Top three performance apps of the 2014 summer season

So the world of cycling for fitness and touring has been changing  a lot over the past several years. I remember doing a tour in May of 2007 in Northern France with a couple chaps--the same tour that got me so interested in cycling-- at a time when we had to rely on paper maps to figure out where we were. Thirty-percent of the time we were totally confused as to which way to head and for how long. I may have freaked out in a particularly wooded area, looking for lichen on tree-trunks to determine which way was North. Jump ahead to 2014 and we have a bevy of online maps with real-time GPS tracking to assist on longer tours and rides. Not only do our smart phones tells us where we are, they also keep track of the route we've taken, and suggest better routes to get us to where we want to go. There are also many apps that will coach you to ride farther and faster. All I can say is thank God we live in this time.



With that said, here are my top three most frequently used cycling apps this year that will improve your performance, engage you in a more immersive cycling experience, or help you meet up with friends for a great group ride!


This might be a no-brainer for anyone familiar with this app. Map My Ride is an excellent fitness app that keeps track of your location, distance travelled, speed, length of time cycling, topography of your ride and a whole lot more. 

Despite a lot of major perks being included with the MVP version of Map My Ride ($29.99/year or $5.99/month for MVP status), the free version is still exceptionally helpful in giving you a minute by minute breakdown of your speed and topography. The built in music player with this app also plays your favourite biking playlist, but can be disabled so you can enjoy that new album you purchased online, or get rid of distractions completely and listen to the hum of your tires gliding along pavement (or trail). 

Although you can access everything from your mobile, going online opens up the Map My Ride cycling community. Maybe taking a page from the gaming industry, Map My Ride keeps track of achievements and gives you points for your entire ride, or portions of your ride that are more technically intensive --such as a winding downhill stretch-- or brutally taxing --like a continuous two kilometre climb. Check-in online after your ride to see how you stack up compared to other riders in your area!

Keeping with the theme of gaming: are you looking for something a little less performance oriented? Maybe something with an engaging, multi-season storyline? How do you feel about the possibility of being eaten alive by zombies? Although this app is designed for jogging, when I'm suiting-up for a casual ride, I always turn to Zombies, Run! 

With many of the same features of Map My Ride, Zombies, Run! goes a bit further by immersing you in a post-zombie-apocalytic society in which the town you live --Abel Township-- relies on supply-scavenging runners (er... bikers) to rustle up food, medicine, weapons, and most importantly, sports-bras for your growing enclave. While out collecting these vital supplies, you are immersed in a storyline of how Abel came to be, how the zombie apocalypse began and what you can do to possibly find the cure to the zombie plague and save the world. 

Although by no means as comprehensive as the coaching you'll find on Map my Ride, during runs (er... rides) you can toggle zombie chases where your music will tone down and you'll hear the zombie hoard nipping closely at your heels! So apart from live GPS tracking and topography, Zombies, Run! essentially puts you through interval training while you're on your ride (er... run?)

On top of everything, after completing episodes of each season, your Abel Township will be awarded building material for you to build better houses for your citizens, reinforce your walls to keep out the zombie horde, or add playgrounds or farms to keep your citizens happy and well fed. The website is also a great way to track your pace on each of your rides and the topography of your route. There is also an achievement component to Zombies, Run! that rewards you with badges for distance, frequency of runs, supplies collected, and various aspects of building your base (i.e., population, happiness, etc.)

As a gamer, Zombies, Run! is a really great app that got me back into running/biking after a couple years in a fitness slump. Great for solo-riders looking for more engagement on longer rides. But with great app comes great responsibility. Zombies, Run! will cost you $3.99, and each season or fitness-pack ranges from $1.99 to nearly $8. You can also get an all-season pass for $17.99 which will give you access to hours of storyline to enjoy whether you're running or riding.



Let's just say tracking your rides isn't your number one priority. Let's also assume you love riding with a group, but always get a little edgy when Greg's abysmal sense of direction has him showing up late every Sunday. Or let's assume you just popped a flat on a trail in the middle of no-where. You need to give directions to the family on where to pick you up, but in all honesty, you don't have much of a clue of where you are.

If you --or Greg-- fit the mould above, then Glympse is the app you're looking for. This app isn't about tracking and pushing your performance. With only a simple speedometer and GPS tracking, Glympse is a great way to let your family and friends know where you are, or help Greg figure out how to catch up with your group ride because you guys got tired of waiting for him and left 15 minutes ago. 

