This day in…the past three years.

Think of this as a mini-time capsule.  Like a buried treasure map leading to an infinite amount of knowledge.  Each of the items I linked to has either plenty of entertainment or totally useful information (or even both!).  And while some of you blog-folk might whisper that this is a ‘lazy’ post, I’m probably not going to disagree.

I had a moderately explosive bike workout today (and not necessarily in the good way), a descent swim…and pretty much nothing else left in the mental hopper to come up with a creative and informative post.  Instead, I spent my time this evening sitting on the couch watching last nights The Biggest Loser and other mindless reality TV shows (Speaking of which, Gary on The Apprentice is simply nuts…like baseball game size bag of peanuts, nuts).

So as I sat down tonight and started looking through my huge list of some 97 potential topic areas areas to write about I couldn’t give jive with anything.  Here’s a quick snippet from a portion of that notepad file:

(And yes, I do use notepad instead of some fancy Excel sheet.  It’s quick and simple and always available.)

Anyway, Coach's vs Teams requires more thinking than I feel like (and two people).  Kinect world domination means that I’d need to take a bunch of photos of me, and I decided that tonight isn’t the night for that since day photos come out better than night photos (yes, even inside).  AG Elite Racing and Waves is quick in theory (90 minutes or less), but in reality takes a bit more research.  The FCC post is simply messy at this point – but really geeky cool once I do it (like that buried treasure I talked about).  Golden Cheetah is on the radar for later.  The survey wrap-up I want to do, but mentally it’s a nightmare sorting through that data in the in depth analysis I want to do.  Route Viewer is so freakin’ cool, but the software isn’t quite finished yet.

So, mentally – I can do the blogging equivalent of procrastination all day long.

On the bright side, since I’ve managed to distract you now with a bunch of paragraphs of text, I’m going to offer you what I initially set out to do at the beginning:  Which is simply post the previous three years of posts on March 31st.

First up - March 31st, 2010: Applying Toilet Water – Look, I lucked out that this pretty funny post just so happened this post was on March 31st last year.  It could have been something far less exciting or hilarious.  I examine the new Ironman Cologne that literally translates to ‘Toilet water’. Complete with charts and color wheels.  I also go into depth on how certain clothing that I receive gets placed on the banned list by The Girl.

Second in line – March 31st, 2009: Sweet and Sour Peaks – This turned out to be a mix of one of my exact workout specifications, combined with my excellent baking skills creating some cupcakes.  See, you thought only The Girl created fancy cupcakes?  Nope, give me a Ziploc bag and a chopstick and I’ll make some rather pretty little creations (she’d roll her eyes if she saw me using a chopstick these days).  The workout folks amongst you will enjoy my detailed workout post, and the foodies amongst you will enjoy the cupcakes.  I don’t believe there are any other groups in life aside from those two.

Bringing up the rear – March 30th, 2008: Oceanside 70.3 Race Report (aka- There be big hills in California) – Ok, there wasn’t a post on March 31st, 2008, as it was either this one – or the one from the day after with me sipping margaritas on a beach in Mexico.  Your choice really.  Given that Oceanside 70.3 is this weekend, this seemed like the better bet.  So here’s my race report from back then.  Oddly enough, still my fastest half-iron run split to date – though, the fact that I now have a bike split 30+ minutes faster probably means saving that 3-4 minutes on the run is a fair tradeoff.  Plus I haven’t run a course anywhere near that flat since…well…then.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for ya.  I’m thinking next week’s gonna be pretty packed with good stuff (plus the weekend, I’m goin’ to Kansas City!).  In fact, now that I look at the next few weeks on my calendar – lots of good stuff coming.  Stay tuned!

The Art of Pacing with a Garmin

One of the primary reasons you’d buy a training device like a Garmin Forerunner or similar would be to allow you to pace more effectively, whether that be in training or racing.  While most folks understand that once you turn the watch on it’ll show you your pace, there’s actually a number of different ways you can display ‘Pace’.  Each variation allows you to track slightly different metrics, but metrics that unless understood could you leave you short of your goal pace or PR.

The primary goal of this post is to outline the different methods you can use to pace with your Garmin, as well as cover some tips on how best to pace in races.  After all – while your Garmin’s GPS is actually quite accurate, that won’t matter when it comes to your real race time on a USATF approved course.  Meaning that even if your Garmin measured 26.5 miles instead of 26.2 – you’re not going to get credit for that extra .3 miles when it comes to a Boston Qualifying time. 

Which reminds me, since one of the fundamentals to understanding race pacing with GPS or foot pods is to understand how actual courses are measured – I highly recommend everyone first read this post (pretty please?) on understanding how race courses are measured by USATF and exactly why getting your Garmin (or any GPS or footpod device) to match that distance in an actual race is incredibly difficult.

With that said, let’s get into the methods that your Garmin can display.  I’ve included photos of each method taken from actual training tonight during intervals I was doing – so you’ll have to forgive the lack of photographic beauty in lieu of realistic numbers.  Also, I happened to be using a FR310XT, but you can use pretty much any running watch to display these common metrics.

Method #1 – Instantaneous Pace:

This metric is the default measurement displayed on the majority of Garmin watches (FR305, FR405, FR410, FR310XT, FR60, etc…).  It should be noted that on the FR110 and FR210, this is not the default.  This metric is simply called ‘Pace’.

Instant pace is just that – your instant pace.  It’s the speed the unit thinks you’re going right this second (well actually it lags about 5-7 seconds behind).  The challenge with instant pace and running is that it tends to wander a bit.  One second it’s displaying 7:30/mile, and the next second it’s showing 7:50/mile – even if you didn’t vary your actual pace any.   In an ideal world, vendors would use a slightly smoothed GPS pase – such as taking the average over the last 5 seconds.  And in fact, the Timex Global Trainer actually does this, and it helps to make this a more useful metric.

Nonetheless, I use instant pace on the majority of my non-paced runs as a quick metric to glance at.  By non-paced I mean runs where I’m not trying to hit an exact pace, but rather focusing on some other measurement (heart rate, perceived, not dying, etc…).  In these cases, I don’t much care what the pace is, as long as I’m not being passed by grandma in a wheelchair.

