Hi all, I created a Strava Group for Urban Ohio - https://www.strava.com/clubs/583367/ feel free to join, I think it could be a cool extension of the site.

 

And obligatory, mods feel free to blow this up if it's not kosher.

Perfect timing. I just got back into using my Strava account!

I joined but realized that my online Strava account doesn't seem to be linked to the one on my phone, at least not since last September.  So I'm going to have to figure out what's going on...when I'm not at work.  I guess I created two logins without realizing it.  

2 hours ago, GISguy said:

Hi all, I created a Strava Group for Urban Ohio - https://www.strava.com/clubs/583367/ feel free to join, I think it could be a cool extension of the site.

 

And obligatory, mods feel free to blow this up if it's not kosher.

 

I for one had no clue what Strava was.  Can you give everyone an overview of what it is and how users can participate? 

^and why it is a good thing?

So Strava is a fitness tracking app, most cyclists use it to track rides and see progress of other folks. I recognize it's not everyone's cup of tea, but honestly, if you're on a group ride, commute, or otherwise it's quite likely they're using strava. I figure it'd be cool to see what type of cycling activity other forumers are up to.

 

The idea was kind of inspired by the meetups we've had in Cleveland, as well as meeting other folks in passing- IMO meetups, strava, etc., can help humanize what's otherwise just a random username.

 

FWIW I'll use it for hikes, runs, XC skiing, etc., but pretty sure this group will only track bike rides.

 

Edit: I also realize calling it an 'extension of UO' was a bit much, if anything it's just cool to see what other forumers are up to.

 

@richNcincy

Edited January 29, 20205 yr by GISguy

10 hours ago, GISguy said:

I figure it'd be cool to see what type of cycling activity other forumers are up to.

 

The advent of Strava was pretty humbling for me.  The times the best guys (who aren't even pro) are putting up are simply unbelievable.  I find utilitarian cycling (i.e. bike commuting) to be very easy and borderline boring.  The so-called urbanist crowd seems to have all sorts of technical trouble with things that have always been easy to me (i.e. climbing Cincinnati's steep hills like Sycamore or Monastery, navigating streetcar tracks, etc.), but I'm unable to compete with the serious hobbyists.  What's really frustrating is when some guy comes along who is 18 or 19 and totally dusts you.  The general public has absolutely no idea how good the top amateur and pro cyclists are as compared to weekend warriors like myself. 

 

I'm pretty unusual in that I have always - going back to age 10 or so - preferred climbing to descending.  I'm pretty afraid to bomb a hill and don't get any sort of kick out of taking high-speed risks.  I do, by contrast, really like motoring up big hills.  You get a lot of compliments from passing drivers, people sitting on their porches, etc., when you pedal up a big hill or mountain without showing any sings of strain. 

 

I think what's tough is that in Ohio we always have 4-5 months of the year where you inevitably fall out of shape.  People in Southern California and the desert Southwest don't have this problem.  Luckily if you live in Cincinnati you can go out your door any time and do a serious hill ride.  Each of the hills has a bit of a personality of its own.  But you can't count on mountain biking regularly between December and May.  It's so frustrating when you have a clear weekend but the trails are closed. 

 

 

 

I use strava to help improve technique and test updates to my bikes as well as inspire my riding.  Its great to see the timed laps of the better and much lighter riders. I wish that there were all these amazing mtn bike trails when i was under 180lbs. 
So i mix riding the towpath to build stamina with quick intense jaunts on local mtn bike trails. It does seem that the trails don’t open until June when they finally dry out and its over 90 degrees with oppressive humidity for 3 months. 

18 hours ago, Pugu said:

^and why it is a good thing?

 

This is why Strava is a good thing, HEAT MAPS: https://www.strava.com/heatmap#7.72/-83.70677/40.21618/hot/all

 

Also, it has gamified running and cycling and built strong communities of active travelers.  

