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Blog May 27, 2020

Hey Strava, let’s talk about Packs

Strava’s predatory pivot to subscription is old news. I still think we should be ranting about it, but old news nevertheless. What isn’t clear, at least to me, is how this impacts Packs subscribers. As a legacy Packs subscriber, I’ve received several emails from Strava indicating something. What exactly? I’m not sure. I click the link which is supposed to explain it all, and just end up on a page which tells…

Blog May 21, 2020

if (calcFTP > FTP) { showNewFTPDialog(calcFTP); } else { //stfu Garmin }

It’s not obvious from the photo above, but I hope the title helps a little, that Garmin shouldn’t be showing this dialog to me post ride. Why? Because I’ve already told it that my FTP is more than 262. Unless it’s running some kind of next level AI cloud processing (it’s not), there’s no way for it to tell if I’m detraining. And, frankly if it were, it would be wrong there…

Blog April 29, 2020

Feeling good about aluminum

If I’m totally honest, there have been a few times when I wished that I’d opted for a more expensive carbon frame for the gravel bike. Almost all of those times have involved a scale. Not that I’m dissatisfied with the weight, it’s actually great all things considered. As a bit of weight weenie the lack of potential still pains me a little. But, every time I crash the bike (riding in…

Blog Featured April 22, 2020

Garmin drops balls on heart rate, training effect, load, etc.

One of my goals with adding a fēnix 6 to my stable of Garmin devices is that I was looking for a better, holistic view of activity/stress/load/etc., but clearly they don’t seem to understand that there’s a world outside of what they capture. Ignoring that devalues the usefulness of their platform, and frankly makes it less trustworthy for anyone who expects them to get these important metric right. Let’s dig into the…

Blog April 17, 2020

YIL: Zwift on Apple TV is not bulletproof

When I started Zwift’g I went with the Apple TV as the host platform because it was the cheapest way to get everything working well. I’ve been using it this way for quite a while now, and I’ve never had any problems that weren’t related to Zwift Companion flaking out on me, or the PSYCHOTIC* remote that comes with the Apple TV. That confidence was shattered yesterday when the app just crashed…

Blog April 15, 2020

The hardest 27 mins, that felt like 5, I’ve ever ridden

I did my first Zwift race over lunch yesterday. It was surprisingly crushing, fun, and the time slipped by much faster than a similar style workout. Trying Zwift racing has been on my mind for a while, mostly because I miss the competitiveness of the group ride (stupid COVID!). But I’ve been avoiding it because I generally only have around an hour at lunch to bang out a workout, and the pull…

Blog April 2, 2020

Abnormal high heart rate detected?

In general, I’m loving the Garmin Fenix 6, but there’s definitely some occasional weirdness going on with the optical heart rate sensor. Many new Garmin watches have a feature which can detect when the wearer has something funky going on with their heart rate when they’re sedentary. I turned it on, because why not? The default threshold is 100BPM, which seems reasonable for me personally, but it’s good that it’s configurable because…

Blog March 30, 2020

Missing the rep

I thought it was just a fluke, but it turns out that it’s every, single, lifting workout where my Garmin watch gets the rep count totally, and completely, wrong. Today was a new low, with zero detected repetitions during my “leg/back day” strength workout. How can it be this bad? With some basic searching out of the way, it doesn’t look like I’m alone in this either. The general consensus is that…

Blog March 26, 2020

Ride the risk

Processing risk is a really hard thing. We all need to determine what our tolerance is for risk, and what we get from riding, being outside, or moving for that matter. Anyone with stairs in their house is at risk for falling down them. If you have a pet, that risk goes up exponentially. Should we relegate ourselves to a single floor? Just stepping outside carries enormous risk. While there are coyotes…

Blog Featured March 26, 2020

Hey Garmin, Fenix 6 Virtual Run activity needs some work

I feel a little bad complaining about a “found feature”, as in I didn’t buy the Fenix 6 because of Virtual Run support, and until it was there, didn’t even know it was coming. With that out of the way, it’s a neat thing, but WOW does it need some work. Multi-sport activity: Yesterday was leg/back day, with a 10 minute run to warm up before hitting the heavy. So in preparation,…

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