Sorry if this is boring but I needed to tell someone who understands since the only response from my wife was "that's nice, are you going to be ready when our guest come?". The rains quit on Saturday afternoon long enough to get a ride in before the remains of hurricane Ike pushed thru. It was 85 degrees and humid with 10 mph winds from the South. I didn't ride the day before and there was no reason to not ride hard so I decided to see how fast I could do a 32 mile ride. I set up the GPS and turned it on at the end of the drive way and went off on my ride. I usually warm up but did not this time and worked into a fast pace within 1/3 mile. I watched my HRM and kept the heart rate at the top end of zone 4 (150 bpm) for most of the ride. The wind was from the South so I rode to the South and West hoping to have a tail wind on the way back. The loop is sort of a reverse "P". While riding into the wind I focused on HR and not speed as I was only going 17 to 18 mph and my HR was up where I wanted to maintain it. I made it to the turning point at around 15 miles and still felt good. I checked my average speed at 20 miles and it was 20.3 mph. I was starting to hurt but kept it going in hopes of averaging 20 mph + for the ride. It gets more hilly near my home so I knew I needed a cushion and kept pushing even on the down hills and always stayed in the drops. I finished the last two miles including the ride down my subdivision street as if I was in a race. The end result: 32.1 miles @ 20.13mph ave, average HR @ 149, 783 feet of climbing. My best solo ride of the year.
My hamstrings were cramping while we watched the OSU/USC game but I did imbide in antidotes.
Sorry for the self promotion, I just needed to share with this someone who knows what I talking about.