Nice to be out

After the stuffing around and uncertainty that has come with the testing I have been doing, it was nice to finally get out and just do some plain old simple training.

This morning I headed out and did a ride around the Perth hills with the folks from Break Your Limits. It was great to finally get back out on the bike, busting out an cruisy 100km. Nice to be able to do that and not have it absolutely destroy me too. Not to say it was an easy ride, it certainly wasn't that (according to my Garmin I apparently set a new PB for maximum 20 minute avg power) but it was a relaxed ride rather than a super serious all intensity training session. Just the sort of thing I was after.

Getting up this morning I still wasn't convinced that training was on the agenda for this morning. This cold I have had has significantly improved over the last couple of days, but it has stubbornly refused to go away. I have still been waking up feeling a bit foggy and congested and I certainly have a cough refused to die. I didn't want to head out this morning and give this cold a whole new set of legs.

Still I was also really keen to get out on the bike and I knew that heading out with the BYL guys would be a good chance to get a decent length ride done in a fun environment.

Time will tell whether the ride ends up rejuvenating this cold or not. I sure hope it doesn't. The cold was definitely present during the ride, forcing heart rates a little bit higher than they usually would be, but other than that it didn't seem to be too much of a factor. By the end of the ride I wasn't feeling daisy fresh, but I wasn't feeling that bad either, certainly no sicker. So hopefully that is a sign that things are on the improve.

The other factor of course was the heart. After what I felt during my stress test yesterday I was unsure what I would feel today and I wasn't sure I wanted to feel it a long way from home. In the end I am not sure how it went. I certainly had some palpitations, but nothing too bad, plus they are easier to put up with on the bike. During some of the high intensity stuff (big hills etc) my chest was pretty uncomfortable, but that might have had something to do with the size of the hill and the cold in my chest. So not reading to much into the ride from the heart point of view. Will continue to save those conclusions until I have seen the cardiologist on Monday.

Whatever the outcome, it sure was nice to be back out on the road with some mates.