Uber-pootle...so tough

[Si]

Went out for the first time in the best part of a month after the virus that I've been suffering from has started to clear up (see whinge elsewhere on here for details).

First mile or so up the long drag really got me started off coughing again so decided to take the rest of the ride real easy.

Now you know hoe it is when you go out for a balls-out ride, keeping it on the rivit, legs and lungs screaming.....it's hard to keep going at full intensity, yes?  So why is so much hardy to ride slowley?  Trying to ride so that I didn't breath hard...it was torture.  Trying to go up the hills by sitting there, changing down and twidling rather than just standing up and honking....just so  hard to do.

Somehow managed it...even got overtaken my an old rotund gentleman wearing flip flops and riding a Dutch style roadster/city bike.  Oh the urge to just go flying past him on was so hard to resist....

But then the wierdest thing.....there is a roadie waiting to come out of a side road: nice bike, all the gear.  I give a nod as I go past but he ignores me: probably because I've got baggies on, am riding a beat up old commuter and have one lopsided pannier, not to mention the lack of speed.  I get about 3/4 mile down the road and look over myshould before my turn and there's the roadie, sat on my wheel!  Wos all that about then?

But anyway, I'm happy.  Had a ride at last.  Had a short spell on the allotment.  And managed to get out of going to the party at SWMBO's friends'. 

Anyway, before anyone says, "yeah buit I ride at that speed all the time", this is not a dig at people who ride slow, but just a comment on how hard it is to ride at a speed that is substantially less than what you would call normal.

[border-rider]

I'd agree

I had a phase a couple of years ago of riding to work (and some audaxs) with my heart rate always below 130

It's quite hard at first.

[MSeries]

After a serious hip injury it is really easy to ride slowly and not try too hard. Even when I was fitter than a fit thing, riding slowly and with little effort came very easily to me.

[TimO]

I'm terrible for always cycling as fast as I can, and hence knackering myself out if I try and ride further.  I'm hopeless at pacing myself, both on the bike, and running.  As you say, I find it difficult not to put the hammer down, and get the heart working a bit more (not that I'm any sort of speed cyclist though).  The single-speed is great for this, since the lack of gears in effect automatically limits the speed you can hit (unless you are an über-pedaller).  On the flip side, it does tend to mean that any hills you meet have to be hit a bit at speed, which works for the short sharp shock variety a bit more than the long drags.

(I am not looking forward to the hills on this months FNRttC to Brighton).

[Valiant]

I'm trying to force myself to take it easy as a weight loss thing, bloody hard work.

[HTFB]

In urban riding you get the extra problem that going slowly seems to put the wind up the drivers more---you get overtaken by more cars, of course---and I find that the aggro puts my heart-rate up just as much as riding faster would...