Duathlon Training starts in earnest today

my plan over the next 3 and a bit weeks and the training load as mapped out on my Polar software below

red - don't train
yellow - no hi intensity
green - go do something

Feeling good post turbo session

interval sessions on the turbo trainer

Polar RCX5 review

The Polar HRM arrived nearly a month ago now and I have had a good chance to use it in various sports.

Firstly unboxing showed a nice little box and neat packaging. When you first switch on RCX it asks you to input basic things like sex, age, height, weight as well as the amount you exercise per week. I fall into a higher (amateur) category of roughly 5-7 hrs / week.

The RCX typically comes in 3 configurations … a gps setup which includes the excellent G5 gps. This is a very nice waterproof unit which holds charge for 20 hrs which is far from what i have had the pleasure of exceeding. The unit comes with an armband although I must confess that one month later i have yet to use it. The unit is very wee and fits into the small key pocket at the front of my running shorts as well as the back pocket of my running tights. I even used it the other day on a ride and had it jammed into a small front pocket of my jacket pocket. Being hunched over I expected the reception and subsequent track to be slightly skittish but coming back i compared the track to the one recorded by my Garmin Edge 305 which is on my stem with an uninterupted view of the sky. The comparison revealed that the Garmin recorded the ride as 51.42km and the edge at 51.62km … that is a 200m discrepancy over a huge distance. thinks it something like 0.4% (better get my calculator out) I am sure a shoulder mount or bar mount would make it perfect (that is me judging the Edge to be perfect …)

Other configurations are the Run pack which comes with the S3+ stride sensor. I have not used this but have seen side by side comparisons to the Garmin unit and from what I gather they are pretty compareable. The Polar unti is much bigger and does everything the Garmin does … the only feature useful to me would be the stride count … but then i am a slight Chi runner and my footfall stride is roughly 83-85/min.

The other configuration i have seen is the bike pack which has a cadence and Speed Censor … the cadence sensor would be the most useful to me … if you have the GPS sensor then i think you dont need the speed sensor.
One point I would say is that it is a shame that it is not the one unit like many of the competitors now do. Times and Garmin do their combined ones. I still use my Garmin unit along with the edge indoors when on the turbo trainer and having this placed on the back wheel makes it very practical.

I think that all the above configurations come with a heart rate belt although it is also possible to buy the RCX5 unit as a standalone piece which is probably only something that athletes that already own a polar belt (although not all older belts can be seen by the RCX5) On the heart Belt itself – amazingly comfortable and using Garmin and Suunto for the past few years I must confess that Polar know what they are doing when they make the belts … so comfy and you never get a strange spike or weird reading that you sometimes get with the Garmin HR belts.
Polar also do sports bras for women which have the HR receiver built into them which should make them more comfy than a standard setup for some.

what works with what POLAR

Back to the RCX unit. There are two colours to choose from a black and a red … I chose red because everyone knows that red is faster.

The square design has been criticised by some but I think it is great … it is slightly larger than a normal watch but once exercising the display is clear and very easy to use.
You can customise the display to show what you want to see .. I have gone into this before HERE

Using the Unit
Strapping the RCX on I immediately noticed how comfortable the watch was – in fact the whole construction oozes class not something i have noticed in the build of any previous Polar, Garmin or Suunto with the possible exception of my Suunto Core

Going outside for a run you can leave the gps on a wall whilst you pre-stretch – and then it latches onto the signal very quickly – the chipset inside the unit is a SIRF6 which allows for quicker lock on. the given wisdom is that cold fixing (in an area you have not been in before) will take around a minute, and hot fixes (starting in an area where you finished your last run / ride) will take 10-20 sec. From experience this seem to hold true. Of course this is a gps so switching it on when inside your house will not be good … but a sky above you should be good enough for the fix.
A tip I learnt for cold or rainy weather is to switch on the gps and leave it in your window whilst you put shoes on and it is generally ready to go when you are.

The unit when setting it up can be set to auto-lap – this is something I use when running having the watch perform every 1km … i find this more useful as a pace guide and a very good nudge to the brain when i need to speed up.
the watch can be set to either follow a programme (which can be configured on polar personal trainer and downloaded) say if you were doing intervals with a 5min warm up, 10 min tempo and 3 fartleks then arm down. The watch also has a great audible warning which can be set to pace or HR. This can either be set to Loud, quieter or off. I find this more useful when doing a fat-burn ride or run when my natural instinct is to speed up and defeat the very purpose of the training.

