strava update

so, 21 days later and assuming today goes well some 300 miles and about 19000 feet of climbing. given work and the cold i'm not too disheartened by that.

is it better than a computer? by miles! i am loving the wee map things that come up when i get back - t maybe not so much when the first thing i do when i get back is plonk myself down at the computer to look at the stats. plus there's a wee orange blob you can use to check where you are on the route and what you were doing.

downsides? koms. sure you can get on a league table for segments of the road but it's easy to see just how quickly you can get subsumed into these until the only thing that matters is times and positions. much worse than a cycle computer! but, on the other hand, there's no hiding and those 'training rides' you/i maybe used to do when you could kind of take it easy? they're proper gone and in their place is the opportunity to give yourself a proper beasting!

the first week my legs felt so stiff i thought there was something wrong with me and that was only on a twenty mile circuit. not quite as sick making as a tabata workout but far more enjoyable and just as good. a route that contains an array of segments is like enforced interval training with an actual goal at the end of it as well as just hurting yourself!

still the head weasels were in full effect by the second week. i wasn't looking forward to the hill outside the house despite banging in top tens each time i was on it. maybe i could just ease up it...? but no, as soon as i hit the incline off i was going. so i just abandoned it (at least until today when i took another six seconds off it but it's not like i'm counting or anything!).

surprisingly what that's lad to is a greater range of routes and not just that, the notion of just going for a tool about on my bike which, really, is what it's all about. it started at the end of week two when i went out for a burl in really quite atrocious weather - gales + astonishing rain = scotland. what a great time i had and, because i was focussed on the having a great time (and the weather) weirdly, i ended up with great times.

somehow the stravaing has got me pushing that wee bit harder as well as thinking about what effort i'm putting in and where. after all the shenanigans of this year i think i've been back on the bike for about two months and i'm reckoning that i'm about 70% of the fitness i'd want to be at maybe at the beginning of summer.

plus, unlike last month, i'm really enjoying it. no tv, no chocolate, lots of bike. what could be better?