First Speed training

The goal was suppose to be intervals of 2min as its recommended but I am not able to do it yet :)

So here is the exercise today,
4x 1min @80~90% HRmax


Feelings:
The idea of this type of exercise is to work your speed sustain. I read that professionals can do it for 12min intervals. I think I'll need some years more :)
You should not override the 90% of your maximum heart rate for a long time because you are working in anaerobic area. This exercise helps to improve your anaerobic dependency, which means that with the time your body will get a better tolerance to it or in other words you get a wider range of aerobic. A sufficient recovery between your intervals is very important giving your body time to "deal" with the acid produced.
None of this important specs were a problem to me! First I can not reach 90%HRmax :) second I need bigger intervals because I get totally wasted :) As we can see in the chart, the recovery intervals seem to increase exponentially. LOL
1min sprint + 2min recovery + 1min sprint + 6min recovery + 1min sprint + <20min>

Doing it on road can be sometimes a limitation, because you can not break your rhythm so you have to find the right conditions.
Its quite fun though, it is like hunting the right spot for sprint. Once you have even terrain its very pleasant because you can see your speed rising, kind of a motivation! But if you're out just for training performance, then don't hunt it!, instead do it uphill, it gives a much faster response from your heart.
But for me biking its not about performance, but a pleasure, a trip, ...

33km on graphs

Ok, I must confess that this technique requires quite some dedication from the user over the cs200cad.
As we have seen, it is able to record a trip up to 5km and produce graphs out of it, which means that if you forget to restart the computer, it continues giving you information but it does not record laps anymore. Therefore, no graphs after 5km - you have to start a new file!

Obviously I have forgotten some times :) but it displays the message [FULL] once in a while.... well... it helps!
Lets have a look over PolarPersonalTrainer and see how does it handle this amount of information.

33km = 330laps (see last post).
Downloading this data to the computer took approx. 5 minutes of beeping! lol

As we can see, 7 files its hard to handle by the interface of PolarPersonalTrainer.
It would be nice to be able to join exercises, since they were done one after another.

Opening a file:I have set some HR limits on my Polar because I knew I was going to ride this long. So it tells me during the ride when I am over or bellow which kind of kicks you a bit :)
If you have the sounds ON, it beeps anytime you're out of the range and everybody around you starts looking at you, so you better catch up :) I really like it! Like this you can set what kind of training thats you want to do.
You can see that as well in the summary of each file on PolarPersonalTrainer:

Conclusion:
+ You will enjoy to see detailed information of different parts of your trip although they are 7 parts that you need to open individually.

- You can not compare different files or check overall values for your full trip. Instead you have to refer to the individual parts of it.
Things like total time over HR limits, you have to calculate manually and if you want to check the max. speed, you have to open all seven files one by one and see which one contains the highest value for speed.

Tags: full, memory, PersonalTrainer, sounds, zones

MIX training - 33km

Road = 12km
Mountain = 21km
2h11m

Graphics data coming soon, have to compile all 7 files in a single chart picture. My Polar records only 5km tracks :(

Daily exerc. - The hard one K

I ride bike on a daily basis since I move to Norway, 9 months ago. Its my transportation to go anywhere.
I believe I do at least 5km a day. Its not much but there is a hill between home and school :)
And it couldn't happen at a worst time of the day :)

In the Morning:

In the Evening:

ENTER THE MATRIX :)

I found a way to "force" cs200cad to produce graphs :)

The secret: go to: /settings/cycling/autolap
Since the site is able to compare laps, you just need to set your cs200cad to record laps automatically of the minimum length available (100m). Then it will start to register absolute values for each lap and being that just 100m it is acceptable to use it as a graph unit.
Each green bar is a unit of 100m and contains speed, HR and cadence values:

Then you just have to switch between graphs to run over time and check your ride a little more in detail :) I love it!

The consequences:1 - By setting your cs200cad to record laps of 100m means that actually you will receive a report on screen every 100m for maybe about 5sec. A bit annoying but you just need to press any button to get back to the normal screen.