I just joined the group. I use Strava daily but I use it for running. Excited to track each other and see where everyone is going

I just changed the settings from cycling to 'other' so hopefully it'll capture sports outside of just cycling. It looks like it picked up your stuff now, @BelievelandD1

9 hours ago, audidave said:

 Its great to see the timed laps of the better and much lighter riders. I wish that there were all these amazing mtn bike trails when i was under 180lbs. 

 

Yeah in the past I never had any idea how fast I was going or how much I improved throughout the year.  

 

I do think that Strava leads to some dangerous behavior since people get into a race mentality even though there is no race.  The roads or trails aren't closed, of course, so suddenly somebody walking their dog on a mtb trail becomes very annoying.  

 

Before Strava I had Runkeeper.  That app mapped your ride and gave you mile times.  That mile time statistic was hilarious because you had no idea where the "mile" started.  So you'd have a 25mph mile right after a 7mph mile if the mile happened to tick over right at the summit of a big hill, but the next time your rode the mile might have ticked halfway up and then halfway down, giving you a few unimpressive 14mph miles in a row!  

 

^Also, Runkeeper didn't stop ticking when you stopped at a stop light or stop sign.  So it unintentionally motivated you to illegally blow through intersections to try and beat your best time.  

I finally got organized and deleted my duplicate Strava account.  For the time being I have two accounts on the UO Strava group but the bad one should go away. 

 

I attempted to transfer the data from one to the other but the process was too complicated and I couldn't get it to work.  I saved the account with 150 activities and deleted the one with 15. 

 

 

I now have a Garmin watch in addition to my phone.  It appears that the watch is recording times differently than the phone, sometimes dramatically different.  I don't know which is the good time and which is the bad time, or if the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  Here you can see that I did the same uphill mtb segment with the watch a full 40 seconds faster than I did it with the phone the day earlier.  Yes, I did consciously try to ride fast (I was saving energy on those rides you see from 2019) but I'm skeptical that I was that much faster. 

 

 

 

In case anyone is wondering, this is the entrance climb to Devou.  I used to think that it was a punishing entrance climb until they opened Mt. Airy, which is just plain extreme.  I've ridden Mt. Airy about 8 times so far this year so I think it has quite literally whipped my legs into shape. 

 

 

Just getting caught up to things here- that's a pretty crazy jump @jmecklenborg lol

 

How's the map look if you zoom in tight? I'd imagine you had a lapse with GPS in the watch. If you really want to go full CSI you can download your rides' GPX file and see what 'breadcrumbs' your device is leaving. It's in the backend but strava/your GPS essentially connects the dots when drawing the rides. An example I'm thinking of that's similar to yours is when I'm riding on a trail with heavy tree cover and just my GPS unit- the MPH is all over the place but it tries to normalize the data when you end the ride/upload things based on previous breadcrumbs. Sorry if you already know how it works, don't mean to come off like a stodgy professor or something lol 

 

Here's a look closeup at my ride from a bit ago:

 

 

Damn. 

 

 

How has everyone's cycling season been? I know I've added a few of you (and vice versa)- seems like folks have been pretty active! 

1 hour ago, GISguy said:

How has everyone's cycling season been? I know I've added a few of you (and vice versa)- seems like folks have been pretty active! 

 

I was lucky(?) and kept working 7 days a week so I didn't have a period of unemployment where I got to ride everyday.  

 

I always find it interesting at how much stronger I get in late September and October when the weather cools down.  It's amazing how much energy you expend simply staying cool when it's in the mid-80s or higher.  Then when it cools down you'll get your fastest time of the year while drinking a fraction of the water you usually need.  

 

I know in the winter I've done 40+ mile rides and only drank half of a single water bottle.  

 

 

@jmecklenborg I just got back from a trip out west and being at elevation and also getting back this time of year has resulted in some of my best times for the year. What you're saying totally makes sense, I was like wtf happened? Makes a ton of sense lol

57 minutes ago, GISguy said:

@jmecklenborg I just got back from a trip out west and being at elevation and also getting back this time of year has resulted in some of my best times for the year. What you're saying totally makes sense, I was like wtf happened? Makes a ton of sense lol

 

Yeah I had a personal best last week at a trail and I wasn't even pushing it.  I honestly thought the phone malfunctioned. 