Post exercise the RCX5 stores your last exercise in the data section fro you to review. By itself the RCX5 gives a good breakdown and review of data. You can look at individual training sessions or see a summary of the week which is useful if you need a motivator to get out the door for a run or cycle. One of the good features is that there is a very good heart rate zone breakdown as well as a neat thing were you can see what percentage of calories was in fat burn.

HR zone breakdown

Speaking of features there is something missing and that is a proper barometric altimeter. Most of the course I do aren’t that hilly and I put bike tracks into bikewithgps or other tracking websites which recomputes gps info and produces a ride profile. For those running in hilly location this lack of altimeter might be a problem but for me it is not a deal breaker.

I think the beauty of the Polar RCX5 is in the heart rate monitoring … a lot of people like myself would look at the lack of ANT+ support and the very annoying lack of integration with other platforms like map my run, bikely,endomondo and others and decide not to go with polar BUT (and it’s a big butt) polar does and has always done great heart rate monitors. The analysis that you can do post exercise is way better than polar and a bit better than the hrm software that my old suunto t6 used with movescount.

Once you have done the exercise you can upload the data using polar weblink which is a free download from their site. One word of advice make sure you click the RCX5 for PPT option as I inadvertently clicked the other option when downloading the update then tore my hair out trying to figure out what i had done)
With the Polar Personal Trainer software you can create programs as well as seeing very easily how your training load is…. This prevents you overtraining (however rare this is in my case)

Finally I would say that polar, although not integrating as well as Garmin does with ANT+, weblink does allow you to access the RCX5 and download the .hrm files and .gpx files (gps track) – it’s a shame it doesn’t use the .tcx format but i think that is a garmin proprietary format.

I may have highlighted some weaknesses in this review but I am happy with the unit and wouldn’t change it.

Suunto ambit – new gps hrm from Suunto

There is a new watch on the block ….

Suunto, the brand leader in functional outdoor instruments, announces the launch of the AMBIT*, the first true GPS watch for Explorers.

The Suunto AMBIT is what every backcountry skier, hiker, trail runner and mountain climber has been eagerly waiting for — a watch that combines a GPS navigation system, altimeter, 3D compass with advanced heart rate monitoring into a robust instrument for mountain and everyday use.

 

 is an awesome product that should be on the wrist of anyone who heads into the outdoors,” comments Greg Hill, the recordbreaking extreme ski mountaineer, who in 2010, ascended two million vertical feet. “The AMBIT is a potentially life-saving survival tool thanks to its full GPS capability and altimeter. It’s also invaluable for anyone who, like me, wants to record their tracks and log their vertical ascents and descents. And it looks great too.”

Specific Outdoor Functionality
With AMBIT’s full-featured GPS the user can choose waypoints to navigate with and see their location in multiple coordinate systems. The AMBIT boasts a host of other features including temperature, track logging, unique 3D Compass and barometric sensor. All these keep you informed of your location, altitude and weather conditions on your adventures.

Advanced Training Functionality
The AMBIT also offers functions for the serious mountain athlete. The patent pending accelometer fused GPS gives highly responsive speed and pace with Suunto FusedSpeedTM. Heart rate monitoring with Peak Training Effect will keep you within your optimimum training zone and Recovery Time will tell you when you’re fully recovered for your next adventure. And after a hard session in the hills, the GPS will guide you home where you can upload your data for analysis on Movescount.com.

Mountain and Everyday Exploration
The AMBIT is housed in a robust BuiltToLast casing and has an enhanced battery lifetime of up to 50hrs in GPS mode. True to Suunto’s heritage in dive instruments, it is water resistant to 100m. Upgrades are available through Movescount.com.

Comments Jonathan Wyatt, six-time world mountain running champion:

”As a trail runner and mountain athlete, what I need in a watch is a heart rate monitor, speed & distance, and altimeter. The AMBIT has all these features in one unit which is really exciting. One of the main problems for endurance athletes is battery life of conventional GPS sports watches so the promise of 50hrs is a big step forward.”

“Fused speed technology also gives a more accurate pace which is vital for anyone serious about their running. Being able to pair it and use it with all the existing PODs and comfort belts is another big plus point for me. This means one watch can be used for all my activities like mountain biking, road cycling, trail and mountain running, cross country skiing and ski mountaineering.”

