So, now I have a little Garmin on the stem – no ugly sensor, just the ugly unit on the stem. [I think a quill stem would look pretty weird with a computer on it, no matter how discrete.]

As for Strava, I think it can be pretty anti-social when you’re riding with a friend and, all of a sudden, he takes off to log his time on a segment however, it is nice to see how many kms I’ve ridden – or not ridden, on a cumulative basis.

But a lot of the guys I ride with these days, come from accidental encounters (and great rides, with a bit of show-off, obviously) along the river, a little extra ‘congrats and thank you for the ride’ on Strava afterwards and before I know it, we meet up again. So at the very least I owe Strava a thank you for some of my cycling friends.

Generally I ride with HR, time and distance. Seldom speed, I don’t see the use of it, it doesn’t tell you anything since it’s too dependent on terrain, wind, group, traffic… Even afterwards, the average speed is just disappointing, since the ride to get me out and back in the city lets the average easily go down with 4 or 5 km/h compared to my ‘cruising speed’ (which is why I prefer stravistiX, it gives me a 75% percentile)

Some of my favorite rides have been in November, after dark with a handlebar light riding roads I have ridden hundreds of times before. Darkness adds many a dimension. Your little cone of light out on the country roads does not illuminate upcoming climbs or crests or descents. You merely ride by the feedback in the pedals and the V in your veins.

(Mind you these rides are with a headlight, and taillight and high reflective ankle band, be seen not stupid)

I love riding in the dark (although my rides are in the morning before sunrise). Just you and your cone of light (and suicidal rabbits running towards it). Very special feeling! And really easy to just really go! (however, to be completely honest, the garmin is there and loging it all, it’s just too dark to see it. And to be even more honest, a lot of those rides are actually specific training rides, so the thing beeps at me at regular intervals. But still, me and my cone of light! Best rides!)

And I do use HR a lot – now I’ve been riding with HR for about a year that little number gives me a lot of information; it’s a guide to make sure I don’t cook myself on long rides, it makes sure I do cook myself on short rides and training intervals, and it even lets me know when I haven’t eaten enough and am on y way towards meeting L’Homme (i.e. when you are slogging your guts out but your HR wont go up).

When I did my first 100 MTB race HR was a trip.  After about 70 miles my HR just kept sinking and sinking.  By the finish it was about 50bpm below my max.   I was riding up this 3500ft pass and looking down at the computer going UP! UP! UP!  It went nowhere.  Strange, strange sensation.  The man with the hammer clocked me good about mile 70, but I bounced back.

I started riding with power meters a couple years ago when I realized I had to figure out something to climb faster, looked more and more into it and that the only equation that mattered was Power divided by Weight.  I’ve worked very hard on both sides of that equation.  But man that number next to W lays bare your weakness.

When I have a ride without specific objectives the computer is totally transparent to me, completely ignored other than pushing start and stop.  What I like about it is that sometime much later I’ll be looking through strava for something and see “that” ride and it’ll bring me right back to a good time.

In terms of Strava, I do like to see the change over time.  Last season I went to a whole different level of training to prepare for the Breck Epic and I was absolutely crushed at times of proper training.  I mean I hadn’t seen a PR on a segment in months and was wearing an HRM to sleep to monitor for over-training, which was kicking in on the last few days of each block.  At one point, I was kinda losing it and took a short break from structured training rides and BAM!  PR on everything.  To be able to see the effort pay off is what its all about.

But VMW is much newer to cycling and has learned to trained properly, but doesn’t like the computer much and doesn’t seem to be able to ignore it.  We’ve had to work on technique, especially managing cadence and effort, so she has had to live with it sometimes.  But she’s a happier camper when it is in her jersey pocket, and I’m happiest on those rides with her too.

I like to analyse my ride afterwards; to know I’m improving rather than just to feel it. Because your mind and body play tricks – sometimes when you feel like you’re flying you absolutely are. And sometimes when you feel like crap and your lungs are about to emerge from your throat and you can barely pedal, you realise when you look at the data later that it was because you were turning yourself inside out and you were actually riding stronger than ever.

And I do use HR a lot – now I’ve been riding with HR for about a year that little number gives me a lot of information; it’s a guide to make sure I don’t cook myself on long rides, it makes sure I do cook myself on short rides and training intervals, and it even lets me know when I haven’t eaten enough and am on y way towards meeting L’Homme (i.e. when you are slogging your guts out but your HR wont go up).

I have speed on my Garmin but it’s not that important – effort in is the key when training, speed should be the output.

I’m rambling.

I don’t get strava. It flys in the face of the longstanding tradition of cyclists being abject liars about their training come race day. It’s kind of hard to say this is not one of your “A” races if someone is posting their training and everyone can plainly see if you’ve been tapering or not.

Unless of course you fake the data…

You can always make rides private. If you know someone is studying your Strava feed for training honts you can really fuck with them by showing some of your training but not all of it.

I’m going to keeping banging on about rest day swaps but I’ve got to admit that I do like Strava.

It allows me to see what a bunch of people around the world are getting up to, people from here and other friends dotted about the place. I may not get to ride with them often but I can see what they’re up to, take a bit of inspiration or give them some nipple lube after a big one.

