KingstonBiker
Active Member
I use a Garmin eTrex on my Sunday ride mainly so I don't get lost but also to track where I've been. To date I haven't been uploading this data anywhere other than to my PC. Most of my rides include 1 or 2 climbs such as Box Hill in Surrey (or several laps of Richmond Park if there weather is bad). I've started looking at my times from past months to see if they are improving. Using MapSource this is a tedious process that involves dissecting tracks in to the relative parts, e.g. a specific hill climb or lap.
By chance today I came across a cycling website called strava.com which, without a subscription, allows you to upload up to 5 tracks (GPX files in my case) a month. It then cleverly looks at where you've been and where there are notable climbs or routes pulls those parts out for you. This allows you to automatically compare your performance specific "segments" over time.
I was very impressed how well it works (and how surprisingly easy it is to use). In my case I was able to see my previous 5 climbs of box hill and see that there is a gradual improvement in time. Another feature it has shows you everyone else's times (if they choose to share). Unfortunately this does mean that I have to take another 5 minutes of my time climbing Box Hill to be anywhere near to the fastest climbers.
The site provides loads of stats about my rides and the best thing is I don't have to do any work (other than to upload the GPX file).
Looks like the site is popular with serious cyclists (you know the type that record their cadence, heart rate, watts, bla, bla, bla) but even still it looks good even for a MAMIL like me.
By chance today I came across a cycling website called strava.com which, without a subscription, allows you to upload up to 5 tracks (GPX files in my case) a month. It then cleverly looks at where you've been and where there are notable climbs or routes pulls those parts out for you. This allows you to automatically compare your performance specific "segments" over time.
I was very impressed how well it works (and how surprisingly easy it is to use). In my case I was able to see my previous 5 climbs of box hill and see that there is a gradual improvement in time. Another feature it has shows you everyone else's times (if they choose to share). Unfortunately this does mean that I have to take another 5 minutes of my time climbing Box Hill to be anywhere near to the fastest climbers.
The site provides loads of stats about my rides and the best thing is I don't have to do any work (other than to upload the GPX file).
Looks like the site is popular with serious cyclists (you know the type that record their cadence, heart rate, watts, bla, bla, bla) but even still it looks good even for a MAMIL like me.
