Sunday, February 6, 2011

Technology. Love it, and hate it.

I've said in previous posts that I own a Garmin 310xt.  It's a personal GPS watch that is made for endurance sports, and more specifically, triathlons.  Here's a look at it:

You can adjust the screen to display about 20 different things, in an almost unlimited combination.
This thing of beauty has really altered how I train, for the better.  The way I like to explain it, is that it's like having a coach follow you around during your workouts and yell at you when you're not doing it right.  It can tell me to slow down, speed up, slow down or speed up my heart rate, pedal faster, etc.  It really is awesome.  And don't let what I'm about to say lead you to believe that I would ever consider getting rid of it.  Because I won't.

Though I do love my watch, from time to time I seem to have some issues.  Not so much with the watch itself, but with the uploading of my workouts.  Right now, in fact, I'm trying to upload my three latest workouts, a bike and two runs.  I am having no luck whatsoever.  And, it seems that other people are having issues too.  The forum is pretty full of people having my same problem.  The whole process usually only takes about 3-5 minutes.  This time, I'm going on two hours.  Crazy!  And all I really want is to get my workouts recorded into cyberspace so I can have them recorded with the rest of my workouts.

I know that "speed bumps" are part of technology, but they suck.  Especially when there's not really anything you can do about it, other than keep trying.  And so I shall.  Most likely all day.  At least there will be some good commercials on today that I can watch while I curse this uploading process.

2 comments:

  1. On that DC Rainmaker blog, he says you should clean the contact points with an eraser every once in a while... Not sure if that will help, but thought I'd mention it!

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  2. Hey David! I'm still not super oriented with exactly how Training Peaks works. From what I could find, I have to upload my Garmin files like normal. Then I have to open Garmin Training Center, find the file(s) that I want to send to Training Peaks and select File > Export "file name". A box comes up asking where to export, and I select "desktop". From there, I open up the Training Peaks Device Agent (downloadable from their website) and drag the exported file from the desktop to the TP Device Agent window. Then upload! That's it! Sounds like a lot, but it's not really. There has to be some way to automatically upload, I just haven't found it yet, and haven't really spent too much time trying to find it. Maybe it's only available if you pay for the upgraded versions? If I figure it out, I'll let you know. Also, if I can't figure it out, I may revert back to Garmin Connect. It's not as in depth, but a bit easier.

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