Cycling Stats

27 Friday Dec 2013

Tags

bike computer, cyclemeter, dailymile, excel, garmin, google glass, iCloud, iphone, randonneur, RAV power, rflkt, runkeeper, Seattle Randonneurs, SIR, stats, wahoo fitness

Being a geek, I have been collecting data on my rides for the past 5 years. I’ve gone through several approaches, and certainly don’t have a vast knowledge of all that’s out there, but I’ll tell you what works for me these days.

When I moved back to Seattle and started bike commuting again I discovered I could use my new phone (iPhone 3gs) with an app called Trail Guru written by Tim Park. It quickly became my favorite app, although I tried quite a few. Having a GPS built into the phone was one of the “killer apps” for the burgeoning smart phone market, and this was something I used twice daily. Lo and behold, sometime in 2011, Trail Guru stopped working, and there was no word from Tim. Eventually, the app fell out of the App Store, and I had to move on. Unfortunately, the web site went offline and so did my data.

This soured me on the smartphone idea for a while. I picked up a Garmin eTrex 20 for an upcoming brevet. This would solve another problem with the smartphones – my iPhone was good for a max recorded time of about 4 hours when the GPS app was active, even with the display turned off. The Garmin should last 20+ hours, and used AA batteries that I could bring along for spares. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out too well – I did the ride, but on a commute home a week later, the unit popped off the mount on my handlebars and was gone forever. After this short-lived experiment, I went back to the phone again. Besides the mount problem, the Garmin software was prehistoric. It was clunky, confusing, and getting the data on the computer was much harder than it should be. OK – I expect wireless in everything these days, people!!

I started using RunKeeper (iOS app) and, although it wasn’t specifically made for a cyclist, I really like the reporting available. It does a great job of letting you see your data and jumbling it around however you like. Here’s an example of the “advanced fitness reports” page from their site:

One of the downsides, however, was the subscription based “elite” membership you need to see a lot of the reports. The other thing I didn’t like about it was the simple cycling screen that wasn’t adjustable. It only showed a select group of data points, and this was not negotiable. That said, I used it for all of 2012, and it was rock solid reliable, and simple to use.

I was lured away by a post in one of the cycling groups I follow that mentioned Cyclemeter. This app was a phone-only application, but it tied into various websites for data display on a computer. That said, most of the data is displayed very well on the iPhone itself. You can export it via .csv as well, so it’s simple to save the data and work on it in Excel or whatever you like. (at this point, Cyclemeter allows saving its database to iCloud)

I liked the display versatility better than RunKeeper, and tied it into dailymile.com for viewing on the web. This site is a social media site that focuses mainly on the community aspect of workouts, so it doesn’t do a lot of advanced analytics, but if you just want a place to log your mileage, it works.

This is a view I built in Excel from a data dump directly from Cyclemeter. Much more versatile, but a bit more work.

This leads me to the problem of having a speedometer on the bike. I tried a handlebar mounted iPhone case for a while, but found it a bit too bulky and over the top. I never lost it, or got it wet, but it wasn’t exactly svelte. The other problem was battery. I couldn’t really use it as a display for anything longer than an hour or two without draining the battery. The combination of LCD and GPS puts too much hurt on battery life. I wanted to do longer rides with the Seattle Randonneurs, and a 200k takes me about 9-10 hrs. I could get by barely by using my dyno hub to charge the phone during the day, but for any ride that goes into the night, I would lose that capability. All the power coming from the dyno would need to be used for my front and rear lighting.

I became convinced that the newer Garmin Edge GPS units for cycling would be better. I picked up an Edge 810 and within a month brought it back to REI. Garmin still hadn’t fixed the confusing software, and to top it off, the hardware routinely shut off in the middle of a ride. The whole point of this device is to be on and track a ride from start to finish. I tried a few firmware updates, but it never worked the way I wanted it to, so I returned it. Back to the phone.

I had a 300k coming up in August of 2013, so I knew I needed to be able to keep my phone alive for up to 20 hours. After doing some research and chatting with a co-worker who had just been to China. I purchased a RAV Power external battery pack. I brought this on the ride, and recharged the phone 3 times during my 16 hour ride. When I returned, it still had half its charge. It didn’t weigh much either. OK, I found the power solution, now I needed a display.