One of the greatest things about this app is that the person receiving a Glympse doesn't need the app to track your location. All they need is a browser on their smartphone and a link in the text message that is automatically generated by the app. You can dial the amount of tracking-time that a Glympse shares from a single snapshot of where you are to an hour or longer if you're interested in your family and friends tracking your rides in their entirety. Finish your ride early and still have 30 minutes of tracking to go on your Glympse? Use the app to cut short your tracking whenever you want. 

Aside from the cycling applications, I've found this app to be helpful in meeting up with friends or showing people just how late I'm running if I'm due for a meeting. With it's sexy look and intuitive programming, it's been a pretty cool addition to my app-list this year. 

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I hope you've found this helpful! Although these are my top picks and definitely my most used apps related to cycling, there are many more apps out there that will help you perform better or give you something interesting to listen to while you're out riding. Do you use an app that you think needs honourable mention? Leave a note in the comments below! I'm also looking into maintenance apps, so keep your eyes peeled on another top three list from me in the near future.

Happy trails!

Peggy's Cove-Tantallon Loop and a new bike AT Priorities Plan

Just a quick note that I was able to blast out 100km to Peggy's Cove and back via Prospect Rd. and Tantallon. It was a challenging ride full of incredible coves and harbours that pretty much summarize the Maritime experience in coastal Nova Scotia. Just a couple pics below to share, enjoy!

Just to let everyone know, the Joseph Howe Century is going down this weekend thanks to a partnership with MEC and Velo Halifax. Having done this ride a few years ago, I gotta say it's worth signing-up and giving a try. It'll push your limits for sure, but it follows a great route around some picturesque areas of North-East HRM. 

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Moving right along, it's been a busy month for cycle-planning in HRM! On a micro-level, Dalhousie has recently released plans to convert half of university avenue to a cycle-track, much to the chagrin of cellists and brass players that frequent the Rebecca Cohen Auditorium. Backing-up to the macro-level, HRM is moving a new Active Transportation Priorities Plan along the bureaucratic chain for approval. This will see a bit more focus on certain bike projects --as well as ped and greenway projects-- gleaned from the 2006 AT Plan. It also updates road candidacy for on-street bike lanes, either by removing a few from the 2006 list for various reasons or suggesting where bike lanes can be replaced by multi-use pathways/greenways. To see a list of changes, see page 90. 

The real meat-and-potatoes of the document revolves around which projects actually have a funding estimate tacked on. Dartmouth-Halifax commuters should be heartened to see that a $2.05-million price-tag has been earmarked for figuring out how the hell to solve the MacDonald Bridge Bike lane access problem (both sides). Another notable goal is the creation of a protected bike lane pilot project within the regional centre --part of a 5k target of on-street bike infra expansion within Halifax and Dartmouth proper (total expansion costs estimated at $2.5-million). Although having a simple, specific five-year target is great to incorporate into this AT planning document, I'm not particularly impressed with the 5k goal that is divided between Halifax and Dartmouth. Each side of the harbour certainly deserves 5k each judging by the increase in cyclists on both sides of the bridge over the past five to seven years. For more cycling-specific plans, see pages 67-71.

If you're from outside the city centre, there's good news in this plan for you too! Lots of shoulder expansions on some routes that are more or less integral to access either the city centre or longer touring routes to other parts of the province. Trail folks: lots of funding out there for you! Main focus is on expansion of a lot of existing trails like the Dartmouth Waterfront Greenway (great ride!), the Halifax Urban Greenway (another great ride!), the Barrington St. Greenway (the one that loops under the bridge access ramp), and several more that I didn't know existed. For any randonneurs out there, there is mention of a Windsor-Hansport trail that might be designed and/or developed over the next five years. Having done Hali-to-Valley rides semi-regularly over the past five years, this is pretty exciting! See pages 72-74 for a better breakdown. 

I'm still reading over this plan and having some brain difficulties lately so I might have more to say in the future. I'm not particularly let-down by this priorities plan, but I'm not sure how I feel about Local Street Bikeways yet. There's no real blueprint on how they'll look, but I would assume speed-bumps and chicanes will be prevalent techniques in the traffic calming process. Tell me what you think in the comments: do local bikeways add needed variety to the bike-network, or just water it down?

Church goers crying foul and Sambro Loop safety issues

Well fall is rearing it's ugly head (I'm more of a spring guy). The leaves along many a bike route are starting to show crisp, rusted fringes and bikers are starting to group together for that one last, exceptional cycling trip of the season. Unfortunately, we're seeing a couple complaints in HRM regarding cycling infrastructure and cycling behaviour. 

Let's start with the more ridiculous issue.

