Are statistics responsible for ruining rides ?

JimmyK
JimmyK Posts: 712
edited March 2010 in Training, fitness and health
it was a glorious day here in ards and i headed out for a 50 miler on the bike. on this instance i had no intention of paying any heed to the stats offerred by my wireless cateye strada. i set off , took in the views and enjoyed the much missed sunshine.

i got back home feeling great with no heavy legs from shunting the bike on. a quick glance at the clock in the kitchen confirmed i had put in a good performance and i didnt even look at my computer for verification of what i think my average speed was, in fact i reset it.

funny thing is that i enjoyed it so much more than rides where i have had one eye on the computer and one on the road :shock: it strikes me that statistics take away a certain percentage of how much i enjoy being out on the road on my bike and stats that turn out less than i had aimed for just take away all the good.

maybe if statistics take on a role of much less importance , perhaps i will enjoy cycling a lot more ?

Comments

  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    Possibly. The slowest guy I ride with tracks the most data. I CBA with computers even - an estimated distance is enough for my purposes.
  • kell
    kell Posts: 32
    Lost mine ages ago. Know roughly the distances of my routes, and enjoy rides so much. Too much to miss out there.
  • JimmyK
    JimmyK Posts: 712
    kell wrote:
    Lost mine ages ago. Know roughly the distances of my routes, and enjoy rides so much. Too much to miss out there.


    thats a good positive attitude .

    my beef with stats would be like heading out saying to myself im gonna do this ride in 18 mph average and landing back with 17.9 mph average and letting it ruin the trip. :roll: of which i have been as guilty as sin.

    you are right, there is too much out there to miss.
  • sampras38
    sampras38 Posts: 1,917
    Too many trafic lights around me to worry about average speeds and the like. When I was bothered I'd look down at the Garmin might read something like 18 or 18.5 average and I'd come to a busy set of lets. Watching it drop was enough to just say sod it, and ride wthout the stats. I can usually feel if I'm going well enough and like today for instance, I did a hilly 55 in just under 3 hours.
  • bigpikle
    bigpikle Posts: 1,690
    I like using my 705 on my rides, but dont the stats dont rule my ride. I ride mostly solo so its good to have a benchmark and something to focus on at times, but not so much that I dont enjoy the views, the quiet and the hills.

    Today I rode as a 4 for the first time. Did my longest ride, at what turned out to be a really good average speed (when I looked AFTERWARDS) and felt much better than I do on shorter distances, and only ever checked the distances and clock a few times on the way round, as we had a deadline to meet for other stuff. There is a certain freedom to just riding...
    Your Past is Not Your Potential...
  • sampras38
    sampras38 Posts: 1,917
    Bigpikle wrote:
    I like using my 705 on my rides, but dont the stats dont rule my ride. I ride mostly solo so its good to have a benchmark and something to focus on at times, but not so much that I dont enjoy the views, the quiet and the hills.

    Today I rode as a 4 for the first time. Did my longest ride, at what turned out to be a really good average speed (when I looked AFTERWARDS) and felt much better than I do on shorter distances, and only ever checked the distances and clock a few times on the way round, as we had a deadline to meet for other stuff. There is a certain freedom to just riding...

    I'm sure you know you can go faster in a group than solo.
  • sheffsimon
    sheffsimon Posts: 1,282
    Battery ran out on the transmitter on my front fork a good few months ago, cant say I've missed it, now just have the bike computer as a handy watch :)

    Never ever considered my average speed on a ride, I just train on how it feels (RPE I think is the techie term). Did think about a powermeter, and posted on here with a few Q's, but decided that I couldnt be bothered with it, and my current methods are OK for the level that I wanted to race at.
  • fastercyclist
    fastercyclist Posts: 396
    No, they make me feel better about my ride if I just went out on a hard ride because I can sit there and go "well I did go X fast" :D

