Month: November 2012

  • Winter Riding

    Yesterday was the first challenging ride of the winter due to some freezing rain in the early morning. Probably the most challenging part was getting off the driveway! However, the studded snow tires on the bike are awesome compared to the knobby mountain bike tires or the slicker commuter tires I’ve been using up until the first snow fall. 

    I was cautious for the first few kilometers and then began to feel more confident in the studded tires capabilities. At one stop sign I got a reminder on just how slipery it was when I put my foot down for a full stop and just about wiped out. The Schwalbe Ice Spiker tires are worth every penny, highly recommended.

  • VO 2 the Max

    I recently had the opportunity to have my VO2 Max tested courtesy of the fitness centre at work. Not the testing where you get hooked up by a tube to a machine, but a step test. Three minutes of stepping up on a box from a resting heart rate and then measuring my heart rate at the end and applying some voodoo math to the numbers to come up with a rating.

    The rating is compared to a table, one for men and another for women broken out by age ranges. So you can lookup your rating and get an “average”, “good”, etc.

    “Excellent” in my age range is anything over 41.

    I scored a 44.13.

    That’s right, I’m pumped!