Going fast is FUN, But...

I am having too much fun with my Quest. Every day I get my photo taken by people I don't know. People I don't know stop to talk to me about my Quest. I even have women in cars follow me home to see and talk about my Quest. It's a good thing I'm not shy!
         Part of the fun is I can ride it more. It keeps me warm in the winter and I ride more. It keeps me dry in the rain and I ride more. It goes faster in the wind and I ride more. And because I ride more I am getting in better shape and going faster. I do not train like Robert-Jan writes about in his Blog. I would get faster if I did. No, I just commute to work and go on a couple of group rides each week. I do use a heart rate monitor with my Garmin 500. I keep my records on a program called "Cyclistats". It records rides and data, along with maintenance records and weight records. It allows me to see the data in graph form. When you see the average heart beats per km on a graph you see how you body is getting stronger.

 

As I get stronger My heart beat less for every km I go. Again this would be influenced by the wind but when you average it over a month it show the improvements.

          Also useful is your average speed showed on a graph. It show how your average speed increases as time goes on. The only problem is group rides are slower than my average commuting speeds so a graph might show lower than what I do normally. But it makes me see I am improving.

Now if you were to read Robert-Jan's Blog and read the comments you would read Wim Schermer's comment about training with a power meter. A power meter would be a better way to train and measure improvements, but it would cost more money. Having the only Quest around this part of Canada means I have no other Velomobiles to race against like Robert-Jan.  So I will just skip the training for now and just keep riding, commuting and having fun. 

           Next week my fun will include helping out at the Bike to Work day BBQ. Bike to Work Day is an organized event where we try to get more people to ride their bikes to work. We have people running "Pit Stops" around the city on the bike routes giving out free coffee and Muffins to cyclists. In the afternoon we have a large BBQ in the center of the city for an after work party. That is one day I take off work to help out and set up the BBQ.  And the next Day is Saturday and my 400 km Brevet. If survive all that FUN I will have something to write about next week...