Bike: Nashbar Frame Touring Bike
Miles: 23.23
Start Time 10:55
Moving Time: 2:28:12
Elevation: 499
Avg Spd: 8.8
Max Spd: 18.3
Temp Out: 64
Temp In: 64
Avg HR: 102
Max HR: 134
I set off about 11:00 on a cool and sunny day into a mild West breeze on Amboy Road with the intention of completing a very easy and relaxed airport loop with the option to turn for home at the 10 mile point and make it a 14 mile ride. I rode north on Adobe Road to Valle Vista and started east. The winds were capricious all the way. I had a mild tailwind most of the way to Pinto Mountain Road. The breeze was mostly Southerly on the leg south back to Amboy Road, Westerly going east on Amboy and Southerly on Goodwin to Highway 62. When I got to the airport on 62 the wind was picking up and was varying from South to SW. I knew from experience that the closer to town one gets on Highway 62 the more Westerly the wind tends to become and I was expecting a slow and not so fun slog back to town. Fortunately I got over the steepest part of the leg before the wind became more consistently South-Westerly and picked up to about 10-15 MPH. Even a partial headwind of 10 is plenty on a 38 pound touring bike. It took about 45 minutes to cover the 5.5 miles from the airport to Utah Trail. I was happy to finally get to the corner and turn north with at least a partial tailwind back to Amboy road. The last 1/2 mile to the West on Amboy was into a 10-15 gale was not fun. I was glad to get home.
Looking west at the junction of Valle Vista and Pinto Mountain Roads:
The wind made the ride much more strenuous than planned but it is probably good practice for a real-world tour. The head and cross winds made the effort required more closely approach what it takes to push a loaded bike around.
At the Airport:
The airport windsock pointing south. A minute or 2 later it was SW, then S, then SW, etc:
I recently got interested in watching/tracking my exercise heart rate again. It is a useful training tool. I dug out my old inexpensive Timex HRM watch and chest strap. It was dead. Either the watch, the strap or both were defunct. I have never liked wearing a chest strap anyway so I decide to buy a new armband type unit. After reading many reviews and checking specs, price and so on I selected and ordered a Scosche Rhythm+ HRM a few days ago. It came yesterday. I set it up per the guide and could not get it to work with the GPS tracking app I use on my phone and Pebble watch. I finally got a subset of the app which tracks HR only to run but only on the phone and not concurrently on the watch. Yesterday was a walking day so I set out on the usual 3 mile walk at the Luckie Park with the app running on the phone and displaying HR. About 1/2 way through the walk the Scosche lost connection to the phone and would not reconnect. I was frustrated and disappointed and thought I might have to return the device. When I got home I rebooted the phone and the entire setup, HRM, phone and watch all started working. I wore it around the house for several hours with no glitches and it was flawless on the ride today. It is helpful to have the HR on my wrist. It gives a more accurate measure of effort than how one feels. In 2014 I could hold 135 BPM, 90% of the theoretical maximum for my age, and make 10-15 MPH on the 1 1/4 mile uphill stretch from the airport driveway to Pinto Mountain Road with no problem. Today I could maintain around 120 BPM and about 5 MPH. Two different bikes but still I have some work to do.
A brief break at Luckie Park:
The Scosche HRM on my forearm:
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