Struggling on my bike ride home from work the other morning I had another tractor slip streaming session. I had the impression that cycling behind the tractor made life so very much easier. The average speed per mile as shown below in the geeky table bares this out, rising from about 15 - 16mph to 25mph.
It surprised me that my average heart rate went up by over 30bpm as well though. This surprised me because a lot of the time when following the tractor it feels as though I am practically coasting. It is necessary to really gun it when trying to keep the wheel up an incline but then on the flat and downhill It felt as though I was just ticking over giving the overall impression that it was easy.
I suppose this just goes to show how much speed and performance is in the mind. With a bit of motivation I was able to raise my average heart rate to 160bpm in order to stay in the tractors slipstream, where as before the tractor came along I was struggling to get the average up to 130, convinced that I couldn't go any harder. Unfortunately I seem to need a tractor to motivate myself.
13 comments:
Yawn...
Constructive as ever baldy. Where are your fascinating articles about dragging a fat balding fart around on a bike?
That's not called for.
nothing to do with the fact you were going downhill then?
Ooo what a cynical bunch of Joglers. No Dave. I am impressed you can read a graph. Well done. ;-) However on 3 of the 5 miles I was going uphill. Only slightly but uphil none the less. Check the numbers in the table.
Also as I ride this route 2 - 3 times per week I can see by cross referencing with other rides that the average speed on these particular bits of road is increased by about 10mph when following the tractor.
Love you guys.
Because you guys seem to enjoy this posts stimulating nature so much I have included the elevation data for the tractor miles. Don't get too excited now.
As one can see the starting and finishing elevation is almost the same. If you like I can add further statistical analysis and send you both copies of my thesis on tractors as motivational figures in the 21st century.
Nice to see Nick is deploying the time old defensive mechanism of attack... Nick now lets be honest, the only reason your speed was up was because you were in the slip stream of a tractor!!!, If you're proud of that then Dave and I will be happy for you.
Err ...that was kind of the point of the post dude ;-)
You where making out that it was down to motivation, not what it really was which was cheating dude....
Not so. The tractor motivated me to try harder so that I could stay in the shelter of its slipstream and be towed home. Least that is what I was trying to say. Thought it went without saying that you can ride faster in a tow.
Not so!! Such a childish phrase...Next thing you'll be saying is that your Dad is bigger than my Dad!! Naturally my Dad is bigger than your Dad, I'd just like to point out.
maybe but my Daddy has more hair, and my post has more comments and its own flame war! So na na na na
Heh! You guys crack me up! Steve you are a manager? Sheesh! Cactus you may be a world famous junkie (respect) but don t rise to it man. Chill guys.
Oh yeah $50 will be on its way pay day. You guys are doing a good thing here.
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