Method #2 – Lap Pace:

Lap pace became a more popular way to measure your pace after folks complained about instant pace being too jumpy/inconsistent.  In fact, it’s the default of the newer FR110 and FR210 watches – which aim to simplify the running experience.

Lap pace simply shows you your average pace for that lap.  What’s a lap you ask?  Well, anything you want it to be.  On watches with Auto Lap turned on, that’s every 1 mile.  But you can change it - it can be 1 kilometer or 5 miles.  Whatever you want it to be, it’ll be.  Or you can just have it off and be manual only (my favorite).

Lap Pace simply takes the distance travelled thus far for that lap, your total time in transit for that lap – and calculates your average pace.

For many pacing efforts – this is the ideal metric.  It allows you to absorb slight changes in terrain like small hills, and understand how a short change in speed has affected your pace over a longer time period (like a mile).

You can see above how at that moment my instant pace (upper right) is slightly slower than my lap pace (lower right).  That’s because at that moment I was headed up a slight incline during that portion of the interval, slowing me down a little bit.

Lap pace is also great for intervals.  I use it on my intervals and tempo runs by resetting the lap at the start/stop of each interval, so I can both monitor my average lap pace for that interval – but also record that data later on.

It should be noted that if you never press the lap button (and don’t have Auto Lap configured), then lap pace simply equals average run pace since you’ll in effective have just one lap.

Also, as a side note to lap pace, you can also show ‘Last Lap Pace’.  This is useful if you are taking mile splits, but want to keep track of what your last set time was as well as this current lap time.

You can see above how I’ve configured one screen to show both my current lap average (upper half), as well as my previous lap average (lower half).  I should point out at this juncture that you have a ton of different options for configuring data fields on your watch.  Here’s a post I wrote up on my configuration, as well as all the options for the most popular Garmin models.

Method #3 – Average Run Pace:

If you’re with me thus far, then you’ll find that Average Run Pace is simply your average pace across your entire run.  It’s like having lap average…except without the lap part.  This is useful in longer runs or races where you’re trying to maintain a specific pace.  This allows you to understand the impact of water breaks or even start-line crowding, on your ultimate average goal pace.

It’s important to note (and I’ll talk more about it in a minute) that if you’re pacing a race off of Average Run Pace in hopes of hitting a specific time, then you need to aim for a slightly faster pace to account for ‘running long’.  But more on that in a minute…

Method #4 – Manual Lap Splits in Races:

You may know that you can manually create your own laps on your Garmin device by simply pressing the lap button – or in my case the well used ‘ap’ button (see below).  This is incredibly useful not only in training – but also in races.  See, in races with posted mile markers you can create simply hit lap to create a lap for what is truly the actual mile markers in your race.

(In the above photo I was simply doing 5-minute sets, but you can use this for any distance/time you want.)

This means that you can then display lap times for your real pace (as opposed to the slightly longer GPS pace).  I use manual splits instead of Auto Lap in virtually every scenario from racing to training.  I use it to both demark intervals and to mark mile markers in races.

Method #5 – Virtual Partner mode:

Virtual Partner mode is a pretty cool option that essentially takes all the mental brain work out of options #1-4 in a race or training effort.  Instead of having to track numbers, splits and times in your head (which I can attest no longer works after about mile 18 or 19 in a marathon), it does it all for you.

You simply tell it your goal pace, and it then tells you how many minutes and how far ahead or behind that goal pace you are.  It also adds in two little stick figures on a screen to show you just how far behind you’ve gotten (or ahead, if you’re lucky).

I’ve used this in some Ironman races to account for walking water-stops.  At that point in the day my brain simply isn’t going to be able to handle doing mental pace math with numbers (though it always tries).  With Virtual Partner mode I merely have it preset for a specific pace, and it automatically keeps me in line.  I try to aim to be about 100-200 feet ahead of ‘the little man’ on the screen.

Note again though, that this is basing everything off of your actual run distance – not the race distance.  So if you’re going for a very specific time goal, the you’ll need to buffer for extra distance ran.

Racing with a Garmin – Things to Understand:

You’ve heard me caveat the last five methods with some form of ‘you need to buffer for extra distance’ – but what does that really mean?

As I outlined previously, it means that virtually nobody in a long distance event is going to be able to run an exact 13.1 mile race.  The nature of race measurement mixed with race logistics dictate that on race day you’re going to be running around people and objects that simply weren’t likely there when they measured the course to the absolute perfectly minimal distance possible.  These could be misplaced cones, a police car, spectators, water tables, or even just a pile of other runners like yourself.

This weekend for example I ran the National Half-Marathon.  I’m pretty meticulous when it comes to running as clean a line as I can from a race standpoint.  But it requires a lot of attention.  You have to look ahead sometimes hundreds of meters on a road and understand where the race course would be measured (most direct point to point route) – and not where the runners are necessarily running.  My overall distance for the race was 13.2 miles – which, to brag a moment – is pretty darn close to perfect.

So this ultimately means that if you’re looking at hitting a specific goal time (and thus goal pace) – you should adjust your paces accordingly so that if you want to hit a 7:30/mile pace for 13.1 miles, you may want to plan that you’ll be running 13.3 or 13.4 miles instead and adjust your pace to say, 7:20 or 7:25.  Again, this has nothing to do with GPS accuracy – but rather everything to do with ones running route (these two are often confused).

Finally – what to do about races without mile markers.  My plan this weekend was to take manual splits at each actual race mile marker.  This would give The Girl and I a clear picture of each of our mile splits - both for race day pacing, and later analysis.  Regrettably, the National Marathon didn’t have any mile markers except for mile 10 (I don’t know why).  So in that case, I simply switched over to using the data the Garmin was providing.  It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn close.  Sometimes (most times), the mile markers are actually spray painted on the road if you look carefully – usually not very big, but they’re typically there (and were there this weekend).

Also, in larger races like the National Marathon, there are so many people with Garmin’s that if you simply listen you’ll hear a chorus of ‘bee-boop’ as you hit each mile marker, since most folks have Auto Lap configured.  That’s typically a good indication of where the mile marker should be – regardless of where it may actually be.

In summary, there are many ways to pace with a Garmin (or without one), so it’s really a matter of deciding which method works best for you.  It may be just one of the above, or a combination of them.  Good luck with the upcoming season!

