Garmin CIRQA - Random Thoughts

Considering this blog is called The Garmin Files I guess I had better do some writing about Garmin or Garmin products.  So with that in mind, I do not think I am fully sold on the Garmin CIRQA.  Not for any of the reasons people are complaining about in the Garmin Forums or on various YouTube channels.  Yes, the CIRQA does have reported issues.  Be it improperly auto detecting activities or the sensor not starting after charging or improperly detecting sleep. For me, none of those matter.  I use my Forerunner 265 or Edge 1050 to track all my fitness activities and I use the Garmin Index Sleep Monitor.  My intent in purchasing the CIRQA was not fitness related but rather so I would have the ability to wear an analogue watch while still collecting fitness metrics.

However I realized that I actually DO like wearing my Forerunner 265 on a daily basis.  I like being able to raise my wrist, take a quick glance, and see how many hour of recovery I have left or my weekly intensity minutes.  Yes, all of this information is available on my phone in the Garmin Connect app.  But that means taking out my phone.  The advantage of Forerunner is with a quick lift of the wrist, all that data comes in to view quickly.

Now.  All this does not mean I am giving up on the CIRQA.  The CIRQA definitely has it's place in the Garmin lineup.  I can see myself wearing the CIRQA on those days when a dress watch is called for or heck, I even want to mix it up a little bit.  But as a daily wearer, no.  I think the Garmin CIRQA won't be for me.

Enter the Vacmaster AM201R

With the return to indoor cycling I needed a better fan.  The small fan I had been using for the past year or so was not cutting it.  Sure the small fan threw wind and did an OK job of keeping me cool.  But when workout ramped up and I really started to sweat, the small list fan just was not up to the task.

Enter the Vacmaster AM201R.

Three speeds.  The ability move air up to 32km/h on the highest speed.  Three different angles for airflow at either 0, 45, or 90 degrees.  And perhaps best of all, a remote!  Nothing like being on the bike, in the middle of a workout, and adjusting the speed of the fan on a the fly.   

I did my first workout with the fan on the weekend and I have to say I am impressed.  The fan did a good job of keeping me cool and it made for a much more enjoyable workout.  Even with the fan at speed two, I was able to hear music from a speaker across the room while I did my ride.  So good airflow and a low operating noise level.

A friend of mine once said if you have the right tools, the job isn't quite so bad.  That definitely applies in this case.  The Vacmaster made an intense Zwift session much more tolerable.  That's not say the workout I did was a cake walk.  Far from it.   But staying cool during the workout made for a much nicer 3hrs on the bike.  Yes, you read that right.  Three hours on the indoor trainer.  Like I said.  Winter cycling has arrived.

 As an aside, I have no financial incentive in recommending this product.  I am just sharing what has been working for me in hopes that my feedback will benefit others. 

Thoughts on the Cinturato tyre

 

I have been running tubeless tyres since pretty much from the beginning of the technology being introduced.  Back in the day there was only one company making tubeless tyres:  Hutchinson.  Options were limited and I had to take whatever tyre was being offered.  Sealant options were limited to Stans, and the sealant did not perform very well at the high tyre pressures of road bikes.  This was back in the day when riders were riding narrow tyres and 110 PSI.  And plugs to plug a leak while on the road were a ways away from being commonplace.  In short, tubeless tyres for road bikes was a nascent technology

Fast forward to 2026 and tubeless for road bikes has come a long way.  Pros are running tubeless in major events.  Pretty much all the major tyre manufacturers make a tubeless tyre.  On any given group ride, I'd argue that half the group are on tubeless whereas when I started riding tubeless I was the only one and the butt of many jokes.  Oh, how the times have changed.

I've tried many different flavours of tubeless tyres.  My favourite is the tubeless tyre from Velofix.  Specifically the Corsa Evo TLR in 28mm.  In my experience the tyre has a long life, good grip, and is well made.  The downside is the tyre is difficult to find in my part of the world and the tyres, because they are hand made in Italy, are more expensive than other mass produced tyres.