 

 

I had bicycling events cancelled in 2020 and so stopped training around May.  I did a lot of hiking this year and didn't record all of those hikes.  

 

2021 will be a much higher mileage year for me.  I've got a 200-mile event in June that I'll be training hardcore for by early April. 

 

On 1/3/2021 at 12:52 PM, jmecklenborg said:

I had bicycling events cancelled in 2020 and so stopped training around May.  I did a lot of hiking this year and didn't record all of those hikes.  

 

2021 will be a much higher mileage year for me.  I've got a 200-mile event in June that I'll be training hardcore for by early April. 

 

Crap, I didn't even think about screenshotting posting here. I had my highest mileage in a long while last year probably ~2,400 miles.

 

Shooting for 3K+ this year. I'm not a fan of indoor training to be frank but I also bought a wahoo kickr core and have been trying to ramp up mileage on there too. Definitely not the same but Zwift definitely helps vs the alternative of watching a movie and not trying to die of boredom.  

1 hour ago, GISguy said:

Crap, I didn't even think about screenshotting posting here. I had my highest mileage in a long while last year probably ~2,400 miles.

 

Shooting for 3K+ this year. I'm not a fan of indoor training to be frank but I also bought a wahoo kickr core and have been trying to ramp up mileage on there too. Definitely not the same but Zwift definitely helps vs the alternative of watching a movie and not trying to die of boredom.  

 

I only rode my road bike about 10 times in 2020.  I did many, many more mountain bike rides, and all of those were under 10 miles except for 2 or 3 bigger days.  

 

If you really want to throw miles up, ride a road bike, obviously.  I am still amazed by how different the fatigue is from mountain biking versus road.  It's as if they're two completely different activities.  If you get back on a road bike after two weeks of mountain biking (and maybe one rest day) you blast off like a rocket.  

 

1 hour ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

I only rode my road bike about 10 times in 2020.  I did many, many more mountain bike rides, and all of those were under 10 miles except for 2 or 3 bigger days.  

 

If you really want to throw miles up, ride a road bike, obviously.  I am still amazed by how different the fatigue is from mountain biking versus road.  It's as if they're two completely different activities.  If you get back on a road bike after two weeks of mountain biking (and maybe one rest day) you blast off like a rocket.  

 

Totally agree! I've traditionally been a roadie and went out with my one MTB buddy in PGH and wow, we rode for maybe 8? miles and it kicked my butt. Such a different riding style too...I'll admit it took me a few downs to get used to (comfortable with...) riding between trees at speed and stuff. Definitely looking at getting a gravel grinder this year, not sure if I'm interested in fulltime/dedicated mtb but I l do like the ability to go offroad and stuff and not worry. I've got a cross bike with 28's (what I use for touring) but I don't really trust it on anything really nasty that a gravel bike would be cool with.

18 hours ago, GISguy said:

Totally agree! I've traditionally been a roadie and went out with my one MTB buddy in PGH and wow, we rode for maybe 8? miles and it kicked my butt. Such a different riding style too...I'll admit it took me a few downs to get used to (comfortable with...) riding between trees at speed and stuff. Definitely looking at getting a gravel grinder this year, not sure if I'm interested in fulltime/dedicated mtb but I l do like the ability to go offroad and stuff and not worry. I've got a cross bike with 28's (what I use for touring) but I don't really trust it on anything really nasty that a gravel bike would be cool with.

 

^There is no question that mountain biking is essentially a forced interval workout.  When I go out for a long distance road bike ride I never max myself out and take it easy climbing hills.  But it's pretty tough to go out for a casual mountain bike ride unless you're on a very easy and almost featureless trail.  The intervals might be shorter than doing planned 30-second intervals on a road bike but you are still nevertheless maxing out your heartrate many times on a typical ride.  

 

Mountain biking also forces you to think about the physicality of the bike in space much more than road biking, and the good thing is that the improved bike awareness carries over into road biking.  I found that the aggressive cornering on mountain bikes helped me get more aggressive with my road bike cornering.  I'm now cornering at much higher speeds on my road bike.  I also think I move my weight around on the road bike in a much more active way than I did before.  

