Uncoachable

I've got some decisions to make in the next one and a half weeks.  To Pisgah 111k, to Pisgah 55.5k, to do them both (going further down the King of Pisgah rabbit hole), or do neither?  Things that I have to consider...

Bikes.  I have two of them.  Light and rigid and 29" and slightly heavy and half suspended and 27.5+.  No matter what I do, both of those bikes have to be ready by the next weekend to take to the Trans-Sylvania Epic, meaning I have five (or six) days to have all my shit together... while still going to work and trying to live a normal life.  I lean towards rigid for the 111 and suspended and chubby for the 55.5, despite how much bike carrying I'll be doing at the latter.

But maybe I'll beat myself up too much on the first day because I'm still waiting for my shoulder and thumb to be closer to healed up than they are now.

Recovery.  When I was given the Mio Fuse heart rate monitor, I figured it would be for racing only to keep myself from burning all my matches too early.  Maybe I would use it for some "training" just to see what my body is doing, since I really don't have a clue what's going on in there.  Seems like having a baseline for reference would be a good idea, and certainly better than no idea.  The last time I had a heart rate monitor, Macarena was number one on the Billboard Singles Chart, so what I think I know is almost useless.

One interesting feature of the Mio Fuse is its ability to monitor sleep.  Just for giggling shits, I wore it to bed the second night that it was in my possession (because it took me a day to finally read the manual to see why I couldn't get anything to work correctly).

Night one:  Thursday before PMBAR

Not a very impressive resting heart rate.  How about that "efficiency" tho?  I can sleep like nobody's business.

Night two: Friday before PMBAR

Less deep sleep.  Less "efficiency."  Higher resting heart rate.  Probably because I wanted to beat my sleep from the previous night, and I was anxious about my performance.  I'm now STRAVA sleeping.  This is not a healthy pursuit.

I didn't bother the night before PMBAR or the night after.  Sleeping in Watts's Adventure Wagon was too much of a variable to be considered.  I was sure sleeping next to him would be too much excite anyways.

Sunday after PMBAR

Highly efficient.  I was awake 1% of the time... so, yeah.  Still exhausted from the race efforts.

Monday after PMBAR

"Efficiency" down.  Deep sleep down.  Took longer to fall asleep as well.  Resting heart rate looking better tho.

Anyways, what's it all mean?

I know that sleep is important for recovery, especially for old people, and that resting heart rate is a good indicator of fitness and recovery.  This is a piece of information that has been missing in the past, and to some degree, largely ignored when it comes to when to "train," when to rest, and when I'm actually ready to race.  I guess I find this all fascinating, being the last time I used a heart rate monitor and paid attention to things, I was more than 20 years younger.  A totally different organism.

The hard part of actually incorporating this information into my "plan" is that I get the information when I wake up.  If I planned on riding any extra miles before work, I've already gotten up at 5:30AM.  Am I supposed to "sync" the Fuse to my phone, see how last night went, and then decide to go back to bed if things look like ass?  Those morning rides are also planned around weather (as predicted the night before and actual when I get up), so I might be good to go, but not the conditions not so much.

I have no way of knowing whether or not I ride too much or too little on a weekly basis.  Seeing what others are up to through social media certainly makes me feel that my efforts are inadequate, but I'm only seeing the glamorous side of things.  The big mountain rides, the road centuries, pain caves... that sort of thing.  I don't know if ten hours a week is enough or twenty too many, especially when some of those rides are only 25 minutes long (and deliveries at work are thrown in there too).  Ahhh... fuck me.  Resting heart rate and dead legs may be my only indicators.

So yeah, at least for the month of May when I'll be pretty crammed with racing, I might keep my eye on this... because I can literally do this in my sleep.

Any other factors to consider regarding those two races?  Besides bike selection, getting ready for TSE, injuries, and proper recovery, there's always weather, attitude, apathy and things in life like the fact that the part for the Honda Fit of Rage airbag recall is in, so if I don't want my car to be a death trap... maybe I fit that in there too?

Of course, there is a weekend between now and then.  Get in some good miles or have a gooder time?

Or try to do both knowing that would actually be a lot and probably more than I need in more ways than one?

I don't think a coach would be able to help me here.  Coaches hate fun.