I noticed some nice new motivational winter training videos and bits up on Garmin Connect the other day (here’s the cycling video) and it reminded me to use the virtual partner function for this morning’s ride as I ride solo & fancied comparing myself to this stage of training last year. I’ve built up a collection of rides that I can use for this. Woah! Racing yourself is tough!
I was out on a ride with a couple of long climbs, the main climb going over the Black Mountain. I did this route last March, so found the original data from my Garmin from that ride, and turned it into a “Course”. You can do that in the Garmin desktop software, or you can now do it in the online software at Garmin Connect (see the image below).
You can then stick the course on to your Garmin computer, select it from the “training” and “courses” menus, and it’ll then show you a black line to flow as your route, a little graph of the hills and dips coming up, a bunch of data about how long the route is and how long until you reach your destination, and a page with 2 little cyclists on it. One little cyclist is the you of today and the other little cyclist is you (or your mate if you’ve been sent a file from a friend to race against) from last time. There’s a note underneath of how far ahead or behind you are, which changes colour depending upon whether you’re in front or chasing. Clever, eh?
It’s an easy, visual way to compare yourself instantly and constantly to a previous performance, and gives you a motivator to keep pushing.
I’ve used it before but only with courses I’d planned out on Map My Ride with a constant speed to chase. It’s very helpful if you want to plan a nice complicated route with lots of lanes, as you can be confident you won’t get too lost following the black line breadcrumb trail, and it’s easier and quicker than pulling your phone out of your pocket to help you navigate every time you hit a junction.
Using it with a previous ride is something else entirely though. I was really surprised at how close we were throughout the whole ride. We started off together, but I had a bit of a headwind and was unlucky with traffic lights (you can avoid this if you use the auto-stop when stopped function – I don’t) and he got a gap on me. I caught him at some other lights, but he slowly built a gap on me of about 1km on the way out. I caught up with him when he stopped for a pee (you remember that this is all virtual right? I just remember what happened when I did this route last year) and got ahead of him briefly. He had a gap again of only about 300m by the bottom of the main climb and I chased him down. The gap went up briefly, then I brought it back again but he beat me to the top by just a couple of hundred meters. Wow, that was tough chase!
The virtual me stopped for another pee at the top (must have been a big cup of tea) and I stopped for a photo or two (the one at the top and the one below). Maybe I should have taken some more picturesque photos of the views, but it was cold and my phone wasn’t playing nicely. The image I have in my head is of the red kite hunting beside the road as I climbed, at eye level in bright sunshine, holding position in the updraft and tweaking its tail and wings to slide from side to side.
It was about 4C when I set off but the top of the hill was frozen about 500m higher than my house. Chilly! Me and my virtual me (Mii?) set off down the hill at about the same time but my descent was a wee bit sketchier than his – proper thick patches of ice on the road, some gritted hairpin bends and a strong wind gusting my front wheel around. Hairy! My competitor got a good 400-500m on me through the first part of this proper mountain pass descent, but I picked it up after a long drop down to the plains north of the hill with a wind to my back helping me across to Fairfach. We were so close that when the battery in my speed sensor died and I stopped to check it I saw him whizz past me as a big clear arrow passing through my little black arrow on my Garmin!
I got ahead again and stayed ahead (I think) on the long, gentle climb up towards Maesybont, then dropping down south again back into the wind he caught and passed me. The pillock took the wrong turn though (ha – I remember that) and hat to turn around so I got ahead again. All the way back to Gorseinon there were only a few metres between us, and we were sat at the lights together (virtually) with just a few km to go, after almost 90km of riding. We were back and forth all the way home; he got through a roundabout quicker than me and I hat to wait, then I took him at the next set of lights, and we got home almost together. All of that had mentally helped keep my heart rate and power nice and high to the end. Competing against yourself? You’re fit!
I went straight out on a little bricked run and left him behind with a virtual cup of coffee.
In the Garmin desktop software you can compare rides and runs too. Check out this pair of graphs from the ride last year and the same route today. Funny how average and maximum heart rates are so similar over 4 hours. The distance discrepancy is from the wrong turn I took last year. Following the red and blue lines on the elevation chart you’ll see how close the two riders were, 10 months apart. I reckon I had it windier today. My heart rate in the second half of the ride looked a little lower today, and was a little higher on the way out, probably reflecting the difference in wind conditions.
It was a cracking ride and good fun with my virtual buddy. If you’re a solo rider like me and have a Garmin thingy for your bike (or for running) than I really recommend that you have a crack at the Garmin virtual partner function. You can set it up at a set pace for a set duration or distance but that’s a bit dull. Race yourself against old files!
Links
Garmin virtual partner blog entry.
