Garmin Edge 510 Review

First a caveat:  I'm a triathlete.  My review is solely from the point-of-view of a triathlete who's used the Garmin 910XT exclusively for nearly two years.  It may be that none of the cool features or issues I've experienced apply to you.  My motivation for getting the Garmin Edge 510 was the larger screen and thus, the ability to view more data points at one glance rather than having to scroll like I have to do with my 910.  Many of the other selling points (color screen, Bluetooth, touchscreen, live tracking, real time weather, etc...) don't really do it for me.  Sure, the live tracking is cool, but unless I'm racing, I don't need the entire Internet knowing, within 10ft, where I am on the planet.  Part of the draw of training is completely disconnecting from the world, not becoming MORE connected.

Setting up the device was a mixed bag:  the large screen is great, but the touchscreen is kludgy and doesn't always recognize intentional finger presses.  As someone who does full stack Java development and UI development, the UI is pretty bad.  It's not polished and it looks terrible.  It's functional, but it's SO basic it feels like it was designed by a kid in elementary school.  That said, it's mostly obvious what each item does when selecting and adding all my bikes was pretty painless.  With the exception of heart rate, pairing all your ANT+ transmitters (speed/cadence, power, etc...) is done at once and on a per bike basis.  If you aren't using Bluetooth, just a tip to disable it as it'll only help in draining your battery and I've had many friends who've left it on in transition in races and it's gotten confused with all the other electronics present that it doesn't record anything (or if it does, it did so sporadically).  I believe, however, Bluetooth is required for the live-tracking feature and for wirelessly downloading your data to Garmin Connect.

Setting up the data fields in my screens was a snap and like my 910, there's gobs of data points for those statistically inclined.  I use seven fields on my ride (in no particular order):  lap time, lap power, 3s power, lap speed, lap distance, lap cadence, and lap heart rate.  The data is displayed in five rows and as more fields are added the number of rows increases until five are displayed.  When less than five rows are displayed, the rows (and thus the data text) become larger.  This is a nice feature for those folks who might be visually impaired.  To switch screens during a ride, simply tap the screen and select either the left or right arrow that displays at the bottom of the screen.  I'm used to buttons for everything so the fact that the navigation buttons are rendered is a bit odd.  There's plenty of room on the device for more buttons but it's like Garmin was going for a minimalistic design.  The lap and start/stop buttons, however, are actual buttons.

Prior to riding a quick spin of one's pedals is enough to wake up your ANT+ devices and the Garmin will tell you what it's found.  One really annoying thing is that it will not prompt you to calibrate your power meter.  You should ALWAYS do this before a ride to ensure consistent and accurate readings and the 910 does prompt you, but for whatever reason, they didn't make the 510 do this.  Instead, the calibrate feature is buried under your current bike profile and is accessible by tapping on the dumbbell icon.  This icon is only present and clickable if a power meter is currently paired and connected.  I found that calibrating a PowerTap hub is significantly faster (at most a couple of seconds) than doing the same for my Stages power meter which has taken up to 15 seconds.  If you start moving and neglect to press start, the 510 will helpfully tell you that motion has been detected and tell you how to start your data gathering.

I have the 510 mounted on my stem which I'm sure is what Garmin has intended.  Unfortunately, I ride a tri bike and instead of my head being higher up and a lot further back like on a road bike, it's low and forward.  This makes reading the screen a little more challenging and if you have a positively angled stem, you might find reading it impossible.  Mounting on your aero bars is a possibility, but the unit is so big it not only looks ridiculous, your forearm will touch it when riding aero and I don't know about you, but I don't like any distractions when working out or racing and this is a huge distraction.  The other major issue with the stem mounting location on a tri bike is that it's so strategically placed that when riding in the aero position, sweat droplets come off my head and fall directly on the large screen of the 510.  Thanks to surface tension and friction, the droplets just sit there making it hard to read.  Wiping them off is actually worse because not only does it smear and dry with opaque, white, salt streaks, now the touchscreen has, for some reason, become super sensitive and all that touching makes the 510 more than obliged to pop up menus and options over the top of your data fields.  I've ordered a 510-specific Zagg screen protector for it and will try putting some RainX on the Zagg to see if that helps act as a sweat repellant.  I've also ordered a silicone case for the 510 just in case I drop it.  The screen is large and all it has to do is fall face down on uneven ground to get a nice scratch or crack.  And you just know Murphy's Law dictates that it WILL land screen side down if you do drop it.

Don't do this, it goes on your bike

After your ride, hitting stop won't automatically save your workout.  You are prompted to either discard or save it.  This is another change from the 910 and I think is completely unnecessary.  Just save the data, and let the user delete it after they sync.  I've not tried the wireless synching because it requires Bluetooth and a smartphone app.  It does work with Garmin Express, but you have to use the USB cable because the device cannot, apparently, transmit via ANT+ to Garmin Express.  You have to turn the device on before connecting the USB cable or it will think you just want to charge the unit and won't turn on, even if you press the power button.  I am very happy to report that it works great with the Training Peaks Device Agent and works just like my 910 - even better actually since the software hasn't yet been updated to reflect the new file storage location for Garmin Express with the 910.  I should note that the .FIT files Garmin creates for your 510 workouts remain on your device and ARE NOT transferred to your hard drive when synching.  If you want a backup of your data separate from Garmin Connect (or Training Peaks, ...) the 510 mounts like a USB PIN drive and you can see the data in your OS' normal means of browsing an attached drive.  In fact, this is from where the Training Peaks Device Agent pulls your workout data.

