Heart Racing

Pimp new gloves. Thanks Dad!

I decided to do a quick loop in Majik Forest after work today. When I got home after work I reckoned I had about 40mins to an hour of sunlight. So I quickly jumped into my fun MTB attire (read baggies and full finger gloves) and set off to Majik. With the sun setting fast  I klapped the hill something silly. I forced myself to stay in the middle blade in front and two down at the back. This makes for a lekker ratio to really crank it about halfway up I glanced at my watch and saw that my heart was beating at 200bpm. I dropped a gear and forced myself to accelerate even more till the end of the first climb. I forced my heart rate up to 208bpm. Theoretically my max should be at 196 (220-age) but I have managed to push it up to 210 in the sportslab before.

It feels weird pushing this hard. Besides not being able to get in enough air ( I swear it feels like I'm sucking in air through my ears as well) you get tunnel vision, my hands and shoulders go a bit numb and your legs and lungs are burning like crazy. Make no mistake, this is fun. In a sado-masochistic way.

The next climb I pushed myself again, again up to about 200. at the top of the singletrack I had to stop and rest. A good sign of fitness is how fast you recover and thus how fast your heart rate decreases after strenous activity.  Mine definitaly isn't where it needs to be but the season is only starting. After getting my heart and breathing under control I dropped into the singletrack. Majik has an awesoem downhill singletrack that is great for just having fun. What a brilliant way to unwind after a hard day. The only way someone can understand this is by riding. Only a surfer might know the surfing feeling, but only a MTBer will experience what I did this afternoon.

I might do the same tomorrow after work but I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm rather going for a sunset cruise on the Sea Point Promenade.Apparently some of the girls that frequent the area are very pretty.
That will also get my heart rate up...

Happy trails everyone

 Peace

P

Long holiday rides

Right now it is crazy crunch time at the office, but in little more than a week it will all be over. In three weeks time I'm taking leave, and I am planning to do some very long rides on my off time.

At first I will be in our holiday house in Uilkraal.
The multitude of gravel roads in the area means I can literally ride at a low intensity for hours on my MTB. Through thehubsa.co.za I've hooked up with a couple of guys who also need to do long rides, so I won't be riding alone. Somewhere in this time I want to ride from Gansbaai to Struisbaai, stay the night and return the next day. This is a 100km one way trip. This means I will be taking a big backpack with me with clothes, food, and alot of water and energy drinks.

Somewhere after christmas I am shooting up to the Garden Route area with my mate Jannik. The plan is to end up in Vleesbaai, but I am hoping to ride Harkerville and me and Gavin are toying with the idea of riding the old 7 passes route between Knysna and George on the MTB's. I've done this ride on the first day of the Cape Epic in 2006 so I have first hand experience of how long this ride is. This was the day that I stopped using a speedometer. It was just too demotivating to see that I've done 30km and still need to do 90km for the day. It was during the epic that I realised that I can ride really long if I keep my tempo down and keep on refuelling myself.

These long rides are meant to build my aerobic base for the 24hr race at the end of Jan and also to set the tone for the 3day tour I want to do in March.

I can't wait to get the time in the saddle, and if I plan my things correctly, I'll get to spend enough time on the beaches to burn away the sexy cycling tan. Fun times.

Happy trails all

P

Photos