My  first test ride results, with a wireless heart rate monitor, iPhone and ANT+ dongle, have been posted on my blog:

http://blog.tarafrost.com/

I did some practice riding on my GasGas trials bike this evening, since my riding buddies were busy and didn't want to ride the trails.  I put on the heart rate monitor for the trials session....and have posted the results on the blog a few minutes ago.

Again, very interesting results, that definitively show that riding a trials bike is one heck of a workout!  

I'm going to be posting updates to the Offroad Riding Fitness Benefits: A Personal Odyssey on my blog, to keep it in a central place. That will make it easier for me to share posts through various channels (SCORRA Forum, Google+, Blog, emails, TT, etc.)

More to come after this long weekend.  Enjoy your turkey and stuffing everyone (at least those north of the border that celebrate Thanksgiving when it was intended to be held...during fall colours!)...but don't forget to ride lots (the weather is supposed to be spectacular!) and burn off all those extra calories you are gonna consume!  LOL

Cool stuff! I love seeing things like this. I might give it a try on my ride tomorrow. It'd be awesome to see how hard your heart is working throughout different types of riding. Keep the results coming

Before I head north to the cottage, I figured I would add some info on weight and blood pressure tracking that I have been doing since March....and have posted the results on my blog:

http://blog.tarafrost.com/

Not specifically offroad riding related, but all part of my ongoing fitness odyssey, to improve my health and thus improve my riding performance, stamina and enjoyment.

Enjoy the latest post....and have a great Canadian Thanksgiving weekend....

is there an inexpensive heart rate monitor tracking device, that i could use during a race and review later aka tracking? - it would need to track and store 3 hours of data... it would need to be NOT wrist mounted, or motion restrictive - as the last thing i need is a bad case of armpump.  it would need to store data and upoad later via bluetooth, usb or whatever.

I use a Polar CS200 cycling computer that I found on ebay.  It has a chest strap that I actually forget about after the rest of my gear is on, and silver-dollar sized computer that I keep in my pack.  It can record 8 separate events, not sure how long, but I bet 3 hours is do-able.

Cool stuff! I did one of the most grueling 2 hour cross country races I've ever done a little while back. I wore my polar heart rate monitor and logged an average heart rate of 187 and
burned a little over 2800 calories!

NorCal said:

187   That's my max HR

I found my max HR on a cycle trainer and came up with 185.  In one 15 minute moto, I was able to hit 187 max with an average of 155 which is over 75%.  Pretty impressive stats for such an easy sport where all you have to do is twist a throttle....

Edited by bg10459, 11 October 2011 - 04:15 AM.
math

nyabinghi said:

If you already have an iPhone, then the ANT2 dongle and Wahoo heart rate monitor are a bit over a hundred bucks.

bg10459 said:

Ya I was at the gym the other day doing the stair climber. It was super hard to
get my heart rate up high, but I got it to max at 185. It's so much easier, and way
more fun, to go to the track and get it higher!

I posted a new entry on my blog, about the ride I did yesterday, and the new online tool (from Garmin, the GPS folks) I used to analyze the ride/heartrate data:

http://blog.tarafros...online-tracking

Very interesting stuff.  I really like what Garmin does on their Connect site.

As an 'older' rider I find that riding and trying to keep in halfway decent shape for the occasional hare scramble really motivates me for overall fitness and health like nothing else. I'm not doing any heart monitor stuff yet but may look into it for the iPhone.

Many more posts have gone up on my  Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey blog, if you are interested in such things.

Ride replays, new body monitoring devices and more.

Check it out here

Hillcapper said:

I guess you could say I'm an older rider too.  The whole point of a workout is for the physical benefits.  If you enjoy riding fast AND you're getting a fantastic workout, It's the best of all worlds.  I presently have a vintage enduro bike and have a short track loop I can spend all day on if I want.  But my enduro bike is really not suited for going balls out for an extended time.  I'm looking right now at an MX bike as MY "treadmill".  A couple of hours riding at 99 to 100% and I get the workout AND have a blast.  

Moatly its what your born with I think.   Jeff Fredette  is a  AA local and A national rider  with 28 isde finishes and he told me "  Ive never trained a day in my Life,  I just  ride":..Ive trained a lot, but from what Ive seen heredity is the overwheming factor.  Take a look at Juha  Salminen.  He has the body  of a librarian, but never looks tired  even at the gncc's of 05 / 06 ?
Also , Experts  expend a lot less energy for a given lap  than intermediates / novices,  might be that too.

Here is a pic of Marty Tripes back in the day. He beat Hannah many times.



This guy never worked out. Certainly not like Gary Semics did/does.  He beat Semics a lot too.

Edited by xrvic, 09 December 2011 - 05:37 AM.

xrvic said:

I don't know if your definition of training is quite right, I'd be willing to bet both mr Fredette and Salminen covered more miles in a week than we do in a season. I'd call that training of the best kind!
As for what you're born with... My "gift" hasn't seemed to help with the ladies:banghead: ah well wasted talent I guess...

I don't train, per se.  My training is done at the MX track.... or maybe on a bicycle....

xrvic said:

Ya i agree with that statement I see some old fat guys at the races that absolutely fly and never have their ass off the seat.

I talked with Semics about this once and He confirmed tripes was  non trainer, but he did say Tripes Rode A LOT.  Much more than people realized.

how accurate do you thing its something like taking (calorie burned) the heart rate monitor avg HR without been converted to the type off excersise you do ??

 wblake, on 22 January 2012 - 03:01 PM, said:

Good question....I'm not really sure how accurate the caloric expenditure calculations are, given that they are based on HR only. I don't really put much stock by that number.