Bottom line, as a whole I'm not thrilled with the device.  It's certainly not meant for triathletes and as a whole is just a poor user experience with a kludgy UI and ornery touchscreen.  That said, the most important feature for me was the large screen and easy viewing of my data points and if I can solve my sweat droplet problems, it's good enough for me.  I will say that I'm quite curious to try it out on my road bike to see if some of the annoyances will either go away or become less.

2014 Boulder Sprint Triathlon Race Report

This was my second race in as many weeks.  For as rested and mentally/physically ready as I was for the 2014 Summer Open Triathlon, I wasn't for this race.  I was tired the entire week and instead of altering the taper I did for the Summer Open, I stayed with what had worked previously and it didn't.

I slept well the week leading up to the Summer Open, including race night, but not this past week and slept like crap Saturday night.  But I shook it all off when I woke up and went through my normal pre race routine.

I got to the Boulder Reservoir early enough to get a decent parking spot for both my car and my bike.  Setup was quick and I headed back to my car to relax.  I didn't want to do a run warmup because for the Summer Open it made it harder to get on my wetsuit.  I don't know what the water temperature was but it was far, far warmer than the Summer Open's 54º.  My warmup felt good and I relaxed in the water until it was time to line up.

At the swim start, I somehow found myself next to the winner of the Summer Open and some of his buddies.  After the start of the race, I knew in the first 100 meters it wasn't going to be a good day.  I felt like I had no power and was working way too hard.  Thankfully, I found some fast feet in the next hundred meters or I'm not sure I'd have finished the swim.  I followed the feet until the swim finish and realized it was the the same guy.

Coming out of the water and doing that run up the beach into T1, it's impossible to keep your HR down and I'm sure it was higher than it should have been.  While my transition was pretty smooth, it turned out to be a lot longer than it should have been.  Transition time is the easiest place to make up time, don't fuck it up.  I don't know specifically what I did, but I fucked it up.

I'd ridden part of the course Saturday morning to remember what it was like to ride the first five miles uphill.  To my dismay, the shoulder was in bad shape from the torrential rains we'd had the days before.  Thankfully, 51st St. was coned off such that we were effectively riding in the middle of the road so the gravel wasn't an issue.

As mine was the third wave, I started passing people immediately and continued to do so until Neva Rd.  The cluster of riders was so bad, they were riding two abreast.  To make things even more interesting, a USAT referee came up behind me on a motor bike and decided to ride just in front of me.  I don't know if he/she was dishing out penalties or what, but I kept having to leapfrog the motor bike until the turn onto Neva when they finally went ahead far enough I didn't feel like I was drafting.  I played leap frog with another guy from my age group and probably could have received a penalty for not watching my spacing but this guy would pass me and then slow down - which was kind of annoying.

We did this for the entire bike and he entered T2 a few hundred meters in front of me (but I wound up passing him on the run, at least initially).  T2 was a lot smoother and faster than T1 and I was out in just under a minute.  By this time it was getting hot and I was beginning to feel the heat.  I grabbed water coming out of T1 but the next aid station wasn't for a ways and while I was passing people on the run,  I could feel my body not adapting.  About a quarter mile after the turn around, people I'd passed on the way out started passing me, including the guy in my age group I was leap frogging on the bike.  I saw at least three people in my age group pass me.  I don't remember the wheels coming off or slowing down.  I just remember willing myself to the finish and knowing I was completely spent after crossing the finish line.

Overall, I PR'd by nearly a minute over my previous race on this course with most of the time coming, ironically, on the swim.  The PR aside, it was not a good race, but any race in which lessons can be learned is a race unwasted.

Thanks to my coach Billy Edwards, my team Foxtrot Wheel & Edge, my teammates, my sponsor GU Energy, Colorado Multisport, and my wife for the support.

Race Results:

47th overall, 44th male (296 men total, 474 total athletes)
12th out of 46 in age group
Swim (750m):  11:29, 26th fastest time
T1: 1:51
Bike (17.2 mi): 44:35, 32nd fastest time
T2: 0:59
Run (5km):  23:41, 132nd fastest time

Total:  1:22:35

2014 Summer Open Triathlon Race Report

For starters, this was my first race in three years with the last being the 2011 Summer Open Triathlon (turned Duathlon due to water contamination) soon after which I found out I had torn the medial meniscus in both knees.  Two surgeries, some PT rehab, and several false starts later I started training in earnest beginning December 2013.