“Knowing that the AMBIT is built for the mountains and will survive whatever I or the elements throw at it also sets it apart. Being able to personalise the displays of the watch, download updates and analyse the data on Movescount.com all help to make the AMBIT an awesome product for mountain athletes.”

”The AMBIT is everything the outdoor athlete could want in a watch,” comments Jari Ikäheimonen, brand manager at Suunto. ”It’s a unit you can trust. With its GPS and superior functions, the Ambit takes outdoor instruments to a new level. It’s a serious watch packed within a sleek but robust casing. It is the GPS for Explorers.”

New HRM and new training schedule … but still the old legs

Still recovering slightly from the injury but I have started spinning again.

New routine is this.

bike in situ on the tacq trainer

1. Assembled the turbo trainer in the house ….

kitchen unit with iPad and movies on the unit ….

jugs of water close to hand

wooden floors so easier to clean up the sweat.

 

2. New HRM has arrived – a Polar RCX5 with gps

On polarpersonaltrainer website you can start following a program so I started an endurance ride one with sportives in the summer on my planned to do list ….

So here is a glimpse of it all – tomorrow night after a long day’s filming I come home and then start a 2 hr low HR ride … will let you know how this progresses in a few weeks …

my training plan (bike)

One thing I like about the site is that once your sessions are uploaded it works out a training load to avoid you overtraining. It is similar to Suunto’s Movescount Training Effect (I wrote a post about that here when i was using the T6 HRM). I started a training ride last night that said i had to do 30 minutes in Zone 2 HR which for me is only 127bpm max …. the summary is interesting showing the percentage of fat burn in the calorie expenditure … Basically long and slow burns fat …. will have to monitor this as would be great to drop 3-5kg for summer.

HR graph - not allowed any greens tonight mumma

 

 

Bryton Cardio 30 – A Full Review

I will start this review saying I really really wanted the Bryton Cardio 30 to be a great product. On paper it seemed perfect – a small size, waterproof, gps enabled but I have been sadly let down.

Out of the box it seemed nice presented in a neat case with instructions and lead enclosed.

Physical:

It is smaller and lighter than I thought it would be – the tiny face displaying 3 lines of data. The strap is comfortable which is a major point for me. The waterproof rating is very good and the construction seems robust.

In Action:

This is were I start to well up – it is hopeless as a training HRM. It may pair easily enough with ANT+ coded items and it may acquire a satellite reading in an OK time but it sucks when you want to read any info from it in a run. The display is useless – it always shows distance in the top line of the display and it will show Heart Rate / Time / Calories / Distance(rpt) but what any running watch needs to show is at least HR and Disatnce AND Time …. preferably at the same time.

The second bad point is that although it can be set to autolap at every 1km say it does nothing else … there is no lap time shown / there is no summary to read and no way to gauge how fast your last split was unless you deduct the last km from current and try work out the split …. and when you are pressing on in a training run this is the last thing you can do.

So this leaves it as a GPS tracker with which you can analyse your run when you finish …. but the disaster here is that the GPS is wildly inaccurate. I used it on the MTB marathon in Wales and it was way different from the Garmin Edge 305 I had on the bike (this is a steal these days at £170 ish)

Blue=Bryton Green=Garmin

This was bad enough but did a run on my regular river route and the Bryton came up very short again … you can see the type of track it records … this is an open park with near zero tree cover and NO tall building nearby ….

My Suunto T6 with GPS and the Garmin Edge (as well as sites like WALKJOGRUN) gave the same reading only ever differentiating by about 50m over a 12km run – but the Bryton is bad – it is out by 800m on this run which is an 83.9% accuracy according to a comparison on Sportypal…. so distance wise it was 800m out on this run and 2km out over a 52km ride. Very Very VERY poor

So thankfully Wiggle operates a good return policy and I will be buying something else that is ANT+ compliant (prob a Garmin of some sort)

BOTTOM LINE – Avoid the Bryton Cardio like the plague ….. it is faulty with bad software, bad GPS and terrible interface.

I have since bought myself a polar RCX5 which is just fantastic …. review HERE

Want a Heart Rate Monitor?

