Statistics. Damn Statistics

I love pouring over data. I collect it how I can, when I can and as often as I can.

One of the tools I use to generate some stats when I’m cycling is my Garmin 510. I thought I’d just take the time to show how I have mine setup, as there are plenty of reviews on the unit already.

So, there are a few activity profiles you can choose from. The way I have mine setup is with three profiles, Train, Commute and Race. I use Train the most, followed by commute. Train is setup to show the most information on each of the available five screens.

The first screen I have as this. Showing:

1. Time Moving
2. Current Speed
3. Distance Covered
4. Current Cadence
5. Heart Rate
6. Elevation
7. Temperature

The last two on this, elevation and temperature are not important metrics, and can be removed. But everything else, is what I’d call an “At a glance Metric”, ie, something you want to see when you glance down. This is where I have the unit display data when I ride normally, as it is the most important set of metrics.

The second screen

1. Elapsed time – The total time the unit has been recording, including auto-paused time.
2. Average Speed
3. Average Heart Rate
4. Average Cadence
5. Total Ascent
6. Total Descent

This is the screen I take in when I stop, as it shows the information as a set of averages.

The Third Screen

Shows a little miscellaneous information I find handy to have

1. Time of Day
2. Sunset. Handy so you know when the light will start to fail
3. Maximum Speed
4. Calories burnt
5. Battery level
6. GPS Accuracy

The Fourth Screen

1. Current Heart rate
2. Heart Rate Graph over time
3. HR Zone currently
4. % of max heart rate

This is probably the second most active screen I use, especially when I’m pushing. I can keep myself in a HR zone, and closely monitor when I need to push, or calm down. I find the heart rate graph to be incredibly useful to see the pattern over time.

The Fifth Screen

I show laps on the final screen, not really something I use a lot of, but its good to have it here.

1. Number of laps currently recorded
2. Speed of the last lap
3. Heart Rate on the last Lap
4. Last Lap Time
5. Current Lap Time

I have the profile set to Auto-Lap at 2 miles. I dont often take much notice of laps when I’m riding, but it comes in handy on RideWithGPS when I review.

When I’m done with the ride, I’ll head on over to RideWithGPS.com and look there. By far RideWithGPS has the best data handling of the main cycling sites I use. (Strava, Endomondo, Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS).

Head on over, select one of my rides on the site, and see the power you can have, to break rides down into sections, overall stats, and stats on selected parts, it really is very powerful.