Inspiration & Advice

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Jim's Basement Blog #3: Virtual Drafting

Jim's Basement Blog #3: Virtual Drafting

So yeah, I’m competitive


It will come as surprise to exactly nobody who knows me that today, when someone started to draft (virtually) me (virtually) on a climb (virtual climb) in Zwift (a virtual world of little import) I abandoned my workout entirely, rode as hard as could and turned my face into this;

Take that virtual dude!


Sometimes I think my life consists of 2 equal parts:




  • Eating, breathing, sleeping, touching my face

  • Anger management


Any free time I have outside of those 2 equal parts is mainly dedicated to making comments related to this meme;

What happened?


A friend of mine read the previous 2 blogs (first and second) and noted to me;
"The vast majority of people on Zwift don’t ride ERG. Most people do wacky group rides and just ride around. Me included."

First of all, what are you guys doing, ERG mode is for winners.

Second of all, this is the same person who once called me and started the conversation with this;
"JIMMY! YOU POOPIN?!"

And I was. So I tend to respect his opinion. I also stopped answering the phone on the toilet.

SO, knowing this, I figured I would try just riding around in Zwift. Of course, I still loaded a workout on my test Dash M50 GPS cycling computers because it’s amazing and I can’t imagine why riding around (virtually) would be motivating at all. There I am, noodling around, doing some intervals (actually was kind of not doing them) and such and some guy starts drafting me on the climb right about…

LET'S GOOOOO I LIVE FOR THIS

And that’s that. I went all out on a climb (virtual) and then when I got to the top I exploded across the finish line (virtual) a mess (not virtual, very not).

What does this mean? I’m a terrible person?


Maybe so. Maaaaybe so.

In my journey back to fitness it means that I just did what basically amounts to a fitness test. Let’s check how it measures up to my previous data. Let me just pull out the Stages Link app, open this ride, and…

Well, at least Link sent me a lot of nice little achievement notifications for this ride;And my time in zone was admirable;

All in all… I think I can be happy with this.

Sandbagger


Again, sure. That seems true. At least I finally updated my weight in Zwift to be the real one and not the weight I used to have when I rode all day. But ultimately, yeah, this reflects moderately poorly on me for complaining about fitness. It seems even worse that I then rode back up the climb just to take a picture of my time since I wasn’t sure I could get a screenshot after the ride;

OH YEA!!! You must have crushed that guy in some basement somewhere!

Well. Maybe tomorrow? Still waiting to see the effect it has on my ego, which we were not testing for early enough so the impact could be pretty bad, we will know more in 14 days.

Jim's Basement Blog #1 - Blog from recovering pro cyclist, current Stages engineer

Jim's Basement Blog #1 - Blog from recovering pro cyclist, current Stages engineer
Hi! My name is Jim. I’m the director of program management at Stages Cycling and, like many of you, staying home to hopefully flatten the curve. I make sure the Stages Dash GPS Cycling Computer and StagesBike SB20 Smart Bike do the things cyclists of all types want them to do. My last job was racing road bikes, I never made it to the big show, but at least I got into Phil Gaimon’s first book and apparently met Patrick Dempsey while getting an aggressive rider jersey at Tour of California (I had no idea who that was at the time).

Those days were long ago and now my legs look like this:

Let’s just say the Stages Dash cycling computers make their owners stronger, unless you’re the guy in charge of making it, in which cause you trade FTP for LBS and laughs when trying to put on some old racing jerseys. Not really haha laughs, but more laughs you might get when being squeezed into something comically small for your body.

What is this for?


Well, human connection! We’re all entering a strange time with this COVID-19 situation, and I realized something I’ll try to convey by cartoon:

Well, heck that. It’s time to get back on the bike.

Turns out, while stuck in the house testing our new smart bike yesterday I had the best time I’ve had on a bike in as long as I can remember. I had a Dash M50 and L50 running our next update alongside a workout in Zwift while our bike followed the workout steps perfectly and gave me that great feeling I used to get when I would keep hammering away even though it would be so easy to just stop.

That’s the feeling we are all hunting for. During all this craziness, I was able to find it for the first time in years! That’s why I’m writing this. We made the Dash and it’s awesome. We made this smart bike and it’s awesome. I gotta tell someone.

My setup


My wife and I just bought our first house, so we’re light on furniture. Someone’s gotta put all these books to good use;

The Stages Bike actually comes with a tablet holder but I took it off because when I’m testing I have:




  • MacBook that logs raw data from the bike for feedback to the developers in charge of making the bike amazing

  • MacBook that runs Zwift or another application that can control the bike (and slack questions while testing)

  • Speaker plugged into the Stages Bike USB charger playing Vulfpeck at Madison Square Garden for the 100th time

  • Dash M50 with the latest beta firmware

  • Dash L50 with the latest beta firmware

  • iPhone running Zwift companion app plugged into the other Stages Bike USB charger

  • Android phone testing our Link app


And, importantly, this:

The remote for my fan. This is as smart as I need

DC Rainmaker Reviews Stages Dash

DC Rainmaker Reviews Stages Dash
Check out the new DC Rainmaker for an in-depth review and get the smartest bike computer out there.




READ RAY'S REVIEW

DISCOVER DASH

“It’s essentially the holy grail of customization and tweaking. And that concept extends straight into how you configure your data pages.”


“The Stages Dash M50 or L50 are both incredibly solid computers for the money that are ideally suited to those with structured training with a power meter or smart trainer.”

“The unsung hero of the Stages Dash lineup is actually the deeper integration with Stages Link, and the premium features they include there that other platforms like Garmin and Wahoo simply don’t have.” 


“I think it’s been clear through every iteration of the Stages Dash lineup that their ‘nailed it’ feature is the entire structured workout experience. And by and large within that ecosystem, they win there.”


“If you’re an athlete training for something with specificity, then there’s no beating the included Stages Link platform for the value.”


SHOP DASH
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