Gyroscope Personal Records
Dan Grant
Five years ago, Dan was overweight, smoking constantly, and mostly sedentary. At the age of 38, he suffered a sudden heart attack. He was very lucky to survive, prompting a wake-up call to change his lifestyle.
Three months into his recovery, he started cycling — initially for just a couple of miles around his neighborhood. Over time, he slowly increased the mileage. In May, he completed his longest ride yet of 124 miles, as part of a 24 hours challenge from London to Paris. Best of all, he’s reduced his resting heart rate from 85 bpm to just 55 bpm, greatly reducing the risk of another attack.
Dan is a project manager at Sodexo, based in the United Kingdom. He dedicates his free time to cycling for a healthier heart, and encouraging others to do the same.
“If I can save just one person, it will all be worthwhile.”
Michael: What do you use to track your activities?
Dan: I use a Garmin Fenix 3 to track my heart rate, sleep, daily steps, walking, running and cycling events. It’s a large watch, but has 16 hour battery life, which can be charged whilst recording an activity, which is necessary during long-distance events.
It syncs wirelessly to my phone via Garmin Connect, which then syncs with Strava and Apple Health. From there, the data is synced to Gyroscope, where I can combine it with my weight and other data.
Michael: What’s your main goal? Has Gyroscope helped you achieve it?
Dan: Initially, I was embarrassed that I let myself get into such an unhealthy condition. Last summer, I read that more and more of the U.K. population was becoming overweight and sedentary. Child obesity and low activity rates shocked me — one 2012 statistic from Public Health England quoted that only 21% of boys age 5–15 years were doing the recommended one hour of activity a day, and only 16% of girls.
It was this statistic that made me decide to go public and announce my fight against heart disease.
Shortly after, I set up my blog and Twitter account. My goal has been to prevent anyone else from going through what I did. If I can save just one person, it will all be worthwhile.
Gyroscope allows me to monitor my progress and visually share my rides, along with the photos I’ve taken during them.
“Knowing that I will be sharing a Gyroscope card on Twitter motivates me to go that extra distance!”
I’ve found that a tweet with a Gyroscope card will reach a far greater audience with much higher engagement, than a tweet with just a standard image. I don’t think people are particularly interested if you say you’ve done 62 miles — they’re drawn in by a photo or fun stats like the number of cookies or donuts burned.
Michael: You’ve increased your cycling miles by an impressive amount since the heart attack. How hard was it to start doing that?
Dan: I started by cycling an 11 mile loop almost every day. It took 57 minutes when I first started. This regular mileage built up my endurance. After three months, I entered my first sportive.
I chose the short 42 mile route, which took me just over 3 hours—averaging just under 14 mph. I enjoyed the ride immensely and over the next couple of months I entered a few more sportives.
The last one that year was 62 miles (100km) around a very cold, hilly and windy Isle of Wight on the south coast of the U.K. Nine months later (and just 18 months after the heart attack) I had completed my first 100-mile sportive.
“The best tip I can give is to just start cycling. Don’t worry about the distance you will cover”
Michael: Do you have any tips or suggestions for others who want to get started but feel like that would be impossible?
Dan: The best tip I can give is to just start cycling. Don’t worry about the distance you will cover, just set aside some time at least three times a week. Ride as far you can in that time, ideally a loop around where you live.
That way, you are still relatively close to home if you have any problems. It won’t be long before you notice that you getting faster around the loop — which gives you a great motivating feeling. By the time I moved away from the area, I had my 11 mile loop down to 37 minutes.
Michael: We love seeing you share your rides on Twitter. Can you tell us about some of your favorites routes?
Dan: The Malvern Hills are one of the 41 “Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty” in the UK and just a short distance away from my home. I’m regularly up on the Malverns, both running and cycling.
My car was in for a service one day. Prior to my heart attack, I would have just found the nearest coffee shop to sit and wait. Instead, I decided to walk along the canal to the next village of Wilmcote. With a little thought, exercise can be built into your daily activities.
Michael: Congratulations on completing your recent London-to-Paris challenge! How did it feel when you reached the finish line?
Dan: Thank you! I had a great feeling of elation as I approached the Eiffel Tower. It was fantastic knowing that I was capable of completing 300 kilometers (190 miles) in 24 hours, with very little sleep.
The moment I crossed the River Seine, with the Tower looming up in front of me, will be a treasured memory forever. We celebrated late into that night at a Parisian restaurant, all 50 of us riders.
Michael: Have your friends or coworkers been inspired and changed their own behavior after seeing your progress?
Dan: Several of my colleagues started emulating my running while on business trips. Now, on our monthly team meetings, a group of us will go on evening runs. They sometimes turn competitive.
One of my good friends (who hardly cycled before) even entered a 100-mile race called Ride London with me!
Michael: You recently shared photos of running the Vitality British 10k London Run — can you tell us more about that? How was the switch from cycling to running?
Dan: In the early months of my recovery, my walking range was limited. I had an old bike which I used to explore a larger area of my town than I could on foot. This is how I got into cycling.
In contrast, I’ve never been a big fan of running, and my average heart rate goes up quite high when I run, so I found myself having to slow down to bring my heart back to a level that’s not pushing it too much.
However, I promised my friend that in return for cycling Ride London, I’d enter a running event. For the 10k, I set myself a goal of 1 hour 25 minutes.
I’m really pleased to say that I came in under that. However, my main goal was to just cross the finish line, and show others that having a heart attack doesn’t automatically mean your life is over.
To catch the next chapter of Dan’s story, you can follow him on Twitter as @coeurcycliste. To start seeing your own workouts and follow in Dan’s footsteps, you can get the Gyroscope app for free in the App Store.
