Wednesday, December 21, 2011

An Imaginary Ride on a CompuTrainer

Ride Day
Simulated Distance- 30mi
Time- 1:45

Today was a trip over to Sean's house where I got to play with his expensive toy, a CompuTrainer ThingerMaBobberWhatchacallit 2000 ™. What it does is simulate any course you can upload into the software, putting the correct amount of pressure against the rear tire at the correct time to recreate any climb or descent you might encounter over that route. For example, Sean is preparing for his second outing at Ironman New Zealand and he has been able to download the course he'll be riding onto his computer, which hooks up to the CompuTrainer ThingerMaBobberWhatchacallit 2000 ™, which then shows him an elevation profile of the course and a computer animated version of what it might look like, complete with a phantom pace bike if he wants. It is a very nifty device. What he's done is buy second-hand software from Neato Cycling Videos INC, and what they do is video tape courses, record the grade, then sell all that data so as you're riding you are looking at exactly what you would be seeing out on the road. And the video, through the magic of technology moves at whatever speed the computer reads you are moving at. It also records wattage, mph, and will show cadence if you have a sensor (which I don't, but it was in my list to Santa Tebow). Very neat stuff. So what Sean let me do is ride the front half of the Honu loop today, from the first turn-around up to the top of Hawi. This was a great chance to see exactly what will be in store for me come June 2 and I'm looking forward to coming back over to Sean's to play with the CompuTrainer ThingerMaBobberWhatchacallit 2000 ™ a few more times before race day.

Basically to the tip of the big spike in the middle
I must also plug Brother Fit Life's latest blog. I must do this for two reasons: 1) Dude motivates and is fun to read and B) He totally interviewed me for it, making me even more famous in my own head than I already am.  It's good stuff, head over and check him out. And once he lets me know he's done using all the questions and responses I may include over here a Very Dirtbag Special Features Out-Takes edition. If you're lucky. Which you probably will be. Because I love to hear myself talk, even in written form.
Special Nerd Bonus- Sean owns the TARDIS Cookie Jar, in which he keeps dog treats. This means that Sean's dog, Kai, is trained to respond to the sound of a TARDIS, making the dog the most awesome K9 ever (get it?).

3 comments:

  1. That is a pretty good hill at 30 miles. Must be fun to have access to the equipment.

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  2. I really liked your description of your friends trainer software until you got to the Tardis cookie jar. And then I forgot all about the trainer.

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  3. Kepa- the tech is very cool and it is very cool of Sean to let me use it. Which is why he's a badass stone cold tri Jedi. He keeps it up and I might tack ninja on to the end of that. But not pirate. He'd need a beard.

    Patrick- It is hard to focus on the next hill when The Doctor keeps showing up in the kitchen. Rose might be with him! In that shirt she wore when she visited Top Gear! Or Martha! Or Pond! Mmmmm, Pond...

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