Does anyone subscribe to Strava? As much as I like Garmin, for cycling it really wants you to buy one of their power meters, while Strava displays power estimates without one. And it seems to have more charts and breakdowns. Also, I am annoyed because I kicked ass on a segment today, beat it by 20+ seconds, but for some reason, the time is not transferring and I am not getting credit on Garmin. Despite Strava really wanting to be a social media thing (and I don’t know anyone on it), I do like the info it provides. $60 a year isn’t terrible.
Is there a good app for amateurs?
I just miss the days of desktop apps and being able to manage my data. There used to be a free one that did everything, but it too became a subscription-based web app. Can’t think of the name of it now. I would pay good money for a Mac-based fitness app (or maybe even a Windows one).
Looked into local cycling clubs. Not much here. There is one for the county, but strangely most of their rides are on weekdays.
I won the DNA jackpot when it comes to my heart, it beats like a metronome. This year I’m training for my first Century ride so the fun has gotten more intentional and serious, but still fun as I get stronger and more confident and faster. Since the rides are getting longer I’m getting up at 4:45 AM so that part ain’t fun but riding with no traffic at dawn is amazing.
After a 54 mile ride through some hilly terrain yesterday morning I decided to switch out my pedals for some SPDs and new shoes. The shoes have a recess for the cleat, and plenty of grip for when I have to walk around. Cool feature, rather than laces or Velcro straps, it has these thin cables and a little dial gizmo that I turn to tighten the cables. The 21st Century does have some pluses.
I best be careful or I’ll turn into that “Gear” episode of Portlandia.
Seriously, I think the SPDs will help me climb those hills faster.
I’ve been regularly riding 10 mile routes every other day. It’s going well so far but the main issue I have is that at about the 7 1/2 mile mark my nether regions start getting sore. I’m using padded biking shorts and chamois cream. And those help but they don’t prevent the issue entirely. Is this something that will get better as I do more riding or is there something else I can be doing to lessen the pain?
Make sure that you have a seat that is the right width for you with a cut out.
It can also help to get out of the saddle and pedal standing up for 30-60 seconds periodically during the ride.
Chaffing can get better through riding more but if you are feeling pain due to blood flow loss due to soft tissue compression that’s bad and can lead to health issues.
I think that just means you’re in good shape more than anything else. I guess training for a century is a lot like training for a marathon, lots of easy, but long workouts. I doubt you are doing many sprints that really push your HR up?
With the Garmin’s basic training plan, I am doing everything based on HR. One long (for me) easy ride, one hard push, and then kind of mixing it up with other rides. Occasionally throwing in a really rough anaerobic workout.
I take it back about the Seattle are being the most bike unfriendly place I have lived. Florida was worse. Lot’s of busy roads, almost no bike lanes, and lots of rednecks. Then you have the large bugs that aren’t very good at the flying thing (meaning roaches).
You are right, it is like training for a marathon and my training plan involves long steady rides, tempo/interval rides and sprints. But I don’t monitor my heart rate for those, Runkeeper prompts me when to pedal harder or not and so I do that. I don’t have a means to monitor my HR.
I misunderstood your earlier point about HR.
My goal for the Century is to finish by a certain time, but I’m a pretty slow biker relative to some of the folks here and I want to finish strong and avoid injury.
Just got back from a 20 mile ride this morning and I’m feeling a lot better than I did after the first one. Of course, for this one I was wearing padded shorts, and that makes a gigantic difference. I’m supposed to go on another ride on Saturday but I’m wondering if I should take a break from that one. I guess I’m going to see how I feel tomorrow.
So are there padded shorts that don’t make me look like I’m some kind of Team USA wannabe? I don’t want to look like Joe Pro bicyclist. I don’t like the tight-fitting look and the silly striping.
There are single color (often black) padded shorts you can wear. They can also be considered underwear and you can wear a pair of shorts over them so they won’t even be visible.You do not look like some sort of weird human hybrid when wearing them… In my opinion.
They are surprisingly well made for the low price, and they are durable. The pocket in the back is really small and I can’t access it while riding, but that is a quibble. I’m not sure their size chart is accurate, I went with large, a size larger than recommended and they are pretty snug.
Weird, the link renders in the preview but not here. I like the 1st pair more than the second (the elastic around the legs is “gummier” for the 1st pair and as as result the don’t climb up a millimeter when you’re riding). I wear gym shorts over both of em.
I was actually going to get a pair of the NOOYME undershorts because I heard they are very good, and I wanted to try a few brands and see what worked for me.
I dug out all of my shorts from 12 years ago when I was much more hardcore about riding. I have some cheap no-name things and some Pearl Izumis. All of them got a lot of use in the day, but there is a huge difference between the $30-40 shorts and the $100 ones.
First, the expensive ones are in much better condition. The elastic in the legs of the cheap ones have started getting that wavy look to them. The PIs still look almost new. I used to save the cheap ones for my short rides while the PIs were used on my longer 4-5 hour rides. Second, the padding is much thicker and covers more area than the cheap ones. There is a huge gap in quality.
Hopefully, you have some good cycling shirts, tons of pockets in the back of those.
