Stress Powered Riding

UIL stress powered riding has benefits and the downside also. Two weeks ago I rode an amazing ride where all kinds of PRs were broken a nice benefit to the stress I was dealing with for UIL competition.

Time to the railroad tracks by division south of town PR by 3 minutes in 31. Then PR by 5 minutes to San Jose in 42. Then I got to Espada or 17 miles by 58 PR by two minutes I think. Made it to the 21 spot by 1:15 or 1:16. Took some salt at 30 then turned around at the Valero on 181. Back at the Missions I hit 50 in 2:55 and then hit 52 in 3:00. Finished 64.5 in 3:48 Nice! Final average including cooldown 16.9. Maximum average out to San Jose 18.6 Dainnngguh. Average to 17 or Espada 18.3. All this with a bit of a strained calf from Thursday nights speed fest. All benefits to the stress I was feeling!

I get home feeling good, but trouble starts at the restaurant, couldn't get my HR down. 95 and 98 while eating a sandwich. I was shaking and couldn't figure out what was going on. Gayle drives us home. I rest and take an extra blood pressure pill. By 5 or 6 my heart rate is still up at 95 or so. My blood pressure is way up 20 to 30 points higher than normal. It wasn't till the next day after taking an extra sleep session before church by blowing off the ride!

This weekend again PRs are broken and feeling good and strong - just not strong enough to ride with the racers of Chainreaction. I redlined a couple of times too many early on in the ride and faded off the back big time. All of off the back regrouped and reorganized about the time we were getting to Somerset. We knew exactly who needed to stay together on the way back but also get some miles in. Beautiful smooth route that I didn't know existed so close to my Pleasanton route. I PRd again to the RR tracks south of town at Divison this time by 6 minutes to 26 and then today I repeated that.

Yesterday was 78 miles at 4:54 maximum average of 18.3 and ending average of 16.6. Today I had an awesome pull to Espada. The average at turnaround was 19.3 which is faster than ever. I got to Espada in 48 minutes a full 12 minutes than what I could do last year and 10 minutes faster than what I did last week. So I turn around thinking cool I'm going to get back home so quickly, but no! The wind was a bear! I was struggling like I was when we were going 23 miles an hour yesterday. By the time I got home I was at 15 so much less than the 19.3 that I had going to the halfway point.

This weekend, no problems with heart rate or blood pressure, but then UIL finished Wednesday and now we are working on what we need to finish the year.