Performance Monitoring

 

As I watch the Olympics I realize I'm not an elite athlete trying to get the last ounce of performance out of my body but I do like to keep track of my fitness to gauge my overall health. Since I have been riding a bike on a regular basis for over 30 years I have a lot of experience knowing how well I perform and what my limits are. For the past 10 years I have been using a heart rate monitor. I starting using a heart rate monitor as I was doing intervals to improve my fitness so I could improve my distance and climbing. I don't do intervals anymore as they didn't really help me perform better but monitoring my heart rate and other metrics has been useful. 

At the beginning of the season my average heart rate for a particular type of ride is usually a little higher than at the end of the season. As the season progresses my average heart rate comes down and when it hits a certain average I know I'm in good shape and can do longer and hillier rides. My average heart rate also usually helps me know when I'm getting sick as it goes up 3-5 beats a day or two before I feel sick.

For climbing performance I look at my max heart rate. This goes down as you age but mine hasn't gone down as much as some of the formulas out there predict. This is an indication of overall heart health. This is one of the reason I still do hills as it helps me work my heart in the different zones. This helps me measure myself against my previous performance and tells me if I'm maintaining my fitness or not. 

Speed is also a measure of performance. Although temperature, wind, humidity can affect the speed of a ride most of the rides I do fall into a small range depending how hilly they are. I do a lot of the same rides each year so I know what my average speed should be on most rides. Of course there are always outliers when I didn't eat or drink right and there are some days where I just feed good and can really push myself. 

This past fall because of the drop in my speed and increase in my heart rate I know I had some kind of problem. I thought it was some deep muscle strain but it turned out to be something else that caused problems with my blood resulting in a drop in my hemoglobin. If you have low hemoglobin you have problems getting oxygen into your blood and muscles so my average speed dropped and max heart rate rose quite a bit until the drugs I started to take kicked in and got my blood back to normal.

Because of my health problems I started wearing a fitness tracker (a Fitbit Charge 6). It has a built in heart rate monitor and all the other usual sensors. It keeps track of a lot of different things including resting heart rate, sleep schedule, steps breathing rate. It will even measure if my heart skips a beat or has some type of arrhythmia. I got it mainly to make sure the medicine I was taking didn't have any side affects that would affect my heart. So far it hasn't detected any problems. Using it I now have more information about my body which is useful. For example as the drugs I was taking starting working I could see my resting heart rate come down and my heart rate be more constant as I was walking around. Some of the things the fitness tracker measure like sleep stage are not probably that accurate but I do like having all this data so I can correlate how I'm feeling to what my stats are. 

On interesting thing about my fitness tracker is that it uses an LED to measure my heart rate. It measures the light scattered off blood vessels in the skin and somehow determines your heart rate. When these type of heart rate monitors first came out they weren't that accurate but the new ones are pretty good. I compared my fitness tracker against my chest strap and they tracked each other pretty well. Because of this when my Garmin chest strap that I used to measure my heart rate when I'm riding started malfunctioning. I decided that instead of replacing it I would try using the Wahoo Arm Band heart rate monitor that uses and LED instead of the Garmin electrode chest strap. I have used it a couple of times now and it seems to work as good as the chest strap and is a little more comfortable to wear. 

Having all this information about my body may be overkill but I do data science as part of my job so it is interesting to see the trends from the data that I'm collecting and think it can be useful in the future. 

This past Saturday was one of the better days of the year to ride. It was warm but not hot and low humidity for once. We did my Mansfield Almost Metric ride. This is a flat ride with a lot of long stretches of quite roads. This is almost always the fastest ride of the year and this year was the fastest one in a couple of years at 16.6 mph for 60 miles. I guess I was feeling good although I ended up getting their late because of road closure. The Mansfield community park was also packed because of some softball tournament so it was crowded and hard to park. So I was annoyed at the start

Once we got going we cranked it up and keep it at a speedy pace as everybody seemed to want to go fast. 

We made our usual stop at Nixon's because there is really no other place to stop. I started to cramp up about 4 miles from the end so I had to slow down a little as some of the others on the ride did a few extra miles to get in a metric (we are now calling adding the miles at the end of the ride to get some even number Giffing it up).

