Is it spring yet?

Since everyone else can't suck it up and ride in this slightly chilled weather, I ended up going out by myself today. Details here. I'm trying to get a handle on what's going on with my heart rate. It seems really easy to push it way up into the 170's. So I figured I would try and keep it right around 165 today, except for hill climbs. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be I guess. Anytime I felt like I was exerting any kind of energy to keep myself in a good exercise, fitness building pace, it would jump to 170+... If I relaxed it would drop to low 160's. Overall, I did okay, average HR of 167. But I don't feel like I really exerted myself. I could probably do that loop like that all day. Definitely, could have very easily held a conversation with someone. I guess the good thing though, is if you look at the HR graph it doesn't really have a negative sloping trend line this time (provided you ignore the sections where my heart should have exploded, I think caused by the cold air). I wonder if I set goals to high for myself sometime, but I'm a firm believer that if you aim low, you'll never push yourself to your fullest capability. I guess I'm also never satisfied with what I have either, always striving for better... Wonder if that's a healthy attitude. I think it gets me into trouble sometimes... Oh well.