BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 22 min. (Hells yes, bitches!!)
TIME BACK: 26 min.
WEATHER: clear, 11C, 19 km/hr tailwinds there; a few clouds, 19C, 31 km/hr headwinds back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt
NOTES:
I've been trying to put into practice the new biking techniques I wrote about earlier in the week, and I am finding that they are somewhat helpful. I haven't had too many difficulties trying to concentrate on keeping my cadence up even when I'm panting like an animal, and most of the time I remember to dismount from my bike with my pedals in a good position for me to elegantly jump back on them and start pedalling right away upon re-mount. Sometimes I forget to do this pre-positioning, however, and I'm stuck doing my stupid time-wasting routine of kicking the pedals into place before I can mount up. Well, practice will make perfect . . .
My problem today has more been feeling worn out. Maybe it's because I'm tired of my weight loss plateau and have been restricting my caloric intake in order to lose weight again, which might mean I'm eating a little less than what my body might want me to these days. That contributes to my muscles tiring easily, and that doesn't bode well for my ride. Today I tried shifting down one gear from what I'm used to, allowing a higher cadence to compensate for the lower power exertion. It turns out, that worked really well for me! My leg muscles felt much less tired, I was able to keep a decent pace, and I managed to make pretty decent time. Perhaps I should ride in that gear all the time! After all, I'm not looking to build muscle - I'm looking to lose weight - and maybe that's best achieved with higher cadence and lower resistance.
Regardless of my methodology, the point is to keep me riding. And what's going to prevent me from doing that is making it so difficult it's highly unpleasant - so anything that makes things easier for me, the better!!
An ideal cadence is around 80-100 rpm, which is much higher than most people do when they start riding. It feels odd at first but you quickly get used to it and you'll be amazed at the improvement. I haven't read all your archive so I don't know if you've done a Can-Bike course but you'd probably find it helpful for more techniques. But keep up the good work! This is an inspiring blog.
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