A Few Notes ...

First a few pictures courtesy of Troy ...

A good example of one of the many hike-a-bike sections on Los Pinos.


Andrew Lifting His Bike? I like this picture because it shows how many stops we had and how hot/tough the ride was.



Me Climbing Trabuco


Steep Descent. This section has scared me the two times I've descended it (Bell and Los Pinos). Still it's very rideable.



Hike!


"Can't See Bottom". No shame in walking this. I don't think I will ever be stupid enough to even attempt riding down this. It might not look that bad in the photo, but trust me it's bad. Really bad.



Some other notes ...

Went on a ride yesterday after work and I'm noticing a disturbing trend. I'm not sure what the reason is, but I've been sporting a super high heart rate on recent rides in Whiting.

Am I going out too hard? Is is the heat? Bad conditioning? I'm not sure what's going on, but it's not good. I frequently find myself at a sustained heart rate of 190-195, which is a cause for concern. I can only stay in that range for maybe 5-10 minutes before my body starts giving up.

I was able to recover ok on the ride yesterday, but it's pretty frustrating. A list of things I think it might be:

- Stress. Last few weeks have been stressful.
- Lack of sleep. I've been sleeping horribly lately
- Sick. Co-worker came in with a cold and I got it.
- Too much sugar. I've been eating more candy etc. lately.
- Poor conditioning. I haven't been that consistent with riding lately.
- Heat. It's HOT outside.
- Race mentality. I really want to get good times on my ride, so I might be pushing too hard.
- Tight HRM. Is the heart rate monitor on too tight? Does that affect my breathing?

All of things have some merit I think. Who knows though. I'll figure it out eventually.

In other news it felt awesome to pass about 10 people going up Mustard yesterday. Haha. Whiting is always an ego boost for me.