I bought a Garmin Forerunner 305
this summer and have enjoyed it. And while I do hoard data, love data...no, no...NO...wait...i need to emphasis this...I.LOVE.DATA...I like making graphs and all of that. What is sorta funny about me though is that I actually try to keep some (ok...granted it doesn't work too well..) of my WAY too analytical mind out of my training or should I say the analysis of my training. I had a love hate relationship with my experimental data in graduate school and since I took up endurance sports while in grad school...I actually tried to only observe my training data to a very small degree and not delve too deep into it. Basically hold it at arms reach. I always knew I could take another look at it. I knew I could analyze it to death and probably enjoy analyzing it...to a degree.. but I also knew that it could taint my training since I was having such a difficult time in grad school and much had to do with my experimental data in the lab. So in some ways since my early days of training I haven't really picked my data apart as much as I have the capacity to do.Here is a bit of a confession of mine. Since buying my Garmin 305...i hadn't installed any software about my Garmin til...uh...uh...i got a coach a few weeks ago. I know, I know...here I have this very powerful training tool and really all I was using it for was distance and speed and HR. That's all I really wanted it for so it was doing its job...and my training had its own set of hurdles last year between injury and the reality that I came (very) close to breaking up with triathlon... so I really wasn't that fussed about the tool in itself.
Now here is my conundrum...the Garmin came with one piece of software and then there is another piece of software that Training Peaks also lets people use for free. From my scientific perspective...they both suck. BIG.TIME. I can't chop off parts of what is recorded unless I had hit the lap button...and well...i'm a smartie in general or a better word really would be...space cadet...and like today I forgot to turn off the stupid thing from my cool down and into my car and my drive home. So now during my run it show that I hit 65mph...yes...if that were the case it would would be a justifiable reason have the moniker 'rocketpants' :-P
Ugh...so it comes back to the whole "just one more thing"...I realized on the Training Peaks website there IS a software package that would allow me to analyze my data to DEATH. WKO+
a quick little tour of the software made me salivate. (Anyone out there use it? Thoughts?) BUT...here is the thing...it's just one mo
re thing. This desire to acquire this software also competed with me thinking back to the day when I spent my first two racing seasons on an early '80s(a picture of the beloved bike before I sold him)
racing bike with down tube friction shifters (that frequently stopped working...especially during a race and then i'd have only my front two chain rings)that I had found at a pawn shop for 75 bucks when I was an undergrad. I'm kinda sad that I parted with him before I left MA...even though he actually was too big for me.
Sometimes I look back on those first two seasons of training and have a few reactions. One is pure laughter at myself and the stupid things I did unwittingly or even just how 'green' I was when it came to endurance sports and no concept of really any part of it. (Coming into my first sprint race I wasn't sure if I was I going to survive exercising for1.5 to 2 straight hours without falling over and bonking or something if my heart rate went too high for too long. And I had followed a 10 week training plan for beginners...to the T. My UTTER concern makes me laugh now...but I was very concerned about this when I was doing my first race.) But in some ways those first few years were pretty simple. I was a poor...poor grad student and I couldn't race too much because I couldn't afford to...I didn't have much gear unless I had been given it for my birthday or Christmas (aside from shoes)...so for quite a few seasons it was all pretty simple gear wise. I didn't even own a wetsuit until my fifth season...and that was this last summer when I bought one, since I now am not a dirt poor grad student.
Triathlon can just get so complicated some times. I think that is why I fundamentally love riding the velodrome so much. While I'm not terribly fast, or strong, and I really don't have any aspirations to ever race ...riding a track bike on a track is just SO simple and to be honest...quite beautiful because it is so simple. One gear. Want to go faster? Pedal faster or apply more pressure to those pedals. (or get a different gear ratio)...but
at the heart of it...it is just so simple. Somehow that speaks to me.It doesn't mean that I won't salivate over the potential to get some new fangled software or contemplate a new piece of equipment, or drool over every bike when I go to a bike shop... but it is also good to remind myself regularly that sometimes keeping it simple IS equally important.
