The abundance of sophisticated electronic devices and iphone applications that one can monitor performance in a manner of different ways. Like a lot of people, I've got little hooked by Strava and although I would rarely expect to be competing for "King of the Mountain" honours, I like the way that you can monitor and compare timings on your sections of a ride against historic values or additionally see how you compare against the times posted by your friends. It becomes very competitive. One downside to Strava is not being able to put the times in context. For instance, a typical ride will be mapped out in a number of sections, but depending on the length of ride you may be quicker or slower over those sections, especially those sections towards the end of a ride. I could just rock up to a section and blast the hell out of it until my Strava rank was good, as I am sure many people do. This behaviour kind of defeats the point of the social aspect of the application for me but none the less its a good app (unless satellite reception in your area is poor). I don't use the iphone as a bike computer as I find the reception is poor in our area and its a bit ungainly sitting on the bars.
My Garmin is still proving to be very reliable, the sat nav capability being invaluable. Garmin have a dedicated website where you can upload your ride information. I find this to very useful too, again for comparative reasons and to see where I'm loosing or making time. The Garmin connects to Strava too. And here lies the problem. So many things now telling me a wealth of information about heart rate, pace, speed, distance, course, speed up and down hills, averages galore and more besides. I haven't even had a chance to look at cyclemeter and what else could it do for me anyway? My Sunday evenings are now consumed by plugging in various devices to a laptop and analysing rafts of data. Having written this,I am now self coaching myself - pick one data set that has meaning and stick with it. I am going for Strava, no Garmin, no wait a minute - damn it!
My Garmin is still proving to be very reliable, the sat nav capability being invaluable. Garmin have a dedicated website where you can upload your ride information. I find this to very useful too, again for comparative reasons and to see where I'm loosing or making time. The Garmin connects to Strava too. And here lies the problem. So many things now telling me a wealth of information about heart rate, pace, speed, distance, course, speed up and down hills, averages galore and more besides. I haven't even had a chance to look at cyclemeter and what else could it do for me anyway? My Sunday evenings are now consumed by plugging in various devices to a laptop and analysing rafts of data. Having written this,I am now self coaching myself - pick one data set that has meaning and stick with it. I am going for Strava, no Garmin, no wait a minute - damn it!
Hopefully last weekend saw the last of the truly cold weather in the South of England. I have been hoping for a Sunday morning which is warmer than 1°C for some while now and I feel that better weather is on its way. Despite my hoping however, last Sunday saw the temperature plummet again to 0°C with a biting 20mph North-Easterly wind. To distill this down to more than a very typically British rant about the weather, I had a headwind all the way back from the tea stop in the otherwise delightful village of Compton. The café stop was good, one of my favourites actually. http://www.southdowns-tearoom.co.uk .
The ride back from there was tough!
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=504183
I've only myself to blame as I decide to ut such a hilly ride in the club diary. Up to Buriton twice and on to the A272 via Elsted and in the shadow of Harting Down. Fro there we had 2 more big climbs to go. Woolbedding hill. Steady gradient, but long and then finally over the intimidating Blackdown.
By the final climb over Blackdown, the highest point in Sussex, my legs were in agony. This ride, with 1352M of climbing and and just shy of 100km was a good indication of my form. I rode this route last May and was 10 minutes quicker. No head wind or freezing conditions that time. None the less, I was generally happy with the outcome yesterday. I'm doing some very considered riding this year in a bid to be "Pyrenees ready" by August and the indications are that I'm ahead of where I was last week. A bit of extreme hill work this early won't do any harm to this year's ambition and I feel miles ahead of where I was 1 month ago.
The true comparison of my fitness versus the same time last year will be fully understood after I complete the Southern Spring Classic sportive on March 24th. Last year I crawled over the line for a bronze at a shade under 15mph average. This year I am aiming to sit comfortably in the silver medal positions and improve my Strava rankings along the way.
The ride back from there was tough!
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=504183
I've only myself to blame as I decide to ut such a hilly ride in the club diary. Up to Buriton twice and on to the A272 via Elsted and in the shadow of Harting Down. Fro there we had 2 more big climbs to go. Woolbedding hill. Steady gradient, but long and then finally over the intimidating Blackdown.
By the final climb over Blackdown, the highest point in Sussex, my legs were in agony. This ride, with 1352M of climbing and and just shy of 100km was a good indication of my form. I rode this route last May and was 10 minutes quicker. No head wind or freezing conditions that time. None the less, I was generally happy with the outcome yesterday. I'm doing some very considered riding this year in a bid to be "Pyrenees ready" by August and the indications are that I'm ahead of where I was last week. A bit of extreme hill work this early won't do any harm to this year's ambition and I feel miles ahead of where I was 1 month ago.
The true comparison of my fitness versus the same time last year will be fully understood after I complete the Southern Spring Classic sportive on March 24th. Last year I crawled over the line for a bronze at a shade under 15mph average. This year I am aiming to sit comfortably in the silver medal positions and improve my Strava rankings along the way.
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