My Beating Heart

I had my first test on the CompuTrainer this past week. For those of you not in the field, this is a stationary cycling test with your bicycle put on a trainer, hooked up to a computer, to measure your fitness level based on power, watts workload, heart rate zones, etc.

The good news is that I have a new saddle to ride. Yay! I'm nerdy.

The bad news is that my heart rate sitting on the bike spinning 70 rpm on an 80 watt workload was anywhere from 160 to 180. In layman's terms this means if I were to max the test out to my muscles capacity starting with a heart rate like that, they would be picking me up off the floor because why?...I would be dead. They continued with the test hoping that we would get some numbers to work with.....and I wouldn't end up dead. My cardio was shot in 17 minutes. I only got to 190 watts. I was shooting for 200. My max HR got to 203. What the mother?

I'm detrained from a month of doing basically nothing. I know that. I'm tired from not sleeping well. Those things put together should be a difference in HR of 10-12 beats tops. Not 40 bpm like I'm experiencing.

The conclusion of the test?? It sucks to have a pro cyclist turn to you and say, "You need to go to the doctor and have an EKG." in an Austrian accent. Sucky. I hate stuff like this. Stupid heart. I hate you. At the same time I ironically cannot live without you. I don't want to be the next Ryan Shay however. I suppose I will go get it checked out. I hate the doctor. It looks like it's going to be some work to have a good Ironman this year. Crap.