Where are the pumpkins?

I have had so much fun playing with my heart rate monitor during the past week. The geek in me just loves to look at the results following the workouts, to the point that I am in a hurry to get home to download the results to my laptop. And I still have to find out so much more about it, to set all my workouts to the desired intensity levels. But I'll resist the urge to post any graphs, at least for the time being. I still have to confirm this, but after two readings, my resting heart rate is 45bpm (beats/minute). I'll take more readings to confirm this.

Another advantage is that it is so easy to keep track of my workouts. Last week, I increased my weekly running mileage to 50mi, to start to get ready for the Philly marathon. I'll drop that this week and the next, as a taper for the Bassman 70.3, but I should be doing at least 50mi weekly during October and the first week of November. I hope to do a PR in Philly, hoping to be smarter about fueling during the race. I have been concentrating on fueling during my long runs and rides, and I do feel much better than if I was not.

Yesterday, E and I did the Pumpkin Patch Pedal century bike ride. We had done the 62mi ride last year, and we liked it. For the century, they extend the ride by taking us to some county roads with a lot of fast moving traffic, and nothing scenic to look at. There were no pumpkins there, or nothing else for that matter, except for cars going at 50+MPH, so that portion was not very enjoyable. I was quite disappointed by this.

As for the ride, I felt really strong throughout. There was no pain, and my legs always had a lot of spring to them, taking hills strongly, and using the descents to pick up speed. My heart rate did not go above 155 at any moment during the ride. E was not having such a good time, but she did great for the first 50mi, until her legs started to hurt. Still, she soldiered on. Then she stopped at mile 90, but after calming down, she finished strongly. I feel bad, because I could have been a better domestique after the rest stop at mile 80, but I made sure to keep her front wheel right behind my back wheel for the last 10mi, to cut the wind for her. Good job hon!

Also, like I pointed out to her, that road where she stopped is not good to us. Last year, for the Pumpkin ride, I crashed on that road. Earlier this year, for the Farmlands century ride, she crashed on that road. So something bad was bound to happen there. The people from the house whose lawn we stopped at were very nice, so that was the only good thing that we ever encountered in that road.

This morning we went to the pool at 4:45AM. She is back to normal, because she was swimming really fast. I was just doing a mile at a steady pace. After that, I ran 5mi on a hilly course. I do not feel tired or sore from yesterday's ride. That is good!