2 - cs200cad is able to store 7 exercise files and each file has a memory limitation of 50 laps!!! This mean that each file can record up to 5km of ride, but you can use the 7 files to reach up to 35km! Being that the final limit of your Polar cs200cad :)

Its a bit sad to know that you can use your bike computer for only 35km, but we are beginners and this might be enough for a while :)
TIP: You can always set your cs200cad to record data every 150meters which increases your recording distance of 52,5km or by using 200m you can reach up to 70km. Although I don't find reliable to use more that 100m information units!

Tags: graphs, limitations, tip, trick

CS200CAD vs/or CS400

If you really want to see a graph or chart of your ride you have to buy the Polar CS400. And for that you have to pay more 200€ ....INSANE!!! It costs 400€ and its the cheapest Polar that shows detailed information on your ride over each second of your ride!

NOTE that the only relevant differences between CS200CAD and CS400 are:
- Recorded data rate can be set to every second
- Temperature and altitude sensor (not a big deal for a beginner)

...and two more that could easily be integrated in the cs200cad (come on POLAR):
- Register of HR minimum (which is fun)
- Cadence limits (which will definitely keep your legs moving :)

Tags: compare, cs200cad, cs400, price, vs

Polar PersonalTrainer - Limitations

So far I was really happy until this point!
Its cute of Polar to provide us this "online diary",

but soon you understand that it is not enough!!!

It shows your progress over the months,

but if you want to isolate and analise a specific ride/exercise,

it just provides information on averages and maximums. As well as the time that you have spend in each HR zone and thats all. No graphs or charts to see the progress over the time!

I was starting to get really frustrated so I wrote to Polar.
Then I realized that I have forgotten little detail while researching for bike computers.
I assume that if you can connect it to a PC its logic that you can access detailed information on your ride BUT its not!
It was really hard to get any information on that matter on the web.
You should get information about it before because some of them allows you to connect to a PC just for fun :\
POLAR CS200CAD DOES NOT REGISTER YOUR RIDE OVER THE TIME.
Therefore you cannot see any graphs or charts about it because the data contains just absolute values.

Tags: graphs, limitations,

Data transfer - SonicLink

To upload information to Polar site you need the software Polar WebLink.

The cs200cad communicates via microphone under technology SonicLink. It emits beeps in a sequence that the software reads and transforms into data.
I was very sceptical about it but it actually works very fine :) It takes less than a minute until you get your info on the internet.

Tags: connection, pc, recording data, soniclink, transfer data, weblink

Ride review

It allows you to record up to 7 rides.
You can check averages and max values.

By uploading the data to the polar web site its possible to keep a record of you tours.

Riding

4 of my favorite riding modes:

First the main screen:

It changes a bit your riding once you can track precisely your "engine" :)
At the same time it give you some freedom. Before I use to count the crank cycles in my mind and now I just have to look at the display its great!

Heart Rate zones:
This is so far one of my best modes:

Depending on the type of workout you can set different zones that you want to keep in.
The computer is really annoying and start to bip once you're out of the range and you have to catch up to get rid of the sound :) its cool.
This is a very interesting mode because then you understand what is the efficient cadence for different situations and keep an economic ride making your "engine" reach longer rides (one example).

Two other nice modes are the current energy consumption:

Which once again you can cross information with cadence and aim for a target on energy over the time.

And the last one is a funny one where you set the distance for arrival and gives you real-time information of other things as the time of arrival:

Its better than looking at speed ;)

Training tools

My bicycle and me:

My engine monitor:

Polar cs200cad

Concept - Bicycle & Photography

Riding on the mid-night-sun over 4-5days in Lofoten, Norway

Rough map:

I am trying to trace a path on the northern side so that I can ride side by side with the sun!

Trip:
29 June,
Starting in Å (the end of the road), a little village on the south Lofoten.

04 July,
Is the worst expectation for arriving at Svolvær :)

Accommodation:
Camping anytime I'll get tired.

Expected riding time:
Invert my physiological clock :)
Ride around mid night. (9pm to 3am)

Intro

This blog will report the last 6weeks of preparation to my first big trip by bike.
All training will be held in Oslo. 15min its enough to get out of Oslo and its beautiful.
If you bicycle in Oslo, get in touch. We can share nice tracks!
Feel free to comment on them - I need feedback on technique!

This time of the year in Norway is always exciting because while here in Oslo we get annoyed by the non darkness at night, up in the north its incompletely different with the fantastic mid-night-sun.

