Mar 16 2010
Some things Work & Some things Don’t
I wanted to test some stuff today – me, Cyclemeter, and the Vibraflex 550. I planned a ride that was pretty much the same route as yesterday, only instead of being flat it has 3 major climbs that are right on the path. The idea being of course that it would test Cyclemeter to see it performed on a similar, but slightly different route while giving me more pop than yesterday’s route. The climbs come in Mile 2, Mile 11 and Mile 21.
Now, I gave Cyclemeter some pretty good props yesterday and Colin is a fanboy. I even hit ‘em on Twitter and they gave me a nice response. I thought today’s route would be simple, but not so. Not sure why, but it had me climb straight up the side of a hill and then sort of scramble around up top. And I really just don’t trust the stats yet. My iSport had me at 1:28 and change. So did Cyclemeter. But that’s just a stopwatch function. Big whoop! Cyclemeter had the ride at 22.77 miles and iSport at 21.8 miles. Cyclemeter shows a top speed of 66mph and iSport has it at 45mph (much more likely). The mph intervals posted on the server map just don’t look right. Some of them look ok, but others don’t and I can’t explain why. That 34.5 mph in Mile 2 isn’t possible for me at that point in that ride.
Map accuracy is maybe 80% (very unscientific estimate) on today’s route. I don’t know enough about any of this to know why it’s inaccurate. Probably something to do with GPS sensitivity and hillsides, and sunspots, and climate change.
But the ride was fun and felt great, even if it did have 3 relatively nasty climbs in a short time. That was good though because I then stopped at the LRAC to jump on the Vibraflex 550. It’s hyped as a sort of super-dee-dooper exercise machine that’s supposed to boost testosterone and HGH while chewing up Cortisol and flushing lactic acid out of your muscles. I’ve used it a few times in the last couple of weeks and it does help loosen up your muscles.
I wanted to see what it would do for achy, dead, stiff legs after a brisk ride. I’m told that marathoners and triathletes love it. So, I did 2x 2-minute sets at 26 Hz, which is what was recommended for me. I must say that my legs felt super afterwards and I think that thing may become a regular part of my stretching and flexibility routine. Pretty impressive.
Tomorrow is a day off the bike and back to jumping rope, running, and weight stuff.