Related Reading:

Sport Device GPS Accuracy In Depth- Part I

Sport Device GPS Accuracy In Depth- Part II

Racing the line – understanding how courses are measured

Choosing your Garmin Device Fields

Forerunner 310XT Giveaway Winner!

Thanks all for the awesome entries in the FR310XT giveaway.  There’s literally over a thousand hilarious stories in there.  Everything from folks running over into a canal while watching ‘cute girls’, to endless cycling dismount failures, to quality time spent in the bushes when porta potties couldn’t be found.

If you haven’t had a chance to go check out all the entries (yes, all 1,200+ of them) – definitely go spend some time reading them.  It’s almost as addicting as reading the Fail Blog.

Unlike previous giveaways, there were no points awarded for re-tweeting/blogging/FaceBooking or skywriting.  This lead to a fairly simple selection of winners.  I had a total of 1,219 comments (that made it before the midnight cutoff), and then another pile of comments from Active Duty military folks via e-mail.  I’ve given them numbers from 1,220 to 1,230.

With that, I was off to Random.org to pick out a winner!  And the lucky person is:

Working by simply copying everyone to a giant spreadsheet, I get the following:

Here’s what our lucky winner Peter had to say:

Woohoo, congrats Peter!

For those that didn’t win – don’t worry – you can still go out and pick up your very own little orange watch and enjoy it for the upcoming tri season (or, if you’re upside-down in New Zealand, the peak of your current season). 

And if you utilize the link above, you help to support more giveaways like this.  It’s sorta like recycling: Utilize linkage > More Giveaways > More good stuffs for you.

Thanks for reading and supporting the site!

A look at the 2011 Multisport Expo in Washington DC

Nestled in between all the craziness that was this weekend (racing a half-marathon, then baking 17 dozen cupcakes for a competition, and finally supporting The Girl in her triathlon cake domination), I had a chance to sneak out to the grounds of Georgetown Prep to see how things were going at the Multisport Expo. 

This is the same expo that recently visited both Boston and NYC over the past few weeks.  Though in each case the expo is largely tailored to be city specific in that the vast majority of exhibitors at it were from within a few hundred mile radius.  Always good to support the local folks!

So into the building I went!

Inside you’ve got a lot of different areas you can wander to – but the biggest one is the expo itself.  This is situated in a building that also doubles as an indoor track facility.  On the inside of the track (on what would be grass if it were outside) are all the different vendors and things to check out.  Probably the biggest attraction was the combined Bonzai Tri shop and Cervelo area:

As part of the Bonzai setup they had linked together a number of CompuTrainers and were doing 10K time trials.  You could setup your own bike, or use one of the few provided.  The groups were going off in waves, aiming for the fastest time and/or highest wattage – which was then posted on the trailer.  Live computer displayed progress was being projected onto a screen in front of all the riders.

Next to Bonzai were the folks from BlueSeventy.  They had a bunch of wetsuits and goggles you could check out, and even gave The Girl and I a pair of goggles to try out (though she didn’t join me in my expo excursion).

Across the show-floor you found many different types of booths.  For example – there was the race focused ones, promoting various races in the area, like these ones from TriColumbia and Setup Events:

Then there were ones promoting clubs – such as this one from DCTriClub (which also happens to be one of the largest clubs in the nation).

Next to clubs, we had sites – like BeginnerTriathlete.com – a great resource for both new and experience triathletes, tons of information in the forums there.

There was also vendors selling products and services.  For example, Tri The World Travel had information about all the trips they have, and sharing the same booth was The Bike Coat – which is a simple and clear bag that meets USAT transition rules and allows you to cover your bike for those overnight stays in transition:

And then we had the one booth you were certain not to miss – Ruseen Reflective Apparel – which had…well..reflective apparel.  Lots of it:

In addition to all of these types of booths, there were ones doing live testing.  For example, if you wanted a VO2Max test – no problem!

Or, if you wanted to analyze your feet, no problem there either (well, unless your feet have problems I suppose)!

But in my mind, some of the really cool stuff was actually happening down the hall.  First up – there were tons of classes and seminars you could take.  For example they used a separate gym to do running technique sessions.  And then a different room had Yoga related items going on:

But the coolest of them all?  The competitions.  Various local teams related to the tri scene (such as local shops/groups) were competing in an assortment of races.  These were up on the board:

And while two out of three of these events could happen in just about any standard convention center – the swim ones definitely could not!  That’s where having it at an athletic facility starts to make sense.

The cool part was that it was such a nice facility in that you could just hang out and watch the competitions.  Or as I overheard one girl say when a friend came in and asked what she was doing: “I’m just watching cute guys in speedo’s”.  Yes, I suppose you could do that too.

And since it was a combined facility, it was literally no more than a few second walk between any of these different areas.  We’re talking about 50-75 meters at most, all inside in a single building.  Totally awesome for lazy people like me.

For those of you considering going next year, you certainly can’t beat the deal (it’s free) and provides plenty of things to check out and do. 

Speaking of awesome – it was awesome meeting and seeing many of you!  Everywhere I turned people were saying ‘Hi!’ – and it was great to be able to chat with all of you about your upcoming seasons and recent events.  Wish I had more time to hang out and chat all day!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

National Half-Marathon Race (Pace) Report

You know what’s the nice part about a running race?  You don’t have a massive pile of junk that you have to setup anywhere.

It’s really rather simple actually.  You’ve got shoes, shorts, top and a race chip.  Perhaps you have some nutrition too.  But that’s it!  No bike, bike shoes, swim suit, bike computer, wetsuit, goggles, helmet, multiple forms of nutrition, transition towel, body glide, race belt, or swim cap to deal with.  Just pure running simplicity.

Of course, central to every racers morning – regardless of sport, still seems to be the bathroom dance.  The hope that everything ends up departing the body before you have to depart the start line.  And in the case of this weekend, that was no different.  So at 5:55AM on Saturday I found myself hanging out in my friend Blue – getting the most important item of the day taken care of.

After that was set (or so I thought) we dropped off our bags inside the DC Armory (basically a giant gym run by the military).  This was great because it was WARM inside.  For some whacky reason, it decided to go from 80*F last weekend, to snowing this weekend (seriously, it snowed less than 18 hours later!).  Anyway, happiness was inside the heated Armory.

