Word association makes odd things happen. This cyclocomputer of mine is a Garmin Edge 520; but I\’m always trying to call it a \”Garmin Sharp\”! I suppose I\’m comparing \”edge\” to the edge of a knife, which is — of course — sharp.

Having it does seem to help me to sharpen up my training, so maybe \”Garmin Sharp\” isn\’t so far off. I can watch my cadence when I shift to a very hard gear, and then want to pedal at a higher rpm. Before I had that readout screen on my handlebars, maintaining the cadence (or any cadence!) was far harder; and, indeed, was little better than a guessing game.

When I want to work to attain a specific speed, I can see whether I\’m really doing it. That\’s especially helpful when I want to push for 16-17 mph, instead of 15 mph. If I want to get faster, riding faster is part of training.

I can watch my heart rate as well. If I start to feel too \”gaspy\”, I check my current bpm. If I\’m getting too close to my max, I\’ll know that I need reduce my efforts for a while and recover.

The Garmin has many features that I haven\’t gotten around to using yet, such as setting a route. So far there\’s been no real need to set routes — but maybe someday! Then word association might trigger some more oddities, such as setting down roots.*

*\”route\”: is sometimes pronounced like \”root\”