Looking for a suitable alternative, during a boxing day sale last year I picked up a pair of Pirelli Cinturato tyres.  By all accounts, the tyres are heavier than other Pirelli tubeless tyres, but the tyres are supposed to have good tread life, a bit of thicker tread for puncture resistance, and good grip on wet pavement. So after almost 4,000km what are my thoughts?

The tyres are heavy.  After a summer of hill climbing and long distance rides, I think I would have preferred a lighter tyre.  Now a heavier tyre is to be expected considering the tyre is advertised a having good puncture resistance.  

My other thought is life expectancy.  Call me greedy but I expect 6,000km or so from my road tyres.  The tread on the Cinturato is pretty much done after a summer of riding.  At $100 per tyre on sale, I'd like to get as much out of my tyres as possible.

Now, the tyres owe me nothing.  They never let me down this summer.  No flats.  No punctures requiring a plug or a boot. Solid grip in all kinds of conditions, wet or gravel.  The tyres did what was expected of them.  No more, no less. 

Going in to the summer of 2027, and yes I cannot believe I am already looking ahead to summer 2027, the Cinturato's need to be replaced.  While I have friends telling me to move away from Tubeless and go with TPU tubes and a good road tyre, I think I will stick with my tubeless setup. Let the endless reading of tubeless tyre reviews begin!

And that's a wrap on summer 2026 outdoor cycling!

For me, summer is all about century rides in the US.  Century ride being 100 miles or 160km.  The rides are usually organized by a local bike club or the local Rotary Club or some other volunteer driven organization and are much more affordable than a commercially driven Fondo.  How much more affordable you may be asking yourself?  Well the entry fee for the Whistler Gran Fondo if you are doing the whole kit-and-cabootle, is $450 CDN plus local taxes with prices rising up to $999 CDN plus local taxes if you are entering a team or some other dealio. Total distance?  152km.

Now.  Let's compare that against the Tour de Whatcom.  Total cost to to that event?  $70USD.  Both rides are fully supported and I argue that the Tour de Whatcom is even a BETTER supported event because they have aid stations every 30km to 40km or so.  The aid stations are fully stocked with snacks, water, hydration mix, and bathrooms.

Of course I am kind of comparing apples and oranges here.  The Whisterl Gran Fondo is a for profit venture.  The highway is closed giving you peace of mind that no car will come and smoke you from behing. And the people entering that event are racing for personal best times.  People are tucking in to pacelines, entering teams, and going after prize money, bragging rights and whatever else comes with spending a thousand dollars are a bike event.  

The Tour de Whatcom on the other hand has a rolling start.  You show up between 7am and 8am, hit start on your bike computer, and away you go.  If you happen to find a group of riders travelling at your pace you can tuck in with them get a bit of a draft.  No expectation to take a pull at the front.  Everyone wins. Roads are not blocked off, you are riding on public roads, although most of the time those roads have bike lanes and after off in the country.  Very chill. And if you run low on pocket snacks?  No problem.  Just fuel up at the next aid station.

I have been doing local club century rides throughout the US for over 15 years now.  But I am seeing challenges on the horizon.  Many of the rides that I used to do, like the Apple Century Ride for example, are no more.  While I do not know the exact reason for the disappearance of these rides I can speculate:

1. When I look around at these clubs, the organizers are predominantly retired.  There does not seem to be any young blood stepping up and taking over the club duties.
2. The level of organization is grand.  The ability to coordinate volunteers, get aid stations figured out, make sure there are SAG vehicles, etc. is a massive undertaking.  I have been told that planning for next year's event begins the day after the completion of this year's event.  
3. Permits take time and money.  One of my more favourite rides, RAMROD, did not take place this year because the local club could not secure permits from the park. Someone needs to do all this planning and lobbying when things do not go as planned.  See number 1 above.

And finally I think there is less interest in organizing rides because it is a thankless job.  People will bitch that this aid station ran out of such-and-such a snack.  Or that the event could have been better organized.  Or the course as too hard. Too easy. etc.  And I think that people will only take so much bitching until they throw their hands up in the air and say "enough!".

