DaveLeeNC

For context I have been riding around 150 to 200 miles per week pretty regularly since 2015, although that dropped off a bit the past 12 to 18 months. Other than a timed solo 50 miler just to see what I could do and a solo century (hit my goal of a sub 5 hour ride), I had no particular goals (I ride alone by choice) and no other 'competitive rides'. And I do hit age 70 in a few months.

I've had Garmin Vector pedals and the typical other electronic stuff pretty much from the start. And I always tracked stuff so the moderate degradation in performance due to both age and a somewhat reduced level of riding pretty much stares me in the face and was a demotivating factor. So starting back in April I have been (for the most part) riding 'measurement free'. I don't even turn on my Garmin 800 when I ride. All I do is look at my watch when I start and when I stop. My rides have few to no traffic stops so I take a guess at time lost due to that (nothing to a couple minutes) and record that time, my best guess at normalized power (so I have some idea of what level of work I am doing), and a best guess at speed (mostly for maintenance purposes). This reminds me of my 'running days' back in the 1970's and 80's.

I have found this to both change my attitude toward riding (in a positive manner) and it seems to have increased my riding as well.

Just a FWIW. Doing this has been a (somewhat) bigger deal than I would have expected.

dave