My Evening Commute

[komorebi]

In my experience, the drivers on Boundary Channel Drive around the Pentagon are among the most patient and most courteous in the area. Today was no exception. A line of five or six Canada geese decided to cross Boundary Channel Drive — at one of the crosswalks, no less! — and a nice driver waited patiently for them to clear the road. I wish I had given the driver a thumbs up; I hope that he or she at least saw the highly amused grin on my face.

Also, the sunset was so glorious that I stopped even noticing the heat and humidity.

I love my commute.

[dbb]

Coming home from the Arlington BAC meeting last night.

As I rolled across the bridge over Boundary Channel just south of the trollheim I saw this image. It took me a moment to conclude I needed to make this photo so I turned around. Turns out the top of the railing was flat enough to support a point and shoot for the 1 second exposure.

[GovernorSilver]

@bentbike33 123030 wrote:

Anyone know why the Circulator buses going around the east end of the Tidal Basin (Raoul Wallenberg Pl.–>Maine Ave.–>Ohio Ave.–>East Basin Dr.) drive so slowly? They go about pedicab speed even without a pedicab in front of them.

No idea, but I passed one on Madison this morning, and another on Jefferson in the evening, despite riding my heavy hybrid-meets-cruiser bike and pedaling in my usual casual cruising gear (just high enough to let me spin at good cadence without mashing).

[TwoWheelsDC]

Finally swapped in the 16t cog that has been sitting on the shelf for 5 months, so the Cinelli is running 48×16 (79gi). Cuts my RPMs down by about 10 coming down hills, which really helps me keep power to the pedals up the next hill. Only bad part is going up hills from a dead stop. Definitely like this gearing for the commute though.

Also arrived home to see my Virb warranty replacement arrived, and instead of sending me a refurb, Garmin sent me a NIB unit, so I got another battery and set of mounts out of the deal. Thanks Garmin!

[dplasters]

@TwoWheelsDC 123444 wrote:

Finally swapped in the 16t cog that has been sitting on the shelf for 5 months, so the Cinelli is running 48×16 (79gi). Cuts my RPMs down by about 10 coming down hills, which really helps me keep power to the pedals up the next hill. Only bad part is going up hills from a dead stop. Definitely like this gearing for the commute though.

Also arrived home to see my Virb warranty replacement arrived, and instead of sending me a refurb, Garmin sent me a NIB unit, so I got another battery and set of mounts out of the deal. Thanks Garmin!

That is steep. I found my acceleration too slow off the line at 72gi. Props to you.

[consularrider]

Was absolutely horrid! After riding back from the Embassy in the rain, I read and studied a little bit before (and this is the horror) GETTING BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR! My first time in over six weeks and first time in Ukraine. I was going back to the Embassy to give my wife a ride to the Kyiv International School for their monthly school board meeting.

[dbb]

Was a little slow as I was carrying precious cargo.

Come to me, my precious!

[GovernorSilver]

Cyclemeter GPS said I burned 577 calories on the evening ride, less than the 619 I burned this morning, yet I felt more exhausted in the evening. The heat (and probably the humidity/dew point too!) makes a difference! 72-73 F this morning vs. 90 F from the start of the ride up to around mid-ride when it “mercifully” dropped to 88F.

Traffic was backed up again going down Raoul Wallenberger. Maybe when I get a road bike with narrower handlebar I’ll filter between the cars and the curb in the right lane, but I was content to wait my turn in the lane. I later passed most of the filtering cyclists because they ended up on the sidewalk while I leisurely pedaled past them on the road. Half of them passed me later on the bridge.

After crossing the bridge, one cyclist double-passed me and the cyclist in front of me – almost into a group ride going the other way. It was a line of about 8-10 cyclists. The offending cyclist got this in response from the group:

“Call your pass!”

“Not very smart!”

Is it roller skating season? I didn’t see any skaters most of this summer, then the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen 4. I passed one this morning, and passed another this evening.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@GovernorSilver 123780 wrote:

Cyclemeter GPS said I burned 577 calories on the evening ride, less than the 619 I burned this morning, yet I felt more exhausted in the evening.

Just make sure you don’t diet based on these numbers, as pretty much all the fitness apps way overestimate calorie burn. With a power meter, you can get a pretty good estimate (1kj of work ~ 1Cal burned), but otherwise the app algorithms aren’t too reliable, since they don’t factor in wind, rolling resistance, fitness levels, etc…My power meter says my somewhat hilly 7.3 mile commute burns about 300 Cal if I go pretty hard, but fitness apps tend to give me estimates that are double that. This was a big eye opener when I realized how much I was overeating compared to my actual calories burned. But if you’re not dieting or using calories to guide food intake, it’s pretty much a non-issue.