Selling two on the lovely fleabay

 

 

The Suunto T6C with GPS pos and HRM belt and Bike Pod

 

 

 

 

 

An older but still highly specced Polar 625x HRM with S1 footpod and Cadence Sensor ….

Reticent but know they will just sit in the drawer – need to go ANT+ with all my various bike / running / kiting gear ….

 

Bryton Cardio 30 review (the first few days)

The watch HRM is still new to me but initial thoughts are this. (Update used at Ruthin in MTB race with mixed result see bottom of this page HERE part  …..Was using the Bryton Cardio 30 on the bike as well as the Garmin Edge 305 (which is great and now around £175) and there was quite a large difference in readings. There was a small section in woodland but not enough for this difference…..)

Now done a Full Review where I advise against spending money on this watch.

Good Points

• The watch is small – much smaller than you think – quite a bit smaller than the Garmin 405 which I guess is a direct competitor, and more importantly comfortable on the wrist which the Garmin wasn’t.
• Bryton Bridge seems reliable and the ability to export .gpx files is great for those using other online diaries like endomondo (although giving the protocol to Endomondo would be useful too in case people wanted to import direct)
• Waterproof rated to 30m so I wont hesitate to use this kite surfing.
• Ability to pair with any ANT+ protocol device like HRM straps and power meters / cadence sensor etc

Middle Points

• So far I would say i am still not convinced – initial operation is a bit fiddly – the user interface is more complicated than most GPS units I have used.
• Initial satellite lock is longer than the Garmin 405 and the Suunto GPS pod.
• The displays on the watch are also not as clear or as user friendly useful as some I have seen.
• The USB connector lead is short – for me connecting to the back on an iMac I would say an inch or two too short but others may find it fine. Unusual connection – don’t lose the lead as it isn’t a regular USB. This uniqueness may have something to do with the waterproof features.

Not so good Points

• The display always has distance at the top of screen then main display is set as either km/h, rpm (stride), min/km, HR or calories. I would have liked to see an average pace as GPS reading are so flaky that it isn’t a reliable indicator.
• Display is small and doesn’t have the versatility you would need as runner or biker in monitoring your stats/status.
• A moan would be the lack of auto-lap summary – I have set unit to put in lap marker every 1km but it needs to flash you the last km time to be really useful as a running HRM. The Suunto T6C would flash up a lap time for a few seconds e.g. 4:11 along with ave HR for that lap so then you would know whether to kick in a bit or stay at pace.

Summary:

Still positive but yet to take it for a proper run – will do that one morning this week before work or Saturday morning and hopefully I can report back with an extended update.

Bryton Cardio 30 ordered – to be reviewed soon

Interesting to see how the new upstart compares to others on the market.

Cardio 30

Cardio 30, the smallest GPS sports watch on the market, is for all levels of athletes. By setting goals in our pro-training programs, Cardio 30 can accurately calculate and record your location, speed, distance, pace, stride rate, cadence*, heart rate* and more. Your training results then can be shared and analyzed at brytonsport.com.

With built-in “G sensor”, no extra foot pod is needed for indoor exercise.

Obviously Garmin (with their patent infringement lawsuit) have their various Forerunners (which I found uncomfortable and too chunky) and Suunto with their T6C and Polar are main competitors … although Suunto/Polar have seperate GPS units which pair.

I wanted a system that worked on ANT+ so that my cycling and running as on one system …..

A review coming which will hopefully give more info and insight than the Bryton website.

Running on automatic

Went for run this morning after 7am and it was already mid 30′s …. decided just to do a nice 8km+ easy run as I was flying later and didnt want to miss out on some exercise today.

I was running around one of the lakes almost on auto plot – the first and last km are on dirt so that slows things down. I looked down as my HRM beeped (I set my Suunto T6 to autolap every km when running on gps) it said a slow 4:52/km so I just relaxed and carried on. When I finished I was washing some kit then looked through my lap times … amazing in that 5 of the km laps are within the second. That really is cruising on automatic … if I tried to do it that steady there is no way I would manage.

look at the laps

ride report – Hamnavoe to St Ninian Shetland

It was windy and colder than I thought but the ride to St Ninian’s Isle was lovely. They always say that Shetland was bad to cycle in because of wind and hills and today I had both.

