We appear to have been blessed with a spate of incredibly warm weather here in the North West of the UK at the moment. It’s hard to find the motivation to get on Zwift and complete the remaining kilometres of the Ceramic Speed Mission when an abundance of outdoor roads remain unexplored.
With that in mind, today I took a rather laid back ride up to a tiny little village of Bleasdale in the Forest of Bowland.
Truly a remarkably picturesque ride in many places. I could only imagine how lovely it must be to live around there on a day like today.
Might not be so great on a snowy / rainy day (which we have many more of, to be fair), and the internet / phone signal was none existent. But still, maybe the isolation appeals to my soul.
The idea on this ride was to test out the Garmin Edge 530 work out / training capabilities, something I have not used it for until today.
Things could have gone better – initially, at least – if I had just read the instructions. I was aware I needed to start the workout by pressing the “lap” button. But could I find the “lap” button?
That would be a no.
I had to stop and Google it.
Turns out it’s a physical button on the bottom left of the unit. D’oh.
Once found, I’d already done my warm up – but it forced me to ride through 10 minutes of warm up all the same. Still, I know for next time.
Following the workout would likely have been easier on a flat route. That said, I’m not overly sold on on-the-road workouts anyway. I feel Zwift / the turbo trainer basically has that side completely sown up. Might as well just enjoy the open road without worrying about targets and stuff.
Now, that said, I am due to start a 60 day trail of Strava Premium, and apparently that opens up a ton of new things on the Garmin by way of Live Segments. So I’m hopefully going to head out on the bike again tomorrow – when it’s apparently going to be even hotter 🌞 and see what that is all about.
One thing I do need to fix is I seem to have lost all sound from the Garmin. No idea how / why. Honestly the UX of that unit isn’t brilliant, and especially not navigating the menus whilst riding.
The other thing is it keeps telling me my rides are “unproductive” for training sessions. Sad times. Probably just going to ignore that guidance and keep riding.
All in all, I really enjoyed today’s ride.
I just wish I could find some paid work to get stuck in to once back home. I’m sure that will come eventually, especially when seeing how busy the roads and tourist-y spots are becoming now. Seems like the lock down is ending one way or another, so hopefully the jobs market picks back up again quick sharpish.