If you use a heart rate monitor, I think the numbers will be better, and certain apps seem to do better than others. Strava seems to do okay, but MyFitnessPal (which is a weight loss app!) is so far off that it’s not even worth using for fitness tracking in my experience.

[Tania]

I have a polar hrm and then the hrm that came with my garmin. Both register appx the same beats per minute but the algorithms they use to calculate calories burned (based on heart rate) are COMPLETELY different. So I never bother to wear it anymore.

I’ve noticed the estimated calories burned (based off time, distance and my size/weight) are pretty different even without the heart rate monitor. 36 miles yesterday – strava said 1273, garmin said 1761. Based on level of effort for that ride (gravel, hills of death) I’d say garmin was right. But for my normal commute in and home (strava says 350ish, garmin 500-600), I go with the lower number for ride in (mostly downhill) and an average of the two coming home (pretty much all uphill). For casual coffee rides I’ll take the lower number, for rides where I feel like I’m working, I’ll average the two. I do think for most rides — for me — strava is too low but garmin is too high. For mountain biking I’ll go with the higher number.

It’s highly scientific and I’m sure someone will chime in to tell me just how wrong I am. But my scale weight tells me I’m doing it right (staying steady while allowing me the occasional donut…or four) so this works for me.

Curious about the power meter. Maybe I’ll finally put that on my bike!

[GovernorSilver]

@TwoWheelsDC 123781 wrote:

Just make sure you don’t diet based on these numbers, as pretty much all the fitness apps way overestimate calorie burn. With a power meter, you can get a pretty good estimate (1kj of work ~ 1Cal burned), but otherwise the app algorithms aren’t too reliable, since they don’t factor in wind, rolling resistance, fitness levels, etc…My power meter says my somewhat hilly 7.3 mile commute burns about 300 Cal if I go pretty hard, but fitness apps tend to give me estimates that are double that. This was a big eye opener when I realized how much I was overeating compared to my actual calories burned. But if you’re not dieting or using calories to guide food intake, it’s pretty much a non-issue.

If you use a heart rate monitor, I think the numbers will be better, and certain apps seem to do better than others. Strava seems to do okay, but MyFitnessPal (which is a weight loss app!) is so far off that it’s not even worth using for fitness tracking in my experience.

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, and I don’t drink much soda, but other than that I’m not really on a diet. I don’t take the numbers too seriously, as recorded by Cyclemeter GPS, or as interpreted by Strava after I share from the app to the Strava site. The calorie counts are mainly for my amusement. It’s even more amusing to know that my coworker started following my Strava feed. I think after a few weeks, he’ll be disappointed in the lack of progress in my avg. speed and stuff like that, and give up looking at my rides, because when I commute by bike, I ride to gradually boot up my mind for work (the scenery here is awesome for that), and in the evening, I ride to unwind from work. I won’t be challenging the infamous Tim Kelley anytime soon.

[hozn]

It’s funny, I had the opposite problem with Garmin HRM: it would give me numbers that were quite a bit lower than my power-meter based calorie calculations (now that I have a PM). For example, a spirited ride into work last year (~50 minutes, 16 miles) would give me a Garmin estimate of 400-500 calories; power meter now says that’s more like 700-800 calories. That seems better as all out for me is around 1k calories/hour. It does seem like the numbers got closer together the longer the workout — for example, I think the calorie outputs for 6+ hour rides were similar, though I don’t have many data points for long rides with power meter.

I suspect there may have been things that I didn’t have calibrated correctly on the Garmin. E.g. maybe never did a really good max HR test? Not sure what the issue was.

I found the Strava estimated calories (which are based on their estimated power) to be close enough to real numbers that I’d probably just use those on average for tracking calories if I didn’t have a power meter. Of course, they really only work for riding paved roads. True they don’t factor in wind, but I think that averages out over a few rides.

I will say, that if you’re using it for dieting purposes, having something that reads lower is better. It was a lot easier to lose weight in the Spring before knowing that my morning workout + commute burned 2100 calories instead of 1200. So I guess I have to switch back to HRM numbers in the spring.

[GovernorSilver]

This same coworker who follows me on Strava uses 3 different apps to track his riding performance. He’s a lot more serious about racing – going down to the Richmond area to watch UCI, training with a team in Baltimore, etc. He teases me about taking the long way to both home and work.

[Tim Kelley]

@Tania 123783 wrote:

Curious about the power meter. Maybe I’ll finally put that on my bike!

Here’s some reading that explains things: http://cyclingillustrated.com/using-a-power-meter-to-calculate-energy-expenditure/

[Guus]

Was a little scary… a car only left 2 inches of space between us when passing me at the Quincy/Washington crossing, going north.

Often I can bicycle in the parking spaces there but now they were in use, by cars and a big pile of garden waste.

[Author]

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