Hammered Today

The heat has been really bad, this month. I've been riding relatively short (less than 2 hrs) rides, but pushing the pace. Today, I turned in my fastest average speed ever for a ride of more than 20 miles. The route can be seen here.

Started out at the 41st St. trailhead of the River Park East Trail. Didn't really push the pace hard on the trail section. Kept my speed at or under (mostly under) 18mph on the trail portion of the course.

Crossed the Arkansas River at the 21st St. Bridge. Took 23rd St. over a couple of overpasses, nothing worth shifting out of the big ring. 23rd St. curves back into 21st St. I'm averaging about 17.2 mph at this point. It's pretty flat, and I grab the drops and push it up to about 19-20 mph. I'm averaging about 17.7 mph by the time 21st St. becomes Avery Drive.

Avery Drive is one of my favorite stretches of road. It's tree-lined, has good shoulders, nice, rolling hills that aren't too tough to climb and are fun to descend. I hit my max speed of the ride on one of the descents, 33 mph. I'm averaging 18.2 mph by the time I reach the SH-51 junction.

SH-51 is another nice, flat stretch of road. The shoulders are nice and wide and the pavement is in good shape. I grab the drops and kick it up to about 20-21 mph. About 4 miles of this pulls my average speed up to 19 mph when I make my turnaround.

I've been running in the high 70s to low 80s percent of my max heart rate for most of the ride, and I'm starting to tire a bit. Coming back I have to push my HR up to around 83-85% of max to keep my speed in the 19-20 mph range. I manage to pull my average up to 19.2 mph by the time I reach Avery Drive.

I really drop the hammer coming back up Avery drive, hitting 89% of max heart rate on one climb, and managing to average 19.1 mph by the time I reach 21st St.

21st St. tends downhill coming back, but even at 83-86% of max HR, it's all I can do to keep my speed in the 19-20.5 mph range. I manage to pull my average up to 19.2 mph again, when I hit the first of two overpasses. The pavement's really crappy, but I jump out of the saddle and give it all I've got. I top the overpass going about 14 mph, and my average speed dropped to 19.1 mph, but I get lucky and catch the green light at the bottom of the overpass and get the average back up to 19.2 mph within a couple of blocks.

I get another break at the stoplight at the bottom of the second overpass, but try as I might, I can't keep the average speed from dropping to 19.1 mph, and my speed won't come back up much going down the overpass.

I have to do two walking-pace U-turns to get from the bridge to the MUP, and the MUP isn't really suited to high-speed riding, so I pulled the computer about halfway across the bridge. I rode the rest of the way home as cool down, keeping the HR under 65% of max.

The ride was 25.5 miles, not counting the cool down. I averaged 19.1 mph, the fastest average speed I've ever managed on a ride of more than 20 miles. Max speed was 33 mph. Moving time was 1:20:09. Total time was 1:20:39. Average HR for the ride was 153 (83% of max). Max HR was 169 (89% of max).