coastal ride

the ride from Hamnavoe started straight into the wind – the ride I was doing the day before let me keep a steady 30km/h but this was a painful 24km/h. They say that wind is the enemy of roadies and finally after years of mtb I understand … it is a slog and was irritating me until I made the conscious effort to ignore it and enjoy the scenery.

the end of the ride was the most irritating as I attempted to decipher some directions and find the relative’s house ……

I was eventually welcomed into the destination with a plateful of sandwiches a mug of coffee and some rock cake …. superb.

hills look small on a map

stats

Another day at Glentress and another Racing Ralph UST torn

I was filming last week – but schedule was to do so in Peebles and promised an early 4:30pm finish. So a plan was hatched to hit Glentress in the late afternoon for a burn up the hill to the radio mast. I put the Carver Ti Bride (my rohloffed 96er) on the roof of the car.

I had a nagging feeling that I had left something behind as I was driving down the road but had been going through the checklist….

Bike … check

Shoes … check

Helmet … check

Pumps (air and shock) check … you get the idea … then whilst filming I thought of socks and thought Bingo that’s what I forgot … luckily the very excellent BSpoke bikes was a couple of hundred metres away – and the BikeHub at Glentress is also great although I had a fear that it may have closed early …..

So got to the centre paid my £3 parking then set the Garmin 305 onto the ride I did in a pack and in snow in Jan in an effort to see how much quicker summer is.

The route I took (GPX file is here if you want it) in Jan was followed as I was soon so far ahead I couldnt see the little figure that acts as a pace maker when doing Garmin routes ….

The ride is lovely winding up the red and black routes to the radio mast at the top ….

You go over the little wood tricks on the way up – a great way to get your focus balanced before pointing downhill.

Skinny's on the way up

The higher black part of the climb has one or two tricky sections but the idea is to get all the way up without putting your foot down … I did but only for a p*ss break !! (the gpx file for the route up is here)

Radio Mast - all downhill from here

Got to the radio mast in about 1h10min and then I was ready for a smashing downhill. 200m down the road as I was leaving the Fire Road to get onto first singletrack …. Clank ….. Tsssssss. My new Racing Ralph UST was pissing air. Rolling it on side to get sealant to plug was no use … tried adding high volume air and lay on side for gloop to work and no good.

Thought I would have to bite the bullet and put a tube in as the hole / tear was pretty small when it dawned on me … that earlier nagging feeling. I gave my last inner tube to my friend Findlay when he had a puncture and I wasn’t carrying one.

some of the single track I missed

BUT … it was a beautiful night – the air was still and sun was pure delight … I help up the saddle and proceeded to run down the mountain following the escape route. It was just over 13km up and only a 4.7km run down in stiff carbon soled MTB shoes. Still exercise is exercise.

Shame to miss out on the nice singletrack descent and the swooping bermed loveliness but I could have been working or sat on my arse somewhere.

Comparing the routes in Sportypal it was interesting to see my average speed up was higher than my up/down average in a group in the snow in Jan

HRM route reading on the Suunto Movescount site

The question at the end is why Schwalbe one of the biggest and some say best tyre manufacturers has such a problem in their UST department? Having one Racing Ralph rip on a normal groomed made MTB course could be construed as unlucky but to have a second one go so quickly is ridiculous. The terrain is not rough – probably smoother than nearly every XC course I have ridden on. So good riddance to the RR and time to get the Maxis Larsen TT on the bike.

Has anyone else had a problem with Racing Ralph’s?

How good is 5 a side footie as a workout

Played another game last night and I don’t think I can remember the last time I was so puffed out from exercise. I cycled there to warm up – that’s the first 15 min or the heart rate chart. Then warm up and then the game – an hour of hard exercise.

It’s all in the high aerobic / anaerobic level where there is basically attrition on the body – but exercise that allows you to develop sprint and muscular ability by wearing you down. The dips in HR are my 4 stints in goal – pretty defined by a marked drop…. The last section is the cycle home with bruised shins and tired limbs – even friendly games can be pretty brutal sometimes.

HRmax 180 training effort 4.6

Noticed when uploading the suunto T6 data into moves count that nearly half the exercise counts as maximal, with a training effort of 4.6

. In their literature they say ….

4. Highly improving Training Effect

This workout highly improves your aerobic performance, if repeated 1 to 2 times per week. In order to achieve optimal development, it requires 2 to 3 recuperative workouts (with a Training Effect of 1–2) per week.

