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When I first started tracking my rides about a decade ago with my fancy new Garmin Edge 305, I used to download them into Garmin's desktop application. I'd note the pretty numbers and write long comments about every aspect of the ride.
When it migrated to the interwebs, I kept up with my habit of recording my experiences. I rarely reviewed them, unless it was a race report or some other significant event. Still, just about every ride had a paragraph or more of narrative to accompany the maps and graphs and whatever. My take was that it provided perspective.
When I started training with Janice, I added WKO+ and her calendar spreadsheet. I'd happily download my files with all of their comments from the Garmin application to WKO+ and link the specific Garmin web page on her spreadsheet. Once a month I would send her my WKO+ files so she could track how I was doing over the long term. It was a convoluted process, but Janice appreciated my bitter, sarcastic sense of humor. Maybe the rest of her athletes focused purely on performance-related items like how the slightly larger egg white and raw kale they had for breakfast impacted their 20 minute power. We went on like this for a couple years.
Eventually we moved from the desktop-based WKO+ and the training calendar to the online Training Peaks application. It didn't take long for me to abandon Garmin Connect too, which was slowly adding "features" in effort to compete with the ride of other, more effective applications. Mostly these additions just pissed me off.
Our processes suitably streamlined, we pressed on. I had a place to add my pithy comments to explain away my lack of ability and effort, and Janice had the data to beat me over the head with. Even after I stopped wasting Janice's time, I kept tracking the data in Training Peaks. Periodically I'd download the data into WKO+, mostly because I don't trust any singular repository for all of my witty remarks and pathetic numbers.
Lately my remarks haven't been so witty. I'll download the file, put a rough description of the route in the title, and that's about it. Maybe I'll add a single word:
"Rain."
"Wet."
"Moist."
"Wind."
"Ouch."
"Fuck."
I really haven't looked at the data, other that to note I rode for one hour and twenty five minutes yesterday. Neat. I just don't have the time or interest for much more at the moment.
Maybe this is the new normal. Maybe I'll revert to my old verbose self when I hit the trainer again. You just never know. The data isn't important. The carefully crafted comments aren't important. The riding is what is important. I'm in no danger of being over-trained. More is better. More of anything. Junk miles, endurance miles, base miles, intervals... as long as it involves moving.
The comments will probably come back. I am incapable of shutting the fuck up.
When it migrated to the interwebs, I kept up with my habit of recording my experiences. I rarely reviewed them, unless it was a race report or some other significant event. Still, just about every ride had a paragraph or more of narrative to accompany the maps and graphs and whatever. My take was that it provided perspective.
When I started training with Janice, I added WKO+ and her calendar spreadsheet. I'd happily download my files with all of their comments from the Garmin application to WKO+ and link the specific Garmin web page on her spreadsheet. Once a month I would send her my WKO+ files so she could track how I was doing over the long term. It was a convoluted process, but Janice appreciated my bitter, sarcastic sense of humor. Maybe the rest of her athletes focused purely on performance-related items like how the slightly larger egg white and raw kale they had for breakfast impacted their 20 minute power. We went on like this for a couple years.
Eventually we moved from the desktop-based WKO+ and the training calendar to the online Training Peaks application. It didn't take long for me to abandon Garmin Connect too, which was slowly adding "features" in effort to compete with the ride of other, more effective applications. Mostly these additions just pissed me off.
Our processes suitably streamlined, we pressed on. I had a place to add my pithy comments to explain away my lack of ability and effort, and Janice had the data to beat me over the head with. Even after I stopped wasting Janice's time, I kept tracking the data in Training Peaks. Periodically I'd download the data into WKO+, mostly because I don't trust any singular repository for all of my witty remarks and pathetic numbers.
Lately my remarks haven't been so witty. I'll download the file, put a rough description of the route in the title, and that's about it. Maybe I'll add a single word:
"Rain."
"Wet."
"Moist."
"Wind."
"Ouch."
"Fuck."
I really haven't looked at the data, other that to note I rode for one hour and twenty five minutes yesterday. Neat. I just don't have the time or interest for much more at the moment.
Maybe this is the new normal. Maybe I'll revert to my old verbose self when I hit the trainer again. You just never know. The data isn't important. The carefully crafted comments aren't important. The riding is what is important. I'm in no danger of being over-trained. More is better. More of anything. Junk miles, endurance miles, base miles, intervals... as long as it involves moving.
The comments will probably come back. I am incapable of shutting the fuck up.
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