My !@&^% heart rate!

[lovelylibrarian]

Wow, thanks so much for all of the excellent feedback. I'm feeling a bit better today. I get frustrated when I see that my husband and others can make it up the hill, but I can't. I just need to be more patient with myself.

I agree that I should stop freaking out by watching my heart rate and instead focus on how I feel. Also, my husband made the same point as one of the comments above. I'm not used to long slow rides and spinning isn't really preparing me for that. I'm thinking that I'll take one of the days I usually spin and take a long slower ride on my bike outside or in the gym instead. That should help me improve. I've only been spinning for about 4 months and my classes range from 45 minutes to an hour. When I MTN bike, it's usually 3 hours of biking with various stops in between.

For those in CA, here is a map of the area and bike trails at Mount Diablo State Park in the East Bay. http://www.bikemapdude.com/diablomap.html

We started at Mitchell Canyon Road and I made it up to Deer Flat. Then we took some loop around back down. Total elevation gain for me was 1500 ft.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'm going to change how I work out during the week, read a bit more on things and not give up!

Karen