After happiness, we headed outside for our warm-up run.  This would take us in a rather large loop-de-loop around the grounds of RFK stadium, the same place where just last weekend we tailgated for a DC United game.

I should point out that the earlier stop in Blue may not have been fully satisfactory, so I had to make a brief and urgent shoreline stop in some bushes along the Anacostia river.  Given the Anacostia river is already a wasteland, I didn’t feel too bad about my additions.  Nonetheless, I’d avoid the bushes there for a bit in the regions noted above by the pause symbols. Sorta like a treasure map…just sayin’!

Anyway…soon it was start time!

And so we started.

I don’t have many (well, really any) photos from the actual race aside from one taken of us (which I’ll get to in a minute).

Instead I’ll walk ya through the whole shebang, chunk by chunk.

First up was the race plan.  As you may remember, I wasn’t actually racing for myself – but instead pacing The Girl.  She wanted to go sub-7 pace.  Given I’ve previously done that both for this distance and a full marathon, I felt relatively confident that I could pace her to her goal pace.

In addition to my confidence, we had something more useful – a race plan from our coach (he happens to coach both of us).  This plan significantly highlighted the concept of not going out too fast (one of The Girl’s trademark maneuvers) and then maintaining a set pace of 6:46 for the rest of the race.

Our start order had us starting in Corral 2, which I believe was basically anyone from a 6:30 pace to roughly a 7:15 pace.  This meant we were only about 50 yards from the start line, so that only took about 20 seconds to cover once the gun went off.

The challenge to starting in the front is people still go out far too fast for their abilities.  But with Mr. Garmin FR310XT in hand, we kept a nice even pace for the first mile – running a 6:45 split.  Just about perfect.

In fact, the first six miles were pretty close to what we wanted.  We were a bit fast in some downhill sections between miles 3 and 4, hence a few seconds fast – but otherwise about where we wanted to be.  You can see the split above in the third column.

It was around this time that we saw Lindsey.  You probably remember her from many of our adventures.  She was out cheering for us and managed to snap off one quick picture as we flew by.  I’m in orange looking back at The Girl (this was actually up a hill at this point, so I was in ‘encourage mode’).

By the time we finished up the first 6 miles we were starting to head into some rollers as we ascended into the hills of Washington DC.  Miles 5-6 had some hills, but as you can see in the paces above, we managed to largely stay on target.

But when mile 7 came along – that’s when things got a bit problematic.  At that point we had been climbing for quite a while, so the intensity was increasing.  The only reason that mile 6 was realistically ‘on-target’ was because it included a downhill segment allowing us to get back some of that lost time.  Regrettably, mile 7 didn’t have such a long segment:

So mile 7 was a bit rough, and our slowest by a fair margin.  Having raced a variation of this course a few years ago – I knew this would be an area that we’d have to make up for later on (or push harder on), but quite simply the little engine was giving it all she could!  No worries though, we’d catch up a bit later.  As you can see, for the next few miles after mile 7, we got things pretty much right back on pace:

I was happy to find that neither of us had any meltdowns along the way.  While we do workouts together virtually every day, we actually very rarely are ‘pushing’ each other from a pace standpoint.  This is simply because usually our workouts are structured enough where it tends not to be a case of ‘push harder’, but rather a case of ‘push specificity’.

Luckily, she found that my gentle prompting wasn’t too much…or she was just too tired to yell back.  Either way, I’ll take it!

The last two miles have a slight bump to them, as you crest over a small hill before a nice long descent to the 13.0 mile marker.  Once at the 13.0 mile marker, you’ve got a short bout uphill to the finish.

We pushed the pace as fast as her little legs could turnover for this last section – and ultimately ended up with a 6:55 pace – a PR for her by quite a ways!  In addition to the PR, we both got some shiny little finishers medals:

Actually, they weren’t really little at all.  In fact, they were pretty sweet and hefty:

And on top of all that we got chocolate milk and chocolate milk stickers.  Really, that just sealed that deal!

So there ya have it – my pacing report.  In the next few days I’ll share some of my secrets for how to pace using a GPS watch and how to mesh that with races (including ones that don’t have mile markers, like National didn’t).

Thanks for reading the race report!

-

Of course, if you thought this was my entire weekend…you’d be mistaken.

After finishing the race – we quickly headed home and began 5 hours of nonstop baking creating 17 dozen cupcakes for a cupcake competition.  While The Girl will be posting all of those details on her blog, she also entered the cake competition…and kicked some ass there.  Since all of you are in the triathlon/running/swimming/cycling crowd, I highly encourage you to run over to her post and check out her – award winning – cake.  It’s awesome.

Oh, and here’s me doing cupcake sales after it calmed down a bit (I did baking, decorating and cleaning too).  I got pretty good at it!  You wouldn’t believe how crazy packed busy the place was!  We sold out!

Anyways, hop on over for the coolest cake you’ll have seen in a long long time!

Oh Part I - Yes, for those curious – that is indeed a FR210 on my wrist above – it’s just what I wear as a day to day watch.

Oh Part II – I’ve got a wrap-up of the Multisport 2011 World Expo that I went to on Sunday as well coming too!  Just too much cool stuff on the way!

Week in Review–March 26th, 2011

I’ve long since wondered what to do with all the random tidbits of things I collect each week – or the little thoughts that don’t quite make for a full post.  But I finally came up with a solution: The Week in Review Post.  This takes the place of my Weekly Mailbag – which is over on Slowtwitch.  These are just quick snippets of things that I’ve found interesting.  Nice and easy Saturday reading.  Plus, a recap of my Weekly Mailbag post a well.

So with that, let’s get into the action!

Weekly Mailbag Over at Slowtwitch.com:    
Wander on over to Slowtwitch this week for my latest thoughts on a wide assortment of sports technology items.  Here’s this week’s new topics, which you can check out here.

1) Understanding Elapsed Time and Time in sport files
2) Deciding between an iPhone in ANT+ case, and the Edge 800
3) Garmin Futures: Vector Pedals and new version of the FR310XT

You can read all my past weekly mailbags at Slowtwitch here.  Or the pre-Slowtwitch days here.

