[cvcalhoun]

Goals? I can’t even figure out how to measure what I’ve already accomplished for the year! Garmin Connect shows me only 25 activities at a time, so exporting a whole year’s worth of activities would take approximately forever. I haven’t found a way to figure this out easily with Strava, either. Any tips? I’d actually like to know, because I suspect my activity has been seriously bumped up this year between Freezing Saddles, the National Bike Challenge, and getting involved in theater (with consequent biking to rehearsals).

[cvcalhoun]

My morning commute started with sticking the trailer in the back of the bike at 4:15 am, so I could use it to pick up coffee from Starbucks for all the elections judges I’ll be supervising from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. It’s going to be a LONG day!

[cvcalhoun]

I want these for the next Freezing Saddles! With chains on them.

@baiskeli 87413 wrote:

Oh yeah? Well, car wheels on bike.

[cvcalhoun]

Of course, I’ve reached the stage in life at which I’d like to have a bit less in the way of hip.

[cvcalhoun]

Dang, for once in my life, I’m trendy!

[cvcalhoun]

• On May 8, I reported the problem. The online form indicated that action would be taken within 3 days.
• On May 10, I returned and discovered the walk signal working.
• On May 19, I got an e-mail saying, “Based upon inquiry we dispatched our signal technician to the intersection of Jones Bridge Road and Jones Mill Road and he found that all of the pedestrian push buttons were functioning properly. If you experience the problem again please contact Mr. Carlos Paniagua of our staff at 240-777-2190.” I figured maybe the request had gone in twice, and had already been fixed by the first people before the second people went out, so I didn’t think anything of this.
• On May 22, I discovered that the signal was again not working, but didn’t have time to stop and report it.
• On June 5, I discovered that the signal was again working.
• Today, I get an e-mail saying:
  

  We are writing in reply to your e-mail on May 8, 2014, regarding the operation of the pedestrian signals at the subject intersection.

  Based upon your inquiry we dispatched our technician to the intersection of Jones Bridge Road and Jones Mill Road and we replaced a malfunctioning pedestrian push button on the southeast side of the intersection.

  If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Mr. Juan Paniagua of our staff at 240-777-2190.

Apparently, a) they aren’t exactly taking their promise of a response within 3 days seriously, and b) Mr. Paniagua has changed his first name in hopes of avoiding detection. I just hope the walk signal stays fixed this time!

[cvcalhoun]

Nope. They add an extra u, but it is silent.

@PotomacCyclist 88626 wrote:

Do British transplants try to add an extra “r” in there, somewhere?

[cvcalhoun]

Does anyone besides me remember the days (before 1989, for you young whipper snappers) when the Clara Barton Parkway was known as the GW Parkway? Yes, the current GW Parkway was also known as the GW Parkway, even then. It made the traffic reports fairly confusing.

@lordofthemark 88470 wrote:

CCT, henceforth, always means the Capital Crescent Trail. The trail in Fairfax is now the Gerry Connolly Cross County Trail, or the GCCCT, thus solving this aspect of the TLA crisis.

[cvcalhoun]

You’ve said why you don’t bike every day, but why do you want to bike every day? There is actually nothing wrong with biking 3 times a week, and by doing so (especially with all those other activities), you’re still getting a lot more exercise than the average person. However, if you have goals that make it desirable to do more than that, focus on those goals. Do you want to lose weight? Train for an event? Get the strength so that more of your non-commuting trips can be by bicycle rather than car? Limit your carbon footprint? Only by thinking through and focusing on what the positives are for you will you be able to overcome the negatives.

The other thing to recognize is that the more you exercise, the more “bad days” you will have, just by the law of averages. (You’ll also have more “good days.”) So focus on just getting out there every day, instead of beating yourself up for those days you are slower than usual, or not able to “go hard.”

[cvcalhoun]

So I tried 1-second recording on the Garmin 500 today. The good news: It managed recording and uploading my 3+ hour ride with no apparent problems. The bad news: It didn’t correct the minor discrepancies between how Garmin and Strava calculate my ride, even though they are both uploading from the same device. Garmin says I covered 25.83 miles in 3:19:06, burning 939 calories. Strava says I covered 26.3 miles in 3:20:49, burning 1,334 calories. They agree that my elevation gain was 1,572 feet, my average heart rate was 115 bpm, and my maximum heart rate was 143 bpm.

