• Re: Sunday Ride

    From Joerg@news@analogconsultants.com to rec.bicycles.tech on Mon Mar 2 16:42:26 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.bicycles.tech

    On 3/1/26 12:37 PM, cyclintom wrote:
    I went for a 27 mile ride and was rather shocked at how low my heart rate was.Not onlt that but my average speed was more than 1 mph from what it was yesterday. And my maximum heart rate was 10 counts below yesterday. I put this pretty definitely on the ride I did on last Thursday where I got in some real if not remarkably steep climbing. This does give me the idea that I should go back to riding Cull Canyon soas to get in more climbing to varify if it is helping to bring down my stress levels.


    Any meds? I don't take any but for over a year I had to take a blood
    pressure reducer because the government reduced the max from 140 to 130
    and I was 133 or so. It dropped my average speed by 1mph and that peeved
    me. Found out that you are allowed to breathe deeply before a BP check.
    The nurse said you can't cheat and it won't make much of a difference.
    She couldn't believe it, that dropped my BP to 117 -> No more pills and
    my AVG speed was back up :-)


    Usually we have rain through early March. We had high rain qaverages than normla for February and it appears that we aren't going to have a rainy March for a change. So Cull Canyon should be a decent ride if I take it easy on the climbs.

    The Tectro V-brakes are crap. So I bought a aet of Shimano XT V-brakes. Everything else is on the gravel bike is finished so I will only have to bolt on the brakes and lead the wires.

    In totzl I have about 100 miles of gravel paths around here. And all but about 20 miles are real gravel and not dirt that will turn into mud.This allows me top ride off road even through winter. And there is always the additional loop of about 20 miles around Lake Chabot. Getting too and back from that loop is perhaps another 5 miles or so. This trail is uneque in tht the parts of the trail that aren't gravel are sand so you don't have to push through mud except in one spot which is uphill and so good drainage so there's no real mud.


    But the real fun starts in the mud. When the bike goes a little sideways
    and stuff spatters all over. In the mud I always feel like a kid,
    woohoo! This is my ride in a fairly "clean" state:

    https://www.analogconsultants.com/ng/bike/Muddy5.JPG

    We have hardly any gravel path but lots of single track. Mostly dirt and
    some rock gardens. Due to a major back pain episode I am currently
    riding my MTB even on pavement. When no dirt stretches are involved I
    reduce the air in the rear shock and then it glides like a Lincoln.
    --
    Regards, Joerg

    http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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