Last fall, the city finally created a functional bike lane connecting the South End of the peninsula to the North End. Doing so effectively connected residential neighbourhoods to commercial areas, the universities and the hospitals --the latter two being HRM's largest employment sectors along with the Army/Navy bases. It was great! Current cyclists seemed happy to see a piece of the AT plan of 2005 come to fruition. New riders from the City Streets neighbourhood (such as Cork St., Liverpool St., Edinburgh St., London St., Berlin St., Vienna St.) came out of the woodwork to cycle using this new piece of infrastructure. Everything was going so well until someone noticed parking signs stating "No Parking, Mon-Sat." The ensuing Sunday-bike-lane-blockage was like clockwork. Starting at about 7am , church parishioners would come out, clog the lane and shut things down for new cyclists on possibly the most appealing day for recreational riding.

Thanks to some handy camera-work by @zeptep (photo above), the issue came to light on a local cycling group on Facebook. The Halifax Cycling Coalition then swooped in to rectify the issue with city staff and have the signs replaced. 

Staff looked into issue of parking in Windsor St bike lane. “No Parking Mon-Sat” signs will be removed, will notify @HfxRegPolice @IBIKEHFX
— hfxgov (@hfxgov) September 8, 2014

Unfortunately, we found out blotting out bike lanes is a hobby for a few folks in HRM.

Washmill Lake Dr.

So who is dropping the ball here? The blame would have to go to Halifax Regional Police as well as municipal staff. Despite staff's great work in establishing the broad strokes, HRM has to pay attention to fine detail with such an intense change to Halifax's transportation infrastructure. HRP has to pick-up the ball from there and consistently enforce the law. Plan, promote, enact, enforce; this should probably be an acronym for HRM staffers to keep in mind for future roadwork. P.P.E.E. ... Pee? Well, maybe we can figure out some new letters first.

Is this the end of cycling in HRM? Definitely not. New cyclists are probably a little put off by these events, but established, year-round cyclists will always be there to call attention to these issues and have them fixed. The HCC is also here to help and has proven particularly capable of responding quickly when issues come to their attention. 

Enter the next player in this debacle. 

Despite the ridiculously high amount of public parking on nearby side streets, churches are deploring the move which is steering their parishioners towards actually walking a whopping two to five minutes to get to mass. 

Imagine! Walking! On your hind legs! Like a Cretan! The nerve...

The really confusing portion of the article linked above is that families are taking two to three cars to church every Sunday. Is that not a completely ridiculous concept to anyone else here?!

I hope this story ends here with churches capitulating to the fact that maybe a short walk might be good of their congregation, and older members of the church or people requiring wheelchairs or walkers are differently-abled, not disabled.

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Now let's switch to the complaint going on right now that has a degree of legitimacy. 

The residents of everyone's favourite cycling route, the Sambro Loop, are getting a little frustrated with cyclists not obeying the rules of the road. The creation of the "Make the loop safe" group on Facebook seems at first blush to be a great way to share concerns, offer some solutions, and mobilize residents and cyclists in solving a space issue on the Sambro Loop. After reading a few comments however, you'll quickly see that this is yet another cranky-motorist-ranting page.

Taking pictures of cyclists riding in an unsafe manner is encouraged and really goes to show how biased many members of this group are against cycling. The pictures on the page would be laughable if so many people didn't take them so seriously. Here are some examples:

Cyclist positioned excellently to the right.

Another great example of responsible riding

Maybe hard to see here, but two bikers, single file, staying to the right

This might be a legitimate complaint. Do these guys go single file as soon as they are through the intersection? We don't know.

Believe it or not, every picture above had complaints that the cyclist(s) is not far-right enough, or they are simply at a section of road with a blind crest or a piece of winding road --difficult to see around those corners.

Think about that: someone is mad at you for existing in a certain place at a certain time. A remarkably poor attitude towards cycling, but hear me out for a minute...

Group rides. Probably one of the best ways to spend an hour or two working out with a friend, shoot the shit about your week, make some plans to get together for coffee sometime soon. Definitely helpful in increasing your average pace, and covering a great amount of distance with a reduced amount of effort. These guys riding like this --which is probably the most common riding pattern for groups of six riders or larger worldwide-- although promoting camaraderie and riding efficiency, is not particularly lawful in the strictest sense. Put another way, people that don't cycle don't get why you need to have two columns. On top of this, there are a few stories by motorists that group rides will curse, flip-out or otherwise act like a jag towards passing cars. 

There are a plethora of reasons for cyclists to freak out. Are all these cars passing at times when it's safe to do so? Are they giving the proper metre of distance required by the law, regardless of how many abreast these cyclists are? Could these bikers do better in thinning out when cars are approaching? How does their behaviour reflect cycling in area? How well are motorists promoting equity in road sharing when they come upon a group like this? Are group riders making the rest of us look bad?

