Got the edge

Fiona got me a Garmin Edge 500 cycle computer for my birthday and I've finally had a chance to day to give it a whirl. Although she bought me the one with the cadence sensor as well, I haven't had a chance to attach that to the bike.
this is a cool gadget!
In addition to the normal speed, distance, time,and then the averages, with the heart-rate monitor I get all my cardiac info, once I attach the cadence sensor, I will get that data too. But since the device is a GPS receiver, I get elevations, directions and mapped locations. This means that i can finally add my Whitelees cycles from last year onto the mapmyrun site. Of course, I will have to repeat each of the cycles, but that's probably good practice for this years Maggies run which I've entered again.

Went for a short run this afternoon, just to have a quick look. Its a cycle I've done before so I can compare with the last time.
Despite not having been ot in about a month, I managed the 9.5 miles a total of 3 minutes quicker (I know, not much but I feel good about it), and now I have some data to download into the Garmin analysis tools and mapmyrun.

MapMyRun.com

Mapmyrun took the data with no problem ( after installing the web utility) Despite saying it wouldn't work with Chrome, it seemed to and imported the route and the data. Since I changed the route slightly I let it import as a new route. The Garmin recorded the normal data, plus heartrate and calories.

Garmin's Training Center

The Garmin Training Center Software seems quite bare. I know Andy at work has an Edge 300 and uses something else. I must find out what and have a go with it.
You can plot various data against time or distance and that seems quite nice, but so far it looks like mapmyrun will be the logging tool of choice.