Training Effects

I was reading the Sunday Times app list yesterday when I discovered the Instant Heart Rate monitor app. for the Iphone. An excellent app. and what clever use of the phones camera and flash to record pulse rate by measuring reflected light from the finger. After much hilarity with my mate Dan competing by MMS to score the lowest heart rate I was delighted to find that I am currently meauring a resting pulse at 49/bpm. Excellent!

http://www.instantheartrate.com/

That's a great result, not just because I beat the young whipersnapper to the title of lowest heart rate but because that aerobic base I have been trying to build by running and cycling is coming together and having an effect. My body is becoming more efficient at pumping the oxygen around. All good news when it comes to climbing hills and riding all day long. Energy efficiency is the key to survival. Yayyyy!!!!!

I love it when a plan comes together... I say that also because tonight coming home from the office was one of those days on the bike when it feels like the work you are putting in training is starting to pay off.

A day when you can get out of the saddle and accelerate and just keep going for a few more seconds without tiring. You ask your  legs for more and they give it without complaining, you ask again and they give a bit more. Its magical. If my bike weren't an inanimate object I would describe it as a symbiotic relationship. That's what it feels like. Mind, body and bike all become one and the whole is definately equal to more than the sum of its parts. The whole world seems to melt into oblivion.

JP recently lent me Robert Penn's book 'Its all about the bike' (Penguin, 2010). Its a fabulous read if you appreciate bicycles but there was one paragraph that struck me and really leapt off the page at me, I'd like to share it with you if I may...

The bicycle saves my life everyday.If you have ever experienced a moment of awe or freedom on a bicycle;If you've ever taken flight from sadness to the rhythm of two spinning wheels, or felt the resurgence of hope pedalling to the top of a hill with the dew of effort on your forehead; if you've ever wondered swooping bird-like down a long hill on a bicycle, if the world was standing still; if you have ever, just once, sat on a bicycle with a singing heart and felt like an ordinary human touching the gods, then we share something fundamental. We know it's all about the bike

I know it's all about the bike. Do you....? ;-)

Training Summary

• 9lbs lost
• 11 miles run
• 40 miles cycled
• :-( a busy week with fund raising and other engagements..! This week will be better.