Define Easy?

Tony: Want to go for an easy ride today?
Me: Sure how long?
Tony: about an hour or so
Me: Yeah cool, an easy ride for an hour sounds good
Tony: okay see you soon
Me: Bye
Tony: Bye

An hour later Tony and I are heading out of my driveway ready for an easy ride when Elvis rolls by in his car. We catch him at the next light and briefly chat, it seems we will be heading in his direction for a bit. So it becomes a bit of a game to see if we can catch him at every light, which we manage with little difficulty as we have the benefit of a ever so slight downhill for the next mile or two. After a few times of catching him at the lights he changes lanes and slows just a bit, at which point Tony and I chase like hell to latch on, and there goes the easy ride, after only two and half miles. We bridge up to his car as he accelerates us to 32 miles an hour, as it turns out this is the first time has been motorpaced, and he likes it. Soft pedalling at 32 miles an hour, and a low heart rate to match just don't seem to make sense, unless that is if your are getting pulled along by a two ton SUV. After about half a mile we pull off and go our separate way from Elvis, where we will undoubtedly keep up this ridiculous pace that was set early.

At the turn around point it begins to rain, and the tail wind we were hoping for turns into a nasty cross wind at times gusting into probably the low thirties, at least it was warm enough. Every time I look down at watch I see hear rates from the low 180's to as high as 191, again so much for an easy ride. Although the legs felt okay, having recovered from the 3 mile run the day before, the cardio just isn't where I would like it to be. I know physiology plays a huge role and my heart rate is always higher than those around me, I still have work to do. Whereas others are ticking away in the 160's or 150's I will consistently be in the 180's. Although even though the BPM's are that high, I am still conversational, and I have no problem holding that for a long duration. During races it isn't unheard of for an average heart rate 185 or higher, and that's the average. I would love to find out someday what my LT is, but for no I will have to settle and just keep up the hard work.

One of these days I would love to take that easy ride with Tony, I just don't think it will happen any day soon!