Yesterday I woke up and went from a social run from 08:30, for 7km before returning home, and dressing for cycling. I then cycled 77.48km according to Strava via Garmin. What surprised me is that I wasn’t knackered at the end of the ride.

The run wasn’t slow. The pace was sustained for 7km with some gradients and trail running through a forest. It’s when we stopped at Colovray, and stood in the sun that I felt like I was overheating and in need of shade. That’s why I left the group early to change into cycling clothes. I had already checked tire pressure and more.

The first reaction I had when wearing the Google Fitbit Air is “I’m looking at my wrist but I can’t see the time.” I see the value of minimalism but knowing the time is quite important to me. I have another watch, but if I have something on my watch I want it to show the time.

The concept of the Google Fitbit Air is simple. You wear it, forget about it, and it does everything for you, in the background. If you run, it tracks the run. If you cycle it tracks the bike ride. If you walk it tracks that. It also tracks your sleep, but it doesn’t seem to detect naps, and that’s a shame.

Having a watch with an Heart rate (HR) monitor is fantastic until you realise it’s counting 20 BPM too high, and then it’s far less interesting because it’s reporting a moderate workout as heart.

Plenty of heart rate monitors come as chest straps and that’s great if your workout starts and ends somewhere where it’s okay to strap on a heart rate monitor. In winter it’s also about convenience. It is complicated to remove five layers, to put the HR monitor on, and then start an activity.

Rationally it makes sense to go for a run when the sun is setting because the heat from the sun is lower. In theory this means that the body is dealing with a cooler environment.

In practice, when I go for evening rides and runs my body remains warm for hours, and that heat, during a heat wave, in a minergie building makes it unbearable.

For a few days it was cooling, and I had stopped using fans. I questioned why. I suspect that it is because when the building is exposed to heat wave temperatures for several days the air heats, but eventually the buildings’ structure begins to radiate its own stored heat energy. This means that you’re dealing with hot air, which isn’t bad. It’s when the building becomes a radiator that it becomes unpleasant.

When you ride solo, or with a group it is easy to ride along routes that are familiar but it is more fun to add a little variety. I believe that seeing a path, and following it often leads to developing “The Knowledge” for local bike rides.

I use “The Knowledge” to link to the familiarity that London Black cab taxi drivers have with London. As you cycle, and as you explore all the different roads, so you develop a mental map linking everywhere to everywhere else. You know which routes are flatter, which roads have fast cars, and which ones are more convivial to ride along. You also find the roads that encourage you to ride sustainably.

Around two months ago I decided to see if a Garmin mid range device would cure my desire to upgrade and try new devices so I went for the Garmin Forerunner 570. In many ways it didn’t deliver drastically more than the Garmin Instinct 2. I noticed that it was just as bad at sleep tracking. The key issue though, is that after a swim, and a ride one day I noticed that a plastic o-ring seemed to have made it’s way between the glass and the watch body.

Years ago I noticed something. All of the games on iOS and Android that are promoted are crap. By this I mean that they have a very simple design. Complete a challenge, fail, watch an add, compete, win, watch an ad. Every single game makes you see an ad every few seconds.

These games aren’t especially good. They’re designed for infinite obsessive, absurd game play. Absurd because once you reach a level you fail again, and again, and again. The failure is intentional. It wants you to fail so that you pay to win. The pay to win model is flawed because in the end you fall into an absurd loop and you have to either pay to play, after watching dozens of ads, or pay money for boosts.

Today I grabbed a unique opportunity. Since the Triathlon de Nyon is taking place I went for a walk along the route. Initially I felt like doing something short. In the end I walked the 10-11km loop on foot. There are one or two bits that I missed due to human traffic and routes being closed but it went well.

The route is around 12km and there was a constant show of triathletes cycling by me yelling “to your right” or “to your left” to each other, not to me. I was careful never to be in their way. After a while it died down because they had finished their race, so I had a closed road to myself.

There is a high probability that we well get stung at least once per year. When I am cycling I often notice bees, bumblebees and wasps bounce off of me. Sometimes I feel something hit me but luckily I’m fine. Yesterday I wasn’t that lucky.

Yesterday I hit a wasp, bee or something else and it stung me. I went to my lip to pull the stinging insect away and threw it away. I continued to cycle for a bit, and then I stopped in the shade to send a message that I had been stung.

INTVL is a new game that you play by running, cycling, or both. The concept is simple. Every time you go for a run you capture “territory” from others and every time others go for a run they do the same thing. For this game you don’t need to stare at your phone. You simply walk, run, or cycle.

I write walk but it’s counted as running by the game. I also speak about walking because with Ingress the concept of fielding is similar, except that you need to capture portals, and then walk between portals and link them, before creating fields. Some fields are huge, because people use bikes, trains, cars, planes or trains, and others are small because local portals make it easier.