After a fulfilling but slightly unhealthy summer touring around the US, I decided it was time to get back to peak racing form. My fancy new Garmin running watch has been watching me every step of the way as I’ve been ramping up the mileage over the last few months, so it’s pretty satisfying to see how far I’ve come since I got back home:
I’m really beginning to feel the difference too. Today I jumped in the lift to head down for a lunch-time run and by the time it reached the ground floor, my heart rate had dropped from 75bpm to 53bpm 
Last Friday I did a brutal hill session with the club and peaked 199bpm, which is pretty unusual even for guys in their 20s (though unfortunately that doesn’t mean that I’m naturally fitter than other people, just that I have a high heart rate and can push myself hard …)
A few days ago whilst browsing the latest news on Quarq power-meters, I discovered that some very smart guys have answered my prayers and written a fabulous new piece of software called Golden Cheetah! Not only is it fully cross-platform and incredibly feature-rich, but it works natively with ANT+ devices via quarqd, and with the Computrainer not just in standard erg mode but also in online streaming mode allowing you train with someone on the other side of the Atlantic It’s becoming harder and harder to resist buying a Garmin Forerunner 310XT and a Quarq Cinqo Saturn … But perhaps most importantly of all, it’s free software released under the GPL. The authors really do “get it”:
We believe that cyclists should be able to download their power data to the computer of their choice, analyze it in whatever way they see fit, and share their methods of analysis with others.
If only companies like Suunto “got it” rather than shipping miserable excuses for software such as Suunto Training Manager… *sigh*. Anyway, looking forward to getting my media PC fixed and trying this out soon… maybe I’ll even find some time to help improve it
Finally started using my CompuTrainer a bit more. Just rode 20km in the lounge with the computer pacing me at 200 Watts. After so much riding with guys way stronger than me, the temptation to draft the computer is difficult to resist. However in the last 500 metres it spontaneously decided to make a sprint for the finish line – the bloody cheek! Obviously I couldn’t allow a bunch of transistors to beat me so I sprinted after it and hit the finish line 0.05 seconds ahead, narrowly avoiding embarassment. Next step is to start doing brick sessions …
Continue reading 'CompuTrainer on Linux'»
This blog is in danger of turning into an anthology of cycle routes…
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Today was my first ride since the monster 200km two weeks ago – the swine flu seems to be under control at last. Didn’t feel great until a well-timed second wind just before that absolute **** of a hill near Braested. Hard to believe it was only half the distance!
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