Hey everyone, it's already the second week of March and it's so much better compared to the first two months of the year, those couple of degrees more really means a lot for us cyclists!
Now that half of my cycling days are no longer alone but with my daughter I expected I would be cycling less but the opposite happened, it's a nice warm-up round for me for now but don't let her hear that or she'll kill me. 😆
Her max distance is now around 23km, she's only twelve years old so I think she's doing awesome.
All knowledge I got from just finding out myself and other science parts from podcasts I can now pass along so she can combine it with what she feels and grow her experience, muscles and stamina which just takes a couple of months at least.
After our combined ride I go on a ride on my own right after, the only drawback of that is that when the wind is strong I have to fight the wind all over again but it's a good exercise.
So my weekly total is up a little, hoping to stay ahead of moose with his race monster but once the weather improves and his daily commutes are back I don't think I'll stand a chance against someone with so many years experience. 😀
The last two weeks in The Netherlands has been great weather and last Thursday I could've even worn short sleeves but I didn't and I ended up being quite warm in the second hour, so I have now ordered arm warmers I can take off which is a great solution for the clothing choice problems we face, especially when it gets warmer later in the day.
I was actually planning to go West on my ride last Thursday and visit the two smaller MTB Trails there but when I checked the wind direction I went back to the bigger trail to my East in Beesd, lately I'm visiting it weekly and it's long and diverse enough to not get boring, remember the present mother nature left last week?
I was thinking maybe the loggers would just keep it there as an extra obstacle but maybe it was too dangerous because you really had to duck down while descending and when you don't go down enough you'll get knocked off the bike hard so it was now cut to pieces, lying at the side of the trail.
At the time of writing this post it's a Sunday early morning (7:10am) and later today I will be visiting the trail for the first time together with my daughter, she can't do the entire loop just yet because the distance would be too big but she wanted to try and see trails instead of roads so I'm really curious to see how she likes it.
Now she's pretty sure she likes cycling, I bought a bib shorts for her because I think that's something every cyclist should have when the rides get to an hour or more, and I also ordered her a nice jersey on AliExpress, I have multiple jerseys myself from AliExpress and the quality is quite amazing, especially when you compare the prices here in Europe (€50 - €80) to China when you wait for discount events. (€6 - €20)
VO2Max
Because I just enjoyed my rides this week I forgot to take any pretty pictures to show you in this weeks post, instead I have found an interesting nerd topic, VO2Max...
VO2 max is one of the best simple indicators of how strong your heart, lungs, and muscles are. For cyclists, building a high VO2Max often creates a strong foundation for long term health and I've read an article telling it's one of the best markers for longevity.
VO2Max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during hard exercise in milliliters per kilo of bodymass per minute so when you ride your bike your lungs bring oxygen into your body your heart pumps oxygen rich blood to your muscles and they use that oxygen to produce energy.
A higher VO2Max means this whole system works very efficiently.
Based on your age and gender you should 'at least' get to a certain score for daily activity, for example Tadej Pogačar's VO2Max Score is estimated between 91 and 97, good to know: Men generally have a higher score than women (sorry ladies...)
Because I have a Fitbit Versa4 Smartwatch, it's easy to see what my score is without going to a lab for this. It estimates the users score with an error margin of 10% or less but I also have read of users that had a higher lab score compared to their Fitbit watch.
So, I checked mine and was actually amazed because I'm only cycling for ten months now.
So, when looking at the chart above, I'm in my mid 40's so my 57 to 61 score would put me in the top 5% of men my age in the Superior rank. 😵
That's crazy!
Well, I'm close to 900 words already so I'll leave it at this for now, it's time to get my second coffee for this morning and open the blinds, it's already light outside - just over three hours left for our ride, I'm excited!
Do you think of Hive while cycling? Share whatever you can about it. After all, we are members of this blockchain and content creators, which is always a challenge even for those who have been around for a while and are used to it. There are also thoughts about the future of the chain — what we learn from others, what bothers us, what makes us better and more resilient… in short, one can wander quite a lot on the subject! Haha…
Yes I do but in two ways only, the fact that I sometimes have to stop to make a picture for my posts which I usually try to do when I need to stop to pick up a can from the ground to collect the deposit money, but sometimes there's just a really pretty spot I have to snap a picture from.
The other way is kinda strange, I do think about a certain fellow Hive Cycling Community member whenever I see a special bird on my rides, and I just hope they don't bless me with luck - according to this person 😇🤣
Well.. that's it for this week, yesterday I made a new yearly high: 70km!
More on that on next weeks post, stay tuned!