pace.

But then, when we started the Glen Canyon climb (to get back up into Scotts Valley from Santa Cruz), I started out exactly as we had planned - spinning an easier gear on the climb - and we would have stuck to the plan - except I seemed to get into this total rhythm - the climb up Glen Canyon is uneven - it's not a very hard climb - the grade is fairly mild and it sort of rolls up and down, doing more rolling up than rolling down -  and there are a couple of spots where it pitches up a bit (but again, pitching up is not to suggest we hit these steep, 15% sections - it just pitches up from 2% or 3% to maybe 6% or 7% - and only for a very brief time).  When I hit those little parts where it pitches up, rather than drop down a gear (to keep the spinning on the lighter and easier side, as planned), I just kept it in the same gear and just pushed a bit harder on those sections where it steepened a bit - for whatever reason, it just wasn't all that hard - and the rhythm felt good - not changing gears on a climb can allow you to sometimes keep a nice rhythm going - assuming the changes in pitch are not too severe, of course - and this was the case with Glen Canyon - the "steep" parts are not really all that steep - just a little steeper than other parts.  Overall, it really is the easiest climb to get back up to Scotts Valley.

So here I was, motoring along in this nice rhythm - and breathing a little harder as a result - I had noticed our riding time (1:02:40) as we started the "official" climb of Glen Canyon - and at some point during the climb (like, after the last main part that pitches up briefly), I looked at the riding time and thought there was a reasonable chance I could do a new (relative) PB for that climb - and the funny part is that I had just done a new (relative) PB on that climb the day before, which was the LAST day of 2012!

My very best time (ever) on that climb was 14:19, done back in early 2007.  My very first time, post heart surgery, was 22:26.  My end of the year PB (relative) for 2012 was 21:12 - and according to what I saw on my cyclometer, it looked like I could possible hit about 20 minutes for the climb I was doing - on our recovery ride, nonetheless - and the first ride of 2013 - how cool!  Mike could tell that I had gone into a different mode - he sensed that I was going for a new PB, so he just motored along with me.

My breathing never got labored - just a nice steady rhythm - and pushing it a bit more than planned - and just as we hit the end of the climb, I realized I had done right around 20 minutes - in fact, it turns out that my actual time on that climb was just 19:24 - almost 2 minutes faster than my previous PB (from the day before) - and only 5 minutes slower than my all-time record time in early January, 2007 - wow!

I then did a simple calculation, using my famous ClimbCalculator - and put in the numbers for the Glen Canyon climb, to then determine how much time I gain for every 10 pounds I lose (I'm about 30 to 40 pounds overweight right now) - and it turns out I would get back 1 minute every time I lose another 10 pounds - and that is WITHOUT gaining any strength in my legs (which will also happen as I get in better shape).  So if I then assume I can lose 30 pounds over the next 5 months (very realistic and doable - that is about 1.5 pounds per week),  my time - today! - would be about 16:24 - just 2 minutes off my all-time PB!

Then, if you figure that I will, in fact, gain some more climbing strength in my legs over the next 5 months, it stands to reason that I should be able to come very close to my all-time PB of 14:19 for that climb by the time we hit the end of May, 2013 - woohoo! - wouldn't THAT be ever so cool?

So now I have some real strong incentive to get those extra pounds off - not only will the cycling be more fun and easier, but I will have a chance to get my fitness creeping back to where it was in 2007, when I was in my very best shape of all time (even better than when I was in my 20s!!).

So for all those old geezers out there (like me) that are trying to claw their way back into shape - even after heart surgery - anything is possible, I can guarantee you!

Keep on riding!