Cycling!
On Sunday myself and my good friend Bob Mitchell went out cycling, training for our trip to France next summer to try and complete the L'Étape du Tour. The previous day we had taken Bob's two road bikes (one of which I'm getting to use) to get repaired and also went shopping for cycling gear which I was sadly lacking. One of the items we both invested in was an amazing watch - the Garmin Forerunner 405 which has built in GPS, Heart Beat Monitor and all sorts of other cool features. It is quite expensive but worth it if you regularly train and want to record routes/times/distance etc. Thanks to FoldyMoldy for recommending this watch to me!
The best feature however is being able to upload the entire training session to your computer and then upload the results to Google Earth. Below are several screenshots from our route on Sunday with some additional text notes on the image. You will need to click the images to get bigger pictures.
For anyone who has Google Earth and is interested here is the file which can be opened with Google Earth that contains all the info on our trip.
Our route mostly took place just outside of Paisley, the town where Bob lives. You can see from this screenshot the context of that with regards to Scotland.
This is the route we took which worked out at around 28 miles which is the longest we've done so far. We are doing our cycle training on mountain bikes during the winter and will switch to the road bikes in February when we will be able to do some 50-60 mile runs!
Bob and his wife Aileen live in a very beautiful and quiet part of Paisley called Castlehead. As you can see the cycle path we use actually runs directly behind Bob's house.
We took it easy for the first half of the route probably averaging around 12MPH building up to the second half which is predominantly uphill. You can see the kind of information that the watch is tracking here which is contained in every single little box which indicates every contact with the GPS Satellite in space. Information like Heart Rate, Distance traveled, Speed and Time elapsed.
Just one of the many picturesque spots you come across whilst cycling outside of the city in Scotland. Was a nice day for October too.
Lochwinnoch is home to a sailing club. Last time we cycled right down to it and saw people getting prepared to water ski etc. Really nice spot.
This is us arriving in Howwood, a medium sized village. We slowed right down just before it to reduce our heart rate so we could try and maximize our effort in the intense climb to the top of the hill. It is about one mile long. You can see in the screen shot that my maximum heart rate gets to 187BPM. I maintained that for at least half the climb. Bob got to 175BPM. You can work out your own maximum heart rate roughly with the formula - (220 - Current age). Mine is precisely right. My resting heart rate is around 70BPM and Bob's is around 50BPM (even though he hasn't been cycling for many years he still has his cyclists heart). Hopefully my resting heart rate will reduce over the next year also. The world record for resting heart rate is held by a former 5 time Tour De France winner - Miguel Indurain at 28BPM. I finished one minute and 20 seconds ahead of Bob. If he was typing he would say it is because I am naturally more built for climbing because of my light weight but I just say it is because I'm the best! =)
This is a spot further on when we had a minor crash which was all my fault. I was leading the pack (just two of us lol) and was admiring my new cycling shoes when I veered off into a ditch which took me and the bike to the tarmac. Bob seeing this happening shouts - "watch out", "what are you doingggggggggggggg....." as he crashes into my back and goes flying over his handle bars nearly landing on his feet(so he claims =)). I would of course cycled around him with my lighting fast reactions if it was the opposite way around :). I hurt my elbow, knee and hip but it was all minor scratches so we were able to continue soon after. It was my first crash =)
I had to put this in because I thought it was really funny that GPS captured it. You can see from this shot me pumping up a drag with a decent and continuous effort of 173BPM when I look behind and see Bob far behind. This is me going back to pick him up then continue on with him. (He is going to hate me) Haha!
Finally we reach the top of Glenford Brae which is a really intense and sheer descent which lasts only a few minutes. Because of our builds, I am naturally built for climbing and Bob is naturally built for descents. He always gets a good lead on long descents and can easily drop me. My maximum speed here was 41MPH and Bob's was 46.5MPH. I did brake more though as I need more practice with high speed descents especially at the sharper corners. He say's I am a pussy =)
It is only a further 10 minutes back to Bob's after the descent where we take a well earned rest after around three hours of cycling. GG!
