Just curious. In this age of Strava and RideWithGPS, many of us upload rides to apps, but I still keep a detailed spreadsheet with entries for every ride- distance, average speed, which bike I rode, who I rode with, the weather, how I felt during the ride, whether my hip hurt or not, HR info, bike maintenance notes, etc etc. Sometimes my notes from a particular ride are a page long. Sometimes they are just a couple of sentences. Seldom are they less than that.

My guess is that many dedicated riders also keep notes. I'm just wondering how all of you do it (paper, spreadsheet, web tool...) how much detail you include, and how important it is to your riding regimen....

I replied to this recent thread, “What do you guys use to track your progress(km/miles, time on the bike, speed, etc.)”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

Data hand-entered in an Excel spreadsheet from my Sigma Sport computer, mostly as a commuter.

I also have various entries such as temperature, wind speed and direction, routes, arrival time, resting heart rate, and excuses (not to ride).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

…When I started a spreadsheet to track miles a few years ago I had a field called "5:00 AM checkpoint"to record my position at that time, sometimes already at work. I had an informal goal to greet a couple of colleagues who were out power-walkingthe town where I work at 5:00 AM.

My current spreadsheet now has a field labeled "6:00 AM checkpoint,"usually with the entry Kenmore Sguare, where I start my ride.

Accumulating miles and increasing average speed and average cadence is motivation for me. Sometimes I get on a mileage quota schedule, and I can use my spreadsheet to plan routes to cover a given distance.

ridewithgps collects more data than I could ever imagine, and it's as easy as using a stopwatch, and it's fun, too.

Paper and pen. Keeping copious records to be thrown in landfill when I pass.

I just upload to strava, then sync to veloviewer. From veloviewer I can export a csv file with every ride metric I could ever want. It's really great.

Strava.

+1

Old dog, old school, pen and paper since 1978.

Garmin Connect.

It picks up the yardage from the Garmin Swim Watch, which is a really useful and relatively inexpensive watch that can track my swim workouts.

Connect is about the only online program I've found that is smart about swimming. Others don't deal with swimming at all, or are stupid, like tracking in 1/10's of a mile (Endomondo).

Thus I went to the Edge 810 for a bike computer, has been a great tool and was worth the money.

I set up Veloviewer last summer and promptly forgot about it.

Thanks for the reminder.


-Tim-

At one point I added the Stravistix plug-in, which provides far more stats then I would ever want. I seldom look at it. OTOH, the narrative I write after each ride is something I value. To each, their own.

Just to give one example, as an all-season rider, I write down what I was wearing and the weather conditions for cool and cold condition rides. Each fall and winter I look back on those notes, reminding myself just which combination of layers made me most comfortable for a ride in the low 40s, high 20s, etc. You'd think I'd remember, but, well,

It is fun to track your rides. I use an app called MotiFit Ride. It shows you about any data you could imagine plus you can transfer to Strava. It even has GPS. You can add notes to it too. There is a calendar in it that you can use to pull up all your rides. I bought a wahoo chest transmitter that lets me record average hr, max hr, etc on it. You can view your hr for your entire ride and overlay elevation and speed to it.

Oh I do that too, also append pictures and such, have a whole wordpress site so I can relive past glories while bored at work.

I upload occasional GPS recordings to strava or ridewithgps.

Every ride is also added to the "My Tourbook" free software, on my PC.

A few comments about My Tourbook, with screen shots
Post 1
Post 2

It has a bit of a learning curve, to get the tiled displays set the way you want, and to decide about tagging rides into different categories.

I get automatic ride stats, monthly and yearly totals, and a color coded map of each ride. I add a couple of sentences of comments on each ride.

Excel spreadsheet
Bikejournal
Strava

I started this way, but in about 1999 I converted it all to an Excel spreadsheet and typed in most of my past records. I've been using an Excel spreadsheet since. I prefer that to pen and paper because I can copy and paste and create charts and so on.

All of my ride info is logged with Strava.

Let me elaborate. I use the ridewithgps app on my phone. I press the "Go Ride" button which brings up a "record" button. I hit record. If the phone is connected to external power, it displays my live statistics and my path along the map. While riding, if I stop and take pictures, those pictures are recorded with the ride. When I'm done, I hit the stop button. The data and pictures are automatically uploaded to the web site immediately without my doing anything. The web site view of the data is amazing, and I can make a ride blog from the ride. I can also easily post a ride to social media. For instance, here is my commute home from work this evening.

Sometimes it notifies me that I've done something ostensibly remarkable. At one point, I was the 65th-best rider on a particular segment with a steep hill. That's nice to know, since it's ridden and recorded thousands of times by now.

I upload to Strava and Garmin Connect.
I also download to Golden Cheetah to analyze my power metrics.

Another for Strava and Garmin Connect

Nothing wrong with journaling. If there is a pencil pusher or number cruncher in us... and hobby will bring it out.

I switched to a cycling app that keeps all the stats I could ever want. But that also satisfies the tech-geek in me.

I do it from memory. I find I ride farther and faster with thy method, especially with the passage of time.

John

920XT Garmin watch does the recording then download to Garmin Connect with auto transfer to STRAVA. Have never used a pencil or pen to write anything down. Just not that important.

Mostly Cyclemeter and Strava. Occasionally to save battery life on a long ride I'll use only Cyclemeter and later transfer the data to Strava.

Cyclemeter records only to the phone itself, unless the user chooses to store the data elsewhere. Mine is backed up to the cloud, and transferred to Strava since Strava shows data a little differently than Cyclemeter. Usually Strava shows me a bit slower, but it lets me compare routes with other riders in my area and explore new rides.

I use an excel spreadsheet. After a ride I sit there cackling like a mad man entering in stuff that possibly has a purpose other than satisfying the inner nerd.
Sometimes it's nice to see how far a particular bike has gone, or how much wear I got out of a set of tyres. It's less nice to see how far I'VE gone (it's never as much as it feels).
I've also found it useful in planning trips when I know I've done the run before so I'll look back on the log to see how long it took me.
But the awful reality is that it's all about the inner nerd who likes to cackle like a mad thing over numbers.