Even with the cramps I'm happy with my performance as I had a slow start to the year but can now say that I'm riding as good as before and the numbers are backing me up.

 

Ice Cream Can Fix Any Problem

The intense heat and humidity of the last few weeks has prevented me from doing hilly rides but fortunately we had a break this Saturday and I was able to get back into the hills. Laura ended up actually leading but she used one of my routes that goes thought the Sourlands over a few good hills without being too difficult and goes toward Round Valley without going to it or up the hills around it. It was a route that I know most of the posse would be able to do and so we would get most of them to join. Here is the route we did.

You can read details about the ride at Jim's and Laura's blog. It was a good ride in the usual Tom style with multiple road closures along the way. I felt good and didn't have a problem climbing any of the hills so I will doing more hilly rides as the weather allows. 

The 50 miles and 2400 ft of climbing did catch up with me on the ride home. I cramped up about halfway home but it was right by one of my favorite ice cream places on Rt 33 so I stopped and grabbed a cone. It only took a few licks of the cone for my cramps to go away. Now it could have been the fact that I go out of the car and walked around or that the gator aid I drank when I got back from the ride finally kicked it but I'm pretty sure it was the ice cream.

Dripping with Sweat

The last two weeks have been almost too hot to ride. But of course as long as it is not raining and under 100 degrees I will find a way to ride. The past Wednesday I tried to get out 7:30am so I could be back before the temperature hit 90 degrees. I didn't quite make it as the temperature increased faster than I thought. It's not really the heat that is the problem it is the combination of the heat and the humidity. About an hour into my 30 mile ride I was sweating so much that I was raining sweat all over my bike. I don't think I have ever sweated more than I did on that ride. I actually had to slow down a little at the end of the ride because the heat and humidity were getting to me. 

The good news is that I have ridden enough in the hot weather to know how to deal with it. So although I was sweating my ass off I made it back without a problem. However even when I go home in the air conditioning it took my body an hour to stop sweating. 

This Sunday I lead a ride out of Etra. We did a easy 42 mile loop with a few rolling hills. Most of the posse were off doing their own thing but I had a few of them join me along with a couple of new people. It was hot and humid like any other day of the past couple of weeks but not as bad as Wednesday. I guess I am getting acclimated to the hot weather because I didn't feel the heat as much. 

I was still dripping with sweat for the entire ride but I guess I had hydrated myself properly because I didn't have a problem keeping up with everybody and we moved along at a decent pace. Still it was a grind in the heat. We never got to death march status but I was glad when we were finished. 

This heat and humidity is making me do shorter rides so hopefully we can get a few normal day in the near future so I can do longer and more enjoyable rides.  

 

The Summer Inferno

We have officially entered the hazy, hot and humid part of the riding season. Last weekend I started my ride at 8am to beat the 90+ heat. We did an easy flat ride to Pemberton and got back before noon. It was already 93 degrees when we got back and very humid so I'm glad we started early. I'm still not use to the summer heat so although I felt okay during the ride it took me a while to recover and get re-hydrated. 

This Saturday the temperature was only in the mid 80s but it still was one of those days where the humidity felt like it was over 100%. I wanted to do some hills but couldn't find a ride that I wanted to do. Laura had a ride out of Pennington that I considered but it was a littler hillier than I could handle. So what I did was to start out with her ride and then when they headed up Mine Rd I left then and continued on my own. My route was a few hundred feet and a few miles shorter than what she had planned and was at the limit of what I wanted to do.  

Even early in the morning it felt hot and I was sweating profusely as I climbed up Stony Brook. I worked my way over the Sourland and up Van Lieus Rd where I found a bridge out because there always have to be one on my rides.

From there I worked my way to Sergentville for a welcome stop at the Covered Bridge Cafe which is now the best place to stop in Sergentville. Especially because there are rocking chairs on the porch to relax in.

Although it was mostly cloudy the sun came out a few times which made it feel even hotter as I worked my way up a few hills on my way back to the starting point. 

I didn't cramp or having any problems finishing the ride. I still felt slow on the hills but came in at a reasonable pace. I definitely felt the strain of the hills, heat and humidity at the end of the ride.

