Edwards AFB - 7 Aug 14

Here's another video of me riding through the hills west of Edwards AFB. I think it's awesome you can see my heart rate, the steepness of the hills I'm going over, and even my speed. What I discovered this summer is something you can not see here. It's the outside temperature. For some reason you can't see the temperature to gauge how hot (or cold) it is.

This is only important if you're wondering "wow, your heart rate is really getting up there." Those of you who keep track of such things have heard of the rule of thumb to calculate your maximum heart rate. It's 220 minus your age. Well, I'm told that's just an approximation. For me, it's way far off. The highest heart rate I've seen on these rides is 183 beats per minute. Following the full of thumb, that's only about 15 beats per minute off, almost 10%. I think that's a big number.

Here's a question to you really knowledgable exercise physiologists, how does heat affect the validity of the maximum heart rate. I ask because in theory your working at your VO2 max at your maximum heart rate. So, if the body is working its rear (actually, my rear) off to keep body temperatures under control it seems to me you get to your maximum heart rate before you get to your VO2 max. For sure, I haven't been able to get to those heart rates unless the outside temperatures are in the mid to upper 90's or higher.

One thing I like about these hills west of Edwards AFB is you get both very-hard-on-the-muscles climbs--with lots of breathing hard. And, you get lots of long fast descents and climbs--i.e. the hills aren't as steep. The first workout definitely gets a lot of muscle working going. The other parts are more about the aerobic system. Definitely awesome.

Cheers

Tom