Snowboarding in Fernie - Part 1

I don't know what it is with me and "multipart" posts lately...



Just got back from a weekend in Fernie. No real fresh snow, but the weather was warmer than it has been, and the snow was pretty good. On Saturday, it was pretty windy, which was not so great on the chair or out in the open, but was awesome in the trees, where the snow would sift and settle into the tracks and dips. The morning was especially great, riding with my brother and his friends-- great, but exhausting. Little bro really knows the hill, and the places where the snow is good, and I almost had a tough time keeping up! The afternoon, I found an excuse to go from black and double-blacks to ride more of the open spaces, and the wind was vicious, stinging, and made it really hard to see where you were going, because there was a thin, mist-like layer of snow blowing across the ground, plus the light was flat.


Sunday was even warmer (hovering around 0 celsius), which was nice, but the light was for the most part still pretty flat, and the snow was much heavier, though not quite slushy. In the afternoon, the clouds really moved in up top, and it was like being in a big fog bank-- actually, the clouds were just so low! Once again, the best riding was in the trees.

Looking forward to going back in two weeks!




Photos are: brother and friend at the base on Sunday morning (top), most of the crew, somewhere under the Bear chair, lower Arrow maybe? (middle) and me at the top of Timber chair, next to the Lost Boys Cafe on Sunday afternoon.

Garmin Forerunner 310xt Review - Part 2 (or DVD fail)

The DVD fail part is the DVD player didn't work when I tried to run my new Real Rides DVD. :( Pretty sure it's the DVD player (a hand-me-down), but haven't tried it on the other player because it's been on the fritz too. Told ya, nothing lasts for me!

I've been using my Garmin plenty lately, and as promised, here's more on how it performs spinning. Not that it makes much of a difference, but for this "test", I went for an hour rather than the 20-30 minutes I have been.

Pros
I'm really liking the fact that I can set up what data shows in the main screen. Even better, I can set up Bike 1, Bike 2, Bike 3, etc., with different screen profiles. I especially like the HR Zone. For me though, like with the running features, the ability to easily track and store my workouts on Garmin Connect is by far my favorite feature.

Cons
Sometimes I'm a little forgetful. I forgot to turn off the GPS, and ended up somehow gaining 300m in elevation and almost a kilometer in distance. Not really the end of the world, since I just need to remember to turn it off, but kind of funny, and it does make me wonder if that's right?

My Setup






The Garmin is just strapped to my handlebars with the wrist strap; it tends to fall down a little, as does the iPod that's just in an armband-- but hey, it's not like it has to be aero!

The third little gadget is my cadence/speed computer. Got it at mec for a few dollars, and it's got both sensors (cadence and speed) on the rear chainstay so it works when I'm spinning as well as on the road. Like I mentioned in Part 1, I don't have the Garmin cadence meter.

You can't really see what's on the screen in the above photos, but I've set up the "Bike 1" with elapsed time, time of day, heart rate and HR zone. There's a lot of different data fields available - especially if you also have the cadence sensor and a wireless power meter. (I haven't dropped the coin on that yet... need to get the tri bike first!)

For this ride, the plan was to warm up for about 10 minutes, then go for 80-85 rpm cadence. About twenty minutes in, the plan changed to include going for 20+ km/h - normally not too difficult on the highway, but tough on the one-setting magnetic trainer. I think I did pretty good, but it doesn't track on the Garmin! I think I'm convincing myself I need that cadence sensor...

Cooldown was about 5 minutes on the bike, another 5 on the treadmill, and about 10 minutes of stretching and ab work.

Check out the "map" of this workout. Kind of comical.

Tour of Sage Hill

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Tour of Sage Hill

I know I said part two of my Garmin 310 xt review would be about spinning, but I'm having too much fun with Garmin Connect, so more about spinning tomorrow night. Click the link at the top, then click on the "Player" button on the top right. It'll draw my route for you, and at the same time trace a chart that you can change to show 2 of elevation, speed, or heart rate. I think that's pretty cool, gives me a good idea of how I did.

Pretty slow run, but then it was a little cold, and there was some more snow on the pathways.

I also figured out how to get it into MapMyRide, and as much as I hate manually drawing out maps for that site, I don't think it's worth it. I think I'll just stick to Garmin Connect. The one thing, though, is that you can embed maps in a site with MapMyRide, but you can't (or I haven't figured out how) on Garmin Connect. Common routes might be worth transferring, but it's not going to be a daily thing.



For those who care, to get data from Garmin Connect to MapMyRide, I had to export to a .tcx file (easy to do from Garmin dashboard), then log in to MMR, click "map new ride", then find the new route> import route, then select my device, then choose do import the file and not re-download from the device, find the file with the browse tool, then click import. Yes, it's easier than drawing out a map on MMR, but it's still a lot of clicks for something I don't really need (especially if the map I've embedded doesn't work!)

In other news, we're signed up for the K100 next summer with Nicole's office-- not sure what leg I'll end up running, but yet anther reason to get the training in. We've actually got a lot of stuff booked already for next year! I need to put it all into my BB so I don't forget!

In other other news, Nicole started her own blog!