I'm sure there will be more days ahead with 90+ degree temps and high humidity but will do the best I can to ride through it.

Whale Tales

 If my last post didn't convince you to take a trip to see some puffins maybe this link will. 

Puffin Cam

WARNING!! don't click on this link if you don't have good self control or don't have a hour or two to waste. This link is to a camera on Eastern Egg Island showing ledge where puffins hang out. There are a few other cameras that have different views of the island. Puffins are cute and silly and you can usually see a few of them most hours during the day. It's just one of those things you can't stop watching once you start so click on the link if you dare.

After Boothbay my wife and I headed south and spent a couple of day at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. On our way there we decided to try a whale watch out of Rye, NH. We went out on a boat from the Granite State Whale Watch company for a 4 hour tour. It was basically an hour out to the feeding grounds a couple hours looking for whales and an hour back to the harbor. The weather was a little warmer than when we did the puffin cruise and it was clear weather and calm seas. It was a good day to be out on the water. 

As soon as we got to the feeding grounds they spotted a humpback whale. 

We spent about 30 mins watching the humpback swim and dive. You don't really see much above the water but it is cool to watch them swim. They are massive around 60-70 feet long and you can kinda feel the weight of them as they pass by the boat. We have been on 5 or so whale watches off the north east coast and up in Alaska. We actually saw them doing some bubble feeding in Alaska but didn't see anything like that here. However we did see the humpback slap it's tail against the water to corral and stun some fish.

That was a new one for us. After leaving the humpback we found a minke whale which is smaller (20-30) feet long. 

Again you only see a small part of the way but it was just fun to see them in the wild. The people providing the narration and information about the whales were from the Blue Ocean Society and work on tracking the whales to understand them better and track the population and health. For a small donation they actually gave us all the picture they took on the cruise(which you can see here) Some of these photos are used to identify the whales and see if there is anything wrong with them. For example the whale up top this post is call Sedge(whales are identified by the marking on their tail) We saw a couple more minke whales before heading back to the dock and on to our hotel. 

Hampton Beach is an interesting beach town. It is sort of like Seaside Heights but instead of the food and arcades being on the boardwalk they are on the street across from the beach. They had some good crap food on the street. We went for some donuts and instead of giving us something from the case they actually filled and iced the donut to our liking so we basically got a custom made donut. AND it was as good as it sounds. Besides eating way too much sweets we watched some people build some sand sculptures for a competition in a few days. Unfortunately we couldn't stay around to see the finished sculptures.

Part of the idea of going to Hampton Beach was to see some place new and get a little time relaxing on the beach. We did get a couple of hours on the beach but an afternoon shower cut our time short. Hampton Beach was a decent place to hang out for a couple of days and get 2 hours closer to home. It would make a good stopping place on our way up to or back from Maine or Nova Scotia. 

Our original plans were to come straight home from Hampton Beach but we were close to Cape Cod and had been a little disappointed by the claim chowder we got in Maine so we decided to spend a night in Cape Cod as it was only about an hour or so out of our way. 

It was a quick stop over but we got to some of our favorite shops and sights as well as a couple of bowls of our favorite chowder. Although it was a quick trip we saw a lot of cool things. It was just good to get away for a week and have some fun.

Puffins !!!

Puffins are one of the cutest birds you will ever see. They are small, colorful and awkward. My wife has always wanted to see them in the wild, but they are not easy to find as they mostly live at sea. The only time you easy see them is when they come to land to breed. There are rocky islands where they breed in Iceland, Newfoundland, Alaska, and Maine. The one in Maine was re-established in the 1980s. To get out to the island you have to take a tour from one of Maine's northern harbors. We chose Boothbay since was the closest to home and had one of the more highly rated cruises. It is also one of the prettiest places in Maine (Almost as pretty as Bar Harbor). We chose a hotel that was over the water.

The view from our balcony looked towards the mouth of the harbor so we could see the boats coming in and out of the bay and also watch the fog roll in and then clear. It was one of those calming views and for the two days we were there we spent a lot of the time out on the balcony enjoying the view. 

Besides the views the other reason we chose the hotel where we stayed was because the ship that took out to see the puffins was about 100 feet from our hotel. Boothbay like a lot of coastal towns in Maine consists of narrow winding streets with very few places to park and is just a hard place to drive around in general. So, you want to stay in the center of town within walking distance to not worry about having to get in the car and find place to park.

