HR data for Fat Tire Classic, Farmington, CT

From my Polar RS800 PTE:

 

Large Pic of this Data

From this data, my lap times were (rounded off by a couple of seconds):

lap 1: 25
lap 2: 25
lap 3: 26
lap 4: 25

Not exactly impressive!

That lap 3 was the slowest makes complete sense to me.  The first two laps are usually filled w/ adrenaline, wanting to do well, and trying to keep up w/ the Joneses.  Then the pain sets in and the reality that I am only half way done takes the wind out of the sails.  Lap 3 is demoralizing and is in no man lands.  I worry about sustainability and not wanting to over do it.  But then eventually lap 4 starts and comes with renewed energy/hope/end of the tunnel in sight... since this is the last one.  This is it!   Just have to survive it one more time and then DONE.  Every root, log, mud bog I hit will be the last time I will have to cross/fight it. I can tolerate the pain a little bit more since it will be gone soon.  

I did not get a medal at this race and my time was not very stellar, but if you look at my hr data, there is a clear proof of effort and hard work, and with that I am pretty satisfied!!!  Maybe I can call Jill and ask for an "effort award"!  I do have to admit that part of me is a little impressed that at my 40+ age I can still sustain an avg hr of 191 bpm for 1h 40 min!

I had this long conversation w/ my wife the night before this race about the state of our higher, secondary, and elementary education and one of the topic was how our educational systems rewards and even encourages mediocracy and even less! I'll try to keep it short here.  Case in point is how everyone gets a medal for participation.  The original intent behind this was actually quite good.  It was meant to reward, especially in the early grades, those who worked really hard but came just short of coming out on top; to recognize that hard work; and to encourage them to continue working hard in the future.  Sadly, like too many things, it has been taken to the extreme, since now the system just rewards everyone, including those who do nothing.  This now results in kids electing to not put in any effort since they'll get rewarded anyways.  Later on these same kids turn into a bunch of entitled teenagers who think the world should be handed to them, without having to do anything for it.

I do like my polar rs800 pte in that I can wear as a watch and never loose my bike computer that way.   Also the Pro Trainer software is really pretty good, though has a little learning curve.  What is nice about it is how much manipulation of the data you can post ride/race.  The real problems are that it breaks often and is today back at polar for the 3rd time in two years, and I would like power data, which Polar doesn't offer as an ad on.