Wahoo Fitness had the answer with the RFLKT bike computer. It is essentially a small bike computer that displays info from your phone application via Bluetooth. It is customizable, and allows you to see things like speed, time, distance, heart-rate, battery remaining, music playing, etc… It also lets you control the application with the 4 buttons on the device, and they can be programmed to do things like start/stop the app, control your music, scroll through multiple pages (handy if you want a main data page, and other pages for maximums, heart rate data, etc…) This thing is awesome, and has been rock solid. It integrates nicely with CycleMeter, is small and lightweight, has a lighted screen for visibility at night, and works every time I get on the bike, 3-5 days a week.

This is going to be my solution for a while. I believe that Garmin is in a losing battle with smartphone app developers at this point. Especially with the new M7 coprocessor that the newest iPhone has. Smartphone GPS apps are the future, at least until smart watches become the norm, or Google Glass. These apps are far superior, and quicker to update/innovate.

300k and Artist’s Point

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

200k, Artist's Point, cypres, mechanical, Mt. Baker, Mt. Shuksan, Paul Racers, Peace Arch, randoneurring, RUSA, Selle Anatomica, SIR, Whatcom County

Homer

This seemed like the perfect first 300k: similar venue to my first 200k in Whatcom County in Northwest WA state, perfect 70 degree weather, a challenging 5000′ climb to Artist’s Point between Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan, and mostly flat after the first 100k. Sounds doable, and even fun. I hadn’t done a longer ride (more than the 13-mile commute home) since a 40-miler on the 1st of June. I rode a total of 80 miles the week before in 4 days of commuting, so I was half-way there, but I was still feeling a bit under-prepared. It didn’t help my mental state when the ride host, Dan Turner, said that this was a “harder 300k”. Hmmm. Still, I had a goal of doing a 300k this year, and this looked to be the best shot.

I took some randoly advice and drove up to Bellingham the night before and camped out in his yard. Didn’t sleep much, though – kept drifting in and out of sleep in anticipation.

At 6:00am, I got up and had some coffee, donuts, and eggs that Dan and his wife prepared for the riders. I loaded up on Mojo bars and jerky, and filled my bottles, and we promptly set out at 7am. The first 20-30 miles went fast, and I rode with the main lump of riders at a pace of about 20mph. It was fast, but I felt good, and it was nice and easy holding in the peloton.

Into the Eastern Sunrise

This was a pretty serious bunch of Randonneurs. Of the ~20 riders that started, many of them were veterans of years of 1200k’s. There were 2 or 3 of us that were also first time 300k’ers, with one gal, Mandy, who had just joined RUSA and SIR the night before, and was doing her first rando event.

As we neared the mountains and got into the first bit of the foothills, the riders started spreading out, and from that point to the top, I never rode with more than one person for short stretches.

Into the Hills

The bike was riding well, and everything felt spot on. Things I was slightly concerned about going into this ride included:

Seat Comfort – I had put on the Selle Anatomica the week before the ride as it was great on my last 200k
Shoes/pedals – I had not put more than 20 miles on my new Sidi Spiders
Tires – would the well used Cypres go the distance?
Brakes – how well would the Paul Racers stop on the long descent down from Artist’s Point?
Food/Water intake – could I deal with a 17-hour day in the saddle?

I had checked some of the times that SIR riders with similar 200k times had done on earlier 300k’s to give myself an idea on how I should expect to do. They seemed to vary from 17-19 hours, so I of course figured I would shoot for 17. This would bring me into home base around midnight. I was also motivated by the promise of burgers and beer, and midnight seemed a bit late, but not too late for dinner 🙂 I really thought that getting up the big climb quickly would keep me in the time, and this proved mostly true.

Climbing into Beauty

Final Few Switchbacks

After some 30 miles of climbing that turned knarly for the last 10 miles, I made it to the top, and some seriously great views. The clouds were starting to part, and the peaks were showing through. Mt. Baker is infamously invisible in clouds, and in normal fashion, I only saw glimpses of it on the way up and at the top. Shuksan was a bit more cooperative.

At the Top

I had a quick bite and refilled the bottles, and felt like I should really high-tail it outta there ASAP. I still had a 200k (~130 miles) left. So far so good. Now came the fun part! I love descending, and some racer boyz had ripped past me on the way up. As I left the parking area, they started their descent in front of me, so I latched onto one of them and enjoyed the ride down. All I can say is that at some point we passed 2 cars!

