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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I don't find myself riding any differently with the Garmin than without, but, I'm a sucker for any type of gadget, so it's kinda a foregone conclusion that I'd have one on the bike.
@Ron Having cycled over thirty years now and having formerly been a techno-geek, I too know what it's like to have all the gadgets on a bike and to monitor "all systems" continuously on a ride. I've watched folks, including overweight and out of shape folks, buy more and more gadgets and more and more expensive bikes, all in the hopes of improving their times. I've seen lots of people become slaves to their bike techno-stuff. First, the easiest way to improve your cycling times is to work like heck when you are working and taking it REALLY easy when it's time to rest. Second, it's a heck of a lot cheaper to simply lose a couple pounds off your body instead of buying the newest, latest and lightest bike. All the gadgets (speedometer, odometer, heart rate monitor) don't make you faster. Cycle with folks or cycle alone but mainly pay attention to what your body tells you. You will find that on certain days you can go harder than you think you should be able to go and on other days, not fast at all. That's your body's way of telling you it's time to rest more.
I'm a bit torn on this one. I used to keep all my mileage in a notebook (How far, who with & notes) which lasted maybe 10 years but that faded away as I got more of a life. Wish I had kept it up as its kind of cool to go back and peruse old rides. I've most always had bike computer/GPS to track time & miles but it is always subjective depending on the wind and who you are with. Used a heart rate monitor, excessively at times, too... Then comes Strava where you can micro manage every foot of your ride along with power & HR data and compare that to you friends, team mates and arch enemies. That's all pretty subjective too since wind and group size has a lot to do with who wears the crown on any given segment. The power meter is surely the best way to gauge your effort but the days when my Garmin gets left at the house and its just me and the bike and a group of riders - those are some of the most fun rides I've done. Can't look down at your Garmin too see if your heart is going to explode- you just go till you can't. How far did i go? Does it matter? Figure it out ... I've ridden these roads a million times! Get on the front and tap in to that inner cadence meter that doesn't get used nearly enough. If the ride doesn't really happen because Strava didn't record it, you can always rely on the V-Meter... It always works!
VLVV
@Ron Well said!
By default - don't. When you do - know why.
@minion - Perfetto! This dude found lube in all the wrong places
Our Saturday gruppo that we lovingly refer to as the witch curse IV is making an effort to cut the ride duration under 3 hours. We decided to keep the entire route intact, but push the etiquette to ROAD RACE rules. Normally there is one water stop (Coca Cola) at the 45 km checkpoint, but it is going to be refreshing to put this stop out of mind. Interestingly there may be only six riders for this inaugural gruppo -- and then more to start as we continue.
No "computer data" and no way to watch elapsed time either. Just race.
I "trained" all of this past year without the computer, hr monitor or pt wheel. Tremendously liberating! Had not had this much fun since I started riding......a measly "V" years ago.
I just noticed something about the lead picture. It's taken on a beach and the tide is coming in! The car to the right is already getting its wheels wet and given the left-hand drive set up, whomever has to drive it outta there is going to get wet feet unless he clambers through the passenger side.
No wonder everyone looks so glum: "hurry up and take the damn picture already!"
Also noteworthy: if that's the whole team, it's 17 riders. Compared to today, that's a small squad, but then they didn't ride as many races at once or on as many continents.