We left for Boothbay early Tuesday morning and were on the balcony enjoying the view by 5pm. The next day we got on an 60-foot boat to go out to Eastern Egg Island. It was a little cold and foggy when we left the harbor but by the time we got to the island most of the fog had lifted 

At the island there are at least a thousand puffins in the water and on the rocks around the island. Besides puffins there are also terns, different types of seagulls and few other sea birds. However, the star of the show is the star of the show are the puffins. They are small birds about 10 inches in size and are dense with stubby winds. When they fly they are very awkward and have to flap their wings very fast. They just look funny flying. Getting any good pictures of then is not easy because the boat has to stay a couple of hundred feet off the island and even with my 400mm lens it was hard to get a good picture. It also didn't help that you are on a boat that is rocking. So tracking a fast-moving bird on a rocking boat takes a lot of practice and luck. I mostly concentrated on the birds on the rocks of the island and the ones in the water closest to the boat. I also took a lot of pictures to improve my luck. I did manage to get a few good pictures. I tried to get a few of them flying but they are fast, and I did not have the type of lens or experience to get a good shot, but there was another serious photographer with a lens the size of a small cannon that got some great shots of them flying you can see one of them here. 

But even if I didn't get any good pictures, it was just a lot of fun watching the puffins fly around and play around on shore. The island also hosts a few researchers who catalog and document the puffins and other birds on the island. The island host hundreds of terns who tend to attack anybody who they think are trying to get the eggs from their nests. We were told that most of the researchers come back with a scar or two from a tern attack.

We got back from the cruise just before 1pm and then walked around town. The town is small but has some interesting restaurants and shops. 

We hung out on our balcony after dinner to enjoy the view before heading south for some beach time and a whale watch. I do have a couple of whale tales I will share in my next post. 

The Sun and Stars

Saturday's weather was close to perfect. I scheduled a ride out of MCP to take advantage of the good weather. After a couple of weeks in the hills I chose a gentler ride. It had a few rolling hills and some ups and downs but no real noticeable hills. The only problem was that the parking lot in the picnic area of MCP was full by the time I got there because of some event at the pavilion. I had to park on the road in one of the neighborhoods close by. 

It was a little cool at the start but I warmed up quickly as it was a bright and sunny day. We made our way through the bottom of the Assumpink before heading down Rue Road. I like this road as it is twisty and curvy enough to be a fun down hill even if there are a few rough spots along the way. 

We then worked our way to Emley's Hill Rd which was freshly paved. That was nice! Of course once we crossed 539 and headed up Holmes Mill we went through the road closed sign on to a milled road for a couple of miles. I'll have to come back this was in a few weeks once this is freshly paved. 

Our rest stop was Woody's in Allentown which was bustling with activity. I took a slightly longer way back just to get more miles and enjoy the weather. It was a good ride and although I have a few people who I haven't ridden with before we all stayed together and behaved so it was a nice easy ride to lead. 

After the ride I still had a few other activities for the day. We had a party at a friends house with a bunch of people we know in the community. This is one of the advantages of living in a community as there are plenty of social activities to get together and have some fun if you want. I ended up leaving the party a little early because I wanted to get to a local park to do a little star gazing with the Tom's River Astronomy club. 

Since I don't have a really good telescope I always enjoy going to these astronomy events to view some objects in the sky that I can't see on my own. There were about 20 people of the club there with various different types of telescopes. Even though there were a few high clouds at times I was able to see a couple of galaxies, some star clusters and a nebula(M57). 

I did bring my telescope and camera to try and see if I could get any decent wide angle pictures. The picture up top is of the Hercules constellation. You see three bright stars but if you zoom into the star in the middle you can see it is a little fuzzy. This is actually M13 a star cluster of over a million stars. 

 

Of course it looked a lot better in the bigger telescopes than in my picture but I was happy that my camera could get a decent picture of the constellation. Beside viewing some objects in the sky it was just fun geeking out and talking to the members of the club about astronomy. The Tom's River Astronomy club runs these star parties once or twice a month so this is something I will probably do again.