At the bottom, I had my first real trial of the ride. As I shifted into the big chainring, my chain stuck to the teeth and came around to pop the outer plate off my front derailleur. I had been riding quickly with a couple fellows, and stopped to see if I could fix it. I quickly surmised that I was now riding a 1×9, so I shifted it into the big-ring, made sure the plate was bent in enough to stay out of the crank/shoe path, and proceeded into the berry fields around Sumas near the Canadian border.

Berries for 40 Miles

I hooked back up with a group of 4 other randos and we rode the next 20 miles together in a tight peloton making great speed. This was the most fun part of the ride for me as we chatted and the miles flew by. One of the fellows had “questionable” shorts, perhaps a bit past their prime wear – a little too many miles on these guys – imagine the problem the yoga pants company had recently and you’ll catch the drift, so as long as I wasn’t directly behind him, things were great 🙂 The control stops were really nice, as well. We were picking up 75-cent kid’s cones, and enjoying the short rests.

Ice Cream!

After the Lynden control, I had my second setback. My knees were starting to get a bit sore, and I found that I could no longer stand up to climb without major pain in my left knee. It felt like it was swelling a bit, so I eased off the back of the pack, and rode a bit. I stopped on the side of the road to stretch out a bit, but this didn’t do much. I started thinking about the logistics of calling my wife and waiting the 3 hours for her to come up and pick me up near the border. Hmmmm – if I can just make it to Peace Arch park and get some Advil – yeah that’s what I’ll do. I had already gone just over 200k, and had about 50 miles left. I walked up a few of the steeper hills, and eventually found myself rolling into Blaine, WA. I stopped at a gas station and bought a few packs of ibuprofen and quickly took a pair. After weaving my way through the border town and reaching the coast, my legs started feeling better. I also realized I could make good headway by pulling up with my left pedal stroke, and doing the normal push with my right.

“Pain-da”

This part of the country was interesting enough to keep my spirits up, with great stretches of closed roadway and wide open fields, and distant views of the mountains I had been in at the start of the day. After getting past the coastal stretch of the ride, and starting to head back towards Bellingham, I was sure I could finish – perhaps even within my time goal. At one point, I found one of the gents from the earlier group waiting on the side of the road with a binding bottom bracket. He was out, and I felt really bad as he had put in over 250k at that point. He assured me he had a ride coming, and a short while later, I came up on another guy who was having some leg cramping. We ended up riding together on and off for the rest of the way back. At the penultimate control, I had to pick up more Advil, but having only 15 miles left, I was starting to ride on the endorphins.

Rollin’ Towards 300k

I rolled into the final control, and the end of the ride right at 11pm. All the folks I had ridden with earlier had arrived shortly before, so we all ate and chatted about the great day. I took a quick shower and climbed in my tent for some needed rest.

Verdict: I can finish a 300k bike ride, and still feel good enough to enjoy a hot dog and beer. I can climb 5000+ feet and not keel over! The Selle Anatomica and Sidi shoes passed with flying colors: The only sore parts of me were my knees. No flats or braking issues. I never bonked, so I managed my food/water intake just fine. Hmmm – this pushing the limits stuff is getting addictive. It certainly helps when the ride has tons of natural beauty, and the weather is fair!

Spring 200k

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

a. homer hilsen, Biologic, cyclemeter, Escape from Seattle 200k, garmin, Hahn Rossman, iphone, jan heine, rando, rivendell, Seattle Randonneurs, Selle Anatomica, SIR, son 28, SON Delux, Titanico X, Wool

Randos!

I started my rando season yesterday with a 200k that conveniently began and ended within a mile of my house. There were probably 100 folks that started this ride. It was a great day with temperatures ranging from 38-65 F resulting in little need for more than a couple wool jerseys and a vest. No rain – just a bit of fog for the first few hours with sun breaks at the tops of any hill over 300 ft.

Jan and Friends

Jan Heine was at the start with his lovely chrome rando bike, and was the first one out of the gate with his friends and riding partners including Hahn Rossman who was test riding a Mad Fiber bike. I rode the whole ride with my new pal Bruce, and was grouped up for a while with Asta and a friend who had ridden up from Portland the day before. Wow – 200 miles up, and 200k for the ride. Solid!

