Heart Rate Zones and Hurricanes

This past week I've been trying out my new heart rate zones for the run and bike. With my run, my Zone 2 has a higher ceiling by a few beats so I'm actually enjoying my new run zones. I can run a smidgen faster while still adhering to the prescribed workouts. With my new bike zones, heaven help me, it is a Challenge (with a capital "C") to get my rear end into Zone 2. The bottom part of my current Zone 2 used to be the upper end of my old Zone 2. While it makes for a bit of a challenging transition, I'm hopeful it will pay dividends once race season rolls around. I spent this morning's trainer ride looking on the bright side - I'll have alot more heart rate zone to play with at Lake Placid this summer compared to 2011 so I won't have to go quite as easy on the bike as I did last year. I'm excited to see how well I adapt to these new bike zones, especially once I take my bike outdoors (ummmm, that's supposed to be happening tomorrow morning, but it's also supposed to be below 30 degrees. I'm not excited about this).

Last night I finished my most recent book - Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson. It's historical nonfiction, written almost like a novel. Fun fact: did you know that my husband and I got married on the 106th anniversary of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane? The writer not only talked about the hurricane itself and the damage it wrought on Galveston, TX; he wrote about this history of predicting weather here in the U.S. and how forecasters managed to overlook this giant storm. It's hard to imagine that sort of thing happening today with all of our technology and 24 hour news stations. The morning of the hurricane, people were swimming in the ocean, kids were playing in the water that flooded the streets, and alarm really only seemed to set in when the water rapidly began to rise and take down houses. This book was extremely well-written and hard to put down and I'm excited I found this author - I'll definitely be reading more of his books.