Originally Posted by
sarals
The charity race looks, well, challenging, perhaps TOO challenging for my small self!
I think I'm getting stronger and fitter, too, although the way some riders blew past me at the Tierra Bella Saturday caused me to wonder ("Sara, it's a TOUR, not a RACE!"). The true test will come when I do the 10K run at the Wildflower in two weeks. I'll let it all go, there!
Right now, my HR averaged 118 with 154 max at the Tierra Bella, and this morning on a five mile run, it averaged 144 with a max of 156 - not much difference, except it appears I work harder on runs than I do on the bike. What I have discovered, though, is how quickly my HR recovers when I lessen the stress. On climbs, when I get to a lesser grade, it goes from 154 or so to the 120's very quickly. The same holds true for runs - stop or walk, it's down to 105 and falling very quickly, less than a minute. That shows fitness, I guess.
I am coming to the conclusion, thanks to the responses to my question, that I may have hit a plateau recently, but I'm now moving past it and have gotten stronger.
Now, if I could just climb half way decently!
Small is good. Last year my wife 5' 4" racing age 60 was third for the women and beat all the Webcor pro women domestiques and was 42 out of 100 for the men.
It sounds like you are doing great.