I’m compliant with Rule #74: no Garmin, no cyclometer, just an uncluttered cockpit. I’m not anti-data, if I could generate some awesome data I’d like to know about it. If I was racing I would train with data. I just got bored with looking at the numbers and not doing anything about them. When my Cateye cyclometer/heart rate monitor demanded yet another bi-monthly battery change, I took the whole thing off and never looked back. Total milage, elevation gained, I no longer care about these numbers.
Can you ride without data? Does a ride even happen if it doesn’t show up on Strava? Bretto brilliantly introduced the V-meter three years ago. It was an idea that flew in the face of all the new technology we needed on the bike. Push on the pedals and if in doubt, push on them harder.
I did buy into a heart rate monitor or two in my time. Early on we used them like kids used the early alcohol breathalyzers installed in bars. That was an ill conceived notion if there ever was one; it’s a damn bar, only young drunk males are going to use breathalyzers and it won’t be to see if they are too high to drive. Rather, they are going to use it as a drunkometer, to see who can get drunker. For us it was young males on bikes, I’m gonna peg this HRM, see, see, I can get a higher number than you because you suck.
Without data I know when I’m going faster than 65 kph, things do change at those speeds. And I know when I’ve done a 160 km ride only because it’s a route I know from past centuries. I do live on an island. But I still make deposits at the pain bank at regular times. Being too big to climb and living on the side of a volcanic island has made every ride something. When I was younger I couldn’t enjoy a forty-five minute ride, I actually wouldn’t go on one. What was the point of such a short ride? Now forty-five minutes can mean forty minutes of steady climbing and five minutes of descending. That’s a ride.
Getting shelled by your friends tells you something, something you already knew, they are faster. Riding with friends who are faster is the best training aid. I figure it’s a quality training ride if I barely make it home. Do more of those, keep doing them a little harder.
Keepers Tour 2012 was doubly fun for the training required before the trip even started. We all need incentive to crank up that kind of fitness. I’m sure the 200 on 100 Cogal riders felt the same way; this ride is going to hurt but it will hurt less if I murder myself in the months before. The Spring Campaign is looming and I’m already devising training rides that will either make me fit or ruin me, or both at the same time, which is what usually happens.
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@wiscot
Is that a word now? I hope so... I'm pretty fed up with living in a metric country and getting strange looks when I use it. We don't measure distance in miles so why the hell would I be racking up mileage?
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@Chipomarc
Hah! My triathete friend is always giving me shit for training with power! He is rule #74 compliant training of feel only. I race, and power is the best way, hands down of training and makes communicating with my coach very simple. You cannot improve what you cannot/do not measure.
Generally in a race, I ignore it, unless it's a TT. My garmin shows watts, cadence (for use in cadence drills) and power zone only although it does record all metrics.
Granfondo? Group ride? Social? Yup... V-meter only.
@Ron
Sorry, but "feel" is just that, a feeling and in no way based in reality. As I mentioned in a post above I train with power. The number of times I FEEL good, and failed to perform is many and just as often as when I FEEL crap, but perform well. There is no hiding from the facts your power meter is shoving in your face.
@Puffy
This is preposterous. You of course can improve without measurement. Not saying properly used power won't get you there faster.
a power meter will not teach you to scrape for every last ounce of energy while you are on the edge of passing out in a vain effort to hold a wheel. Only the sting of defeat and the desire to avoid repeating it will teach you that.
Put another way, a power meter will help set expectations and dictate training. A v meter will teach you to suffer and test your limits. Both have their uses.
Timely article, I have weekly tussles with my inner demons regarding "If its not on Strava, did it really happen!?"
I like the thrill of the hunt, I like the data recording and seeing my regular ride times improve.
But
With ongoing neck issues I would also like to toss the fkn Garmin fair across the room and be able to ride hard when I can and do a leisurely cruise when the neck doesn't allow a full blown effort.
I get annoyed when doing some improved times only feeling the need to belt the shit out of myself right to my front door to keep the average up to prove to myself that I had a good ride.
Surely I can enjoy the ride without the above entering the equation.
Damn you Garmin
" Help me Obi Wan, your my only hope ! "
@wiscot
If you got stinking flat fucked drunk by yourself, sent out some unwise tweets, and ran out on the bill, then it would count.
@Pedale.Forchetta
I have used the iphone strava before. Once, on a long climb someone flatted, we stopped and it was a long, long tire change. When I looked at the strava later it said my friend and I were the 107th and 108th fastest riders on the climb. Very bad. Especially on an island, where this gets around. I had to go back the next week, re-climb and plant my time firmly in the middle of the riders, instead of the bottom.
@Marcus
Most of us have never used them because they are so f'ing expensive and it's not a component one can easily swap or loan out. But I could see the benefits when training, not racing. A friend uses his on the rollers to analyze his stroke, and the difference between legs. There can be a lot of useful information there.
Personally, I'm afraid of the dim 60 watt light bulb I could barely power, though I guess it's all relative, gains are gains.
@Gianni. Good topic.
I accidentally knocked off my computer late last fall and was too cheap to replace it. This past spring I took off all the sensors and rocked the V-meter all season. I love the clean look and clear mind. And when I look back at the stats for the races I did, my results were noticeably better than last year. Granted, I joined a club this year and almost puked my guts out a few times trying to hold on when the hammer went down. As you say, "Riding with friends who are faster is the best training aid."
@Toad
This is true. It takes extra concentration to make sure you are not surging. I glance back a few times to make sure I'm not outpacing my buddies.
@VeloVita
Likewise. Since I carry my iPhone anyway, I got the $4.99 Cyclemeter app which gives me the basics and the bonus of being able to upload to a site like Ride with GPS which has great mapping capability.
@JohnB
I've done up to a 3 hr ride no problems so far with my new iPhone and the Cyclemeter app. Make sure you're fully charged and the screen is off.
I always train and ride sportives and gran fondos with data, but road races and crits are usually raced without. In those situations, it just doesn't make sense to be looking down at a Garmin. Plus, I don't care if I'm 107th out of 108 on a segment as long as I beat the other people in the race.