Back outdoors and a sore bum

At last. Though if i'm truly honest, it came much sooner than expected. When I created my gym program for my 'winter training' (something that has taken a back seat recently) I didn't expect to cycle outdoors until April. I mean, March break was just last week and over here people always say there's usually one good snowfall after March break. Well, there still could be, but it will have to take a real drop in temperatures. These past ten days, the weather has been nothing short of glorious for March. It's May/June type weather for Canada, and it's mid-summer type weather for Northern Ireland. I couldn't pass up the opportunity not to get a couple of miles in -- thanks in part to the new Garmin.



I didn't think I was going to get the chance. Since becoming a new dad little more than two weeks ago I have been (gladly) too busy to think about too much exercise. When I would stare out the window from my ever over-heating condo I would look at blue skies and sunshine and tell myself and anyone who cared to listen, "that's some bloody good cycling weather for March." All week it had been in the 20's with Thursday being the peak of this hot spot and so when I went and picked up my new Garmin on Wednesday night there was no doubt I'd get myself out to at least test it out.

I decided to take the mountain bike, though really the road bike would have done. It was all paved paths for the most part. By the time I got setting out it was already dusk and by the time I would return home, it was dark. I had no lights, but again, I knew I wouldn't be on the road at any point so felt safe enough. Granted the lights might have done for some sections in the park. It was so dark I had to hope that the path didn't contain some unexpected pot-hole that might toss me over the bars, smashing up my body, and worse, smashing up the Garmin. I was lucky enough in the end.

As I burst out the side door to my building and out into the world ready to get going, I threw my leg over the saddle and immediately frooze. I looked upward, held out my hand and thought, it can't be. Indeed, a couple of spots of rain were falling. The first of the day . . . heck, the first of the week . . . longer still. Trust it to start raining the moment I stepped out for my ride. It wasn't hard though and I was from Ireland after all so I pressed on confident that Garmin wouldn't still be in business if they sold bike computers that broke the moment they got wet. Fortunately for me the drizzle lasted no more than ten minutes.

I stuck to footpaths while beside the roads -- due to the fading light -- and to the bike paths along the park. There was a handful of other cyclists in the park but nowhere near the number that had almost ran myself, my wife and my newborn over when we went a walk along the same park path twenty-four hours plus change, before.

I spent as much time flicking through the settings on the Garmin as I did concentrating on the path, looking at the various data outputs, and seeing what all I could enjoy as the rides went on in the coming weeks and months. Had there been the number of people on the path then as there was the night before, I surely would have ended up in a big spill. The elevation data was great, the heart-rate information more than informative and the ability to set an average speed and then race the computer, fantastic. I was always a couple of minutes and a half mile behind my preset computer in the race, but that didn't matter very much.

By the time my ride came to and end I was glad to get off the saddle. That's what several months off the bike and in the gym only will do to your butt. You get used to it quickly but those first few rides can hurt after a while, and the next day they can hurt from the get-go. But you deal with it, moan a little and then it goes away.

When I did get home I sparked up the computer and plugged in the Garmin ready to see the damage. Impressive how quickly it all uploads. Very impressive. Also impressive the various features on the Garmin website as well as with Strava. It seems that for the near future I'll be uploading to both. The real standout on the Strava site however is the 'segments' -- preset sections on roads and tails with which anyone who rides through them records a time that appears on a leaderboard. I could set my own and see how I went again others or I could go about seeking out existing ones. I wasn't aware of it during my ride but it appears I did go through a 'segment'. A short, flat-baring-a-few-bumps, 1.3 mile burst with a leading time of 3:42 and average speed of 20.4 mph. Being unaware at the time I do remember cruising through it and so it proved to be with a time of 5:10 and average speed of 14.6 mph which was good enough for 25th of the 36 that have tried it. Fired up by the challenge I have decided to take the road bike out this weekend to try move way up that leader board, if not to the top!

And that's one of the great things about Strava . . . you can race, time-trial, compete and train without actually entering a race or a time-trail. Like a computer game that doesn't see you vegging out on the sofa getting fat, you go out, burn calories, get fit and get healthy while chasing a computer style highest score. I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend a large portion of Friday night searching out different segments in my area to go and challenge. Indeed, this could become a real problem!

Post-ride weigh-in: 198.6 lbs