Thursday ride
Rode for an hour and a half today, about 22 miles; I tried to push a bit to get more time in higher heart rate zones. It’s a little disheartening when pushing pretty hard still leads to a pretty slow average speed, but it was in the 20s out, and the cold slows me down. It’s amazing how much faster warm weather will make me. I like riding early in the morning, except for the cold — it wakes me up fast and leaves me feeling full of energy, although then the rest of the day is one long slide downhill, as I get more and more sleepy but still need to go to class. But I do feel great immediately after a ride …
Dorothy's Training Blog 
its january, why push the hr up high?
Well, I’ve got the March races in mind, so I want to do a bit of harder work before then. I’m not pushing too high — not above LT heart rate, except when I can’t help it on the hills. I follow Joe Friel’s training plan, at least roughly, and now’s the time to start doing some harder work — but not too hard.
Do you have any trouble reaching your target heart rate? When I was running I found it really hard…like I’m naturally slow and it’s almost like I can’t make my legs move that fast or something. My dad says he has similar trouble. I feel like no matter how hard I work I can never “get” there and so end up doing longer, slower workouts…
You are making me want to train for a triathalon, even if it means a return to running!
Courtney — for me it’s the opposite problem; my heart rate goes up easily, and I wonder if that’s a bad thing, because if my HR is high when I’m not working all that hard, what would it be if I tried to run fast? I wonder if it’s a genetic thing. I’ve also got the hyperthyroidism thing going on — I’m on medicine, of course, but my HR could still be higher than normal anyway.
Training for triathlon is fun — it would be cool if you gave it a try! And I haven’t really even begun, as I’m not swimming; surely I’ll have a grand time when I begin that 🙂