Today, March 19th, Ben attempts the first ever bike crossing of Baffin Island near the North Pole. Baffin Island is that big island on the map we saw as kids but never really gave it a second thought. Here's a link to his blog, short on info initially now, that I hope you'll take a good look at and follow. His bike, hopefully with pics to follow soon, sounds amazingly high tech considering it's a snow bike. How about tungsten studded tyres to start with?
http://www.rockettrides.com/?page_id=2022
You can follow him on Twitter/FB as well.
Today's training.
My legs were slightly sore from riding the hills yesterday and so thought a recovery ride sounded like a good idea. Since the weather looked real "iffy" Wednesday afternoon, I decided I'd get the day's training indoors rather than out. So I remounted the Carbent on the trainer and commenced my ride. I was planning on a one to two hour recovery ride depending on how things went. In addition, it was my first indoor ride with my new heart monitor so was curious to get a look at some exact numbers of what was going on.
Almost immediately my foot pain returned to the toe section of my foot. What was going on, here, as this isn't good? Over the next ten to fifteen minutes, I started adjusting the boom distance outward about 1/4" at a time. As it turned out, my toe pain all but went away.
Looking back on Tuesday's ride with Dave Miller, my X-Seam distance was a little on the short
side. Part of the problem...I hate to admit it...is that I just can't get very comfortable on the Carbent's seat. I think it's as simple as the seat is too small and doesn't cup my body the way I expected it to.
Back to the ride. With the HR monitor, my steady state HR at 225W was 115-116 with the fan on the lowest setting. On high, I might of been able to drop a few more beats but it did seem to stabilize at that rate regardless. When I bumped the watts up to 235W my HR display was at 121 and holding. 245-250W for five minutes and HR was at 128 generating a tad more heat in the process.
Upon stopping, my HR dropped to 87 in the first minute and continued descending quickly.
I did throw in the mix an 800W...pretty much spun out...and what I found interesting is that after shooting up to a 137 HR my heart quickly returned to 116 at my steady state of 215-225W. In other words, it didn't linger around 130 and then take it's sweet time to drop. Of all the things I enjoy about training, data wise, it's that my recovery HR seems to be as good as it ever was. Maybe better. On a 30 second climb/sprint yesterday with Dave, I noticed my heavy breathing came back to normal in short order. That's a good thing.
Stats:
Purpose? Recovery ride
Distance: 25.6 miles
Time: 1:22:00. which included some time off the bike
Calories: 1000
Wattage: 150W + w/probably 190-200W being average.
Sprinted up over 800W once just to blow out the cobwebs.
Another home-built concept bike.
It's a fwd with a 54gal RubberMaid tote on the bike. Btw, ignore the temporary
fabric wrap on top as tote has a sturdy plastic lid as standard.
I originally built it with the idea of riding it in a race such as the TransAm
However, I didn't like the seat height or foot accessibility to the ground
On a coast down hill, however, with my feet tucked up, it rips!
The next build will have above seat steering with a Rans seat and
will finish off the inside on the tote with a removable flooring/fender arrangement.
I finally figured out how to attach the tote so that it doesn't budge on the bent
from pedaling side forces yet can easy be unfastened from the bike to transport to your campsite or ?
within 20 seconds. Advantages? Cheap, replaceable, water-proof storage, crash-proof and somewhat streamlined tucked in behind the rider. Like I said, it really does rip down hill, and cruising speed is
remarkably little affected by the box. There's room for streamlining improvements with soft connections made between the rider and tote. The overall intent was to build a fast, inexpensive, touring bent w/large storage capacity.
Speaking of storage...The concept of the tote was that heavy items would be packed
low in the tote. Light bulky items, like your tent or sleeping bag/pad would
be strapped down on the lid. There's also plenty of room to lay/attach
your hydration unit on top. I think there might be something to the overall
concept and would welcome your "Yeas or Nays" w/suggestions and ideas
under the comment section. Thanks again for looking.
No comments:
Post a Comment