Posts this past week:  
A wide variety of posts this week covering quite a range of stuff.  My personal favorite is probably the giveaway post – since I’m doing it differently this time and having y’all tell a funny training story.  Tons of hilarious ones in there - definitely check it out!  Here’s all the stuff that landed on the page:

Sunday: Week in Review: March 20th, 2011
Monday:  Flight, Run, Soccer, Bike…oh, and tailgate.
Tuesday:  One Week: So many cool new things
Wednesday:  The Swim Watch Battle: FINIS Swimsense vs. Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro
Thursday: Garmin FR310XT Giveaway
Friday: This weekend: Race Pacing and Cake Competitions

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:  
Here’s a small smattering of links I found interesting this week:

1) Detroit to Dover – Openwater Swim Blog: What if your normal swim workout consisted of more than 15,000 yards in the pool…plus a cool down? Welcome to the world of Jenny Birmelin and her training for the English Channel swim.  Every once in a while I stumble upon blogs of folks training for the channel swim and find myself lost for hours reading their posts.  This was no different…

2) Are you a DC runner and cyclist and want to be part of a TV show?  A TV producer (and friend of mine) is looking for runners and cyclists to act the part (do your thing) on Monday evening at the Roosevelt Island parking lot (just down the hill from Rosslyn Metro).  Hit up the link for details.

3) Garmin files litigation against Bryton Cycling Computers: I thought this little nugget was interesting.  Bryton makes ANT+ cycling computers that provide mapping capabilities on the devices, similar to the Edge 705 and Edge 800.  Apparently similar enough that Garmin’s decided to sue.  Will be interesting to see how this plays out.  I do find it ironic that Garmin LTD (officially a Swiss company) is filing in US district court (USA) against sale in Germany.

4) Working out and having sex increases health risk…unless you workout or have sex often: Parts of this headline made its way across the internet in various forms.  But the article actually says that if you do these activities often – then you’re health risk with these activities is reduced to ‘practically nothing’.  Score!

5) Chase the Chics triathlon!:  If there ever were a more brilliant event idea…I don’t know what it would be.  In this triathlon just a bit south of DC, the women get a slight head start on the men.  Then the men start.  First person to the finish (male or female) wins the cash.  And yes, it’s really called “Chasing Chics Triathlon”.  I want that t-shirt.

6) Top Fitness Apps from the Wall Street Journal: If you have an iPhone, Android or Blackberry phone (or even an iPad), then definitely check out this list of top fitness related apps from the WSJ.  Pretty much all the cool apps I’ve used are on the list, so I’d have to assume the rest are equally as cool.

Random thoughts section:

As I mentioned yesterday, this will be a crazy busy weekend – between running the half-marathon on Saturday morning to cake competitions on Saturday daytime, and cupcake competitions Saturday night.  Busy busy!  And that’s before Sunday!

I might head up to the DC Multisport Expo on Sunday – so if anyone’s around and happens to see me scurry in and out…say Hi!  Or, follow along on ‘the Twitter’ for all the action.

Have a great weekend all!

This weekend: Race Pacing & Cake Competitions

Quick side note: If you haven’t had a chance to either enter the FR310XT giveaway, or at least read the various ‘Funny training stories’ entrants, definitely take a moment and do some browsing (or entering).  Some hilarious stories in there (over 700+!!!).  I’m seeing a pretty common trend in them though of guys running into poles, canals, buildings…all while checking out attractive girls.  Hmm…

As for this weekend, I might actually end up with some entertaining training stories of my own.  Well, racing stories rather.  See, as I’ve alluded to a bit over the past month, I’ll be running the National Half Marathon this weekend with The Girl.  While we’ve done many of the same races – we’ve never done a race ‘together’.  Nope, never.

This weekend though, that’s gonna change.  She’s asked me to help pace her as she aims to smash some of her PR’s (and run a really damn fast half-marathon split).  Of course, given all my running gizmos and gadgets, there isn’t a lot of ‘pacing’ for me to do.  I’m just simply following a few metrics on my FR310XT that will ultimately get us to her goal pace.  Though, as I’ll talk about next week in a dedicated pacing post – there’s actually a lot of ways you can use a running watch to pace by, all with slightly different results.

So in reality, I’m really there more as support than pacing guide.  Which could result in a very entertaining 13.1 miles together.  We’ve been doing paced couples runs (at race pace) the last few weeks now, and for the most part they’ve ended well.  So as for this weekend…it should be…fun. :)

Just after we finish the half-marathon though…that’s when the real race begins!  See, for the following 12 hours we have to run back and forth across DC like an episode of the Amazing Race.  The Girl is an entrant in the National Capital Area Cake Show this weekend, entering in both the ‘super-duper-fancy-tiered cake’ category, and also doing a cupcake cocktail hour later in the evening.

The cake design itself is incredible, and very relevant to things I write about around these parts.  It’s just really cool and I think you’ll love it.  But that’s just one part of the competition.

The second part is a cupcake competition with real live normal people selecting the winners.  It’s sorta like those reality TV shows where the contestants have to cook up dishes that are served to a group of folks and they get to choose the best cupcakes.  She has to cook god-knows-how-many dozens of cupcakes (many hundreds of cupcakes) using different flavor profiles that resemble fancy cocktails.

Of course, my role is officially registered as ‘helper’.  I think that there’s probably another term for that, but we’ll try and keep it PG around here.  In short, I do whatever she says…like a gofer.

Now that I think about it…I’m starting to see a trend for the weekend in whole.

So – if you’re in the DC area, and happen to want to check out a fun cake competition (complete with Food Network Cake Show stars) – wander on over!  The main cupcake event is in the evening on Saturday, but her cake will be there on display all weekend long.  Trust me, it won’t be hard to spot which one is hers.

Have a great weekend all!

Garmin Forerunner 310XT Giveaway

Because it’s almost Cherry Blossom time here in DC (one more week!).  Because you’re probably contemplating getting back outdoors for workouts (except you lucky fools in Hawaii, you don’t count).  Because it’s pretty…and maybe just a little bit because you know you want it…

So I’m giving away a brand new Garmin Forerunner 310XT.

