Ultra Rider: In Search of the Ultimate Long Ride RSS

Biking is one thing. Bicycling 100 miles is entirely another. But what about the bicycle ride that last all day and all night? At some point, you cross a line and at that point, cycling, becomes ultracycling.

This blog chronicles the story of a guy, his bike and a strange obsession with finding the outside edge of his personal limits.

In this chapter, having broken the UMCA record, recovered from a bone-crushing crash and achieving a top 15 finish at the inimitable Furnace Creek 508 we find our hero grappling with the realities of completing a 100km foot race.

For the complete story, follow this link, and read from the back to the front. The story won't make anymore sense when you've finished, but at least you'll know as much as the rest of us.

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Threshold Test Results

Did another lactate threshold test tonight. Was happy to see a slight uptick in both my average heart rate, and therefore my LT, as well as my max heart rate.

“The lactate threshold (LT) is the exercise intensity at which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the blood stream. This happens when it is produced faster than it can be removed (metabolized).” - Wikipedia

It is important for me to understand this data because I need to keep my heart rate below my lactate threshold in order to ensure that I don’t allow any build up of lactic acid during my long rides. If my heart rate goes over my threshold, acid build up and my legs start to get heavy. This isn’t good in endurance events.

While I’m out on the road, I try to keep my heart rate around 80% of my lactate threshold. This is why I’m pleased with these latest test results. By increasing my LT to 182, I’m able to ride comfortably at 145bpm, and push it up to 164bpm without penalty. Previously, this was closer to 140 through 159bpm. This increase gives me an extra 5% of performance, with no real physiological penalties. Put another way, I can push myself a little bit harder without burning myself up.

Anyways - I’m not actually paying a lot of attention to numbers this year, but these ones are fairly important and sort of interesting, so I thought I would share.

p.s. I’m pretty sure that my running has a lot more to do with these increases than my spinning! Running is a very efficient form of exercise.

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