Category: Words

Having done the hills to the west of Durham last week I thought that I would do the run to the coast this week. This should really have been do the hills to the east of Durham. It is not flat, but there are some pretty interesting ups and downs to contend with. The road surfaces are some of the worst I’ve ridden. Rough tarmac at it’s worst – making the bike vibrate and bounce around. Amazingly it seems to have taken just over two hours to do less than 25 miles.

Now here’s the rub. I actually planned the route using Strava’s route planner and then was a bit put out by the difference in numbers recorded on the actual ride. I made a couple of detours, so I’ve just cloned and edited the planned route to represent the one I did. Strava’s route planner says:

35.3mi Distance and 2,681ft Elevation Gain

So why does the ride I actually did only come in at:

24.3mi Distance and 1,635ft Elevation Gain

To put a further twist on it, the Wahoo app I use to record the ride has logged it as:

23.2mi Distance and doesn’t show elevation gain.

Now why Strava corrects the data that is exported to it from the Wahoo app, I am not sure, but in th east it’s always seemed more plausible information.

I conclude that the Strava route planner software is just incorrect in its calculations. I had thought that the Wahoo / Strava issues was related to the recorded data via the speed sensor, but given that’s kaput at present I am at a loss to explain it – they both seem to use the same Google data.

All I know is my legs feel like they’ve done some climbing this evening and more than last week although Strava reckon’s it’s actual 20ft less climbing than that ride.

In other news, the turbo session yesterday evening seems to have buggered the speed sensor on my Wahoo SC bluetooth unit. The cadence still works and even a brand new battery purchased via a dash into the city this morning has refused to resurrect it. It’ll be off back to Wiggle for replacement.