A ride less ordinary
Adventure Biking & the art of Going Slow & Getting lost
No heart beat, but 11th hour gasp saves patient.
Having had two successful attempts at keeping to a power focused training profile (i.e. keeping the slope to zero and using the bike gears to keep to my watts training profile), I thought it would be fun to carry on keeping the watts profile consistent and monitor any changes in my heart rate over a period of a month or two. I would expect my heart rate to decrease with time, as a measure of my improved fitness, but would it just be the recovery time that decreased or would I see any decrease over the different sections of my workout. Simple stuff, but it meant that I needed a heart rate monitor.
I had a Garmin Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) strap that I had never used and thought it was high time I dusted it off. Due to my current inability to get the information off my phone, I thought I would use my Garmin to record the speed, heart rate and cadence, but the trouble was I still needed the all-important Watts information to prove that I was keeping my ‘exertions’ under control!
I was in no-mans land to such an extent, that I didn’t care. Any improvement in any aspect of what I was trying to achieve would be some sort of progress.
Having convinced myself that using my ‘outside’ tire was okay, I decided to swap it back in the hope that my watts read-out problems would go away. I managed to successfully pair my Garmin but there was no sign of any life from the HRM.
I needed to get some exercise regardless of the technology melt-down, so I completed test number 4 without any HR values, but a set of results nonetheless, and my watts read-out problem appeared to have sorted itself out. Small gains.
Whilst I was fiddling with the settings on my phone, which is now becoming a serious habit, I clicked on the Gmail icon and found myself looking in the Inbox at a couple of emails from Tacx, congratulating me on my latest work-outs. Yiha! I was totally elated. I had inadvertently worked out the problem with the data transfer (I had two Gmail accounts, and my desk top PC default account was not the same as the one on my phone, which I have never opened, let alone used, so the files where sitting there all along). I went to bed feeling vaguely optimistic.
Summary of trials, tribulations & delights:
- I couldn’t use my Garmin Heart Rate Monitor (HRM).
- The problem with low Watts read-out appeared to be solved.
- I managed to record another training session using my ‘outside’ wheel and the data looked okay.
- I resolved the data links mystery & could now get the data files as email attachments.
A ride less ordinary 