Cockpit

This was a test for me in a couple of ways. The most mileage I have put into a ride in the past 8 months was a 38 mile training ride. I have been commuting over 200 miles a month for the past few years with 3-4 days per week the norm. I also end up doing a lot of climbing on my commute, so this definitely helped. I also benefited from a few longer rides last year, as well as a bike fit. I found a few things that didn’t work once the mileage got over 50 (plain B17, lack of consistent nutrition and water). On this ride, I started eating and drinking right away, and never really stopped. My riding app (cyclemeter) said I burned 7500 calories on the ride, and I’ll bet I only had a slight deficit by the end, although 2 bowls of chili and a beer definitely went down with no problems!

Pit Stop

I also got to put some miles on a Selle Anatomica Titanico X which I’ll write up later. Verdict? No saddle soreness with my Ibex wool knicker/tights. The iPhone Biologic rig worked, but it took finessing to keep it charged. I ended up having to turn off the display and lights to keep a charge going to the battery. Verdict? Use the SON28 (more output) on these rides, and leave the Delux on the other bike for now. That or look into a smaller battery powered GPS, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to jump back to the Garmin without giving the larger SON a try first.

Beautiful Day!

Overall, at the end of the ride, I felt tired, but great. My right knee was a bit sore, but the pain was gone by Sunday night. I think a 300k is actually in my sights. It was a great start to the season!

Extra pics from the ride on Flickr

WTS 1 Redmond – Carnation

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

a. homer hilsen, acorn bags, brooks, brooks Finesse, randoneurring, SIR, winter training, WTS

WTS 1 Redmond – Carnation, a set on Flickr.

Seattle Randonneurs (SIR) puts on a Winter Training Series in January that gets us ready for the spring series of riding. It’s interesting in that it is usually pretty dismal weather, but I have to remember that 30’s and 40’s aren’t bad when compared to my old stomping grounds (Minnesota).

To that end I rode in the first ride of the series this year, and will try to get in as many as I can. This ride started in Redmond and went out to Carnation and back in a nice hilly loop that had about 2300 feet in elevation gain. The second hill was a killer, but there were some really great descents. Nearly no traffic on this route, and fairly good roads. I rained on us most of the route, but I didn’t hit any slippery spots.

WTS1Map

As the bike goes, I was riding the Hilsen in rando garb. The Acorn Tall Boxy Rando bag was awesome and useful. I had extra clothes in it and a clif bar, but not much else. I also brought 2 bottles of h2o and only used one in the 38 miles we rode. I had the Brooks Finesse Ti saddle I recently purchased from Kent Peterson on the bike. While it was comfortable, I think I am going to go back to a full size saddle as it felt odd to me – not as much room to move around? Perhaps it was just less gripping area from what I am used to. I still want to give the Rivet a chance on a longer ride – perhaps I’ll put that one back on…

My First 200k

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

200k, ahh, bellingham, brevet, etrex, garmin, hazelnut, rando, randonneur, rivendell, SIR

After working up some distance with a couple Populaire’s and a 32 miler over the past few months, I signed up for, and rode my first full 200k (126 mile) brevet. I had planned to head to Portland with my wife and daughter for a “brewpub” 100k, but when travel plans fell through, I saw that SIR was doing the Bellingham 200k the same weekend. Perfect intro to the longer distance! It was a relatively flat ride for the area with 3-4k feet of elevation gain, so it seemed pretty reasonable for me to test my fitness.

The night before was packing and prepping. I knew there was a chance of rain, and it would be in the upper 30’s to lower 4o’s most of the day, so I put an extra wool jersey and tights in my saddlebag, as well as spare socks and a hat. I brought my rain gear thinking I would just pack it if necessary. In the front rando bag, I put a couple packets of Perpetuem drink mix, some Nuun tablets for electrolytes, and various snacks like dark chocolate, a roll of Thin Mints (my daughter is a Girl Scout), and some snack mix. I also threw in a couple small cans of V8. Locked and loaded, I checked the bike and got my new Garmin eTrex set up and ready. I did a dog walk, and then tried to follow the same 1 mile track on my bike. After experimenting, I found a fairly good dashboard for biking that allowed me to navigate like I do in a car GPS in following a marked line. I had downloaded the route earlier, so I had that ready to go.

Other incidentals in the bag were spare batteries, 2 tubes, and the usual tool kit for flats and such.

After listening to increasing rain all night, I had go get up at 4:30am to get up to Bellingham by 6:30 for check-in. Driving up, I noted that the 1.5 hour drive at 60mph was less distance than I would be riding for the day, at only about 76 miles. Intimidating, but I felt ready. I stopped for a coffee at Starbucks, and the barista said there were a number of folks passing through that were on their way to a run, climb, or bike ride. I was definitely not going to be alone on this wet day.