 

All of that said, the better I get at this as a hobbyist, the more I realize how insanely better professional bicyclists are at all of this than I'll ever be.  I have other stuff that I'm better at and I watch people struggle and not understand what they don't get about it.  I think that's what a pro mountain biker would think if they saw me puttering around a trail, even though I'm at least decent for a hobbyist if not an "advanced amateur".  

 

 

 

 

 

I hear about way more heart attacks on mountain bikes than road bikes.

Just bought a new bike today - Kona Rove - time to start grinding some gravel!

 

Just bumping this thread up. Hope folks are enjoying this nice weather that's been going on lately! Very UO-centric, but highly recommend tying wandrer.earth to your Strava account- it shows how many new miles you've ridden and tracks it in their site (and posts to your ride description). Just hit 50% of Cleveland the other day, chopping away at the rest- this is a nice tool to keep track!!

 

 

Ha, I just recently signed up for Wandrer. Haven't started plotting to get my % up yet. 

 

Also, is that you in the tweet? 50%, impressive!

6 minutes ago, the pope said:

Ha, I just recently signed up for Wandrer. Haven't started plotting to get my % up yet. 

 

Also, is that you in the tweet? 50%, impressive!

 

Yep! lol I think it's dropped off some previous rides, unless you pay for premium it only keeps x% of your previous rides. I've found it to be a pretty awesome tool to keep rides interesting, even if it means me zig-zagging neighborhoods until neighbors get wigged out hah.

3 minutes ago, GISguy said:

 

Yep! lol I think it's dropped off some previous rides, unless you pay for premium it only keeps x% of your previous rides. I've found it to be a pretty awesome tool to keep rides interesting, even if it means me zig-zagging neighborhoods until neighbors get wigged out hah.

 

Man, I'm at 12% of Chicago, I got some work to do.

Nice! I had no idea this group existed, just joined in Strava. I haven't bike through as much of Cleveland, I just moved here a couple years ago, but I also don't think wandrer is considering all of my rides. It's probably bogged down by the hundreds of daily commute trips. 

On 5/10/2022 at 1:19 PM, Balkmusic said:

Nice! I had no idea this group existed, just joined in Strava. I haven't bike through as much of Cleveland, I just moved here a couple years ago, but I also don't think wandrer is considering all of my rides. It's probably bogged down by the hundreds of daily commute trips. 

 

I think it takes into account your last 30? Which seems off because I def have rides in that above map beyond my last 30 (same here w commuting). I'm tempted to subscribe out of curiosity and see if it bumps my numbers. 

Ps just added some folks, I'm JA on there so that's me haha

I just want to say I'm having so much fun with Wandrer. Its really helped me find some motivation do more exploring and seeking alternative routes. Now if only we have a algorithm that would generate these routes for me

 

696 Miles of Chicago down! 

 

13 minutes ago, the pope said:

I just want to say I'm having so much fun with Wandrer. Its really helped me find some motivation do more exploring and seeking alternative routes. Now if only we have a algorithm that would generate these routes for me

 

696 Miles of Chicago down! 

 

 

Wow, amazing progress! Wandrer really is cool, I've fallen off lately but it's incentive to get out there and get creative with rides. Hard to take the same route twice when you're trying to tick off mileage. 

33 minutes ago, the pope said:

I just want to say I'm having so much fun with Wandrer. Its really helped me find some motivation do more exploring and seeking alternative routes. Now if only we have a algorithm that would generate these routes for me

 

696 Miles of Chicago down! 

 

 

No Cicero or Berwyn???  SHAME ON YOU!!!

2 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

 

No Cicero or Berwyn???  SHAME ON YOU!!!

My mom don't let me north of Roosevelt

Just want to bring this group forward for anyone who isn't aware. 

 

Feel free to join our UO Strava Club: https://www.strava.com/clubs/583367/leaderboard 

 

-JA

Edited May 1, 20232 yr by GISguy
oops, removed the embed code.