The best feature however is being able to upload the entire training session to your computer and then upload the results to Google Earth. Below are several screenshots from our route on Sunday with some additional text notes on the image. You will need to click the images to get bigger pictures.
For anyone who has Google Earth and is interested here is the file which can be opened with Google Earth that contains all the info on our trip.
Our route mostly took place just outside of Paisley, the town where Bob lives. You can see from this screenshot the context of that with regards to Scotland.
This is the route we took which worked out at around 28 miles which is the longest we've done so far. We are doing our cycle training on mountain bikes during the winter and will switch to the road bikes in February when we will be able to do some 50-60 mile runs!
Bob and his wife Aileen live in a very beautiful and quiet part of Paisley called Castlehead. As you can see the cycle path we use actually runs directly behind Bob's house.
We took it easy for the first half of the route probably averaging around 12MPH building up to the second half which is predominantly uphill. You can see the kind of information that the watch is tracking here which is contained in every single little box which indicates every contact with the GPS Satellite in space. Information like Heart Rate, Distance traveled, Speed and Time elapsed.
Just one of the many picturesque spots you come across whilst cycling outside of the city in Scotland. Was a nice day for October too.
Lochwinnoch is home to a sailing club. Last time we cycled right down to it and saw people getting prepared to water ski etc. Really nice spot.
This is us arriving in Howwood, a medium sized village. We slowed right down just before it to reduce our heart rate so we could try and maximize our effort in the intense climb to the top of the hill. It is about one mile long. You can see in the screen shot that my maximum heart rate gets to 187BPM. I maintained that for at least half the climb. Bob got to 175BPM. You can work out your own maximum heart rate roughly with the formula - (220 - Current age). Mine is precisely right. My resting heart rate is around 70BPM and Bob's is around 50BPM (even though he hasn't been cycling for many years he still has his cyclists heart). Hopefully my resting heart rate will reduce over the next year also. The world record for resting heart rate is held by a former 5 time Tour De France winner - Miguel Indurain at 28BPM. I finished one minute and 20 seconds ahead of Bob. If he was typing he would say it is because I am naturally more built for climbing because of my light weight but I just say it is because I'm the best! =)
This is a spot further on when we had a minor crash which was all my fault. I was leading the pack (just two of us lol) and was admiring my new cycling shoes when I veered off into a ditch which took me and the bike to the tarmac. Bob seeing this happening shouts - "watch out", "what are you doingggggggggggggg....." as he crashes into my back and goes flying over his handle bars nearly landing on his feet(so he claims =)). I would of course cycled around him with my lighting fast reactions if it was the opposite way around :). I hurt my elbow, knee and hip but it was all minor scratches so we were able to continue soon after. It was my first crash =)
I had to put this in because I thought it was really funny that GPS captured it. You can see from this shot me pumping up a drag with a decent and continuous effort of 173BPM when I look behind and see Bob far behind. This is me going back to pick him up then continue on with him. (He is going to hate me) Haha!
Finally we reach the top of Glenford Brae which is a really intense and sheer descent which lasts only a few minutes. Because of our builds, I am naturally built for climbing and Bob is naturally built for descents. He always gets a good lead on long descents and can easily drop me. My maximum speed here was 41MPH and Bob's was 46.5MPH. I did brake more though as I need more practice with high speed descents especially at the sharper corners. He say's I am a pussy =)It is only a further 10 minutes back to Bob's after the descent where we take a well earned rest after around three hours of cycling. GG!
posted by TillerMaN | 11:55 AM
6 Comments:
You've inspired me to get one of these watches. Thanks.
That was a fun read. Scotland looks greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!
More good posts, I liked the crash story. Put some photos up!
You've inspired me to drink more beer and eat crips. Thanks.
Hi Steve! =)
...damn way too predictable, no wonder I struggle so much with poker! :P
Steve
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