great ride this morning

even though the wind was a real hardship from the south/south-west this morning, it was warm-ish and dry. that meant i had to leave early to get in 40 miles.
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i have been wearing my heart rate monitor lately, so as to be sure that my perceived exertion is closer to reality. problem is, i don't really know what reality is when it comes to performance, so all the better to wear a hr monitor to get new baselines.
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i took off out past grants farm, up pardee/eddie and park, out robyn road, down rott road and started up weber hill. up to that point, i was surprised to see my heart revving pretty freely from the low 120's to the upper 150's. feeling pretty good, i decided to tackle weber hill at a comfortably strong pace. first left, then right, the ol' hr kept climbing. as the hill mellowed, i was seeing 175bpm. i hadn't seen that in a while. it went quickly to 177. 179. jeez, was it even possible for me to see 180 again?? all this, and i wasn't hurting. i wasn't digging up Pantani to taunt him, either, but i wasn't going slow. final numbers before weber hill flattened: 181bpm. whoa. exactly what the old formula, 220 minus my age, says i should see.
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i pondered this as i blazed down hwy 30. i turned north on 141, gradually climbing the whole way to smizer mill. feeling plucky, i flew down smizer, met up with hillsboro valley road, took that over 141 and up and around the outer road of 44. back to 141, almost getting creamed by minivan drivers #1 and #2. i turned on marshall road and pushed a bit toward the big climb. watching the hr monitor hit 160, i figured i'd better slow things down so i could climb well.
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besides getting buzzed by a dump truck at the base of marshall hill, i was pretty focused. i watched the hr monitor soar past the 160's into the low 170's. still feeling fine. hitting 180, i couldn't believe i had more. 2/3 the way up, 185. uncharted territory. 186. 187. (Mr. T: I got a lotta mo'!) 188 beats per minute, the hill ends. i had more. i had 190+ in there somewhere. what the hell is going on? i haven't hit more than 185 in 10 years.
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it never ceases to amaze me that i never cease to be amazed by my own body, in both good and bad ways!