Metrics

Today, for the first time, I wore my heart rate monitor on my ride to work. I’ve had a heart rate monitor for a while but I’m not a very serious user of it. I keep an eye on my heart rate when running (almost never when cycling) but I don’t carefully spend so many minutes in this zone and so many minutes in that zone. I don’t really “train” in any meaningful sense of the word. I suppose I should. Anyway, I was curious about what my resting heart rate is so I wore the monitor all night. As a result I was wearing it this morning and just left it on during my ride in. What did it tell me? The ride took 55 minutes, which means that even on what should be an “easy” day (not especially cold, no wind to speak of, no snow on the ground) it still takes me ten minutes longer than my usual non-winter time. It also told me that my average heart rate was 56 bpm and my maximum heart rate was 67 bpm, which calls into question the accuracy of the monitor. I suspect it slipped out of position and so wasn’t reading correctly. I tried again on the way home and had a more believable average of 115 bpm. I was also five minutes faster, in spite of a bit of a headwind.

Today's picture: cycle-rickshaws in front of the Red Fort in Delhi

Cycletourists in Xian

I spotted these guys in front of the railway station in Xian. I didn't have a chance to speak to them as we were rushing to catch a bus to Hua Shan ('The Number One Precipitous Mountain under Heaven', and worth a visit.) Anyway I just took a quick snap and hurried on. I assume they were cycletourists of some sort, given the luggage and extra tires. It did get me thinking about he possibility of multi-modal touring in China with folding bikes. It would be a way of covering long distances quickly but still being able to see parts of the country by bike. Folders as seem to be widely and cheaply available, although I'm not sure of the quality. I'm not sure what the rules for transporting bikes on trains are. We mostly travelled by hard sleeper and there didn't seem to be room in the sleeping cars for a folded bike; you might be able to get a Brompton under the bottom bunk. I'm not sure how checked luggage and luggage cars work on the Chinese railway system.

Track bike on a Kyoto balcony