Oh boy. Here we go

I got a new heart rate monitor. It has a GPS built in. The free online Garmin software for it is just silly in it's radness and simpleness. I realize I'm coming way late to this party.

I'm sort of overwhelmed by the radness of it all, but let's start crunching some numbers.

Here's an easy way to start.

Dig this:

This is the data for my basic commute to work. Left column is my fast bike (747), right column is my new CX bike, the Legolas (with knobbies).

There's a lot there. But I think the highlighted bits are the most interesting.

First thing to look at is average heart rate: 155 bpm in both cases. So the engine is pretty similar on both bikes.

But average pace, moving speed, and best pace (pace is amount of time it takes to go 1 mile) show that I'm a bit faster on the 747.

This is the lightweight info. For the fun stuff, check out the mashup of map+elevation+speed+heartrate data. Here's my ride home today in fun format.

Glen says a Powertap is next, but that's really not interesting to me. In fact, I'd probably find that sort of depressing. The heart rate stuff has always been sort of interesting since I used one a few years ago to loose some weight -- it's a great forcing function to make sure you are getting good exercise on rides. Assuming you have a comfortable bike, riding 30, 40, 50 miles is not hard, but doing so at 150 bpm can be a challenge. The heart rate monitor forces that challenge.

The unit I'm using is the Garmin 110 watch. I liked the smaller women's size and it came with the HR strap. It does exactly what I want it to do: track routes, HR, and elevation. I don't care about bikey options like cadence. It cost a bit over $200.