Use the Five, Pedalwan.
I could feel the power in my body as I breathed in the warm Spring air and pulled lightly on the handlebars; strength flowed from my lungs and shoulders into my chest, through my hips and down to my legs which churned over with alarming ease. With every change of gradient, I either stood on the pedals to maintain the rhythm or shifted into a bigger gear to gain speed, depending on whether the slope increased or decreased.
This was Gibralter in Santa Barbara County, California; the climb had put me to shame some fifteen months before, causing me to suffer much more than I was prepared to do but on this occasion she repaid my training with nothing but total grace. The Man with the Hammer was clearly on a mission on some far away slope, leaving only his wife, La Volupté to watch over me. It was one of the best rides I’ve had on a bike, feeling The V flow through me so elegantly despite the difficulty of the climb.
The question came up after the ride as to how quickly I had completed the climb, but since I rode the climb using only a V Meter and nothing that tracked any trackable sort of data, there was no tangible evidence to indicate how quickly I’d ridden to the summit. Yet, the sensations I felt during the climb were all I needed to know; the experience was mine alone to experience, a secret held in confidence between rider, road, and mountain.
Riding without data is the equivalent of Luke Skywalker putting away his targeting computer and using The Force instead to aim his proton torpedoes at the Death Star exhaust port. Data and Strava are useful and enjoyable tools by which to quantify our efforts, but we should never allow them to obscure the beauty of our labors.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
Thanks to @blackpooltower for this inspired idea.
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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.
@Oli
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.
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...
@universo
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.
@Randy C
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's why climbing is always the truest test of riding. Your legs, lungs, and heart tell you everything you need to know. Your computer is worthless ... other than verifying that you just suck.
I have to say that I love Strava. I like knowing what I rode up, how fast I rode up it, and how that compares to previous rides. I like seeing the plot points trend ever-so-slightly upwards (so far). I keep it in my jersey pocket, though -- focus on the ride and leave the analysis for later. I almost always know when I've done my best or had a really good day before I see the numbers, but it's nice to know that I wasn't just feeling on top of it. I actually was.
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.
Fine work, sir Frank. Just returned from a 40-or-so km ride 'sans' bike computer, Strava or whatever. Struggled and slogged for three quarters of an hour, but then found my legs and rejoiced as La Volupte gently kissed me on the sweaty brow. No idea how far I went, or how fast - and don't care.
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
@chris
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.
@Buck Rogers
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!