Tag Archives: Cycling

First cycle of 2011

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Had the first outing on my road bike this morning and a jolly good outing it was too. Today is the earliest I’ve ever been out on road bike during the year as normally my season starts in April. So I’m a good two months ahead of schedule.

Conditions were cold as can be expected with temperatures just above freezing. I spent a small fortune on winter cycling clothes last week and it seems its been a worthwhile investment. I was snug-as-rug cruising along the canal above Glasgow with the wind chasing me down. Two thin DHB baselayers and Altura Nightvision jacket was enough to keep me completely warm during the hour’s cycling. A pair of full length Altura cycling tights replicated the comfort on the lower half of my body. Finally a Gore helmet cap and Altura Nightvision gloves kept my extremities warm. With this setup I think I could’ve managed sub-zero temperatures.

I’m feeling confident I may actually brave the weather thats coming towards us next week by cycling into work and back along today’s route.

Planning the routes for this year’s cycle to the Mull of Kintyre

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Every year we travel to the Mull of Kintyre during the last weekend of July to celebrate two weddings and a couple of birthdays. This year will be no different and I wholly look forward to it again. This year will be slightly different. My friend David and I are threatening to cycle the distance from Glasgow to Carradale, on the Mull of Kintyre. We have three different routes, varying in length and “mountainacity”.

The boring long way round via Loch Lomond. Flat-ish and 117miles.
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The Easy Arran Route. Flat-ish and 80miles.
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Via the Kyles of Bute. Hardcode and 87miles.
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Needless to say we’re going hardcore! via the Kyles of Bute. I’ve driven the route several times and the views from the top of the Kyles are absolutely amazing.
It starts this weekend with the first training ride of the year (gulp).

Polar CS300 weblink software, polarpersonaltrainer.com and Mac OS X

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Polar CS300 Cycling ComputerI’m noticing quiet a lot of search results hitting this blog, looking for ideas on how to integrate the Polar CS300 and your trusty old Mac… in my case a MacBook Pro.

Well, I’ve got it working but it isn’t the most elegant of solutions… First of all there is to my knowledge no OS X version of the Polar software, therefore I’ve had to employ the following…

Ingredients

  • 1x copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac (installed on your Mac)
  • 1x copy of Windows XP (installed inside Parallels)
  • 1x Mac Book Pro
  • 1x Polar CS300 watch
  • 1x Polar WebLink SW software installed (installed on Windows XP)

The Polar CS300 computer setup uses a PC microphone to transfer and convert the data held on the watch. The great thing about Parallels is that it comes with microphone support, meaning the Windows environment running inside Parallels gets to hear what’s happening in the outside world.

So all you need is to setup the ‘ingredients’ listed above. Then:

  1. Launch Parallels with Windows XP.
  2. Once your inside Windows launch the WebLink SW software providing the details as per the Polar manual. At this point place the software in transfer mode so that its listening out for data.
  3. Now grab your CS300 and activate ‘Connect’ mode, choosing ‘Send’… SonicLink will start squelching all sorts of little sounds.
  4. Quickly place the watch on top of the microphone. In the case of the MacBook Pro, the microphone is underneath the speaker grill to the left of your keyboard.

If you run into any problems, go ahead and use the comments section below… I’ll see if I can help.

Polar CS300 Web Interface

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Wow. Kirsty gave a Polar CS300 for my birthday. Its a cycle computer / heart rate monitor. It measures the speed and distance that you travel on a bicycle, as well as your heart rate, calories burnt, and a whole host of other things.

Alongside the CS300, Polar provide a personal trainer website, which allows you to setup a training programme after providing it with some vital stats (age, weight, height, fitness, goals, etc.). The whole site is very easy to use and follows the design ethic of CS300, i.e. being very slick.Polar Personal Trainer website screenshot

Polar provides a WebLink SW software utility that transfers the statistics collected during excercise (heartrate, duration, etc) and uploads these to the personal trainer website, so that you can track your planned training against your actual over time. Very slick, once again.

Now… the coolest feature of the whole setup is the manner in which the CS300 talks to the personal trainer website.  If  Sony were to produce the CS300, it would supply a proprietary USB cable,  that is easily lost and costs £50 to replace.  Polar have come up with an old school way of achieving the same thing…. sound modulation.

Yip, the CS300 talks to the WebLink SW using your PC microphone. You launch the WebLink utility and hit the listen button. On the Cs300 watch you select Connect and it starts sputtering squelchy sounds.

One minute later and the personal trainer website contains all your latest training details. Slick, slick, slick.

If you’re into cycling and training, I can’ t recommend the CS300 widely enough. Its a joy to use. The only thing missing from it is a Mac OS X version of the WebLink SW software.