5. Over-reaching Training Effect

This workout helps you greatly improve your aerobic performance, but only if followed by a sufficient recuperation period. Training at this level requires an extremely high level of exertion and should not be performed often.

So easy exercise for me if I get another chance for any before going overseas for work next week.

What exercise have you that was much harder than you thought?

RACE DAY – What a great run TF Phantom Farewell Run

6am and the alarm goes off. Running shorts on with jeans over the top to keep warm. Drink water, eat banana have some Clif Bar.

pre-race still dark

Down to the start and register again. Get number hobble around in the cold (about 3 degrees C) then sweater off and BANG here we go.

A good race – slightly shorter than the 7.35miles it was supposed to be – probably around 500+ runners. Saw some of them shoot ahead so kept count 11,12,13 …. figured I was in 19th.

lap splits - not super consistent

Kept up the pace for quite a while passed one got passed by another. Eventually coming in at 45m46s (4:08/km). Heart Rate pretty healthy for this type of run

heart rate on movescount

Came in tied 19th – first veteran Huzzah for Old Blokes

Suunto T6C Review

Suunto T6C BLACK

Well it has been a month of intensive use on the T6C for me and I thought I would write a short review on it … it’s been about 30 hours of exercise so sweaty use mainly running and cycling. Most of this review is based on previous HRM I have owned and used … Polar 710 and a 625x , Garmin 301 and 405GPS

LOOKS / PHYSICAL

Well the Suunto is small and neat – it nearly looks like a normal digital watch. It is comfortable on the wrist and light. It is only 55g  and is waterproof to 100m. The cutouts on the strap sit comfortably on the wrist bones to when running. I used to find the Garmin a bit clunky and sharp edged – solved for me by running with a thin wrist sweatband to stop it rubbing banging too much. The Suunto is easily on par with the Polars and I forget it is there running until the auto lap beeps me to check my pace.

FEATURES

The features are great – it obviously does heart rate with a belt and has a barometer/ altimeter built in which is much better than the GPS fix the Garmin used to try. I have to confess now that I have a Suunto Core too so the menu system is very straight forward to me and I didn’t really need to consult the manual to find my way around. Not sure if the lovely Finnish watch is easy for everyone.

SOFTWARE

The best part of the Suunto and the movescount software is the EPOC and Training Effect information. They are linked but here is a brief blurb explanation:

EPOC with pace change halfway through

Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption

EPOC is the additional amount of oxygen the body needs to recover from exercise. Previously only measurable in sports laboratories, EPOC is a scientific indicator for the accumulated training load of each training session. Measuring your EPOC makes it possible to objectively gauge whether the training session was sufficient to improve your fitness level. EPOC is also used to calculate your Training Effect.

Training Effect: Any physical trainer will tell you that in order to maximize the impact of your workouts you need to train hard enough to make a difference, but not so hard that you injure yourself. Without a personal trainer to advise you, an optimal training range is exceedingly difficult to figure out because your target training zone will change as your fitness level improves. Suunto’s  Training Effect feature tells you whether you’re training too little, too hard or staying within the zones for optimal performance. Training Effect uses a simple 1-to-5 scale to display how intense your workout is based on your current fitness level. And with alarms, you’ll know as soon as you hit your limit. If for example you do a hard training at level 4 it suggests you do at least 2 sessions or recovery at 1 or 2 to prevent overtraining.

Training Effect is an accurate measurement of how hard you have trained. To calculate your personal Training Effect, Suunto heart rate monitors user data from your personal fitness profile and combines it with an analysis of your physiological progress in real time. Your heart rate monitor then formulates your Training Effect, presented as a number on a scale from 1-5.

The other remaining body parameters provided by the analysis software of Suunto t6 are energy consumption, ventilation, oxygen consumption and respiratory rate.

ACCESSORIES

The T6C uses the Ant Pod system – I have a bike Pod as well as a GPS Pod. One of the nicest things is that you can set speed on the watch to display individually for these pods. I have the GPS set to min/km for running (pace) and the bike one is set to km/h (speed)

The downside:

NO1

Firstly memory
I thought this Suunto would be a bit like the Core in that once memory got full the old entries in the logbook were overwritten (unless they were protected. With the T6C this is not the case – the watch still records total duration but stos recording exact parameters. When that happens you get an entry like this on Movescount

Memory Full - the result

So halfway thought a cycle and just as I started doing repetitions … a wee bit of a pain but lesson learnt. I reckon that recording all parameters ever 2sec (speed, HR, altitude, gps) will give you around a 4hr session recorded. Switch to /10sec if doing a longer race.

