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Blog July 9, 2020

Strava Routes doesn’t suck. Doesn’t nail it either…

I recently got the opportunity to plan several rides in an area I’ve never cycled before. So, I thought why not try out Strava’s routing feature… Yes, I know it’s been available for ages, but in a location I’m familiar with, it, and frankly every other cycling routing app, just doesn’t do what I want it to. What made this different, was that I just wanted a few X mile rides that…

Blog June 23, 2020

Insight worth paying for

It’s Tuesday, Strava… If you start the week on Monday… Oh, nevermind… Stuff like the screenshot above really gets me. Strava wants to pretend that it provides valuable insight into my fitness and training, you know, to help it justify a $60/year vig pivot towards profitability. Where the insight provided here is useless to me. What are they trying to communicate, how does that help me plan the week, or is it…

Blog June 23, 2020

Getting KOMs is easy, when you stack the deck

I don’t have the legs, or desire to plan for strategic segments strikes because I don’t have the legs, necessary to take most KOMs. But, that doesn’t mean holding a KOM, at least for a short while, isn’t in the cards. The trick? Make your own segment, post-ride, for a section of road you remember CRUSHING IT (no one has to know you had a tailwind ;)). Congrats on your crown, you…

Blog June 12, 2020

Another use case for the Garmin Varia

I love my Garmin Varia. It’s a massively helpful bit of magic that enhances my perception of safety on the bike because I know when there’s a car behind me, and in a broad sense how fast it’s approaching. Given this information, and with all the solo riding I’ve been doing lately, I recently discovered another great use case for the device. Motopacing. Standard T&C apply (i.e. probably not the safest thing,…

Blog May 27, 2020

Hey Strava, let’s talk about Packs

Strava’s predatory pivot to subscription is old news. I still think we should be ranting about it, but old news nevertheless. What isn’t clear, at least to me, is how this impacts Packs subscribers. As a legacy Packs subscriber, I’ve received several emails from Strava indicating something. What exactly? I’m not sure. I click the link which is supposed to explain it all, and just end up on a page which tells…

Blog May 21, 2020

if (calcFTP > FTP) { showNewFTPDialog(calcFTP); } else { //stfu Garmin }

It’s not obvious from the photo above, but I hope the title helps a little, that Garmin shouldn’t be showing this dialog to me post ride. Why? Because I’ve already told it that my FTP is more than 262. Unless it’s running some kind of next level AI cloud processing (it’s not), there’s no way for it to tell if I’m detraining. And, frankly if it were, it would be wrong there…

Blog April 29, 2020

Feeling good about aluminum

If I’m totally honest, there have been a few times when I wished that I’d opted for a more expensive carbon frame for the gravel bike. Almost all of those times have involved a scale. Not that I’m dissatisfied with the weight, it’s actually great all things considered. As a bit of weight weenie the lack of potential still pains me a little. But, every time I crash the bike (riding in…

Blog Featured April 22, 2020

Garmin drops balls on heart rate, training effect, load, etc.

One of my goals with adding a fēnix 6 to my stable of Garmin devices is that I was looking for a better, holistic view of activity/stress/load/etc., but clearly they don’t seem to understand that there’s a world outside of what they capture. Ignoring that devalues the usefulness of their platform, and frankly makes it less trustworthy for anyone who expects them to get these important metric right. Let’s dig into the…

Blog April 17, 2020

YIL: Zwift on Apple TV is not bulletproof

When I started Zwift’g I went with the Apple TV as the host platform because it was the cheapest way to get everything working well. I’ve been using it this way for quite a while now, and I’ve never had any problems that weren’t related to Zwift Companion flaking out on me, or the PSYCHOTIC* remote that comes with the Apple TV. That confidence was shattered yesterday when the app just crashed…

Blog April 15, 2020

The hardest 27 mins, that felt like 5, I’ve ever ridden

I did my first Zwift race over lunch yesterday. It was surprisingly crushing, fun, and the time slipped by much faster than a similar style workout. Trying Zwift racing has been on my mind for a while, mostly because I miss the competitiveness of the group ride (stupid COVID!). But I’ve been avoiding it because I generally only have around an hour at lunch to bang out a workout, and the pull…

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