Joy and Nomi took the plunge and signed up for their first 10km running race ever in May 2010 in Singapore at the Sundown Race event...Then they trained for a half marathon in the fall of 2010, Joy's in Canada and Nomi's in Malaysia...Then, they finished their second-ever half marathon in Singapore May 2011 at the Sundown Race event, but this time they ran together!

Then their sporting paths diverged: Nomi went on to run marathons while Joy learned how to ride a bike. This blog charts their progress from 2010 to 2012.

Read their blog to see what their sporting adventures look like or just look at the pictures of Canada's capital city and Malaysia's capital city. You can choose the "follow" option or subscribe via email to be notified of updates. (You can start reading/skimming their first entries from the summer of 2010 or just jump right in, reading from any point you like. The "Archives" will be your guide.)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Drunk on Information (The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same)

Joy here...My birthday is coming up in September, and for my present, The Man has just given me a cool new toy to help with my training:
My new Cycleops power meter head unit!
My running Garmin.
Back when I started running, he bought me a Garmin watch that reads heart rate, pacing, and distance.  I was able to train last summer with real data to compare one run to the next one.  I was able to set up a training plan and stick to it.  And I was able to focus some of my efforts in specific ways.

My cycling CatEye.
Then earlier this summer when it seemed that I was riding my bike a heck of a lot more than running, and I had to accept the fact that I was turning this "running" blog more into a cycling blog, The Man bought me a little CatEye Strata computer for my bike that gives me similar kind of feedback and data.  It tells me speed and distance, and so I can compare one ride with another one.

I've realized, once again, that I'm one of those people who responds well to objective data...who gets drunk on information in a good way!

And so, now, 15 months after running my first ever race, nearly a year after running my first ever half marathon, and about 5 months after receiving my first bike computer...I am now the proud owner of an even better bike computer!

The new bit of information in addition to speed and distance that my new computer calculates for me is wattage and heart rate, so that I can figure out real power numbers in relation to effort.  So far I'm not so sure what that even is, but yesterday after receiving this little gizmo from our bike shop (where, I swear, we should be part-owners we've bought so much stuff), we settled into our home gym in the basement so that I could ride my bike on the trainer and figure out how to use my new gadget.

All ready to go!
In the end, I rode about 40 minutes with an average pace of around 27kms/hr, but more importantly, I set up my bike computer and entered in my personal data (weight, age etc.) so that when I get out the door for our planned two-looper of the park this Sunday, I'll have some real numbers to report.

Ahhhhhh....data.

Over and out,
Joy

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