Originally Posted by tnburban

Starting biking again after about 5 years off. Was a member here but forgot my password and no longer have access to that email account anyway so just started a new account. Used to have a basic entry level type bike with cheap everything but seemed to get the job done. Traded it in a few years ago to get a commuter bike for one of the kids in college. Now that I'm back in the game I have a bike with all the fancy carbon-this, aero-that - and more importantly, the reason why I need help, is it has a Garmin 510 with speed, cadence and HR sensors.

What I need help with is what do all these numbers mean and what should I be aiming for? I never had access to this info before - just used to get on the bike and ride. I did have some cheap cateye that never seemed to work and was a pain to use. But now with real data I am thinking I should become "smarter" about my riding. What's the point of collecting this info if I don't know what it means?

Here is my latest ride data - keep in mind this is ride is my 8th since Oct 5th and longest yet. Cumulatively I've now done just over 66 miles. First two rides were about 4 miles, one last Sunday got cut short at 2.7 miles due to weather.

Date - 10/15/15 The date.
Distance - 15.17 miles How many miles you went for that ride.
Time - 1:00:01 How long it took you.
Elevation gain - 869 How many feet you climbed on your ride.
Avg Speed - 15.2 mph Your average speed over the course of the ride.
Max speed - 29.8 mph The fastest your bike went during the ride.
Avg HR - 172 Average heart rate in bpm
Max HR - 199 Max heart rate bpm
Avg cadence - 65 rpm Average of pedal rotations per minute.
Max cadence - 103 rpm Max pedal rotations per minute.

Felt fine at the end of the ride, could have done some more, legs felt a tad bit spaghetti-ish but not too bad was still able to walk just fine.

40 year old male, 5'7", 190lbs if that helps with some of the data. Goals are to lose some of that 190, get back down to my weight of 160ish just a few years ago. Also will be doing some organized rides, duathlons and being the bike person in a triathlon relay.

Any help is appreciated.