Last weekend I went for a 43 miles bike ride. That isn’t all that long but it was very hilly and a bit of work. I knew it was hilly because I rode those hills and I knew I worked hard because I was tired but how could I possibly convey this reality to the rest of the world? Easy – just upload the data from my Garmin 201 and superimpose the image on a satellite map compliments of MotionBased.com. Oh how I love technology! Tell me honestly, does this not impress you?

First of all, we obviously covered a lot of ground. Second of all check out that elevation map! Hooey! I look at that and envision myself as one of those crazy Dr. Seuss characters with long furry limbs climbing straight up a hill with a manical grin on my face (notice I did NOT compare myself to one of those guys riding the Tour de France). We won’t mention that it wasn’t exactly straight uphill although it felt like it (it was a maximum grade of 20% and baby, that is steep!) And the grin? That was really a grimace but hey – I made it! Here – let me just blow that elevation map up so you can really see it.

The other thing you can do with the Garmin data is upload it to Google Earth and then zoom in and tilt and play, play, play. It’s like living the whole ride over again and again. You can set the thing up so it seems like a helicopter ride over the route you took. You can’t exactly see the hill and dale as we rode it but you can see how hilly the terrain is. Too bad playing on the computer doesn’t burn up the same number of calories per unit time. I could really use that function. I’d put it on the ‘tools’ menu and mark it ‘hot fudge sundae eradicator’.

I’m really glad I got out there last weekend because this weekend is shaping up to be ugly on top of cold and I’m not going out in that kind of weather. I have an indoor trainer and I know how to use it. The Garmin won’t do me any good on that thing but I could rename it ‘the hot fudge sundae eradicator’. Unlike my Garmin, the trainer really can fill that function.