Its the final countdown
Its the Dragon Ride at the weekend and I am almost over the flu that knocked me out for the last week or so. I had some trouble with a heart rate monitor, but managed to resolve the issue.
There are engineering works on the train route I take for the Dragon Ride. I got in touch with GWR support via WhatsApp and they said 'the train should run on time', with a caveat that the train could be cancelled if the engineering works overran.
Luckily a friend can take me in their car and put my bike on their bike rack. This seemed the more reliable option.
I am still fighting off the remnants of the flu, which keeps persisting despite serious levels of vitamins and paracetamol. I am taking the opportunity to sleep as much as I can this week.
Today was the first session of the AI School from Google. The first session was a fluff piece, trying to inspire, but I found it too much hype and lacking in substance. Hopefully it gets better as the week progresses.
Cyclingλ︎
Tuesday I organised my kit and necessities for the Dragon Ride trip.
Saturday I was picked up at 3pm from my house and we wired up my bike to the bike rack.
I tactically used protective tubing (from the delivery of the Fulcrum wheels) to wrap points on the bike that might touch or rub together. There is something about wrapping a bike that I enjoy!
Around 7.30pm we arrived at the Red Rock Wild Camping site and unloaded my bike from the rack. It was still in excellent condition.
It was gloriously sunny at the camp and I found a nice spot to pitch my tent by the lake. It only took a few minutes and I was up and running.
The camp was full of other people doing the Dragon Ride.
Sunday morning I fitted the front wheel on my bike (removed to I could sleep with it in the tent). Unfortunately the brake disc were catching the rotor even when pushing the bike.
I had woken up quite early, so I headed to the Dragon Ride event village early to see if the mechanics can work some magic. I had to wait about 20 minutes, but they fixed the issue and the bike was running very smoothly.
The ride was tough although the first climb up the Bwlch was not quite as challenging as I thought. The ascent was hard, but by the time I reached the top I was feeling more confident about the ride.
The decent down the other side of the Bwlch was exhilarating, as was the decent down the Rhegos.
The hardest part was the Devils Elbow. I ascended at 4km/h, barely going faster than those walking up the climb. I just focused on putting peddle after another and the next thing I know I am at the top.
I stopped just before the top to take a few photos, so my timed climb was nearly 20 minutes.
Sunday evening and the Dragon Ride was slayed. I managed a total time of 7 hours and 41 minutes (including feed stops and camera ops).
Moving time on Strava was 7 hours 16 minutes.
Hydrate or dieλ︎
Electrolyte tablets are an important additive to water when riding. I add one table for each water bottle on every ride.
On longer trips I take extra tables. They come in a large tube which can rattles on a ride when the tube isnt full. The tablets need to be kept in some kind of protection, otherwise the tablets would dissolve.
By cutting a depleted tube to a smaller size I can carry only the needed amount of tablets, reducing rattling and a little weight.
Cycling Kitλ︎
The weather for the dragon ride looks positive, dry with temperatures between 15-24 Celsius.
The temperature will decrease the higher the elevation, so at the top of each mountain it should be no more than 20 Celsius.
I decided to take Spatzwear kit for almost everything, except mittens and merino short socks.
I have a Spatzwear base layer, jersey (with extra pockets), cargo bib shorts with extra pockets, gilet and arm & leg warmers for extra warmth.
In case of rain, I'm also taking the Gore Shakedry waterproof jacket that packs away and fits in the pocket of my jersey or gilet.
The Spetzwear cycling kit is very high quality and very comfortable to wear. Its also very aero which will help on a very long ride.
The Spatzwear kit also packs down to a very small size.
The kit and camping equipment packs nicely in the same rucksack that I bought for the Lands End to John O'Groats ride back in 2019.
The tent is strapped to the side of the rucksack.
Coospo HR sensorλ︎
Last week I forgot to connect my Coospo heart rate monitor to my chest strap until a few minutes down the road.
As I use my heart rate and cadence as the primary data for training, I decided to go back an get the monitor.
It seems that once a ride starts on the Wahoo cycle computer, then a sensor added will not send data. I have also had this experience on the Garmin cycling computer.
I tried unpairing the sensor from the Wahoo computer and then restarting the Wahoo.
I was able to pair the sensor again, but no data was forthcoming.
In the end I did a factory reset on the Wahoo and added the Heart Rate sensor again. This still did not work, however, I noticed something interesting.
With the Coospo heart rate monitor active (connected to my chest strap wrapped around my chest), when I add a sensor and wait for 15-20 seconds then two different heart rate sensors show.
This could be because the Coospo heart rate sensor sends both bluetooth and Ant+ signals simultaneously.
I believe its the first sensor which appears that isnt transmitting data, but the second one did. If not sure, then connect both sensors and unpair the one that doesn't send data.
Google AI Startup schoolλ︎
I joined the AI startup school to better understand the Google AI related services and what Google are teaching startups about Generative AI, so I have a common frame of reference should I discuss these issues with startups and other companies.
Specific goals:
- be able to describe briefly each Google AI related product and service
- understand how to get started with each service
- understand common patterns for AI related tools and services
NOTE: the talks were very lightweight and lacking in detail, so after the first two sessions I decided to stop attending as I wasn't learning anything.
RAG = Retrieval Augmented Generation Grounding = applying a RAG ? e.g. using Google search as a RAG?
What is RAG - Retrieval Augmented Generation
The first session was a very light set of demos but didn't really explain anything. It was trying to demonstrate the art of the possible and throw some hype around AI to get people excited - it had the opposite effect on me.
Google AI Servicesλ︎
- Gemini - chat bot
- Veoa - video generation
- Nano Banana - image generating models
- Anti-gravity - integrated development environment for AI agents
- Google Cloud run to publish apps on google cloud
Google API Studioλ︎
Google API Studio is a free tool to help create demo apps quickly.
Go to dashboard in AI studio and select API keys.
Select the "Create API key" button.
It picked up some projects from my Google account, but I didnt recognise them. There was a Cycling Maps project and a Practicalli Study Group project, not sure where they came from.
I created a new project called "Gemini Project".
Then created the key called "Gemini Project "
The popup shows the API key details
- API Key
- Name of the key
- Project name (seems to be the id and not the name I gave it)
- Project number (same as the name without the project qualifier)
There is a button to copy an example curl command that includes the API key.
curl "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-flash-latest:generateContent" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-goog-api-key: $GOOGLE_AISTUDIO_API_KEY" \
-X POST \
-d '{
"contents": [
{
"parts": [
{
"text": "Explain how AI works in a few words"
}
]
}
]
}'
NOTE: I replaced the key value with an environment variable defined in my shell (zsh). The curl script was updated to use double quotes, as apparently single quotes can inhibit variable substitution for the environment variable.
Thank you.
Practical.li Website