Here’s my in depth review if you aren’t familiar with the little orange device. Though, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll love it.

I’m going to do this giveaway a bit different than before – just to mix things up a bit.  Simply provide an answer to the below question and you’ll be entered:

What’s your funniest training moment to date?

Or, you can just say ‘Hi’.  Either way – one comment, one entry.

See, that’s pretty painless, right? If ya have technical questions, thoughts/comments/diatribes/poems regarding the FR310XT specifically, use that post page for those writings.

The contest will run until Monday March 28th, 2011 at 11:59PM Eastern Time, at which point I’ll close the entry period.  Like the all my giveaways there are no restrictions on where the goods go to – so no matter where in the world you are, I’ll send to you.  The winner will get a brand new Garmin Forerunner 310XT (with HR strap).

(Note: If you’re active duty military and deployed, and are unable to complete the entry method above, simply shoot me an e-mail and I’ll get ya entered in.  For those curious on how the giveaways work, here’s the deets.  Thanks all!)

The Swim Watch Battle: FINIS Swimsense vs. Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro

Ever since I reviewed the FINIS Swimsense and the Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro a few months ago, there’s been significant interest in understanding how the two devices compare.  The two watches aim to solidify themselves in the still young market of swim technology, in particular though the area of recording devices.  This is an area that I expect to explode with many new devices from a number of competitors over the next 1-2 years. 

Over the past 3 months I’ve had a chance to swim workout after workout with both watches – in some cases wearing both watches at once.  In doing so I’ve become very familiar with the intricacies of each device, its software, and their platforms in general.  In doing so I’ve put together a pretty comprehensive comparison of the two and how they line up in virtually every category applicable.

So how do they stack up?  Well, let’s get on with it!

Basic use in the water (usability):

When it comes to use in the water from a usability perspective, you’re primarily looking at a few areas.

Ease of button pushing: Both watches work pretty well here.  I find that the Pool-Mate has easier to depress buttons (less force required), while the Swimsense buttons are easier to find blindly (like at the end of an interval when you’re gasping for air).

Menu System: While the Pool-Mate system is fairly simple once you get used to it, I also find it’s somewhat easy to get tangled up in it, and either exit the system or wipe your swim altogether.  The Swimsense menu system is a bit cleaner and easier to navigate.  Some of this is simply due to the different technologies used – Swimsense created a more traditional platform akin to how you might navigate a phone, whereas Pool-Mate is using more of a standard stop-watch interface.

Display Configuration Options: On both watches you can rotate through which fields you’d like to display while swimming.  However, the Swimsense gives a few more options and fields due to the larger screen size (more real estate).

Lap Use: Both watches have the concept of ‘paused time’, which means if you do a 500y set, then wait two minutes, and then do another 500y set – it allows you to ‘pause’ the time in between, but also record that as rest time.  The Pool-Mate Pro displays this with a “P” next to the counter when in paused mode, whereas the Swimsense will not only display a “P”, but also invert the colors (black/white) so that at a quick glance you can see you’re in paused mode instead of regular mode.

Winner: Swimsense, due to the cleaner menu system and the nifty inverted colors trick when in pause mode.

Accuracy (Distance/Laps/Lengths):

When it comes to accuracy, I’ve generally been astounded at how accurate both of these devices are.  When looking at accuracy I’ve been judging based on accuracy against the actual distance I swam, but also accuracy against each other.

I’ve swam a few workouts where I’ve used both watches at the same time and found that even after 3,000 yards – both ended up identical in terms of distance/laps.  Fairly impressive in my opinion.

When it comes to stroke identification, that’s one area I really can’t speak to.  As a triathlete, I pretty much exclusively swim freestyle.  And even if I could ‘swim’ a different stroke, it’s highly likely that you wouldn’t be able to recognize it due to my hideous form.  Thus, I can’t really expect either watch to either.

Winner: Tie – both are equally as accurate in my testing.

Display Quality/Readability in the water:

Let me just say this up front – neither display is terribly great when it comes to underwater readability during an active swim set.  Both have general issues that make readability more difficult than it needs to be.

I define this category as readability during a flip turn or other mid-set attempt to read your split/distance/etc.  Both are of course easy to read when you’re standing at the end of the swim lane – but for me, if I’m doing a set the reason I’d wear a watch is to see the splits while swimming.

Swimsense: The Swimsense has a larger screen, which helps it a bit in this category.  However, the plastic/glass that’s used on the front tends to reflect a bit and has a low tolerance for angular viewing unless you’re less than 45 degrees to the watch itself.

Pool-Mate: While the watch size is smaller, the main numbers are actually about the same as the Swimsense, due to the way the data fields are divided up.  Like the Swimsense, it too suffers from angular readability depending on where the watch is.

Winner: Neither.  They’re virtually identical when it comes to readability mid-set: Not terribly good.  It’s certainly possible to read underwater, as one can do it (and I do) – but it’s just not as clean and easy as some simple stop watches from Wal-Mart.  And sometimes it takes more than a quick glance to do so.

Battery Life:

This is one area where the two watches have diverged paths quite a bit, based on different engineering goals.  In the case of the Swimsense they’ve chosen a model which depends on a rechargeable battery – much like that of your typical Garmin watch.  This is due to the larger display being used (more like a Garmin than a simple stopwatch).  In this scenario, the battery lasts about 4 hours of swimming (soon to be 8 hours with firmware update).

The Pool-Mate Pro meanwhile goes the route of a normal watch battery, and one that lasts at least a year before you have to replace it.  This is due to the smaller screen size, battery consumption model, and display characteristics.

Winner: Pool-Mate Pro. It’s fairly hard to argue with simply not having to charge.  Additionally, when it’s not in swim mode, it can be used as a normal day to day watch.  The Swimsense on the other hand would be too bulky.

Data Gathering:

The primary goal of purchasing either of these devices is to be able to collect data.  After all, if you didn’t want to collect data, then a cheap watch from a department store would do just fine.  So what does each watch gather?

Swimsense: This watch can record time and distance for sets (intervals), lengths/laps, and total swim workout.  In addition, it also records pace, stroke type, stroke rate, stroke distance and SWOLF score for each data type noted.  The key differentiator here is the ability to record lengths/lap data.  Meaning, the ability to record data for each and every length in a larger set.  The Pool-Mate Pro only records data at the interval (set) level.

