AMBBR wrap-up

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride (AMBRR) went very well yesterday.  It was a quick 36 hour up-and-down trip that included a bike ride all the way around Lake Tahoe and a quick trip through Truckee and Northstar to check out parts of the Ironman Tahoe course, and a then a couple extra miles to push it just over 100 miles. The only downside was that my Garmin 910 cut off the last 30 miles of my ride.  Apparently there's a known bug with Garmins that cause them to truncate long rides when space is running low.  The moral of the story is to make sure you clear enough memory before a ride starts.  Obviously a bug, and there's apparently no plan from Garmin to ever address it.  The good news is that I have the data from the parts of the Ironman Tahoe course that I rode.

Here's the Strava link for my ride:  http://app.strava.com/activities/57879712 I really did continue on around the lake clockwise and end up where I started - you'll just have to take my word for it.  I created a new segment in Strava just for the part of Brockway Pass that is part of Ironman Tahoe.  Currently there are 499 people that have ridden it and I can only imagine how many uploads Strava will get on September 22nd.  :-)

We're heading back up to Lake Tahoe in a couple weeks for a more structured training weekend and I'll be able to swim, bike, and run the entire course and collect a lot more data.

You can keep track of my fundraising progress on my Team In Training page and help my fight blood cancer by making a donation of any size.  http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/irnmnltt13/bjohnsuovy

Building a very wide base

The official training program for Team In Training doesn't start until December but I'm not just sitting around until then.  I'm already prepping for the real training by starting slow and building gradually.  It's important to stay injury free over the next 14 months so I have to be smart about this and not over-extend myself too quickly and get myself hurt. The first few months of the official training are called the "base" period.  These months get the body ready for regular intense exercise and get it used to working hard and recovering.  Normally the base period lasts a couple months but in my case it'll last much longer, and that's fine.  The longer the base period, the stronger the foundation on which to build.

I've picked up a few books on training but the one I like the most is Joe Friel's Going Long book.  I've read each chapter at least one time, and some of them I've practically memorized.  He's a big advocate of building a wide base and concentrating on endurance instead of speed, especially for people new to the Ironman distances.  For sports I'm weak in he advocates repetition instead of length.  In other words, better to run 2 miles three times a week than try to run 6 miles once a week.

To that end, I've been trying to get in at least two runs and swims per week, building a solid muscle base that won't get injured.   I'm using Garmin Connect to track my workouts for now, since it's free.   It's super-basic and has virtually no scientific analysis capability, but it does the (basic) job.   Here's what my August training schedule looked like:

August Training Calendar

Click for a larger view...

As you can see, I'm doing a great job with the swimming (which are yellow), fitting in two or three swims per week.  Swimming is really easy to fit in because I can do it on the way to work or on the way home, and there are always free lanes in the pool.  I'm fitting in some running (in blue) and keeping my pace low. I'm biking most weekends and that's it.   That's probably enough for now since I have a deep base on the bike already and I'm doing a good job of long long without going too hard, although I keep putting in more hills than I should.

And I've even managed to get one brick in, with a 20 minute run after a long, slow ride!   By the way, the grey "HR study" is an occasional thing I do to measure my resting heart rate from time to time.   I just like to check up on the resting pulse from time to time, although I'm not very consistent about doing it under the same conditions every time.

If I can keep this up until December then I'll probably be in excellent shape to start the harder training when the group workouts start up.   That's the goal at least - go often, go slow, don't blow up, don't break down.   Meanwhile I'm collecting some great data on run pacing (vs. heart rate), bike pacing, gearing, etc. and really getting to know how my body responds to this new approach to training.

Remember:  I'm doing all of this not just for myself but to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research.   If you'd like to contribute to my cause and encourage me to keep pressing on, please visit my donations page.

Replaced the GPS

My friend Philip commented in the post I made about losing my GPS that I should just get another Garmin Legend HCx, since they have gotten more affordable.  I looked at the newer Oregon/Dakota models but I ended up taking Philip's advice and just getting another one of the exact same thing I had before. I went to a store and played with the newer Colorado and Dakota models and came to the conclusion that they weren't really improvements over the eTrex line.

The eTrex line is proven as a good tool.  Sure, they're not perfect but they're pretty good.   The only real complaints I have are the screen is dark without the backlight on and the joystick sticks up too far and keeps moving around when I put it in a pocket.   Other than that, it's pretty much fine.

The newer models show quite a bit of "improvement" from the "slickness" department.  The main change is the touch screen and the new "friendly" UI.   You know how there' Lego blocks, and then there's Duplo for the younger kids?  The eTrex User Interface is Lego and the Dakota is Duplo.   The touchscreen is very "eh...".   I have an iphone so I know what touchscreens are supposed to be like.   This is not responsive or accurate like that.  I have no idea what would happen if you were wearing gloves.

Then there's the new and improved larger, bulkier size.   And the crappier battery life.

Wait - It costs more too?

You see where I'm going with this...   I hope they never discontinue the eTrex.   You should buy one.  (as long as it accepts a micrSD card for recording tracks to.)

Geo-tagging photos with GPS: It Works!

After purchasing a Garmin GPS and experimenting with the excellent GPS Photolinker software by Jeffrey Early, I'm happy to say that everything totally works!   I have a couple future feature wishes for various parts of the process, but overall, it's great. I'll go into a little more detail in an upcoming post.