In 2006 I went to Sommarøy and dedicate 2 days watching this phenomenon.

Now I will dedicate one week at Lofoten biking :)

Mounting cs200cad

The devices are easy to mount.
The issue is to find the right spot for all devices on the bike because even if you place then within the range suggested by Polar, some spots seem not to work properly.
Therefore I recommend you to buy some extra cable tie for mistakes.

The speed sensor - Place the sensors as near as possible to the steering.

I chose this spot for my cadence device. It was the only place that I could imagine safe enough. I mean that its the most protected spot so that I wont kick it. I am a disaster breaking things :)

If you choose the same spot bear in mind the direction that you mount it (see next pic):

So... the device should be tilted as well in for that direction!

Now the computer unit:First I mounted it on the same side that I had fixed the other devices. Which for me makes sense since the computer will have a free way to communicate with the other devices. But of course :) it didn't work. Sometimes it read the speed but no way to get cadence to work on this spot:

Then I changed it to the middle of the steering which performed the final config.:

Everything seem to work so far. The cadence sometimes takes long time to show up. A good tip is to start riding with the computer on your hand and bring it close to each device for 5~10s. After that just place it on the steering and it remains reading.

OK, lets ride for a while... :) I'll come back later with more reviews on recording data and transfer it to a PC!

The market

As I told you I am a beginner on this fields and this blog describes what I found during my selection/research process.

I am seeking for graphs and charts that I can store in my PC and which contains cadence information and maybe Heart Rate

All my friends that RUN use the nike+iPod to monitor their exercises which costs roughly 30€.
With this system you can have detailed graphs and charts to keep track on every step to make. Download information to pc and so on its simple and quick! Fantastic to share and kick your friends or give them some energy/challenges, I like that :)

On the bike computers market I found "the thing" is a little different. As far as I understood, for that same budget you got "something" that measures your distance and speed and rarely allows you to compare results.

For 50€ I found some nice ones that allows to store several tours on it and compare averages.

For 100€ I found wire-less systems which made me stick to this budget as a minimum investment. Its clean, discreet and nice - no discussion!!! A 4th wish has just raised!

Then, to find cadence readers was the first issue. Sigma have nice cycle computers but a lot of stuff didn't interest me as: temperature and altitude sensors. The only wireless with cadence that I found in shops was the bc1606ldts but you cant connect it to your PC and it didnt reads heart rate! Thing thing starts to interest me a loot :)
Basically I had to stop looking at my budget and see what the market has to offer!

TWO bike computers where finally selected:
- CATEYE V3
- Polar cs200cad

The first one was not elected, again because it doesn't let me transfer data to the PC. The rest of the specs were there to fight Polar but the main reason remain on the fact that in Norway I couldn't get it easily on the shops and this is a big issue for me because I know that some problems will come up and its better to complain to professionals at a shop than having to ship it back all the time.
Apart from that both of them are wireless and as I said they offer only what I am seeking: Wireless, Distance, Cadence & Heart Rate.
The only big plus that I found on reviews from the CATEYE over the POLAR was the discreet sensor "all-in-one". A small device that is installed on the back wheel and reads both cadence and speed.

OK, the final budget remains between 160€ and 200€ (EU)
Lets go for the full review on the POLAR CS200CAD that was the cheapest computer that I could find that allows to download data to a PC, which was actually my first wish when I thought of buying a Bike Computer!

Tags: bc1606ldts, bike, cadence, cateye, computer, cs200, cs200cad, polar, sigma, v3

Intro

I will post my personal review on a bike computer that may interest a common user which is starting to take cycling a bit more serious - my case!
I found it very hard to get information on these fields and I am glad for those who share their reviews on simple details.... it makes the whole difference!

So.. here is mine :) This is a way to thank them!

I start to feel like controlling a bit better my performance since I am looking for some progress. Monitoring my tours would give me a nice figure and allows me to compare them.
Actually I was a bit jealous of my friends that run with the nike+iPod and send me regularly graphs and charts with their training sessions :) My first wish!

After some short reads on the web I found very important as well to monitor your cadence to control if you're aiming for resistance or power by keeping a good track on it.

3rd wish is maybe then to track my Heart Rate to keep an efficient/economic cycling. Although I honestly understand that its something for professional control.

Tags: testing mounting installation tutorial unpacking