I think Thoreau was on to something: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.
9 comments:
Let me know how the WKO+ works. I have been thinking of using that also. I don't utilize my Garmin to the level I should.
I'm in the newbie/simplicity phase and loving every untracked minute.
Though the tools are definitely seductive...I'll get there one day.
What a novel idea! Simplicity! Wow!
I do find myself pondering the trend of adding layer upon layer upon layer of complexity in order to achieve such a small gain in relative output, and thus it's worth in sport. A sexy new carbon/aero water bottle cage ($$$) will make you go .00003 mph faster on the bike, and the sexy new wetsuit ($$$) will make one shave .009% off of their swim time. Will your garmin and new analytical system really tell you THAT much you didn't already know? Will your love for data and your ability to analyze and draw conclusions really make you THAT much faster/more efficient?
By the same token, will the newest gadget or buttloads of money really make one's life happier or more fulfilling?
I'm speaking rhetorically, of course.
For some odd reason I still get Triathlete Magazine, and although my tri days have since ended for more meaningful pursuits, I do flip through it for my own amusement. Advertisements galore throughout the periodical for the latest new bike, innovative new gear, "scientifically proven" new supplements...add on the hot training program...and for what? Since when did all the bullshit and the toys replace hard work, real foods, the willingness to accept pain, and most importantly, the mental drive to handle it all?
Simplicity is underrated...mostly by those whose air of superiority in sport make them too good to pursue excellence in only one sport at a time.
(That thing should know enough to turn off when you get in the car!)
Sounds like you love technology.. and sometimes you just like being free of it.
It must be OK to be inconsistent??!! In fact, it can be quite fun.
Best wishes for your technological, simplified, amazingly active New Year.
Simplicity is awesome, I agree! And I don't use half the features of my fancy heart rate monitor either :)
You are so right. Simplicity is beautiful. I heart your Bianchi.
I've had a personal struggle with simplifying for the past 2 years. It's getting better. Reading your post reminds me to keep it up. Thanks.
Simplicity? I don' think so, complexity is the key to triathlon! You should be constantly worrying about periodization, vo2max, negative splits, lactate threshold, HR limits, electrolyte balance, aerodynamics, and cadence! Seriously though, riding without a bike computer or running without a watch is really a fun feeling, I completely understand where you are coming from. But I'm a numbers geek at heart, and love having the data to look at. I use WKO+ regularly, we should chat about it sometime. It does not allow you to edit your data like you mention - at least as far as I can tell!
I don't know I like track my mileage but I'm still using low tech toys like map my tri and my wrist watch. The only thing that frightens me about heart rate training is I have the feeling that I'd spend too much time staring at my wrist and completly miss the race and scenery around me. So essentially I'm echoing Angry Runner Simplicity is bliss and while tools may help enhance training they are not the be all and end all of sport....
sorry I'm writing this as I'm hoped up on sudafed for my sinuses and motrin for my leg.
What a beautiful post.
I'm with Angry Runner and Bob on this one. I'm all about simplicity and I know that maybe getting a Garmin and using all that data could help or putting up the $$ to buy a power meter would yield such cool data not to mention I would likely get faster...but it comes back to that question...for WHAT? Your comment on my lack of motivation post was much along this same line and I appreciated it so much, which was basically, if it's not fun anymore, why do it?
To me, all the gadgets and STUFF that triathlon promotes is just overwhelming. And I don't need it to have more fun. We aren't getting paid to be faster. Maybe if I was a pro I might care more about that stuff, but I'm not, so i guess I don't. I mean, AngryRunner's comment really struck home for me. I couldn't agree more. It reminded me of the argument against steroids, too...like, what's wrong with working at getting better the honest, hard way? True, the 'extra' stuff could help you to get better, but at what cost and for what purpose? Just so you could say you improved by 5 seconds?
I agree that data is cool (though I don't think I"m as into it as you are) but I think simplicity is cooler. Great post. :) Love your bike, too.
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