Beanzie...

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Sunday morning July 19th 2009:

Decided a couple days earlier I needed a change of pace on my weekend long training rides so I drove out to Dekalb, IL bright & early to participate in a very organized touring ride known as "Biking with Beanzie". K & I rode in this cycling event last year as part of our half IM training which we liked so I was up for the trip to participate once again. They offer various marked distances that you can ride; 23, 46, 64, and 101 Mile Routes for which I choose the 46 mile option which fit closest to my specific training routine perfectly. My training ride scheduled for the day was a two hour ride with a warm-up then 2 times twenty minutes threshold intervals with anywhere from 7 to 10 minute recovery between the two of them then a cool-down portion of the ride. After a very brief registration I was on the road by 7:10am via the county roads just west of Dekalb.

After a proper warm-up I started my first 20 minute interval just at about mile 9 of the ride as I needed to make sure there was enough county roads that would me to ride at threshold for that timeframe without having to stop. All went very well on the first interval as I road focused on the TT position for the duration along with other variables. My recovery was determined as my HR was recovered by 8 minutes as I turned around on the county road for my second 20 minute interval. I pushed this one slightly higher in my threshold HR zone as my turnaround point was at 10 minutes into this interval. After the second interval the rest of the ride was more of an endurance burn zone ride with an additional 5 minute threshold & 1 minute threshold burst thrown in at later in the ride time to test my recovery and legs from the earlier intervals. After the core of the ride I rode about the last 20 minutes of the ride in a cool-down mode.

My total ride distance on the Ridley Dean was at 52.1 miles in a time of 2:35:11 with an average HR of 128 and max HR during the second 20 minute interval at 157bpm as my average watts were 207 and max watts of 776 during an acceleration. On this ride I felt great from start to end which is a good indicator of all my focused bike training is starting to show benefits to my abilities. Besides the miles I log on the CompuTrainer at home the Ridley is absolutely a fantastic bike to ride and I smile more & more each time I get on the bike to ride it :-)

b