Jenna and Ben try out the Edge 705

Ben:
This week I upgraded to the Garmin Edge 705 after using the Forerunner 305 for over a year. This new training tool of mine has instantly boosted itself to the highly coveted status of “Ben’s favorite toy”. I found the box when I came home one afternoon last week and immediately tore through the packaging and searched through the Quick Start Guide to find out how long I would need to charge the battery before my first use – several hours – thanks to Daylight Savings Time, I would have enough time for an evening ride!  I passed the time by reading through the manual, installing the included cadence and speed sensor and mounting bracket on my bike, and deciding where I could go within a short distance of my home to test out some of the cooler features of the Edge 705. I decided to ride over to the Redhook Brewery and up a hill nearby called Hollywood. This way I could use the unit to find Redhook and give me directions. Sure I ride by there frequently, but this was a scientific test, and I had to know how it would work.

Finally the battery indicator said it was fully charged and I snapped the 705 onto the stem of my bike. It sat perfectly behind my mini ITU aerobars and when it powered on, it showed a color map of my neighborhood with a triangle indicator right in my driveway. I wasn’t even outside yet, but it had locked onto satellites to show my position. This is a drastic change from the Forerunner 305, where I would turn the unit on and let it search for satellites while I stretched. I went into the menu and it asked, “Where To”. I did a search for Redhook and found the brewery. The same map came back onto the display, but now there was a blue line heading out of the neighborhood. I took off with one eye on the road and the other watching the triangle move down the blue line. How exciting! I switched to the data view, which I had set up to show my ride time, speed, cadence, bearing, elevation, % grade, and heart rate. I found my cadence sensor was not detected. In my excitement I had mounted it backwards – too late, I would have to fix that for the next ride. Everything else worked perfectly. I did notice that the maps did not include bike trails, but since the Burke Gilman Trail in Seattle parallels a major road, it didn’t really affect the directions. The unit did know to stay away from major highways and freeways.
The ride was going great until 15 minutes in I realized I had a flat tire. Worse yet, I had no spare tube, and no pump with me. All these things were in a saddle bag that I had not yet unpacked from my trip to San Francisco. I was stranded, and didn’t know where the nearest bike shop was. Luckily, I had a nifty little gadget (the 705) that knew exactly where the nearest bike shop was! I cancelled my trip to Redhook and started searching through the menu for a bike shop. Unfortunately there was no category for bike shops, but I was able to find them with a keyword search (I typed in bike and a few shops popped up). 3 miles was the nearest shop! What terrible luck! Furthermore, I hadn’t seen another cyclist in ten minutes and during the evening commute. Getting someone to stop and help is like asking a buffalo for directions during a stampede. I finally gave in and used my other electronic companion for help: my cell phone. Had I been farther from home, I may have walked to the bike shop, and in that case the 705 would have saved me, but since I was five miles from home, it seemed more reasonable to call for a ride.

On the plus side, this served as motivation for me to plan a better, longer, hillier ride with my 705. That ride, like the Edge 705, turned out to be worth the wait, and I’ll talk about it in my next post.
Check out Ben’s ride in Garmin Connect.

Jenna:
My Garmin Edge 705 became my navigator this weekend on my long easy aerobic training ride, often referred to as “peak to peak.” My coach had planned for me to ride the loop with a few of my training partners on Sunday. I wasn’t really sure where I was headed, having never done it before, nor had they, so I got some directions and we headed off. However, the directions were quite basic and I was certainly glad to have the mapping function on my Garmin Edge 705 to lead the way. Without fail, it located all of the roads I was supposed to take and I found my way through the ride without any problems. As I rode up the long climb, I believe this is Vrain Road, I kept the Edge on the map mode. I didn’t care to know how fast we were climbing and was really just interested in locating the left-hand turn ahead. When I finally saw a road on the left, after almost an hour of going up, I knew that the climbing was almost over. I also really enjoyed watching the altimeter. It draws a little green mountain as you climb that shows the gradient of the hill you have already tackled. It also keeps a record of how many meters (I do everything metric) you have climbed since the start of the ride and shows your current elevation.

We logged roughly 105k of riding on the day and climbed roughly 1200 meters. It was the most beautiful day, perfect riding conditions, and just a really great ride. We stopped around 2 hours in at a small convenience shop in Raymond, Colorado. Okay, so it was the only shop in the very small town of Raymond, and the shop owner was certainly happy to have a chat. We had to do a bit of a ducking and running or we would never have made it back! When I got home, just over 4 hours later, I felt really good despite the length of the ride. I was sure to keep on top of my nutrition, eating a number of different bars as well as my favorite snack, apple slices, along the way. I think we did a good job of taking the “easy” part of the workout description seriously. I have finally learned that when my coach says “easy,” you jump at the opportunity to keep it aerobic.

There are a few other rides posted from the week, so I hope you enjoy taking a look at those as well. I have one more week in Boulder and then I head off to Europe to race a bit. I’m looking forward to this last week of hard work, but am also really excited to rest a bit and see what happens when I get back on the start line in Ireland on July 12.
Check out Jenna’s ride in Garmin Connect.

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