Over the past four months, Monday meant going out for a 5K run. Over that time these mon/wed/fri morning runs (either on a treadmill at the gym or on the street) began as alternating 50% walk, 50% jog for less than two miles, to steady jogging for the full 5K with only a couple of brief pauses for rest. It was yet another experience of the body's amazing ability to adapt and condition itself.
Anyway, today the bike is roadworthy again, so Monday meant doing what I used to do most mon/wed/fri mornings: ride a 15-mile route to Gold's Gym on Shoreline in Mountain View. The outbound leg is almost exactly 11 miles (ok, 10.97 according to the Cateye) with a few small hills.
I mean to use that 11-mile leg as a benchmark for the difference between muscle-only and the different levels of electric assist.
In 2008, per my log book, I was riding this leg at an average speed of about 14.75 mph. Here are some typical numbers from May of 2008: 14.4, 14.5, 14.7, 14.9, 15.2, 14.7, 14.9, 15.6, 14.2.
Today? 12.3. That may not be as much slower as it looks, because today, unlike other times, I was taking pains to keep my heart rate between 130 and 140 bpm. By regulating the effort level in this way I hope to get some consistent comparison numbers.
If the same level of effort (gauged by heart rate) produces higher speed over the same route, the difference is either due to better conditioning (greater cardiovascular and muscular efficiency) or to the electric assist. Alternating between assist and no-assist days should allow me to subtract out the effect of conditioning.
But that will be later, when the BionX system has been installed. This week I just want to set a baseline and get my legs used to pedalling again.
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