My swim and bike training leading up to the race was pretty stellar.  My speed in the pool improved and new coaching from Billy Edwards gave my bike training structure and guidance.  He added the use of power to ensure I was getting the most out of my cycling.  To say it made a difference is a gross understatement.

My run was a big question mark given the surgeries and the slow but steady volume increases I was making.  I had been getting decent volume up to around 3-4 weeks before the race but then dropped off as life got in the way.  As has been typical with all my triathlon training over the years, when time crunches and life hit, it's always been my run that suffers first.  I'm nervous about putting too much volume on my knees so I've been incorporating elliptical or elliptical-like workouts - but have no idea how to equate them to a run, if that's even possible (whereas with cycling, a ride on the trainer is like 1.5x an equivalent ride on the road).

I got to the venue early and got a great racking spot right next to the bike out/bike in - so the distance I would have to run with my bike was minimal.  I set up my stuff and went back to the car to relax before warm-up time.

For my warm-up, I did a 10-minute run.  In retrospect, this was probably unnecessary given that the water temperature was 57-degrees so any warmth gained by running would be quickly negated.  Additionally, the sweat created from running in sweatpants and a sweatshirt only made it that much harder to get on my wetsuit.  I should have just done a longer swim warm-up.

As mentioned, the water was 57-degrees, which if you've never had the pleasure, let me assure you:  IT'S.FUCKING.COLD.  Like, take-your-breath-away cold - especially when it hits your face.  I'd doubled my swim cap and am damn glad I did.  A few hundred meters and I'd numbed up enough to where the cold didn't bother me.  Boy, let me tell you, those first few minutes were really hard.  It took some extra special motivation to not say "screw this" and bail out.  But realizing that EVERYONE had to deal with the same conditions (save for the few crazies wearing sleeveless suits) and if they could do it, so could I.

Mine was the first wave off and in true triathlon start fashion, the washing machine was in full force.  Normally I go really hard to get out in front but I don't know if it was the cold, or if it was because it was my first race, or what, I held back slightly to avoid getting kicked or punched in the face and let some swimmers go in front of me and followed them immediately.  I didn't bother trying to find some fast feet, rather my goal was to just get the damn swim over with as quickly as possible.  I thought I was a lot slower than it turns out I was.  I must have been flying in my new Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit because my swim time was 21st fastest overall and I heard someone say as I ran by into T1 that I was only a minute down.

I don't know if it was the Helix or the cold water, but it took far longer to get my arms out than it should have.  Normally, I want to get to my bike with cap and goggles off and arms out with the wetsuit top pulled down to my waist.  I'd only barely managed the latter by the time I got to my rack.  The rest of T1 went pretty smoothly.  I had gloves out for the ride because I knew I'd be cold coming out of the water and the air temp was still pretty chilly, but my hands were too wet and I couldn't get a glove on, so I gave up on that after only a few seconds.

The bike course was straight out and back with only a turn into and out of the reservoir and a U-turn about six miles out.  Unfortunately, it was all uphill and into a tail wind except for the last few hundred meters before the turn around.  Thankfully, I'd been doing many of my intervals in just such conditions so while I probably overcooked the ride out, I knew I'd be recovering on the way back.  My only regret is not putting an 11 on in the back for my small chainring instead of a 12 and as a result, I was spinning out with the tailwind and downhill on the return leg.

My dismount was mostly textbook, though I probably slowed too much too soon and took my feet out of my shoes a bit early.  My feet were still a little wet so getting my socks on took a little longer than I was expecting.  In years past, I'd been used to running without socks, but hadn't done any such training and so didn't want to risk it just for the sake of speed.

Heading out on to the run, I could feel the lack of quality run training and to make matters worse, I couldn't feel my feet.  I was running on stumps for the first 1.5 miles.  The run was on the dirt road next to the reservoir and headed East.  It was in really bad shape with 2-4" deep holes everywhere.  Finding a smooth, straight track was challenging.  A little over a 1/2 mile before the finish, I noticed I was having trouble seeing the road clearly due to my glasses being dirty but instead of taking them off, I just kept running and wound up rolling my ankle within that half-mile and it easily took 20-seconds to get back into a rhythm, but it was not nearly at the same pace as before.  As a result, I lost two places in my age group with the second one being literally in the finishing chute.  I was so pissed.

Overall, it was a damn good race and I should be proud to come back so strong after a three-year hiatus.  But, as we athletes are wont to do, we focus on the one or two negatives and that, for me, would be the damn ankle roll that cost me two places.  Thankfully, other races are yet to come, the road is in much better shape, and I'll be that much more motivated.

Thanks to Foxtrot Wheel & Edge, my teammates, my sponsor GU Energy, and my wife for the support.

Race Results:

42nd overall, 37th male
7th out of 38 in age group, 10 and 2 seconds behind 5th and 6th place respectively.
Swim (1/2 mi):  8:18, 21st fastest time
T1: 1:33
Bike (12.25 mi): 35:30, 40th fastest time
T2: 1:04
Run (3.1 mi):  23:15, 111th fastest time

Total:  1:09:42