Weeks 2 - 4

Well, I got behind in my posting already. Sad, but typical. The biking is going well, though. Weeks 2 - 4 were pretty much the same as Week 1, but with ride time increasing from 30 minutes to 40 minutes. Here are the highlights (for lack of a better word) for the last three weeks of training:

• I can now do a 40 minute ride with an average speed of 15 mph. This is an improvement form when I started, when I could do 30 minutes at an average speed of about 12 mph.
• I got my heart rate monitor and figured out how to use it (it is more complicated than the space shuttle).
• My threshold heart rate - which I am saying is my heartrate after sustaining the hardest pace I could for 15 minutes, is about 160.
• I don't have a 1 mile strech in my ride that doesn't have a crossing of some type. So I took a stretch of uninterupted trail, which was about 3/4 of a mile long, as my threshold mile distance. I'll use this to test my progress as time goes on. At week 3 I did this distance, at my threshold heartrate, in 3 minutes and 25 seconds.
• I plan on hitting the off road trails starting this weekend. I feel that I have gained some endurance and shouldn't pass out after 5 minutes.
• I hope to do some sprint training at the local BMX track. I don't plan on racing, but I thought I would ride a couple of laps to work on my sprinting.

Next week has a big jump in intensity; I will start riding every workday morning for about 45 minutes plus strength training. I'll update this weekend with the schudule and follow up at the end of the week if I can still move.

Quote for the Week:

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only
through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition
inspired, and success achieved. -- Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)