I joined at the beginning of the year and have gotten absolutely hooked on Wandrer.

15 minutes ago, Dev said:

I joined at the beginning of the year and have gotten absolutely hooked on Wandrer.

 

It's addictive lol I didn't know this until recently but you can download the wandrer maps to your GPS and use that to help knock streets off. Up until that realization I'd just go to a neighborhood and confuse neighbors with all sorts of crisscrossing. Any good milestones? I'm currently at about 65% of Cleveland.

10 minutes ago, GISguy said:

 

It's addictive lol I didn't know this until recently but you can download the wandrer maps to your GPS and use that to help knock streets off. Up until that realization I'd just go to a neighborhood and confuse neighbors with all sorts of crisscrossing. Any good milestones? I'm currently at about 65% of Cleveland.

Lol I'm nowhere close to that. I'm about to hit 5% of Hamilton County this month. I'm only about 9% of Cincinnati but I'm mostly focusing on some of the smaller inner ring suburbs for now since they are fairly low hanging fruit.

3 hours ago, GISguy said:

Just want to bring this group forward for anyone who isn't aware. 

 

Feel free to join our UO Strava Club: https://www.strava.com/clubs/583367/leaderboard 

 

-JA

 

Thanks for posting, I'm in!

 

I set up a Garmin Mountain Bike training plan when I got my new watch back in January, which generally got me on the bike (or trainer) 3-4 times a week for an hour or so, usually on my WfH lunch break. I've never ridden over the winter with that much consistency, and never followed any sort of heart rate zone training plan.

 

I missed maybe three sessions and was feeling strong until a few weeks ago, when COVID finally caught up to me after three years. It was the first warm, dry week of the year and I was planning to take a day off and go mountain biking, that did not happen. Even though I was only really sick for a day I'm still feeling a bit wiped out.

 

Slowly getting back on the bike (the weather isn't helping), so maybe this will be one more way to help keep me motivated. I actually canceled my Garmin training plan just this morning, it was really starting to ramp up with strength intervals right as a I got knocked out. I don't see catching up to that anytime soon.

Edited May 1, 20232 yr by mrCharlie

36 minutes ago, mrCharlie said:

 

Thanks for posting, I'm in!

 

I set up a Garmin Mountain Bike training plan when I got my new watch back in January, which generally got me on the bike (or trainer) 3-4 times a week for an hour or so, usually on my WfH lunch break. I've never ridden over the winter with that much consistency, and never followed any sort of heart rate zone training plan.

 

I missed maybe three sessions and was feeling strong until a few weeks ago, when COVID finally caught up to me after three years. It was the first warm, dry week of the year and I was planning to take a day off and go mountain biking, that did not happen. Even though I was only really sick for a day I'm still feeling a bit wiped out.

 

Slowly getting back on the bike (the weather isn't helping), so maybe this will be one more way to help keep me motivated. I actually canceled my Garmin training plan just this morning, it was really starting to ramp up with strength intervals right as a I got knocked out. I don't see catching up to that anytime soon.

 

Awesome, and I know what you're talking about w/COVID it sucks. I had it in February-ish right as I was trying to ramp up to form and I finally feel like I'm out of the woods. I definitely get winded over dumb stuff but it probably doesn't help that I'm far from being in prime shape at the moment either...I'm JA on there, I started a thread for folks to drop their UO name too if you feel inclined.

Snapshot from last week - any biking is good biking.

 

For those in NEO reminder that this month is the Bike Month Challenge in Gohio Commute - NOACA is offering prizes on a weekly basis: https://gohiocommute.com/#/challenges. You can tie this in w/strava and it'll keep track of your rides (and if you mark them as commute, it'll count them towards the challenge).

 

Seeking any input and recommendations on a fitness tracking watch. I use it primarily for running, but also cycling and swimming. I was utilizing an Apple Watch Series 3 over the last few years, which has now stopped working. 
 