@vvill 88427 wrote:

Smart recording uses less battery but records less often than 1 sec so your data will be slightly less accurate. Speed/distance shouldn’t be too different though if you are training based on recording your HR or power data you will want 1 second data, and I’d assume elevation data is more accurate with 1 second recording too.

The 500 is fine with long rides on 1 second recording.

[cvcalhoun]

We’d love another recruit! And if you’re not on a team, you’d be welcome to join us as well.

@PotomacCyclist 88488 wrote:

I may have another recruit for the Washington Area All-Stars team, even though I’m not on the team myself.

[cvcalhoun]

Gee, I usually encounter the honkers and sidewalk pointers further south than that. The last couple of blocks before Old Georgetown turns onto Woodmont seems to be a favorite, for some reason.

But you’re right, doing the right and safe thing doesn’t seem to help. And the fact that they honk and point–or yell out the window while driving at speed–means that you can’t even engage them to explain the rules of the road.

@gswim18 88435 wrote:

ME – Riding South on Old Gtown across from NIH this morning around 8:15am.

YOU – Green Jeep Cherokee with South Carolina plates honking at me from behind then passing me while pointing to the sidewalk.

Sorry, I ride this route every morning and will continue to do so. I am not sure the rules of the road in the Palmetto State but I know I was doing the right and safe thing here in MD.

I am relatively new to bike commuting but am quickly starting to realize that this is not a game! I have been honked at more in the last two weeks than I had been all winter long during Freezing Saddles. My guess is that our #s are on the rise with the better weather and we all might not be doing the right thing at all time – I Idaho stop on a regular basis. I forgot who said it here, but my focus as of late has been controlling my front tire and riding predictably. I just want to get home safe, hope everyone here does the same.

Small rant – bike riders wearing bright day-glow jerseys while also wearing earphones. I find earphones and bike riding in general to not be a good idea but the combo of the two makes no sense to me. Make sure that you are visible but then intentionally impair your hearing while on the road? Doesn’t seem like a wise choice.

[cvcalhoun]

Yeah, probably not worth fixing the small differences between Strava and Garmin at the cost of having parts of longer rides missing.

@PotomacCyclist 88417 wrote:

I used to have the 1-second setting enabled on my 305. But I learned that the setting causes a weird glitch. It would only record the first 2 or 3 hours of any workout (bike or run) with that setting. When I would load the data to SportTracks on my computer later on, everything after the 2 or 3-hr. mark would be missing. When I switched to Smart Recording, the all of my long workouts would appear complete.

I just checked the Settings menu on my 305. It says that for 1-second recording, the time limit of a workout is 3.5 hrs. After that, no data is recorded for the ride or run. For longer workouts, you have to use Smart Recording.

Unless you are making a lot of very tight turns, Smart Recording shouldn’t affect accuracy too much. The numbers won’t be precise, but I think the margin of error is relatively small.

[cvcalhoun]

Ah, okay. I’d found another forum that said it didn’t. Not sure whether they were wrong, or whether it changed. Anyway, I found the option and reset it. We’ll see whether that makes a difference.

@hozn 88399 wrote:

Oh, it should. My 305 had that option and my 510 does (and I feel positive that my friends with edge 500 have discussed this). It should be under the “Data Recording” menu option.

(Yes, looks like it does: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=3aWdU-aRMtezyASKzoKYAg&url=http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/Edge_500_OM_EN.pdf&cd=5&ved=0CDUQFjAE&usg=AFQjCNEy2pwjmOAFzmcjS7wFNL8MJesBTA&sig2=KpQCo6KQLT9QLdo2mpTVfQ)

[cvcalhoun]

Alas, the Garmin (Edge 500) doesn’t seem to have an “every second” option, unless I get a power meter. And I’m not willing to do that just to see whether it would fix the minor differences.

@hozn 88395 wrote:

Do you use “smart” recording on the Garmin or “every second”? Try the latter, if you aren’t and see if that improves things. I am guessing Garmin and Strava just have different smoothing algorithms to connect the dots recorded by the device. I typically found Strava to show *lower* numbers than the Garmin, though it seems like lately they line up pretty close. Strava is constantly tweaking their calculations and they likely do different things for different models of cycling computers.

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