    Make you feel like shit when you're having a bad day though. Don't need a computer to tell me that. :x
    The British Empire never died, it just moved to the Velodrome
  • lfcquin
    lfcquin Posts: 470
    I track my rides on my phone in my pocket. No computer on the bars, no power meter and no HRM. I love to ride by feeling. Haven't had a computer on the bike for almost a decade. Much more enjoyable. I'm still competitive when I race and manage to train effectively (or I think so). At 36 I'm not about to make a career out of this sport so why suck all my enjoyment out of it by trying to hit numbers all the time?
  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    Statistics can ruin rides IMO, well, what I mean is, speedo/gps on the bike, staring at it all the time, looking at the speed, just frustrates me, I did 101 miles today and not once worried what speed I was doing, only looked at my GPS at stops when I checked distance/elevation.
  • antfly
    antfly Posts: 3,276
    sampras38 wrote:
    Too many trafic lights around me to worry about average speeds and the like. When I was bothered I'd look down at the Garmin might read something like 18 or 18.5 average and I'd come to a busy set of lets. Watching it drop was enough to just say sod it, and ride wthout the stats. I can usually feel if I'm going well enough and like today for instance, I did a hilly 55 in just under 3 hours.

    Why don`t you just set it to stop recording at about 2mph?
    Smarter than the average bear.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    They ruin approximately 56.4% of them
  • iain_j
    iain_j Posts: 1,941
    JimmyK wrote:
    my beef with stats would be like heading out saying to myself im gonna do this ride in 18 mph average and landing back with 17.9 mph average and letting it ruin the trip. :roll: of which i have been as guilty as sin.

    Been guilty of that many times. Don't want to go without the computer altogether though cos I like to keep an eye on my distance and the time (clock, not ride time), but it's that bloody average speed pacer arrow. Maybe I should put some duct tape over that corner of the screen.
  • Ands
    Ands Posts: 1,437
    iain_j wrote:
    Been guilty of that many times. Don't want to go without the computer altogether though cos I like to keep an eye on my distance and the time (clock, not ride time), but it's that bloody average speed pacer arrow. Maybe I should put some duct tape over that corner of the screen.
    The first three rides I did on my new bike, I had no speed sensor. First time, I just enjoyed the ride without the pressure of looking at how fast/far I was going. After the 3rd ride, I came home, went straight onto Bikely.com, mapped my ride to see how far I'd been, and then I was able to work out my average speed. :roll: The speed sensor is in place now...
    Cannondale Six Carbon
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    I like lots of stats. Numbers will only ruin your rides if you have unnecessary expectations.

    Stats can make you a better rider.
    I like bikes...

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  • taz3611
    taz3611 Posts: 172
    68.9% of all statistics are made up
    http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv18 ... _0057a.jpg
  • JimmyK
    JimmyK Posts: 712
    iain_j wrote:
    JimmyK wrote:
    my beef with stats would be like heading out saying to myself im gonna do this ride in 18 mph average and landing back with 17.9 mph average and letting it ruin the trip. :roll: of which i have been as guilty as sin.

    Been guilty of that many times. Don't want to go without the computer altogether though cos I like to keep an eye on my distance and the time (clock, not ride time), but it's that bloody average speed pacer arrow. Maybe I should put some duct tape over that corner of the screen.


    on my strada i have a little bit of electricians tape covering the little arrow you refer too , magnificent idea and i urge you to do it too, you`d be surprised just how often you look for that arrow.............try the tape and see for yourself. i covered mine up about 3 months ago.
  • fortytwosixteen
    fortytwosixteen Posts: 261
    I used a HRM religously until a couple of years ago, when I went a week with out it while I was waiting to get a new chest strap battery. During that week, the relief of not being a slave to the HRM was wonderful. I never did replace the battery and have been riding 'data free' since.

    I ride and train entirely on feel, I wear a watch so I can fulfil my promise to Mrs fortytwosixteen to be back on time. I sometimes clock my ride distance with google maps when i get home.

    I'm just as competitive in races now as i was and still get my high intensity workouts ripping it up on the local chaingang. I just enjoy it more.

    I echo the previous comment, that its often the slower guys in my club who are wired up with power meters and seem to spend more time analysing calorie comsumption than actually riding.
  • SBezza
    SBezza Posts: 2,173
    I don't bother with stats for a training ride, as it is pointless, My computer normally shows me how long I have been riding for rather than an average speed. I generally base my training rides on hours in the saddle than any distance. I will take a note of how many miles I have done though, either from the bike computer, or via mapping the ride afterwards.

    When I am racing a TT though thats a different matter, that is all about average speed, and managing HR.

    Stats will only ruining a ride, if you can't mentally handle that on a particular day, you can't manage X speed, due to either traffic conditions, wind, terrain etc.

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