The answer to all these questions is: I don't know. A Facebook page bitching about cyclists and showing a few stills of individual cyclists giving massive amounts of space for cars juxtaposed against group rides at a moment when the pack might not even know a car is behind them is not proof that cyclists are behaving particularly poorly. It does not show that this route is significantly unsafe either. It does illustrate that this is one of HRM's most cycled routes, and as more people take up cycling for it's health and social benefits, there are more interactions between the two road users. 

But there is good news to motorists in the area: you're not doing that bad of a job! I usually hit this route once, maybe twice a week and I have to admit that nine out of 10 of you car-folk give me space, slow down on your approach, or wait for oncoming traffic to go by before you pass. Would a bike lane be beneficial to increase the safety of the area? It would likely make riding more comfortable for cyclists, albeit on a road that hasn't seen a motorist-cyclist collision resulting in serious harm or death in the last 10 years --very likely much longer. 

Will it make things better for motorists?

If these two folks serve as an example of "poor cycling," then there's going to always be a section of motorists that will always have a hate-on for bikers and who will bitch at every chance they get when they find a cyclist ahead of them, whether in a bike lane or not.

Either way, I'm not particularly anti-bike lane on the Sambro Loop. I do think there are better places to invest in cycling infra, such as off-road trails or sprucing-up urban bike routes. There is a poorly written, online petition encouraging government to create a bike lane around the Sambro Loop, but I encourage you to write to your councillors or MLAs and encourage them to invest in cycling in HRM and Nova Scotia. 

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This was a long one and I have to thank you for reading this far. I'm interested to see what you guys think about this, so leave your comments below.

Happy trails!

Quick Post: North Park and Cunard

So I went to work today through North Park and Cunard. No big deal; had to swerve onto the sidewalk (multi-use path, actually) and ride on the Commons for a bit. On the way back however, I found the end of Agricola St is totally blocked and fenced. 

If you're going southbound on Agricola and want to go through the intersection, I think you have to turn up Sarah St., turn left on Moran and another left back onto Cunard, then take the initial chunk of the new roundabout onto North Park. You essentially have to do this in reverse to get back northbound as N. Park only empties onto Cunard, and only Cunard-West.

The exciting thing about this recent change is that the south portion of the roundabout and N. Park is slowly opening up again. The picture is slowly coming together! The downside --and I figured this out during my jog tonight-- is that the pedestrian lights are being taken down and you can tell motorists don't really know how to behave. Do they stop for pedestrians? Do they just rush through and expect you to stop? 

It is definitely the latter. Pay attention out there, stay visible and stay safe!

More construction woes and Dartmouth ain't so bad

So there's been more construction issues along yet another popular bike route in HRM. The Cow-Bay loop in Dartmouth is going through some road re-paving between Hornes Rd. and Caldwell Rd. Probably great news for the folks that live around there, as the road is pretty nasty along that stretch, but it's kind of a bummer to have two of the more popular routes torn up and detoured simultaneously. 

In any case, I finished my ride in pretty good time. I'm able to hold an average pace of 25kph now, which has been my goal for the year. Pretty happy with that! On returning through Dartmouth, I stopped off at the always awesome Two If By Sea for some much needed carbs and caffeine. I also gave the Canteen a try. For those not in the know, the Canteen is a little sandwich shop above TIBS. I think it opened earlier this year, but this is the first time I've tried it out. Definitely not disappointed! Great sized turkey-flatbread sandwich for an end-of-ride meal. Plus, the team up of the coffee and sandwich shop seems pretty natural to me. 

Maybe I'm growing beyond the juvenile "Darkside bad, Halifax Good" knee-jerk feelings of almost every non-Dartmouthian HRM resident, but the more I head through Downtown Dartmouth the more I'm impressed by its coziness. You've got a bunch of little shops along Ochterloney and Portland streets there. After you get through busy-Portland St. and Five-Points, the traffic seems to naturally calm down, making for some comfortable riding. The North-End Commons is a wonderful spot to visit on a nice sunny day. And most importantly Alderney Landing is pretty awesome! It's getting some cool upgrades right now, but you have a fish and meat market in there, a bakery, Wooden Monkey, and hell, even an NSLC all up in that joint! That's like, 90% of your dietary needs right there! 

The view when you're coming into Halifax by the ferry is most excellent. I mean, I have a little crush on Dartmouth; we're not full-blown making-out yet.

Happy trails!