Month: March 2011

Monday: Work, a trip to see a dermatologist followed by a spinning class at the Oval.
Tuesday: Tex,s morning spin class, sorted the Garmin out by deleting the faulty .fit file. Not a problem with Garminconnect but it was a problem with TrainingCentre. Weights for about 15 mins bits around the house and a bit of cycling on on Eurosport. Booked Beckies 7 oclock class as the 6 oclock class was full. There were only 5 of us  in it. I felt a bit flat for this one. Bought a new pair of  Asics trainers to replace the Mizunohos. Not as stiff as the Mizunohos in the spinning class but it’s a start.
Wednesday: Decided to swap a ride day for a day working on the house. Watched the cycling and also downloaded the latest RealPeloton podcast which deserves a link. Carbon Stem in the post from China for silly money, the postage costing more. Finally found a use for Workouts in the Edge 800, logging a spinning class.  Shows Heartrate, Calories and Time which is all you need.
Thursday:
A windy ride out to the Eureka via Eastham and Cheshire Oaks Cycles. I’d started out going to the Oval to get my pin number for the Invigorate card only to find the computers down again.  It was quite pleasant going through Port Sunlight with quiet roads being the norm after rush hour and the school run.Walked through the door of the Eureka only to be told I was the first cyclist in, I had thought it was shut seeing no bikes outside. Use it or loose it.

Next Dave The Mayor comes in and we have a chat with Ann about other Cafes, banned riders riders on forums etc etc.

Dave has signed up for the Saturday Vita rides and this is what he is going to be up against, Sean,s new toy. In the light of the shop it looked a bit pink I kid you not.
Some really nice touches to it. Getting urged to go on the rides to give Sean a bit of competition. If it’s anything like the test rides it’ll be totally bonkers.

It’s really funny watching people come into the shop not realising what a decent bike costs. Some good deals on Kuota and Eddy Merx.  The shop is unusual that you can try the bikes out. It does pay off as they packed me off with two Fizik saddles last week after trying the fitting system.  Ended up with the one with a bit more padding but still saving 125 gramms over the Bontrager one. My backside is still getting used to it but it does offer support on the sit bones.

Morrisons again on the return leg with no local resident trying to take me out this week.  Back on the Hoylake front the wind had dropped and it’s turning out to be a nice quiet ride. Called in at Europa Pools to get my pin as Louises spinning class was forming a queue outside the room. It was mentioned in Beckies class that we would be doing 8 sets of 8 to Sandstorm by Darude and not by me.

As I’ve returned to spinning again I noticed a lot of newcomers trying the classes again. For God,s sake take your first one easy, your not competing agianst me or the rest of the class. Just aim to finish the class. If someone in the class is doing 140mph they are spinning a wacking big flywheel with no resistance and gaining nothing.
Conversly there will be other women in the class that have been doing it for over 10 years. Tex,s classes are known for being hard and that applies to the circuits too.  He’ll come around and stick some tension in if your not doing any work.
Bring water and a towel.
Chestpresses, there is a knack, if you whang 5 kg up and down on a weight machine thinking it’s doing you any good think again. This is a reduced bodyweight manouvre that needs some strength, you won’t expecting to be doing pressups in a spinning classs but they are part of the routine especially in the women led classes.

I didn’t win a nice Colnago on Ebay with the bike going for £979 against my bid of £25.
Friday: Tex,s spinning class at the Oval, now booked online. Looks like Barbara,s classes at West Kirby are fully booked up. A trip to Vals allotment had the poly tunnels wrecked by yesterdays wind. Took the Mini  back to Bathers for the puncture repair. Thank god I specified normal tyres and not runflats.
A trip around Birkenhead had me come out of Smiths with four magazine.
Then it was off to Europa Pools for Sheila,s spinning class. Sweated loads in this one for 400 odd calories worth. Shower then home.
An upload from the Garmin edge 800 had me doing 144.8 mph on yesterdays ride due to a fault with the cadence sensor.
Saturday: Work, but should be a good day for the Vita cycle ride.
Clicked on this link and found my Colnago Carbitubo in the top 100 and looking at the silly money some of it is fetching it might be worth rebuilding.
http://www.thamesandhudson.com/cyclepediacontents.html

Removed Daves dead link  to his Garmin basemap renaming so might have to do a page on that too. The Shwinn spinning bikes at Europa Pools are  a lot harder on you than the Precor bikes at the Oval. More robust too.

Just  found links from other sites about maps etc.  My current best advice is for a 705 use City Navigator on SD . For a Garmin Edge 800 , is buy  the OS map bundle. On NO account buy the old DVD version which is sitting on a lot of shelves, it is NOT the same as an OS map.
Updates are on the way, if something is not looking right post a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Monday: Tex,s morning spinning class at the Oval. Highlight of which was 2 newcomers walking out.
I’ve taken a look at the weight figures for the last 2 years and will start putting them in a spreadsheet. The second spinning class does seem to be doing the trick as the extra 600 calories will lose you a sustainable 1 pound a week.
Gym was full with nobody moving around the machines so I left.
Went up to see my mum and then called in at Vita on the way home.

