Today went out for a ride I like to call the fifty fifty. Half the time spent in Zone 2 and the other half doing Tempo. this is really great because not only do you work on the base a bit but trying to keep up a tempo ride for an hour always makes for interesting riding. For the first time this year I went up to the top of Nahal Kziv, I didn't actually go along the valley floor but rather used the climb to keep the heart rate up while spinning away like crazy.
I don't have a cadence monitor on the bike so I use the highly scientific method of counting the revolutions in six seconds and then multiply by ten. This generally gives me an idea of where I'm at. Today i tried to keep the RPM's between 90 and 110. I read an articel the other day I think it was on Velonews about the effects of cadence. I'm not a power rider with a slow cadence even though I'm a bit heavier. I prefer an easier gear and then just spin along. I'm trying to find the sweet spot and today seemed to pay off. I was not going slowly up the hill and stayed in tempo most of the way. I also saw that my heart rate recevoery was much quicker, on every little flatish section I had to up the pace or switch to a higher gear to be able to keep the heart rate up there in the zone.
My timing was perfect and managed to fit the two hours in just before sunset. This made for great conditions with that warm glow coming from the setting sun. The weather is also changing and I'm feeling the effects of the changing season's with some heat waves and the stuffy nose. I'm almost convinced that I have European blood in me now as the onset of the Israeli Summer does me no good. I prefer the cooler conditions even though back home in South Africa the temp's climbed pretty high, I even stayed in one of the warmest places in SA. So as we start to bake over here I have good memories of the beautiful winter and spring.
On a final note I've been looking for an entry level road bike. I was pretty close the other day to getting something and even had myself fitted to the bike, a bit prematurely at the end of the day. That fell through and all I was left with was a piece of paper with some measurements on them. Luckily the guy that did the bike fit said he'd be willing to help me out with the new bike. So I've lined up a Bianchi no-name oldish racing bike. I have to admit that the colour scheme is a bit '80's but for the price its recession proof.
