Yesterday was the 3rd day in a row with the temperatures near record highs here in Kansas. It is such a treat not wearing anything over my knees at the end of January. Yesterday and the day before, the high was nearly 70. Needless to say, I got a fair number of hours in on my bike. I got a new Garmin for Christmas and I have close to 1100 miles on it now. That is with not having it on my bike for the whole time I was in Madison for Cross Nationals, plus Worlds in Louisville, plus the 5 days I took off roofing. So, I have about 20 recorded days on the thing. Today I rode 100 miles and felt pretty good. Great, maybe, for this time of the year. I guess I haven’t really taken any time off, not a block at least, so maybe that’s the explanation. I think I’ll stay fit until the first of March and then rest some in March and April. Those are kind of down months here in the Midwest
Speaking of Garmins, it seems like some of the numbers are just made up. Like the calories. Yesterday it said I expended 6200 calories. I have no idea how it generates that number. It doesn’t even know how windy it is. And it was pretty windy. I think I need to get something that sends power/wattage to the Garmin sometime soon. I was sort of waiting for the pedals that Garmin is making, but I don’t know. I’ve been doing this pretty long without that gadget, but it might be fun to see the numbers. Especially since the Garmin unit separates each legs power.
Yesterday too was a milestone here on my website. It was the first month that I’ve had over 100,000 views. It was 103 thousand and change officially. I don’t have anything to compare that too, but it is a round number, so it caught my attention. So for everyday in January, about once every 25 seconds someone clicked here. That is for 24 hours a day. If we factor in the time people sleep, then it’s one every 17 seconds. It seems like a lot to me, but like I said above, I don’t have anything to compare it to.
Okay, I’m going to ride on gravel today. Hopefully 4 hours or so. I’m looking for a race to do soon. Hopefully this weekend.
Bill and Adam riding South of Lawrence.
I love these stand alone trees that make the cut and mature along the edges of the fields.
We rode gravel for a few miles on the Rver Road, on the way back, to try to get out of the wind some.
Garmin view of my ride yesterday.
Stats
I’ve always wanted to stick one of those digital meat thermometers in exposed knee joints just to see how they drop to on a cold day. A surface temperature thermometers read like 60-F on the outside, but what’s going on inside, that’s the key.
On my garmin I have to multiply calories by 0.6 to get a number that is roughly what the power meter records in kJ. As you note, the garmin doesn’t know about the wind, nor does it do a good job of even incorporating elevation into the calorie count.
I did it a slightly different way. I played with the numbers a bit but I lowered my weigh in my 705 to the point where the calories came out about right. I really don’t look at it (nor do I care about them) but I hated the idea that the numbers were not correct. This seemed like a simple “fix”.
Is this Garmin your first computer?? I don’t recall ever seeing an HR monitor on bike in the past. Why the change? Don’t let it suck away your soul.
I am running a new Cateye cy300 great computer with out Gps or Power but all that I need,,, Not sure how it generates the cal consumption especially with out height or weight programed in,, I too have been logging a good amount of miles ,, on my single cross climbing the hills here around Lacrosse. if I cant ski going to ride.
The internet never sleeps, so it’s 24 hours per day 😉
Hello Andy,
Wind and elevation change has no effect on energy expenditure (you could ride easy or hard in windy or hilly terrain), what needs to be measured is the work rate, which is then used to calculate energy/calories spent.
Wayne-I think it’s a little too early for you today. Obviously wind and elevation change has a huge effect of energy expenditures. Humongous.