Just as well I booked the second class in the morning as it was full and due to the bikes starting to fail it meant 3 people didn’t get a class.
The Aldi Hrm was playing up in the morning class, so it was time to press the new Edge 800 into action. Once I had figured out how to set the thing up everything went fine. Set up a new Workout in the Training section with the screen showing Heartrate, Calories and the time.

540 calories with a maximum heartrate of 183 bpm. Sweated buckets to.
The pair who walked the morning would probably have walked out of this one too.  So I’ll say it again ” If you can’t do 30 minutes on a stationary cycle in the gym on one of the programs you find a spinning class too hard.”
My average was 152 BPM, this level would have all the machines in the gym telling me to slow down given my age and weight.
Tuesday: Booked a spinning class which is now full. Should be OK in the morning, got the bike to fettle as Wednesday is RIDE DAY.
Morning class went OK with it logged on the 800. Less intense than yesterday.Some more weights in the gym.
Trying a Fizik saddle out so popped up to Vita for the test saddle. Quite a big difference in weight. The plan is to try it out on Wednesday,s ride.
The clip in saddlebag which at first seems a good idea flops around too much when on the bike so resorting to the tools in a bottle.
Becky,s evening spinning class at the Oval was another 490 calories worth which was fine but uploading it to GarminConnect or TrainingCentre didn’t happen with it showing a failure. Better to have it now rather than on a big ride.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/74361960

Wednesday: Up early to sort the bike out. Keo,s have gone back on the bike, new cleats on the shoes which look like they want replacing. I should be a good day.
62 miles 2 incidents with motorists, 2 cafe stops.
It’s been a bit of a turning point recently but the tide has turned. There has been no instant fix  but things are looking up. Limit what I eat and drink and just get out there and do something, whether it is a ride or a spinning class or two. Those weights in the gym count too, as I’ve lost ground there too. I’m not talking massive weights, just enough to let the muscles know what’s what.

The cheap scales I use seem to retain data for a few days to average things out as I’ve been 99.8 Kg for a week which is good. This morning it was 99.2 Kg but seeing what I’ve been through before this time it is a lot harder.

For a start I know what it takes and there is no shortcut. More later.
Thursday: 98.2 Kg Suns out so off for a ride, a lot happened yesterday that didn’t make it into the write up so it’s best if I rewrite it.
22 miles of what turned out to be a recovery ride.
Sent the errror message from TrainingCenter to Garmin.
Updating the Tacx took the best part of 8 hours with an evening spinning class missed.
Friday: Work. soldered up a battery pack for the Magicshine with a cut off Y lead so it can power 2 lightsor a light and whatever.
Also had a reply from Garmin saying delete the faulty history file in the 800. It uploads to GarminConnect OK but not to TrainingCenter.

Monday: Tex,s morning spinning class at the Oval. Mainly 30 second intervals today. Booked in for the 6 o’clock class too , the bikes could do with sorting as the seats are starting to split.
I’d foolishly bid on a Bontrager Sport seatpost on Ebay not realising it was aluminium and not carbon. Well it arrived today and boy is it heavy, 270 gramms. The carbon bars are going back on the Trek tonight.
Not been wearing a HRM for a while, just relying on feel.
Tuesday: Another of Tex,s spinning classes, today it climbing. Spent the best part of 40 minutes  with the resistance turned up with a fair amount of it out of the saddle.
Following Paris-Nice on Eurosport.
Missed out on another evening spinning class as things didn’t go to plan with a loft access hatch.
Wednesday: Work, first day back, looks like I’ve missed another good riding day. Need to update the blog about the 80 year old bloke asking me for a “backy” to Liverpool when I was stopped trying to get the Garmin GSC10  to sync with the 800.  Probably the strangest request I’ve had.
Thursday :Work.
Friday: Work.  But the 705 is back from Garmin. Turnaround was a week  with a refurbished unit being sent back. New case so it looks like a new unit.
I know I give Garmin a bit of a hard time but the support is first class if your in warranty, a bit costly if you are outside it.
Saturday: Work but last day. A strange place where management is trying to get 4 quarts out of a pint pot.  Never has the difference between a “job” and a “career” been so marked.
Barbara comes bouncing in having plotted her first “Course” with RidebyGPS.com.  Uses Garmin Communicator so loads straight into your Edge, pity Garmin don’t tell you install the thing before you get the thing out of the box.
Sunday: RIDE DAY.
50 mile ride with the CTC to Hawarden Farm Shop. More interest in the Edge 800 from the women on the ride. What has become apparent is the need for another Dummies Guide so one will be up and running in the next few days. It was a fairly big group with a vast range of abilities but things do appear to have slowed down a bit. Picked up a slow puncture too. All in all a good day.
Rode back from the Eureka with Dave and Mark, thanks for the wheel.