22/9/2015

Just another few weeks of training. Nothing overly exciting happening. I did get my watch back from Garmin. They said it was either the wheel size setting in the watch or the speed and cadence sensor is having issues. So when it was returned I checked the wheel size and that was ok. On my next ride I was watching the current speed and it was going up and down from 0 km/h to 33 km/h while I thought I was being consistent. I stopped and disabled the sensor in the watch so it would have to use GPS for speed. Sure enough my speed suddenly became what I would think was normal and stable. So until I get a new sensor I will continue to use GPS and not know my cadence.

There has been a few tough weeks of training. Lots of riding and very little running. That was until last weekend where I had to do my first run in a while. I was supposed to do  2-2.5hrs and see how I go. It wasn't really good. Legs, knees and feet hurt. I didn't make the 2hrs but I did get 21kms out so I thought that that was a good effort for the day. The next days brick session (ride and run) wasn't the most fun thing I have had to do.

This week is a rest week. I am looking forward to just stretching and easy sessions.

Technology fail

The last few weeks have been a struggle in training. Its not really the distance or effort required anymore but more the motivation to get out there. Its cold, wet and lonely. I have never been a good trainee but not having someone to ride and run with just makes it hard work to get out there. Once I am underway I am ok but getting out of bed on a weekend is not the easiest. Apart from that I have had a bit of a technology fail..

So it all started a couple of weeks ago. I was intending to do a 3hr ride. I know now that's usually about a 90km ride or more depending on how I am going. So mentally I map out where I want to go. Anyway I start out and seem to be going slow. I think that maybe I am having an off day as I am only around the 25km/h average mark. I push a little harder. The average hardly moves. I think I will push to the 30km mark to get the average up. So I push a little harder. Now I know by what gear I am in and my cadence that I should be nailing it. I get to the first turn around and see 26.8km/h or something. I am baffled. I see that that distance is a little short but thats ok it will all work out in the end. I push the next 30kms back towards home. When I get close and about the 2hr mark I give up. I throw in the towel as the average has reduced to 24.8km/h. I am annoyed and tired. I don't know how I could  be going so slow. Also the watch only showed 48kms for what should be about 63kms.

When I get home I let it upload the results thinking the GPS points would be cutting corners etc. Nope it looked perfect. The elevation looked funny but the track was good. Hmm ok I put that down to a bad watch day. I think nothing of it as it is working for everything else.

During the next week I got myself a Garmin virb action camera. Its actually pretty cool. All your ANT+ devices link to it and when editing it will import all that data and you can show it on screen. It also contains GPS and a few other sensors within the device.

So the next weekend comes and I think while this is some really boring video I am going to record my ride. It was supposed to be a fast 60kms and used to gauge my improvement. I didn't want false readings for this one and thought it would be good to see what both devices registered for distance etc. Off I go on my ride. Trying to go as hard as I can without packing it in at the end. The watch was once again killing me. I think the top average speed I got to was 29km/h. Unfortunately I could not look at the virb screen or play with it while riding. I know there is information on it but as it was the first time out for it I didn't know all the buttons yet. In the end I just put my head down and rode. I do like to see where I am at but this time I did not get to.

Once at home I stop both devices. Once again I look at the watch. 48km or so doing about 26km/h. Damn... :( I then look at the screen on the virb. I see a little 32km/h average on screen. Thats a little more like it I think. Inside I upload both .FIT files (the files that Garmin devices create for activities) to Garmin connect. You can see there is a big difference in the results. The virb results are more like I would expect.

So frustrated I email Garmin and search how to hard reset the device. If anyone is interested below are the instructions.

a. Hold POWER BUTTON on for 15 seconds. The device should hopefully start to turn off.

b. Press and hold UP ARROW BUTTON and DOWN ARROW BUTTON
c. Press but don’t hold the POWER BUTTON for a second or so second – device should turn on
d. Wait for 1st beep then release UP ARROW BUTTON
e. Wait for 2nd beep then release DOWN ARROW BUTTON

Today I called Garmin after they replied to my email. They have never heard of such a thing so the watch is being sent back. I did go for a short run today with Adam and both watches had the same reading so maybe the reset fixed it you never know. Guess we will see when i get back. Time to start using the 910xt again for a while. :(