biking - red bike1:01:00 11.09 mi (5:30 / mi) +1179ft5:00 / mi ahr:122 max:156 weight:137.5lbs
Nice ride today. Mostly just meandering around (including checking out the solar array that the town is finally getting built). In the middle of the ride were two trips up South Sugarloaf (0.85 miles, 450' climb, 10% average grade), done as an experiment to see if I could get up without getting the heart rate too high, or the breathing too fast. In other words, could I go slow enough to make it at least somewhat enjoyable.
The answer wasn't a complete Yes, but it wasn't too far off.
For point of reference, best time up this year was 9:17 (best time in the past about 8 minutes, though not sure I ever made a serious attempt), with the HR getting up to the upper 160s and lots of heavy breathing, especially on the part from the hairpin to the top .
Trip #1, 10:05, max HR was about 155. No deep breathing (no problem having a chat about 100 meters from the top with two ladies walking up). So that was excellent. But there is also no denying the legs (quads) were hurting, being called on to do more than they are trained to. So I don't know how long I could have kept going at the pace, though it felt like I was quite a long ways from exhaustion.
Back down, on the brakes all the way.
Trip #2, 10:55, max HR again about 155. This was slower, almost all in the first two or three minutes, where I think I was just daydreaming and going (a lot) easier than I really meant to. But the upper section was a similar pace to the first time up, and a similar effort. Again, legs feeling the effort but no heavy breathing, chatted with a couple of different groups on the way up.
So that was all rather nice, both the doing (not so painful) and also the knowing that it doesn't have to be painful. Thought for a bit about a third time up, but it didn't seem necessary. So I meandered home.