I also get caught up in the competitive side of it but only really against myself – if I look at segments it’s only comparing my efforts and generally only to confirm what I already know: I’m not as fit as I’d like to be/as I was two years ago. I haven’t had speed showing on my Garmin for years, just HR, cadence and, er, power.

I’m also a big map geek, it probably goes back to when I was a kid and we sailed a lot as a family, I always wanted to get the charts out ans do the navigation. I don’t really care whether they’re paper or electronic, I could spend hours with an atlas or google maps.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

@frank Luke may have put his targeting computer to one side but did he at any point try swap out the other members of Red Squadron as they failed to hold his wheel?

If he had we wouldn’t be talking about him 40 years later. VSP rest day swaps cause a much greater disturbance to the V than using data.

Fucking Spot on!  Got to love the VSP swap accountability!!!

And as for Strava, it is like some evil virus.  I established an account four or five years ago and would upload my “big” rides occasionally.  Then it spread to where each ride was uploaded but not analyzed to death.  Then it went to the point where I would do my 5 or 10 minute warm up and clear the garmin so it would not “screw” up my overall ride data on strava.  Then the same with cool down.  Then about two years ago, I was fuckin paralyzed by strava.  Sacrificed way too many little gray cells on its alter.

Then, epiphany!  I realized that I could just delete my strava account, which I did.  Holy shit, all of a sudden, I was enjoying my rides again so much more.  I did not even realize how caught up in the strava rat race I was.  So  so  so liberating.

I still ride with Garmin but usually in the back jersey pocket.  I track time and heart rate.  No longer speed.  I have never felt better, enjoyed my rides more or lost as much weight as I have over the last year going strava-less.

Beautiful day here in Denmark – in the wake of a couple of weeks with WAY too much work and loads of grey-ish and nondescript weather. See below for a sample of how my training loop presented itself today:

Here’s a little Haiku 4 U guys:

Summer day. The sense

Of sun screen applied to my

Freshly shaven legs.

Have a good weekend, all

I also like it for connecting with other folks on my team, friends that I’ve ridden with even just once or twice, that sort of thing. People are out there going on amazing rides; I like to see ’em do it.

I know it’s a different rule all together, but what I don’t get is having earbuds in — I used to wear headphones when I ran, but then I realized that I prefer to hear my breathing and my surroundings. Much more centering. A ride without the wind, click of the freewheel, and tires on pavement wouldn’t be the same.

I flat out really, really dig Garmins and the GPS ride maps. I’ve been meaning to get the new little Garmin 25. I did enough riding around on my bike as a youngster w/o Garmins. And I sure wish they had this tech back then. Ya’ll been watching the Strava rides from the Giro being posted? Yowza. These cats are incredible. About 16 or so racers are posting their rides including Krujswijk. 230+km’s miles in 5:45? Damn.

I hear that. I also enjoy the data from my Garmin, I trained and raced plenty in to 80’s without such conveniences, and trust me, we would have killed to have had a Garmin and Strava in those days.

That is brilliant.  I still have all my LEGO collected over a lifetime that is now being handed down to my 5 y/o son.  He is also developing a magnificent stroke, thanks to time spent on the trainer.

Unless of course you fake the data…

Nice. I love that feeling, although I have to go a ways back to remember it.

Same here.  I am currently in the middle of a training block.  Every ride has a set agenda with specific intervals and power numbers.  Every ride hurts the legs and lungs.  I have a recovery week scheduled to begin on June 13th.  Usually, the following week I have a few days that feel effortless and I am flying.  By week two of the new block, between racing and training, the guns begin to burn again with most efforts.  It is the nature of the beast if you want results.

Chapeau to you for spelling LEGO the way god intended (i.e. not Lego or – shudder – Legos). The equivalent of Rule #89 for awesome toy names.

I’ve discovered lego Star Wars – fucking brilliant!

We have LEGO Day Cogals at our house being that that is all we are about that day. Twelve years ago we began having our annual LEGO Day — starting with the Millennium Falcon.

Also, I’ve discovered lego Star Wars – fucking brilliant!

Going techy, are we? Your knob is on the left side though, that’s interesting!

@Vbikes: The advantage of riding in the dark is that you cannot read the display so you cannot rely on any data.

TID

seems you have been training properly for the upcoming Hour. Any updates on links for live streaming? In that sense:

Hora est, ViVat Festum Prophetae and may the Vorth be VVit you

A-Merckx!

@frank Luke may have put his targeting computer to one side but did he at any point try swap out the other members of Red Squadron as they failed to hold his wheel?

If he had we wouldn’t be talking about him 40 years later. VSP rest day swaps cause a much greater disturbance to the V than using data.

This.

Porkins would’ve been the first one to be dropped…

A-Merckx. Please let’s stick to the approved nomenclature.

If he had we wouldn’t be talking about him 40 years later. VSP rest day swaps cause a much greater disturbance to the V than using data.

(Mind you these rides are with a headlight, and taillight and high reflective ankle band, be seen not stupid)