Cycling with Strava, Runkeeper, Daily Mile, Garmin Connect

Looking over the Solway Firth to Scotland near to the start of the ride

I've been getting into Strava quite a bit lately.  What it has over other ways of logging your bike rides is the Segment feature.  Little parts of a bike ride or a run can be made taken and Strava will show your time against other users as well as your own previous performances.  It can be quite addictive, as shown by this story.

So here is today's ride on Strava:

I think that for serious athletes, although not serious enough to pay for something like Training Peaks, Garmin Connect is the go to platform.  This also gives the ability to compare activities as I did in this post.

heading down behind Skiddaw

I have just treated myself to a Garmin 910xt watch.  My old 305 was working ok but the battery was just about keeping its charge and it was time for a replacement.  The 305 was the top of the range when I bought it about three years ago.  Now the 910xt is the new best watch and it has some impressive features.  It is waterproof, meaning that I will be able to track open water swims.  It will also count swim laps in the swimming pool.  One of the most impressive features is that it will synch wirelessly with Garmin Connect.

Here is today's ride on Garmin Connect:

screen grab of Garmin Connect ride

One of my goals for this year is to try to cover 2013 miles between running, cycling and hiking.  It means an average of about 40 miles per week.  Obviously, a few decent bike rides will help my average.  I'm also including treadmill runs, swims and turbo sessions.

the hunt

Coming down to Bassenthwaite, we ran into a hunting party.  Hunting has been vilified as cruel, which it is, but (and I'm a vegan for ethical reasons) I don't see it as any worse than fishing and not as bad by a long way as farming.  I think a lot of the reason it has a bad name is due to reverse snobbery.  Anyway, this definitely isn't a political blog.

In terms of tracking my miles for the year, I think Daily Mile is the best.  Here is the ride on Daily Mile.  It links back to this blog, don't get stuck in an infinite loop!

Finally Runkeeper allows maps/routes to be uploaded.  The phone app is good, allowing you to have stats such as speed, distance, pace read out to you.  You can also take pictures on your phone and they are geotagged to the place that the photo was taken.

Here is the bike ride on Runkeeper: