My Bryton Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) has had a lot of use, but the last time I removed the sensor from the strap , one of the button clips came away from the strap with the ANT+ module.
You can see on the left hand clip the part from the strap. The rivet had broken, and looking at the strap I couldn’t see how to replace it. Continue reading Replacing Bryton Heart Monitor Strap with a Polar SoftStrap
When preparing my training sessions on the turbo, all workouts and articles emphasise the importance of training in the correct zone in order to get the most benefit. Using a heart rate monitor and a display that you can watch whilst training means that the cadence and resistance (or gear) can be tweaked during an interval to keep the HR in the recommended zone.
Some videos/workouts use heart rate zones (HRZ) as the measurement, others use the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) method. I originally wanted to find a quick way to translate RPEs into HRZs because the cycle GPS units I used (first a Bryton Rider 50, and now a Garmin Edge 800) can display a heart rate zone, as well as the BPM figure.
I originally started this spreadsheet to give me a quick sheet to print out sop that when I used an RPE scale workout, I could just translate it into the HRZ method so it would be consistent with my cycle computer.
Of course nothing is every as easy or straightforward as it first appears ….. Continue reading Comparing Heart Rate Zones and Rate of Perceived Exertion Zones
Even though it is now spring and the weather is getting better, using the turbo trainer in summer can still pay dividends. Introducing some supplemental training provides an easy way to focus on specific areas of technique or to gain some quick interval training.
As I wrote in a previous post, I didn’t really start to get the benefits of the turbo training until I bought some training videos from 3LC Cycling, Success Cycling and the (in)famous SufferFest.
These got me through the winter months and kept my fitness at acceptable level during the dark nights and bad weather, but even though I’m out on the roads more, I still have my trainer bike set up, and I thought “why not use this over summer also?”. Continue reading Supplemental summer turbo training
Last year I entered the Marmotte Cycling Event with several friends. (You can read more about the event here.)
This was the most challenging event I’ve ever attempted. The course is 174km long. I’ve completed this distance before, but the killer is in the fact that over the course of this you have to climb 4 alpine stages; the Col du Glandon, Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier and finishing on the Alpe d’Huez.
We decided to do this at the end of 2012, so this left about 6 to 8 months of training.
Coincidentally with this, I had the opportunity to take a sabbatical, so I was able to use this time also to train.
This was also the first event I used a turbo trainer as part of my programme. For previous events, I relied on being a regular commuter, covering about 110km per week (10 rides of around 11km each, so about 5 hours of training), plus some longer weekend rides with friends covering about 60 to 80 km in the North Kent downs.