As I neared Bellingham, it started to snow. Now I was getting excited! The snow wouldn’t stick – it was too warm. It would certainly be invigorating.

The machine

We left the coffee shop at 7:32am, and I told myself to take it easy and try not to burn out of the gate. I had a long ride ahead. There was a secret control not too far down the road at a lookout on Chuckanut Drive (normally a panoramic beauty of a road).

Chuckanut Drive

As it was snowing and cold, I commented that it probably couldn’t get any worse, and of course that sealed our fate for more of the same for the next few hours. As we rode along Lake Whatcom, it started snowing harder, and seemed to be sticking everywhere but the road. As we exited the lake’s northern end, I happened to run into a road race that was just getting started. I pulled to the side for a cookie when the pace/support cars and about 30 riders came by climbing a long hill. I thought to snap this pic a bit too late, but it shows the nasty conditions pretty well:

Road Racing

After this point, things started to look up. I continued to ride solo as I had from the start. I was trying to keep an easy pace, but also realized that the headwinds I was starting to run into would not help. Luckily, I had tailwinds going north.

Definitely Sticking

Getting up to Sumas was a trip – lots of semi-flooded farmland that seemed to be growing hazelnuts. I snapped a lot of pictures as the clouds were starting to clear and the sun was starting to break through occasionally.

Hazelnut Farms

Once I got to the border, I realized I had come a long way. It felt like I was days away from Bellingham, but I still felt pretty good. I had been keeping up with regular eating and taking water, and still had plenty of go.

Still Smiling at 100K

Now it was time to start heading back towards the water. After riding along the invisible Cascade foothills, I started to get into a headwind. This wasn’t too bad, but it definitely slowed me down, especially in the relatively few hilly sections. It was a bit of a bummer saying goodbye to the mountains.

Goodbye Mountains

Riding on the border was a trip. This section is populated and mainly farmland. There was a road on the US side, a small ditch, and a road on the Canadian side. It was like riding down a split highway.

Don't Jump That Ditch!

I saw quite a few border patrol cars, but it’s interesting seeing the big border crossings built up, and riding roughly 20 miles where one just has to jump across an open ditch to be in another country! Along the boundary roads, I came upon another rando rider who blew a sidewall and needed a spare tire (not tube). I told him that I hadn’t brought one, but may start packing one on future rides. He told me it was the first time it happened to him in 20 years. After wishing him good luck (and making sure he had a phone), I continued on.

Nice Border, Canada!

When I arrived in Blaine and saw the water again, I really knew I could do it. It seemed so close now.

Puget Sound At Last!

At one of the controls, I met up with a couple riders who were fueling up, so I rode with them on an off for the next 20 mile or so. It was getting windy now, and the forecast northwesterly winds turned out to be southwesterlies. The paceline helped us get through the headwinds down to the Lummi ferry. Riding in the Lummi nation was pretty cool. I waved to a lot of folks on the way, and they waved back. This was definitely friendly country, and not the hostile city environment I’m used to.

Ferry to Lummi Island

Lummi Land

At this point, there was all of 15 miles left – my typical commute. I felt like I was in ok shape, but I definitely wanted to get back. I started out faster, and quickly lost sight of my drafting friends. There was a nice tail wind heading back north up the peninsula. Lots of great views across the water of the final destination. This was great motivation. I was down to my last bit of water, and still had plenty of food, so things were looking really good.

Final Destination Just Over There...

Not Much Farther

Wild Tidal Patterns

The last 10 miles went by quickly, and I soon found myself in the final control with a group of happy Randonneurs congratulating me on finishing my first 200k! Wow – it turned out really well, and I have to thank all the folks that encouraged me on the way. This was a fast crowd. I came in at 11 hrs 4 minutes, but the majority of the riders were in under 10 hours. There were only 5 DNFs, and one that didn’t make the cutoff, but I was surprised that so many folks kept going with all the snow from the first half of the ride.

Back at Last

Consequently, my spare summer gloves came in handy. I changed out my soaked winter gloves halfway through, thinking that the new ones would quickly freeze my fingers, but my hands and feet remained toasty after the rain stopped.

Now that I’ve done this distance, I can see doing a 300k, but 400 and up looks mighty challenging. I definitely have no illusion that folks that pull off a 600k or 1200k are truly tough individuals!