Pool-Mate Pro: This watch can record time and distance for sets (intervals) and total swim workout.  In addition, it also records speed, stroke rate, and efficiency for each data type noted.

For me, the biggest difference is the ability for the Swimsense to record data at the per-lap/length level.  This means that if I do a 1,000y set, I can then see exactly how my pace and stroke count varies over the course of each and every lap.  This allows me to see for example if my pace is stable across the set, or if I’m slowing down.  Thus, due to the extra data captured, the Swimsense wins this category.

Winner: Swimsense

Charging/Data Download Dock/Cradle:

The two companies selected entirely different routes here, but I can’t really say that either is wrong.  They’re just different.

The Swimsense uses a separate cradle which has a standard USB connector on it.  You then apply the included Mini-USB cable (or any other that you have handy), connect it to a computer or USB hub and you’re set.  It’ll automatically start charging and download once you open the Swimsense Bridge application on your computer.

The Pool-Mate Pro on the other hand uses a different cradle that relies on infrared to transfer the data.  That cradle is connected to your computer via a standard Mini-USB cable.  The watch gets placed inverted on the cradle and within a second or two the Pool-Mate Pro Link software detects the watch and your data zips across to the computer.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised that both methods work equally as well.  Both are quick, take a few seconds to complete and then are done.  While one could sit and argue the in-depth minutia when it comes to USB vs. Infrared for this particular scenario (and as a geek that would be fun!) – in this case I find they work equally well. 

Winner: Tie – both download flawlessly every time.

Software – included by vendor:

When it comes to software included, both do a good job of providing simple and easy to use software that allows you to analyze your data at both an individual workout level, as well as from a more historical standpoint (over time).  But, despite those similarities, they’ve both selected very different paths to get that information to you:

Swimsense: Swimsense uses a piece of software called the Swimsense Bridge, which essentially connects to the watch via USB, grabs the data, and then uploads it to the Swimsense.com site.  Once on the site, all data analysis is done there online – be it individual workouts, historical views, or reporting…all in one place.  There is no separate/additional downloadable client application that allows you to analyze data. The benefit to a purely online strategy is that your data is available anywhere there's a browser.  Additionally, they can more easily partner with other sites to allow you to share your data (like how they’ve done with Training Peaks).  And finally it also allows them to quickly add new features without dealing with client computer installs.  The catch of course to a fully online system being that you need to be connected to the Internet to view your data.  Some may find that a disadvantage (though, export to CSV that I’ll talk about later allows you to download data for later use).

(Above: Swimsense Web Platform)

Pool-Mate Pro: Swimovate uses a fully desktop focused solution.  The watch connects to a piece of software called the Pool-Mate Link – which in turn transfers the data to a text file on your computer.  From there you’ll open up the Pool-Mate Pro software, which is the main application for looking at your swim workout and past history.  You can drill into a single workout and look at any splits you created, as well as look at historical information from any previous workout.  This includes some basic reports as well. Additionally, the software supports more than one user as well.

(Above: Pool-Mate Pro main application)

As I noted above, both software suites take different methods of ultimately achieving the same goal.  Both software suites focus exclusively on swimming, with neither supporting other sports. 

For the majority of use, either solution works fine (and both watches now support both PC and Mac).  However, I think based on the improvement I’ve seen from the Swimsense side, I’m a bit more excited about what they can do based on the position of being able to roll out changes quicker, and also having active data connections and development API’s to other partners.

Winner: Swimsense

Software – 3rd party options:

When looking at software, it’s important to look at other applications which can leverage the data from the unit.  There are virtually no successful sports technology products on the market today that don’t interoperate with other applications – be it Garmin, Nike+, Polar, Timex or others – they all interoperate in some way with other platforms.  Let’s take a quick look at where things stand:

Swimsense: They support exporting to CSV file, which allows anyone to write applications to support the data, as well as you to look at the data in Excel or similar.  In addition, they now support automated uploads to Training Peaks.  In the ‘soon’ column, they’ll be adding support for Sport Tracks, Beginner Triathlete and 2Peak.com.

Pool-Mate Pro: Like the Swimsense, they support export to CSV file as well – which also allows anyone to develop applications that can read the file.  In addition, it allows you to open/analyze the file in programs like Excel.  The only 3rd party application I’m aware of, is Training Peaks, which doesn’t yet support it – but is planning to in the coming months.

Also, the folks from Swimsense are promising the ability to ultimately allow you to extend the functionality of the watch through some form of ‘marketplace’ type concept.  Though, this may indeed be a way off.

Because of the automated partner mechanisms and development API’s that Swimsense offers, one has to give them the advantage in the 3rd party arena.  While it’s great that both support a basic CSV format, I think that having additional mechanisms beyond that is advantageous.

Winner: Swimsense

Comparison Chart:

I put together a quick comparison chart of the major features, to help you visualize the last few dozen paragraphs of text (I’m a picture person too!).

Summary:

This is one of the very few cases around these parts where I can’t say there’s an absolute clear winner.  It really does depend on what you want.  In my mind, it all boils down to two simple use cases/scenarios:

A) If you want a very slim watch that records the basics and you don’t have to worry about charging, then the Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro is best for you.  It has a very clean/slim design that ultimately allows you to get your core swim data (distance/time/pace).

B) If you want a device that has more analytics capability, and can give you more data and functionality then the FINIS Swimsense watch is really the one for you.  The watch offers more for the data driven person, with more compatibility and expansion options.

For me, I’m finding that I tend to choose the Swimsense watch, merely because I like to see the per-lap data that the Pool-Mate doesn’t have (and the new Training Peaks integration is pretty cool).  Meanwhile, my fiancée finds that she prefers the Pool-Mate Pro because of the smaller size and the fact that she doesn’t have to think about charging (and Training Peaks integration is coming there soon as well).

Again – it’s really a matter of what you value in such a device.  Hopefully between all of the different sections here, you’re able to make a decision that best fits you.  Also, remember that you can always visit the two original In Depth Reviews here:

FINIS Swimsense In Depth Review

Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro In Depth Review

As always, you can help support the blog and future posts like this by simply using either of the links below.  Nothing special to do – just buy like you always buy from Amazon via either of the two links below and the magic happens.