The loss of the local club century rides is a shame.  I have met some amazing people at these rides.  In my experience everyone is there for the same reason.  To have some fun, to ride their bikes, and to enjoy the day.  Plus when I am sitting there in the beer tent with a beer and burrito that was included in my entry fee - again, my $70 USD entry fee - and the endorphins kick in after having ridden160km, there is no better feeling in the world.

Alas, the summer of 2026 is drawing to a close.  As summers go, I only managed to fit in four century rides.  My lowest number yet.  The summer of 2025 saw me enter nine century rides.  That worked out to be almost one century ride every weekend starting in June.  To be honest while I enjoyed the rides, I did find it exhausting. Every weekend having to pack a bag with enough cycling clothing to make sure I was equipped for all contingencies, making sure I had enough pocket snacks to get me from aid station to aid station, checking the bike the night before to make sure I would not experience any mechanicals, and of course getting organized to be on the road in time to be at the start line, all took their toll.  By the fifth or six century ride rolled around, I was ready to call it!  All this might explain why I did so few rides in 2026.  I was burnt out from 2025.

Will I rebound in 2027 and get back up to nine century rides?  Hard to say.  I guess I will see how I feel come summer 2027.  That said, I had a good summer of century rides in 2026 and I am a little sad to see the summer coming to an end. 

Rest days - my love/hate relationship

Seeing as the title of this blog is The Garmin Files, I think it is important to recognize those days when my Garmin watch is telling me to take a rest day.  I rarely, if ever, listen to my watch.  Although my Garmin might be telling me to enjoy a day away form the pool or bike, I manage to justify to myself why listening to my watch is a bad idea.  The guilt of taking a day off from training often outweighs the tiredness of getting another workout in.  And eventually if you ignore the notification from Garmin to take rest day, and do workout after workout, the notification goes away and Garmin starts populating suggested workouts again.

Today was one of those days.  Garmin was telling me to take a day of rest and my brain was telling me that Garmin did not know what it was talking about. A three or four hour bike ride would hurt no one, least of all me.  What did my Garmin know after all?  It is only a piece of tech that I wear 24/7 precisely for the purpose of judging my fitness level and giving me workout suggestions.  Well, surprisingly today I did listen to my Garmin and I did take the day off from a workout.  There were several reasons I opted to listen:

One, I was actually feeling tired.  Looking over my workout schedule, I had not had any time off from a workout since Tuesday.  I was feeling rundown.   The old saying of 'listen to your body' was running through my mind.  And in my case my body was saying 'rest'.  Two, the weather was looking kind of dicey.  The forecast was calling for rain and I did not want to get out 50km from home only to get caught up in some storm or rain shower.  Three, the metrics Garmin collected from my sleep, which was poo by the way, were telling that my recovery needs were high, my HRV status was unbalance and my training readiness was low.  And four, my motivation just was not there.  The energy to get my bike ready and get out of the house was lower than the energy to sit in the kitchen and enjoy a hot chocolate and blueberry scone.

So rest day today it was.  Maybe Garmin did know what it was talking about.  Go figure.

That said, the decision to take a day of rest did not sit well with me.  For pretty much the entire day I looked out the window, saw grey skies, thought about how winter is just around the bend and how the number of day remaining for me to get out on my bike before winter hits is rapidly dwindling.  For all those reasons, I could justify not taking a rest day but instead getting out for a ride.  Plus seeing a couple of friends out for a ride today when I was running errands did lots to make me question my decision for taking a rest day.

Fast forward to the completion of several house chores, the addressing of some nagging items that I had been putting off for I do not know how long, an afternoon beer, and my decision to take that rest day sits a little different.  Although I think given the choice between a rest day and a workout, for me the workout tends to win.  And speaking with friends about how many of them listen to their Garmin versus how many do not, I know I am not in the minority.  Will I take a rest day the next time Garmin tells me I need to take one?  I guess I will have to wait and see.

