The day of riding my bike on the one and only hill trail we have here in the city took its toll on me and I am glad I did it. The time of day that I chose to go to that point was not ideal because it is extremely hot, but my primary objective was to avoid the crowds and that was a success on my part. That was one of the most difficult things I have done in recent times though and I thought it best to avoid doing something that strenuous two days in a row. I was not going to take a day off though because I rarely do that.
Instead I returned to the flatlands and just did a rather casual day of cycling and I felt good about it after it was all done. All in all it also wasn't very difficult and this makes me feel kind of good about my progress because things like this are supposed to get easier the more that you do them, right?
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Hill climbs are good for me in relation to cardio because I am stubborn for some reason on a bicycle. If I can see the top of the hill from where my vantage point happens to be on said hill, I am not going to give up and rest even if my legs are on fire. This doesn't work that way for me with running or jogging because I will stop frequently during running if the going gets tough. With cycling though, I am just a bit of a madman and will power through even though at the end of this most recent hill-climb my heart rate was dangerously high when I did finally get to the plateau and it took quite a while for me to get my heartbeat back down and my breathing was about as labored as I can remember it ever being in the past 10 years or so.
So when I returned to the flats after that grueling day, they were extremely easy and this made me feel good.
Those don't look like impressive stats to someone a lot more advanced than I am but here is why this is exactly what I am looking for. I try to maintain at least a 140 BPM heart-rate when I am cycling and by pure accident that ended up being my average BPM for the entire hour. I don't check my Garmin all the time but I do glance at it every now and then and am pleased when I do so and see that my heart rate is right where I want it to be. Achieving a 140 while jogging for some reason seems more taxing and I think a lot of this is because I get so hot when I am jogging due to the lack of air rushing over me but when I am whooshing around at 15-20km / hour I at least have the illusion of cooling off. Of course I am not still sweating a ton, as you would immediately notice about me if you were to ever go on a ride with me. I am basically dripping on the ground any time that I slow down or stop and at the end it normally takes me quite some time to cool back down.
I have had a bit of a condition my entire life in relation to this and while I have never had a doctor look at it I know that there are legitimate medical situations that exist that make this happen. I am a sweaty person just generally speaking and this is something that I have been self-conscious about for many years. At least when I am exercising I have a good reason to feel that way.
We aint exactly setting any caloric burn records with this ride either but that is ok! I was intentionally taking it easy on this ride since the one I did previously really kicked my butt and my legs and back are still a bit sore because of it. I'm not a big believer in rest days and feel that unless you are injured I should never rest all the way. I like to get out there and at least do something.. anything! So doing a relaxing 1-hour of cycling doesn't feel like a huge amount of work to me.
I am going to hit the hill climb again tomorrow. I already have plans for today and the exercise will be existent but not very heavy. That's my idea of a rest day.