Thanks for reading!

One week: So many cool new things

The next few weeks are going to be rather busy in the sports technology world (remember my 2011 predictions?).  There’s a ton of companies either announcing new products, major changes to existing products, or new services.  While both these companies and I would love to dedicate an entire post to each and every one, I’m kinda choosing which items get a full blown post, and which ones get a consolidated post.  Sorta like Interbike – just too much good news to go around!

Polar RCX5 Multisport Watch Coming:

Some of you may have seen some of the tweets and Facebook postings from Polar USA around the upcoming RCX5 multisport watch.  In addition to the official channels, there was also a minor leak of product pricing from one of the European retailers to a few forums, which ultimately ended up in a variety of places.  Here’s a picture of the watch from those leaks.

I had a good telephone conference with the Polar folks over the last few days, and got to chat about many of the features of the new watch.  It’s got some good new additions that should add a bit to the market.

I’ve got a post lined up with tons more in depth detail from my rather detailed talks with them about features and functionality (also answering many of the questions I’ve seen floating around).  Though…I’ve gotta hold off a bit more until I can release that info.  Hang tight!  Additionally, they’re sending me out one of the final production units to review – which should arrive at the latest by next weekend.  Looking forward to it, and branching out a bit more into the Polar world.

Training Peaks App Acquisition:

I’ve mentioned numerous times in the past that the next major battlefield for sports technology is the mobile platform.  While there will always be a place for standalone watch devices, we’re seeing a pretty big shift towards the phone platform for both casual users, and data driven users.  It won’t be for everyone, but ignoring that market would be foolish (Note: ultimately I think we’ll see a partial shift back towards watches with iPod Nano like screens that can load any app you want).

Not wanting to ignore this trend, Training Peaks went out and acquired the SprintGPS app from Screenmedia.  This app has the ability to record your workouts and then automatically upload them to Training Peaks.  While there are many apps that do this today, the goal here for Training Peaks is to take an already well established app and then really make it become the best Training Peaks app out there.  At the absolute top of their list is adding in ANT+ support via the Wahoo Fitness dongle, and for the Android versions – also adding in ANT+ support for those phones that have it built in.

Now, there is one little snag.  For those familiar with Apple’s App Store policies, there’s a minor complication in simply ‘transferring’ this app from it’s previous owner to Training Peaks app store.  As a result, if you’ve already bought it with SprintGPS, you’ve gotta buy it again.  Not ideal I agree…but they came up with a minor work around to simply charging $.99 (as opposed to the usual $5), and then donating all of that (minus Apple’s cut) equally to three bike/run/triathlon charities.  Though, this offer is only good Tues/Weds.

In my discussions with the founder of TP and some of their staff – the whole team at Training Peaks is pretty jazzed about this, and I’m optimistic this will allow them to get some functionality that really focus on the training and analysis side pulled from TrainingPeaks.com – down into an app form factor (and maybe…just maybe, they’ll add ANT+ transfer from the FR310XT and the like…if I keep begging).  In the meantime, if you use TP, I’d grab the app now before it gets five times more expensive…and since it benefits a good cause for now.  All the deets here.

Swimsense Updates:

While the rest of us have been slaving away in the pool during the winter (me above, this winter with the Swimsense), the folks at Swimsense have been slaving away on their computers adding features, functionality and bug fixes to the Swimsense watch.

Let’s get into all the cool stuff that was released over the past few days.

New functionality via Firmware Updates:

As part of a new firmware update released over the last few days, you’ve now got the following updates and changes:

Continuous Save:  Some folks experienced workouts being lost when the battery died during a workout.  The Swimsense will now save the workout on a (virtually) continuous basis.

Improve Stroke Rate:  we improved the Stroke Rate calculation to not include wall push-off time.  This is a key feature for those folks that train by stroke rate (e.g. this is a key component to the Total Immersion program).

24 Hour Clock:  Implemented a 24 hour clock

Bug Fixes: Here’s a pile of the more notable bug fixes-

- Fixed bug when clearing watch which may cause the buzzer to sound until reset
- Fixed when the watch is configured to meters, the ready-to-swim screen still shows yards
- Fixed issue where watch does not save weight setting when set in KG
- Fixed the battery icon faster on USB Charger Disconnect to remove the charge symbol
- Removed the rest time from Interval History
- Feature: Increment Age + Weight Config options by 1 rather than 5

Note they are also going to release another firmware update later this week which will improve the charge time of the Swimsense.  Currently a single charge will last about 4 hours of swimming or 20 hour of non-swimming (this calculation does not include Sleep mode).  Once the new firmware is released, a single charge will last about 8 hours of swimming or 50+ hours of non-swim time.

Note: Huge thanks to founder John Anthony from Swimsense for getting me all this detail about about changes.

Added Training Peaks support:

I’ve been pushing this for quite a while…and it’s probably the most exciting useful functionality change I’ve seen this year from any company (sometimes companies add non-useful yet fun functionality that you rarely actually use).  In short, when I upload workouts via the Swimsense Bridge, it will now automatically relay that workout to my Training Peaks account.

This means that instead of having to manually transcribe my workout from the Swimsense training log into the Training Peaks log – it just does it automatically.  The distance, laps, splits, everything all comes across:

Now, I’m not going to go and say that everything is quite perfect yet.  There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t quite align as well as it does on the Swimsense log just yet.  But, it’s a good start.  I’m hopeful some of the bugs will get worked out and the data will come across a bit cleaner.  My primary goal was pretty much just getting totals and splits to show up, so I was happy that piece generally is correct.  It’s some of the individual lap pieces that look a bit funky in the Training Peaks graphs (see the last few sets):

Adding Sport Tracks support

In addition to Training Peaks support noted above, the team at Sport Tracks is putting the finishing touches on a Swimsense plug-in that will allow you to view your workout details in Sport Tracks.  Here’s a quick sneak peak:

Ok…that’s all I’ve got for now – but trust me, there’s a ton of stuff coming out over the next two weeks.  Don’t be going too far away…or ya might just miss something!  Plus, remember you can always get the absolute latest news via my Twitter feed as well.

Thanks for reading!