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 am afraid I am not going to jump on the anti data band wagon. I do not race, I am not even particularly competitive (on a bike). When you are the size of a small rhinoceros you come to quickly understand that although you will be off the back on a climb....you will then be out the front on the downhill...to some extent I feel a little guilty about people waiting for me at the top of climbs, because I don't want to hold back on the other side...especially with all the effort I have been through!
However. I like to capture data because it gives me a history of my riding. I do not micro analyse data, in fact I only inspect it periodically....one season to the next or even just looking back over past years. I record all the usual data including HR and weight and map my rides as well. I do not however use Strava (personally I use ridewithgps and garmin and a self recorded spreadsheet). I have 2 linked friends on ridewithgps just so I can see when they are out and about and I am not interested in sharing my data. Sharing data is like swinging....it seems a good idea at first but pretty quickly loses its appeal.
Capturing data is like taking a photo. It records an event, it can evoke memories days, weeks, months or years afterwards especially if you add comments but it does not validate a ride. Only your legs and mind can do that.
@RedRanger
Right, then. You want either Backcountry Navigator Pro or Gaia GPS. These are both highly functional apps. With either of them--and topos downloaded to your phone, which is simple--the only disadvantages of your phone in comparison to a dedicated GPS unit are shorter battery life and no waterproofness. The latter concern is easily dealt with (aloksak), and the former can be ameliorated by using downloaded maps and running the phone in airplane mode.
I used Backcountry Navigator to map the mtb trails across the highway from our house. More accurately, I used it to gather .gpx data and know where I was when I was riding, and then I dumped the .gpx data into some topo software on my Mac and then ran it through Photoshop. Now I can share the map via print or image file, and I can share the .gpx data with the tech-savvy. By the way, and I cannot overemphasize this point, UTM is the only acceptable coordinate system for serious people. Lat-long, in any format, is for losers.
@Nate
Correct! Merckx was Belgian champ in 1970 and world champ in 1971 (at Mendrisio). Herman van Springel (Monsieur Paris-Bordeaux to his pals) was Belgian champ in 1971 and only rode for Molteni from 1971-72. I'm guessing the pic was taken at the beginning of the 72 season when both would be wearing the appropriate jerseys.
@Puffy
I hope so! I was trying to think of the metric equivalent of milage and as we all know, all Velominati measure distances in kilometers. So your ride or cumulative distance would be your kilometrage.
@Mike_P
It was my HRM that sent me to the doctor for my stent last Dec. If I was going by V meter alone it would have been pegged at Hard As Fuck, but the fact that it was ~25BPM lower than my usual HAF I knew something wasn't right.
@seemunkee
Good to hear! Conversely, the first time I used my Garmin HRM in the days before it was relegated to my jersey pocket, it was registering 268bpm on a 2% downhill gradient. The fact that my heart hadn't exploded out of my chest like some John Hurt look-aloke had me thinking that maybe I hadn't put the chest strap on quite right. Doh!!
@blackpooltower
I couldn't help but use this photo even though it does not help my case at all. The whole article could have been about the picture. I imagine it's an early season training camp in Italy. They did this on a annual basis, the Molteni team photo with team cars and a bike or two. These guys are built for the Spring Classics now and maybe thinner by May for the Giro.
I think a lot of this bickering could be cleared up if people calmed down and realized that even Followers ride for different reasons, and for different reasons at different times.
If you are doing a stage race with your club, a hill climb event, some serious fucking race, by all means numbers and power meters might be useful and nice.
The only pinning on I do is for cross. I don't need numbers to tell me how I'm doing; I go out to the weekly practice and try to hang with guys I know who are fast. Depending on the result, I'm either doing okay or need to ride more. But for me, handling skills are always the biggest hinderance, since I'm mainly a road rider, not an off road rider.
On the road, well, I ride a lot of the same loops over the years. If it's easy and I come home feeling dandy, I'm probably okay. If I feel like a fat fuck and slow as hell, I know I need to ride more, sleep more, and eat less. I don't road race. I basically want to be on form enough to hang with the local fast group rides, should I choose to head out for them.
After many years of competitive sports, I'm very good and knowing what my body is telling me. Also, after many years of competitive sports, the allure of cycling, for me, is testing myself against myself. But, when the test is something off the bike (work, career, marriage, home buying, etc.) cycling is purely a way to let my mind go for a bit & I don't care what my numbers say.
It all depends on why you are swinging the leg over the bike on that day.
@ChrisO
True, and a speedometer only screws that up but that skill. Riding tempo, has always been about riding at the same effort, not speed. People should be able to ride tempo at the front of a group, even if it's a group of two people and keep the effort even, not the speed. No data necessary.
@Gianni
That's what I am saying. So, aside from Merckx and Van Springel, who else is on the team? Herman Van Der Slagmolen? Schoenmaeker?