I liked the Apple Watch as an everyday watch, and thought it was a couple ticks above “serviceable” for fitness. I mostly use Strava, with also the polar heart rate apps. I am hoping to find something that passes as an everyday watch (and won’t look out of place in a professional setting) but is perhaps a better fitness watch. 
 

I have heard good things about Garmin but really don’t know where to start. Any info is appreciated! 

2 minutes ago, HGRHS said:

I have heard good things about Garmin but really don’t know where to start. Any info is appreciated! 

 

I got a Garmin watch in 2019 but it stopped working (it refuses to recharge) pretty quickly.  I also have a Garmin bike computer, which I find a bit difficult to use.  The interface isn't intuitive at all (and the Garmin watch's interface wasn't intuitive, either).  If you don't use it regularly, you will forget which button does what.  Also, I bought a separate Garmin speedometer for my road bike, which spins around in the rear spokes, but it's a pain getting it to link via bluetooth with the bike computer.  

 

I did find that the Garmin directions do work well when you download a course for a biking event.  It gives you audible signals well before the turns, and the battery life is good (well over 10 hours).  

 

Unfortunately, Garmin seems to dominate the watch/bike computer realm with slick marketing, including its sponsorship of races, but my impression is that the devices are made of 10 year-old components that they're getting super-cheap.  

 

The Garmin app is okay, but not any better/worse than Strava.  You can link it to Strava so that your rides automatically populate your main account (Garmin hasn't succeeded in luring the general population over to its app).  

 

I am in the same situation as you - looking for a watch, since the watch was much better for mountain biking than bouncing around the woods with the computer.  It never fell off the bike but honestly it was more of a distraction while mountain biking than I expected.  The computer keeps entering your field of vision, making it tempting to look down to see how fast you're going, which is a really bad idea while riding over terrain.  

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, HGRHS said:

Seeking any input and recommendations on a fitness tracking watch. I use it primarily for running, but also cycling and swimming. I was utilizing an Apple Watch Series 3 over the last few years, which has now stopped working. 
 

I liked the Apple Watch as an everyday watch, and thought it was a couple ticks above “serviceable” for fitness. I mostly use Strava, with also the polar heart rate apps. I am hoping to find something that passes as an everyday watch (and won’t look out of place in a professional setting) but is perhaps a better fitness watch. 
 

I have heard good things about Garmin but really don’t know where to start. Any info is appreciated! 

 

I bought a used Garmin Forerunner 745 used and I've been generally happy with it. Google DC Rainmaker for some intense (and useful) reviews of watches. He puts them through the gauntlet and if you poke around reddit you'll almost always see threads recommending his site. 

5 hours ago, HGRHS said:

Seeking any input and recommendations on a fitness tracking watch. I use it primarily for running, but also cycling and swimming. I was utilizing an Apple Watch Series 3 over the last few years, which has now stopped working. 
 

I liked the Apple Watch as an everyday watch, and thought it was a couple ticks above “serviceable” for fitness. I mostly use Strava, with also the polar heart rate apps. I am hoping to find something that passes as an everyday watch (and won’t look out of place in a professional setting) but is perhaps a better fitness watch. 
 

I have heard good things about Garmin but really don’t know where to start. Any info is appreciated! 

 

Seconding the dcrainmaker recommendation once you've zeroed in on a few possibilities. 

 

I currently have a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar, which is amazing and a total overkill for my needs. But I had a bunch of gift cards stockpiled from Christmas and birthday, so decided to splurge. I went mountain biking with it today on trails I've never ridden, and was really glad to have the built-in maps which are surprisingly usable. Battery lasts about two weeks depending on how much GPS activity.

 

Previously I had a Garmin Instinct for 3 1/2 years. It took an absolute beating, and needed nothing more than a replacement band after I wore through the loop. I decided it was time for an upgrade when I was only getting 4-5 days between charges. The Instinct series is a good all-round watch if you like the look (not everyone does), does a bit of everything and I loved the durability and battery life. If it wasn't for my gift card stockpile, I was going to get an Instinct 2 Solar - the potentially unlimited battery life was really appealing.