First Real Ride of the Season

Yesterday, I finally got my bicycle back from the repair shop and we went for the first real bike ride this season. At the Rudopia transrodopi journey last year I had my bike’s rear derailleur bracket broken (twisted actually). I couldn’t find a spare bracket back then, we were in the middle of the Rodopi mountain after all, so I just straightened it with the help of an ordinary rock. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a spare bracket in Sofia either until this week. While I was at the repairman’s I changed the rear derailleur, because it was twisted as well, and the saddle stem, as the old one (a cheap Zoom) was too weak and kept loosening every couple of days.

Although I really try to stick to the training plan I devised myself in order to prepare for the 100 km tour around Vitosha, I don’t always have the time for a proper ride. Quite often I have to substitute the cross country outing for loops at the nearby (West) park or even for the cross trainer session. But despite these obstacles I was glad to find out that my fitness level is good enough. Together with my brother Dave we covered 48 km and climbed 700 m in 02:50 h. We kept a moderate pace – according to the heart rate monitor my average heart rate for the whole exercise was 142 bpm. Not bad for so early in May.

I remember some of my rides several years ago, I’d go for 20 km with 300-400 meters climbing, and I’d be exhausted. It used to take me very long time to recover. Now I’m fitter even though I didn’t exercised much in the winter. I think this might be partially due to the low carb, high fat diet. I’ll cover low carb, high fat diet in more details in a future post.

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