 

Back to Zwift - so it begins

And just like that, summer has come to an end. Today I was supposed to be doing a century bike ride put on by a local cycling club.  Instead I found myself cycling indoors on my trainer for two hours, doing a Zwift community Zone 2 ride.  Not exactly how I pictured spending my final Saturday of August.  What stings even more is that this Saturday turned out to be a bloody brilliant day weather wise and closing out the month participating in a 160km bike ride would have rocked. Oh well. I guess some exercise is better than no exercise.

As summers go, this one was not bad for cycling.  I managed to cycle just over 6,800km.  Not too bad, considering the spring was cool and rainy meaning I could not get out on my bike as much as I would have liked in April.  Depending on how the fall goes, I might even close in on my 2026 goal of 8,000km. 

Anyway.  Off to Zwift it is for the next seven months or so.  Now.  Indoor cycling and Zwift is a far cry from the days of getting on the fluid trainer, putting on a DVD, and imagining myself riding through the streets for France or wherever.  So I guess I should grateful for that.  As far as indoor training goes, Zwift is pretty decent.  The ability to buy different bikes, upgrade those bikes, enter races, do planned workouts, and of course meet up with riders from all over the world is pretty cool.  A pretty neat concept really.  And the owners of platform are continually investing in it.  Upgrades such a new bikes like the S-Works SL9 get regularly introduced, not to mention new wheels, new routes, and the constant introduction of challenges for kits, trophies and badges. 

My fear is that the money for Zwift has come from several rounds of VC funding.  At some point in time those VC companies are going to want to get their money out and will sell Zwift off to highest bidder.  Call me skeptical, but I am not expecting whomever buys Zwift to have the same level of interest in supporting the platform and will be focused on extracting whatever financial benefit they can.

Putting the cart before the horse 

 

I realize I am putting the cart before the horse here.  Nothing has been announced about a Zwift sale and any sale is likely years away.  But there has been consolidation in the fitness community recently.  Garmin bought training peaks.  Zwift owns Rouvy.  And before that Rouvy bought FulGaz.  And on and on it goes.  My only hope is that if and when Zwift is put up for sale, Zwift is purchased by a company that actually cares about the user base and is not just going to milk Zwift as a cash cow.   

In my mind Garmin would make a good business partner.  Garmin is now rolling out the option to purchase a Tacx Neo trainer with the Zwift cog pre-installed.  Surely someone at Garmin is already looking at this possibility.  If only to keep Zwift away from Garmin's competitors.

Time will tell if this vision comes to pass. 

And now, I brace myself for months of indoor cycling.  I had better get a head start on building those playlists.

Hill climbing.  I love a good hill climb on the bike.  My favourite saying is "hills make you stronger".  And I truly believe that.  I have done many different century bike rides in the US and I notice that whenever there is a hill during the ride, the riders tend to fall off the back rather quickly.  Riders that blasted out of the gate are huffing and puffing to get themselves up the hill.  When I pass them, because I always do.  I never see them again.

And to be clear, I am not a particularly fast rider in the grand scheme of things. 

When you're doing a hill climb, there is nowhere to hide.  Riding flats?  Sure.  A good rider will find a pace line to tuck in to and enjoy the draft.  But on a hill, drafting becomes much more difficult.  Hills show all weaknesses.  At least at the weekend warrior level, which is where I am at. 

I am very fortunate.  Where I live I have several hills to climb and workout on.  If I am on a limited time frame, for me nothing beats finding a hill, doing some repeats, and enjoying the burn.  The other benefit of doing hill repeats or doing over/unders on a hill?  No stop lights.  So I find it is easy to get into a groove.

Funnily enough, I thought the hills I had to climb and workout on were pretty good.  But then a friend of mine shared some photos of where he lives and where works out and hill climbs.  His hills?  The French Alps.  So while I am excited about riding up my local ski hills, my friend is riding though glaciers, high mountains, and French villas.  I guess you always want what you don't have LOL.

Not me, as much as I wish it was! How amazing is that scenery!

Unfortunately for me, summer in my part of the world is coming to an end.  My days of hill climbing are dwindling.  Either the weather will turn and I will be enduring day after day of rain OR the daylight hours will not be long enough to enable any riding.  But that is a topic for another post.