Team McAlister

…with the idea of riding hill repeats by shifting UP a gear on each successive trip up the climb.  If I ever meet him, I may have some comments for him.  If this is a good idea, I certainly hope it reveals itself to me soon.  Today’s ride was only 1 hour and only about 12 miles.  But, it was 4 climbs in gears from 34 x 23 to 34 x 21 to 34 x 19, and finally 34 x 17.  The first climb is always pretty easy.  I even passed a much younger and much smaller rider on it.  I was skeptical about hitting a larger gear for the second ride, but it worked out pretty well.  In fact, it was actually fairly easy also.

The third climb though in the next higher gear was another story.  That guy was hard!  About half way up, I decided that if I hadn’t already gone to the trouble of being half way, I’d just call the day a success and head home.  By the time I made it to the top I was pretty pleased with myself.  And, I wasn’t even that tired.

That made me think that making my pre-ride goal of 4 trips in successively higher gears might be possible.  I enjoyed that third descent, made the turnaround, and went in for the fourth attack – this time in 34 x 17, a first attempt.  That halfway thing got me again.  You know, by the time you’ve invested in 50% of a climb, the thing to do is just go ahead and finish it.

The good news is that around here, the climbs are almost all short, power-type climbs.  Maybe this will make me a better climber.

http://j.mp/dmnS84

Tags: cyclemeter, cycling, power training

I bit on the fan-boy hook that Colin dropped in the water as far as the Cyclemeter app for iPhone is concerned.  It all started when I saw his Facebook post on Wednesday and followed his ride mile-by-mile while he was on it.  Very impressive stuff.  Later in the day, we started talking about the app and I dutifully visited the App Store, read the hype, and plunked down my $4.99.  I read all about how it works and even touted some of the features to Colin.

Today’s beautiful clear skies, 70 degree temps, and mostly calm winds were a siren song for cyclists and I peeled out of the office about 3:30 to try out my new wonder app.  I like to test stuff out in controlled situations so that I have some basis for comparison purposes.  Like Colin, I’ve tried several iPhone cycling apps and have found them mostly unsatisfactory for one reason or another.  So far, I’ve ditched Fitnio, Bikenik, MotionX GPS, and iMapMyRide.  None of those impressed me as much as my basic Garmin Edge.  I know, a Garmin is really not a basic product and the apps are a fraction of the Garmin’s price.  The Garmin died on me after a couple of years though and I wasn’t ready to ante up another big batch of dollars for another one.

So the search for a good cycling app and a mounting bracket has been on for some time now.  In the meantime, I discovered the virtues of power training and after careful research purchased an iSport power meter.  As power meters go, it is value priced at $199 or so.  Other models top out somewhere around $800 or so, but even then they compare favorably to other power meters that can easily run between $1200 and $2000!  I’m not going to attempt to defend the accuracy of the iSport as that isn’t really the subject of this post.  The iSport is fine for me because it is CONSISTENT, which is the most important quality for me.

I took off on a base ride of 15 miles that is essentially 3x on a 5-mile loop.  I ride this loop so often that I can almost do it in my sleep.  I’ve literally ridden it dozens of times, often for the purpose of testing a piece of equipment.

Here’s the skinny on the Cyclemeter: Top Speed= 63 mph; Distance=7.5 miles; Average Speed=7.5 mph; Elapsed Time=47.52 minutes.  The iSport produced: Top Speed=36 mph; Distance=15 miles; Average Speed= 18 mph; Elapsed Time=49.12 minutes.

Guess which one I believe?  I rode this same exact ride 2 days ago in 52 minutes at an average speed of 17.3 mph (in a mad wind).  Both rides track with what I expect on this particular ride.

The Cyclemeter only picked up half the ride on the GPS.  Now, when I started I had poor GPS signal, but I hoped it would pick up and correct early in the ride.  I also had the “Remote Control” feature turned on and although it appears to work well, I’m not sure I used it properly at the outset.  The Cyclemeter kicked in some music that I really didn’t want, so I need to figure that out.  I also had turned off the Wi-Fi on the iPhone, so only 3G was working.  I did that in an attempt to conserve battery, but it may have had adversely affected Cyclemeter.

The result is that my initial ride was less than I had hoped for after seeing what Colin did.  However, it was only one experimental ride.  I’ll continue to use it and compare it to my iSport especially with different settings.  It’s too early to consider Cyclemeter a fail by a long shot, but it isn’t an automatic pass either.

Tags: cyclemeter, cycling, iphone, iSport, power training