Precious Daylight

I was really looking forward to spring when I could ditch the trainer and ride outdoors. Here in sunny California weather is not usually an issue so what keeps me on the trainer is the amount of daylight. Due to my schedule I usually can only fit in a ride early in the morning, and I refuse to ride in the dark. I just don't think it is safe to share the road with groggy morning commuters in the dark.

So I was very excited to be out and about this Spring, but this year's earlier daylight savings time has put a serious kink into my plans. Looks like there's going to be another month of trainer rides at least.

This morning I did something a little different. I made my usual trip to the gym near my work, but took my bike. Instead of running, swimming, or using a spin bike at the gym I just got in a ride, and because I put my commute before my ride instead of after it I could ride just as the sun was coming up. It was alot of hassle getting all my bike gear packed up, and I always worry about someone breaking into my car and stealing my bike, so I don't know how often I will do this, but I really enjoyed it this morning.

Today I also decided to take the opportunity to do an outdoor Lactate Threshold test on the Ballona Creek bike path. It was the longest time I have ever spent in the drops. I think I may have spent perhaps a maximum if five minutes in the drops before, but this time I spent the entire 30 minutes of the test in the drops!

I never know how much credence to put into the results, but here they are. My new LT is 194 watts (a big jump up from 174). That actually seems about right to me just based on 30 min power historical bests I have recorded in the last few months, but the LT heart rate seems way too high at 164bpm. That is up from 146 and ten beats higher than my last running LT test. I'm skeptical of that number, but if it holds up that is an amazing increase.