Cycling to TV

I've been using Zwift with a Wahoo Kickr Core for the last few months and it's been great for keeping me cycling on a regular basis. I'm not really a fair-weather cyclist but the wind gets so bad around here at times, that it can be both demoralising and dangerous, so the trainer has been a good compromise.

Zwift is pretty good. I had a turbo trainer a while ago and it was loud and boring, so I didn't really stick with it. Having the little video game is a nice distraction but it's hardly compelling. I'm never going to be one of those cyclists who's obsessed with gains. I'm just too lazy - as long as I can get out and work up a good sweat, I'm happy.

When Zwift lost its shine, I moved onto films, and watched a few decent ones, but deciding what to watch every couple of days is annoying so I decided I'd watch The Sopranos. I'd seen the first couple of series before, I know what it's about, and fancied watching it all the way through.

I started in January and just finished the finale today. I enjoyed it a lot, and if you're into things with super strong character development, lots of potential for analysis and borderline uncomfortably relatable personalities, then I can recommend it to you.

I ride for about an hour every weekday morning; from 6am to 7am. Last week I had the idea to pull my Sopranos ride data from Strava and see if there was anything I could see in there. I tag each ride with the episode(s) that finished during that ride, so I thought maybe you could tell which were the most exciting episodes by my average heart rate, or maximum heart rate. A few times during some episodes, I noticed that I pedal a lot faster during super tense moments - horse races and fights to the death, in particular.

Unfortunately, the only thing my data told me was that when I put more effort into a ride, my heart rate is higher (shocked??). One thing I did find interesting was the reasonably strong correlation between a high maximum speed and a low average speed, but I suppose this makes sense. There's two reasons for a high max speed: higher burst effort, which would directly affect overall stamina, and a decent descent, which always seems to follow a pretty tough climb. Again, not a huge surprise once you look at it, but still nice to see things like this based on real data.

So, with that in mind, I set out to get sweaty, had the idea that my data might tell me something, retrofitted some incredibly unscientific studies, and learned almost nothing. Like a real scientist!

Not content to do nothing with the data, here's a few quick numbers to sum up The Sopranos and Zwift.

Number of Rides: 65
Total Heartbeats: 588,692 (average bpm / 60) x ride length in seconds
Total Distance: 2,081km
Total Calories : 39,121

So that's it. Not only did I learn nothing, but neither did you. Tomorrow, I'm starting Deadwood, but I'll keep those findings to myself. Unless I learn that Deadwood is more exciting than The Sopranos or some other anecdotal nonsense.