NO2

I have scratched the face of the watch so wrote to Suunto to see if there is some fancy scratch remover and I got this reply …..

Dear Sir,

Thank you for contacting Suunto.

The material used for the display in the t6/t6c models is mineral crystal glass. While mineral crystal glass is scratch resistant, this does not mean that the display is scratch proof and if used in rough conditions like mountain climbing we would recommend use of a display shield.

Unfortunately there is no product that can remove the scratches, but it is possible to replace the display at our service center.

With best regards,
Suunto Helpdesk

Stuck in Kuwait

Snow in the UK and transport grinds to a halt. Currently in Kuwait waiting for the decision to be made on whether it’s better to go east (to Dubai) before heading west (to Glasgow direct flight) or whether I have to wait here for morning flight to heathrow and then Scotland.

7am view from hotel

Staying in cheapy Ibis in Kuwait – but one block from the sea so this morning got up and went down to esplanade for a run.
It’s in the Salmiya area of Kuwait – 12 kilometers southeast of Kuwait City and is one of the largest areas in Kuwait consisting of both commercial and residential areas. The blocks located beside the Persian Gulf coastline have a great deal of commercial and up-scale residential real estate. The interior residential areas apparently hosts a huge population of foreigners who seem to do all the work here…..

This area was flattened during the Gulf War Salmiya by the invading Iraqi occupation, but was gradually rebuilt and re-populated. This area used to have old rugged 3-storied buildings and open fields and the beach front, once a hub and harbor for the fishing and pearl diving community, has been transformed into another middle east faceless area of tall towers and roads.

esplanade

But when they redesigned it they did get some things right – although there seems to have been no thought given at all to cycling or alternative transport.
The esplanade has been nicely laid out and makes a great running route – paved with a nice seabreeze coming in should make it doable even when it hits 50C in the summer.

Had a great 8km run but noticed that Kuwaitis don’t run – they all were walking for exercise – only saw 4 other runners and they all looked like expats or visitors to me.

HR from run - Suunto T6C

Goodbye Garmin

Not bad for a working week – working 7 days a week so fitting in the exercise is important. Trying to get over an hour a day of exercise – really want to lose some weight and get a bit quicker … my runs have been slow since the cold.

This is a goodbye to Garmin Training Log as well as moving on to Movescount the Suunto calendar and community page. Just sold the Garmin 405 to a pal and looking forward to trying out the Suunto T6C which should be waiting for me at home.

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Trying out movescount the website community for Suunto Users. Looks pretty good and the analysis software on site is much better than Garmin Connect. I particularly like the EPOC and Training Effect of the new watch – the S6C. Better for HRM than my old Polar 625x and a GPS built in like my Garmin 405.

Good old eBay – someone’s unwanted old toy

http://www.movescount.com/members/richdirector

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Anyone out there with an interest in ‘rambling’ (in the sense of kite,bike,tour,camera, surf) and who want to contribute then get in touch. I only started this blog as a ramble into the ether and now it turns out that people read it so – if you fancy writing about your tour on a surly big dummy, fell-running, bike maintenance or even reviews of things or places then I want to hear from you.

A trip to Arran

Arran Jolly on a bike

With an imminent work trip to the Middle East trip scheduled, I said goodbye to the lovely lady and the kids who were headed north to Shetland for a holiday. Mmmm a few days before I go so I could either work on the showreel, go kitesurfing with Ed or go for a bike ride or two.
Jolene was on the ferry already when she texted to say that Tom was going walking and camping on Arran for a few days. His wife and kid were also on the ferry so it was a case of 2 dads banishing the boredom.

So a plan was hatched catch the 8:40am train from Glasgow to ardossan, get the ferry to Arran and then head north to try and find Tom. Now the thing about Tom is that he is low maintenance – happy to rough it, happy to exercise, happy to change plans. Now there is the rub that he might change his mind and campsite and he doesn’t use a mobile phone so the chances of tracking him down are slim.

