Weight program: Core Exercises Only
Monday: Core Exercises only
Tuesday: 2:00h Group Ride 223W Avg Power/267W xPower
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: 2:50h Group Ride 173W Avg/215W xPower
Friday: Off
Saturday: 0:45h Recovery Ride, 226W Avg Power/226W xPower New Training wheels test
Sunday: 1:00h Z2/3 Travel ride; 1:35min Criterium at Spaarnwoude; 0:45h Z1/2 Ride back home (Dead Garmin Edge=(( )
Total Bikescore: 454
Total Training Time: 9:00h bike + 0:45h Core Exercises
Weekly Summary
New Training Wheels – Back to Basics
As much the wheels, I have been riding/racing exclusively for the last 2 years, are some of the finest pieces of bike equipment I’ve had the pleasure to own, they have one distinct disadvantage – I have to carry a whole spare tubular tyre in case of an emergency, I can’t just patch them on the side of the road. A second puncture on the same ride and I would be stranded. In a small and compact country like The Netherlands where I am always within a 1h drive from home, the worst case scenario has always been the ‘call of shame.’ However, going back to Bulgaria, where I wouldn’t be able to get enough of the breathtaking nature and mountain passes, having to wait 2-4h hours for someone to come pick me up is not my idea of fun.
So, I rebuild my beautiful pink Chris King Classic hubs around a pair of Ambrosio Evolution clincher rims. It goes without saying that added at least 150-200g to the total weight of the wheelset, however, I wouldn’t have to worry riding the wheels hard hard day in, day out. The rims are STRONG. As an added benefit I would have a wide array of tyre choices for ANYTHING I would encounter on the road. As a great overall combination I settled on Continental Grand Prix 4000 S 23mm front/25mm rear.
Upon first impressions the wheels are very stiff and although not as responsive as my Enve 65 racing hoops, they are called training wheels for a reason. =)
The Race that Didn’t Happen
If a tree falls and there is no one to hear it, does it still make a noise?
They eternal question still stands. If you have no data of a race, did it still count? You betcha!
Since it was an quiet week race wise in the area, me and a teammate decided to go to the local racing course in Spaarnwoude. It is a circuit similar to the one at Sloten Park, with the same wide turns, perfect asphalt with a couple more technical corners. On a good day you can get 70-100+ riders.
It was a nice sunny Sunday morning with relatively little wind (according to Dutch standards) when we set off. No matter what people say that you can tell how the day would unfold by the morning, my bike computer Garmin Edge didn’t want to start!!! The start button was unresponsive, rendering the whole unit a useless gadget. No matter how much i pushed it, banged it it didn’t want to start recording.
Oh well, at least I can see current data. No such luck… As soon as I arrived at the circuit, my computer decided to get friendly with everybody else’s bike accessories. It started beeping uncontrollably that there are too many Heart Rate monitors and power meters detected in the area???? Seriously??? Guess it was its time of the month.
I set up the display to show me the time of day – calculating 1:35h for the race should have been simple enough. I had legs to boot and although the pace was fast the whole time and it was decided in a sprint finish, I managed to finish in the first group at 21st place! It was a nice way to close out my Dutch racing days before I move back to Bulgaria.
Fixing a Dead Garmin Edge 500 (Start Button)
Without a start button the Garmin Edge 500 is worse than useless. So after it abandoned at a race where I really had the legs, I was eager to at least try to fix it since I will be entering into two quite important training weeks. A hard reset as suggested on the Garmin forums did only one thing…it erased all my workouts and settings (I back up all my files monthly, so nothing lost), but it didn’t fix the problem.
With the warranty long expired, I couldn’t make it more broken so…. First things first, to open it I needed a torx tool. The local hardware store had just the right size Torx 5. After carefully opening it I might as well have been looking at a black box; nothing seemed broken and there was no evidence of water damage…now what? 
I got some contact cleaner and sprayed the whole circuit board. I powered it on and started pressing the dead button and in a minute or so I got a beep!!! The button was semi-functional, one out of every ten clicks would work. After some time it was fully operational again. I closed the whole thing up and all the buttons worked and they required almost an imperceptible amount of force to work, it was better than new!!! I guess some oxidation had formed on the contact surfaces…
So if you are experiencing some problems with the buttons on your Garmin Edge and your warranty is long gone, a Torx 5 screwdriver and contact cleaner is all you need probably.
You can find explanations of the terms here together with explanations of the Training Zones.
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