Cycling Computers
Following my previous excursions on the bike I have been doing a bit of research on the internet to find out how I can improve my performance. There are, it seems, lots of important factors, and getting out on the road cycling is just one of them. In fact that’s the hardest one, so I am going to focus on some of the others.
The most important thing is to completely cover myself and my bike with computer devices to tell me how well I am doing, whether I have improved since last week, whether I am exceeding my personal capabilities and so on.
First, and most important, is a heart rate monitor. I should only push myself to about 80% of my maximum heart rate, which in turn is apparently 220 minus my age. So I can be happy with a heart rate of about 150 bpm from time to time. This heart rate monitor has a band that goes around my chest and feeds a constant update of my well-being to a little readout on the handlebars.
Now I have ensured I will not have a heart attack, I need to measure all those other little things that make an important difference. Speed, average speed, distance travelled, time taken so far, and so on. I can hardly believe I have been venturing out without this information at my fingertips.
There is no time to look at the scenery of course, but I’m not out there for pleasure any more, but for the sheer challenge of adding 0.5kmh to my average speed.
Unfortunately my average speed, which I will spare you the details of, is a lot less than the internet advisers seem to be suggesting it should be. Apparently any average speed less than 30kmh is more or less stationery, and hardly worth the trouble. Now, I can manage that speed downhill very well, but I can’t seem to find a long enough downhill to even out my slow parts on the uphill parts. Perhaps if I get Mrs Boris to drive me to the top of a hill and then I cycle down it I will be able to average 30, but otherwise I don’t think it will be possible.
There is one last part to my bike’s computer setup that I haven’t talked about yet, but it is the most scary. It measures my ‘cadence’ - the number of times a minute I turn the pedals. My target should apparently be to have a cadence of about 90-100. Have you ever tried this? I think my ‘normal’ rate is about 60, so when I pedal at 90 turns a minute it feels like my legs are out of control. I am allowed to use an easier gear at least - the principle being that the strain is on my heart and blood system rather than my legs, because they are stronger and can recover faster - but even so it is not funny, unless you are one of my children watching me, to whom it is very funny indeed.
Now I am all kitted out I do wonder slightly why professional cyclists shop around for the lightest bike possible, and then strap so much computer hardware on it. You know what it looks like behind a TV/video system, with hundreds of tangled wires everywhere? Well, that’s what my bike looks like. All I need now is a portable DVD player and a GPS system and I will be ready to venture out once more.
Not today though, I’m exhausted, and I need to research helmets and pedals first…