Well he is planning to climb Goatfell and the only campsite is in the north of arran at lochranza right opposite the Arran malt distillery…. The distillery was the last bit of temptation I needed and hastily packed. I thought that I didn’t find him I could catch the last ferry home at 8pm after a nice 100km cycle, but if I did find him there was the matter of camping … He had a small tent so should I carry a sleeping bag and try squeeze in to his tent. ‘Mmmm no’ so plan b was hatched that if I found him I would also try get a room nearby and just go out for a drink or two. Arran is also home to the Arran brewery with some very fine ales but more on that later.

Bike on the Train

So up and packing I realised the time was going past a bit quickly – no time to change the flats over to clipless pedals. I sped out the house down to the station and bought a ticket with just 40 secs to spare .. Whew a bit close that was a bit stupid as the next train was an hour away. This train is great gets you to the harbour (ardrossan) with enough time to wander over to ferry terminal and buy ticket (subsequently found out you can actually buy a joint rail ferry ticket at the train station)

On the Ferry and the sun is out

The ferry was fine – loads of French schoolkids and more than a few day-trippers and road cyclists.
Headed north on the road to Lochranza and it was mighty fine. I was on my Klein singlespeed geared 32:14 cruising nicely at 22-25km/h with a camelbak HAWG stuffed to the gills mainly with raincoat and spares for the morning. After 25ish min the road suddenly goes uphill which is all fair but on the singlespeed it felt a bit brutal at times.

the hill for a heart rate hike

Had to stand and stomp pushing so hard that I saw the handlebar flexing. One roadie passed me spinning happily as I neared the top. Over the top the descent back 200m to sea level. Great to blast down this but road surface pretty crappy so glad now not to be on roadbike bu rather my schwalbe big apples (I think they are 1.5 or 1.75).

Got down to Lochranza looked at the castle and the little keelboats marooned at low tide…

Lochranza castle

Then carried on to find the campsite. ‘you’ve already passed it mate… ‘ so spun back to try locate Tom. ‘yes there is a tall blond chap here .. And yes he does look Norwegian’ so penned a note which the site manager promised to give him then hopeful for accomodation went to the Lochranza hotel. £55 they wanted from me as only a family room left – that was taking the piss so took a number and decided to try my luck further along.
2 miles on came to catacol hotel ….

not the key to paradise

• basic but clean and let’s face it I would be wearing the same cycling shorts tomorrow.

Left the heavier items from the bag (great I packed a shock pump for an adventure on a rigid bike) then carried on down the west coast of Arran. No midges to worry about and cycled on the road as some paddle boat steamed up the coast.

Dead quiet spot for lunch

Stopped for a bite then headed back to hotel for shower but was in such a daze I cycled straight back into Lochranza – divine providence and ended up at the distillery having a mosey and buying a small bottle of malt didn’t want to carry a litre bottle with me back to the ferry.

Whisky Galore

Got back to hotel had a shower (no en-suite here) then read for a while before heading back to campsite in Lochranza to hunt down Tom.
Was having a bite to eat when ‘woops there he goes’. Heckled him from the door and he seemed hugely surprised. He quickly dropped his kit bit on discovering the crap choice of beer at the local bar/ hotel we proceeded around the corner to my hotel where we had 2,3,4,5,6 err 7 pints of Arran brewery (can’t even remember which one – not Arran blond, dark or witch on) played a few rounds of pool – Tom is even worse at pool than me which is pretty funny.
‘meet you at 7:15am’ for that was when we would meet to cycle back over that hill and to the ferry.

geared up ready to go

The next morning it was howling and pissing down.

Cant see howling wind and rain in the photo

Met up at campsite then headed off to ferry – the Lochranza hill from the north wasn’t so bad – the misery of the rain and wind was quite funny. Over the top and Tom was a few hundred metres behind so decided to wait at the bottom where there was some tree cover .. Tried to coast but the wind was bringing me to a halt (on a downhill) but once on the steep bit I tucked down and tried to get a good speed.
Once down and Tom had caught up came up with a plan to slipstream north… I told him to call speed he was happy with and I would do it and take the wind … He was dealing with panniers, a tent all on a heavy kona smoke bike.
Pretty coast road then ferry and train back to Glasgow …

Tom looking tired

Tom was looking a bit tired after his Munro climb (or corbett) double bike adventures and said he was going home to sleep. I had football that night but that’s another painful tale to tell……..