My New Toy

Yesterday, I did the 30-mile hill climb again (See my April 19 blog), but this time I used my new toy -- a new (actually refurbished, but new to me) Garmin Edge 305 GPS cycling computer. It does just about everything but scratch my back (and I'm not so sure it won't do that too). I did the 29.4 mile ride in 1 hour and 53 minutes, the same time as I did it on April 19. I burned 1949 calories on the ride (which put a pretty good dent in the chicken fried steak smothered in gravy, hashbrowned potatoes, scrambled eggs, and biscuits I had for Sunday brunch a couple of hours before the ride). I spent 4 minutes in heart rate zone 2, 83 minutes in zone 3, and 27 minutes in zone 4, so I got a pretty good aerobic workout. My highest heart rate on the ride was 162 bpm. My average speed was 15.5 mph and the total climb was 2,371 feet.