Journaling

[trekchic]

Does anyone know of a good website or software to keep up with training journals? I would like to track my progress starting today.........since it was my 1st ride!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Veronica]

My heart rate monitor keeps track of it for me. It has a sensor on the bike so it knows speed and distance traveled. It calculates overall average speed for you. If you hit it once, it will do an elapsed lap time. I try to remember to do that before we take a break so I can see what my average moving speed is. It has an altimeter in it and a temperature sensor. All that info gets downloaded to the computer via an infrared sensor. The computer will then give me a graph showing all kinds of fun info. Thom and I can lay our individual graphs on top of each other to see who was REALLY doing all the work. :p I'll see if I can upload a graph to our website and give you a link if you're interested. It also has a training diary, where you can put things like how you were feeling that day. I don't use that too much.

It's got a lot of bells and whistles, but I use it to check out my progress. It keeps a running total of my miles for the week, calories burned and workout time. Stuff I like to know.

Veronica

[trekchic]

I would love to see that!

For now, I am just recording the time on the bike each day. I am getting a computer for the bike Monday, so I'll have a better idea of how far and how fast I am riding. But, for now, it is time ON the bike...according to my trainer!

I have to have 250 miles in the next couple of weeks, then I start training with the group! Scary!!!!!!!!!

Kim in TN

[Veronica]

Here's the link. It's from a ride I did up Mt. Diablo.

http://tandemhearts.com/s710.jpg


Veronica

[aka_kim]

Hey Veronica, I think that's the day I bailed on Team Polar :). (And I'm just a little bummed that the climb I always call 4000 feet is only 3000!)

You've mentioned before that you're able to track your progress against prior years -- does the Polar do that automatically, or can you extract raw data into a spreadsheet for your own summarizing, etc?

Also, did you look at any other HRMs with altimeters, like a few of the Ciclosports, when you bought the Polar? I'm eyeing the Ciclosport 436M...

Oh, and one more thing -- it looks like your heart rate on downhills is about 70% of max -- do you find that's generally the case (I've never seen my heart rate on a downhill)?

Kim (in CA)

[Veronica]

Hey Kim,

Yep that was the day we went up the south side. The Polar software holds all your info so you can go back and look at it, overlay graphs of the same ride etc. I kind of keep in my head my best numbers. On our first trip to Morgan Territory on the tandem, it took us 43 minutes to get out to the end of Deer Valley - 9.2 miles. Our best time is 33 minutes now. Most of the time it's around 36. You and I did it in 37.
I've watched my personal average speed go from about 12 to 16 when I'm riding with Jay. (He's really good to draft!) It's around 15 when I'm by myself and not climbing a mountain! Mostly I use the software to track my mileage. I like to do a hundred miles a week - that's been tough lately. :mad:

My heart rate tends to drop to the low 100s on descents - it drops even more when I'm on the tandem. During the Holstein Hundred I was watching it - it got down to 85 on one of the long descents!

Thom did all the research for buying our monitors. Mine was a surprise gift when I first started to lose weight. It's actually the 610 so doesn't have the cycling features, but does download to the computer. I use Thom's (the 710) when I'm by myself. It's cool that you can have multiple people in them and multiple bikes. I want to set it up for my mountain bike as well, but just haven't gotten around to it. It's pricey, but I like being able to look back and see how many miles I've ridden, what the terrain was like etc.

Veronica

[aka_kim]

Thanks for the info Veronica. When I'm feeling rich (I MAY start working again later this month) I'll take a look at the 710 too.

Sorry to temporarily sidetrack the thread Kim (what a cool name), but cycle computers and HRMs and altimeters are all good training tools too. I think Bicycling.com has an online training diary, but I haven't checked it out. And get that bike computer on -- miles don't count if they're not measured :D . (And remember the gloves and helmet too, I saw in another thread that you crashed. Yuck, but almost everyone does at first.)

Kim

[trekchic]

I am getting my brother.......who is a computer genius...... to write a journaling program in excel or something like that. I want something I can track my progress on, but easy to use. If he's able to come up with something like that, I'll definitely share.

I learned a huuuuuuuge lesson about wearing gloves! I am still sore. I guess I will be out of service for a few more days. That makes me so sad! I am almost willing to wear knee pads for a while, too. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Thanks for the great info...all of you!

Kim in TN......yeah.........cool name!

[aka_kim]

Oh, my vote is nay on the knee pads. Take the toe clips off for awhile if you feel uncomfortable being strapped to your pedals. Getting back on the bike after a crash is scary, and is usually a big emotional hurdle, but you can do it! (And there's no shame in using platform pedals, but I think knee pads may be pushing it.)