A weekend in the snow in NYC…and planes, trains and automobiles.

This weekend started with a short 45 minute flight up to New York City for the NYC Urbanathlon.  This is the race series I’ve been doing as part of my partnership with Men’s Health Magazine.

Of course, before we picked our packets, we make a quick stop at at Obika, which serves just fresh buffalo mozzarella.  We stumbled into this place on our Honeymoon while coming back through Rome airport.  They only have a handful of locations – but NYC is one of them!

As it was before – the mozzarella and tomatoes were awesome.  They bread they served…well…not so much (horribly burnt).  But that’s OK, I was there for the cheese.

After that, we picked up our packets at City Sports and then swung out for dinner.  This time we re-visited Carnegie Deli.  While I love Katz Deli – Carnegie was only a few blocks away, thus much more convenient.

I decided to stray from my usual pastrami sandwich and go with a corned beef & pastrami sandwich.  Yet somehow, this ended up doubling the size.  It was sorta outta hand.  You need to understand this was taller than a ketchup bottle.

And, for the first time ever…I just couldn’t handle it.  Yes, in effect, I couldn’t handle my meat.  I ate about half of it and then saved the rest for later (our hotel had a little fridge).

The next morning we headed out early to the Urbanathlon.  While the weather started off sorta acceptable (occasional drips of rain)…it ultimately ended up downright miserable.

On the bright side, I did get to shoot this short video of what happens when you don’t fully appreciate the dismount portion of the taxi obstacle:

Urbanathlon NYC Taxi Fail

I wrote up an entire race report over on the Men’s Health Urbanathlon blog – so you’ll want to check it out.  The Girl and myself paired up with a DC Rainmaker reader and tackled the relay together.  I must say, that’s a much more civil way of running an otherwise 10-mile race.  Doing essentially a 5K just…well…makes a lot of sense.

After we finished up the race we headed back to the hotel.  During the time I was in the shower the following happened:

And then it kept on happening.

We had a flight on the shuttle back to DC…but with the airport looking like the below (at 1PM no less!) – our flight was ultimately cancelled.

Before we left for the airport I had checked on the Amtrak Acela trains running down to DC and noticed there was a 3PM train – so we quickly backtracked from the airport to Penn Station and caught it.

Regrettably, with the snow and ice – Acela was more like Decela.  Not terribly fast – actually had to stop a few times to check out some ice buildup problems.  Overall 90 minutes slow on schedule…but, at least we got home.

And with making it home, we were just in time for a short Halloween Party.  This year, I dressed up as a shark.

Well, actually, a shark eating a person. 

They didn’t have any straight up sharks without people attached – so I kinda had to make due.

Given my long history with great white sharks, I was pretty excited about the costume.

The next day (Sunday) I did little aside from my long run, 21 miles.  I could post more information about that…but really – that would detract from ending the post on my awesome shark costume.  So…we’ll just leave it at that.

Hope your weekend went well, and thanks for reading!

Week in Review–October 29th, 2011

The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter and Google Plus, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

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

DCRainmaker.com posts this past week:
Tons of interest this week in the WTC cancellations post – so definitely check out that post. Good stuff abound!

Saturday: Week in Review–October 23rd, 2011
Monday: A DC weekend of Cyclocross and assorted new products
Tuesday #1: WTC now cancelling races 30-45 days out when they want to avoid “a sizeable loss”
Tuesday #2: Garmin iPhone ANT+ Adapter and Garmin Fit app Review
Wednesday: Garmin Connect adds back Google Maps support, keeps Bing too
Thursday #1: Tracks, Timex Run Trainers…and a night at the Kennedy Center
Thursday #2: A look at Garmin’s new Forerunner FR70 running watch
Friday: Now available- DC Rainmaker Stickers!

Men’s Health/Gatorade/Urbanathlon Blog posts this past week:
In addition to all my writings here, I also cover a bunch of topics over on the Men’s Health Urbanathlon blog. Here’s the goods from the past week:

Monday: Some of my favorite Chicago Urbanathlon photos
Friday: All checked in and ready for NYC Urbanathlon!

Note that I post over there roughly every Monday and Wednesday, and Sarah posts on Tuesday and Thursday. It’s a tag-team event.

Washington Post Article:

This week I was featured in the Washington Post – pretty cool stuff.  I was talking about runner tracking technology for events like the huge Marine Corps Marathon, which happens Sunday morning in DC.

Check it out!  And be sure to read onto page two as well!

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:
Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet:

1) Electronic Shifting is here…now what?  A good article from Cycling Tips looking at what’s coming next down the electronic shifting pipeline.  In addition to the items they mentioned, I’d love to see more data integration with head units there.  For example, it’d be interesting to see if over the course of an Ironman race if athletes become lazier in shifting, resulting in sub-optimal gearing.  This could be accomplished fairly easily via ANT+.

2) A really good explanation of the really complex 2012 London Olympic Triathlon Spot System: Do you know how slots are handed out for next year’s Olympics in the triathlon event?  Even if you think you know I’m willing to bet you might not realize all the finer details.  Definitely check out this post from pro triathlete Ben Collins on how it all works.

3) Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) now…Bluetooth Smart…or something like that: There’s little doubt that BT 4.0 has arrived in a big way, ushered in via the iPhone 4s.  And sensor devices are right on the heels (more soon on that).  But this really confusing new naming chart doesn’t help the situation.  I’m still trying to figure it out.

4) Bicycle funding bill being presented this week: Worth a look if you value some of the funding that helps bicycle projects here in the US. Has a nifty little support form and all.

5) TrainerRoad coming to Mac on Sunday?  Looks like it might be…thanks to this tweet.  We’ll see!

6) Why Open is Better, post from Wahoo Fitness: That last few days have been interesting. Lots of commotion around Garmin’s recent iPhone dongle release – the majority of it coming from fairly angry ANT+ companies.  But they aren’t actually upset about a Garmin product, but rather Garmin’s implementation, which is only really achieving one goal: Fragmenting ANT+.  I haven’t decided whether I’ll write a post on it explaining why…perhaps if there’s interest.  Sure, Wahoo has skin in this game, but actually they are probably the least concerned of all the folks I’ve chatted with.  In the meantime, this post from them gives some of the basics of why open is better than a fully closed off accessory.  After all, that’s the whole point of ANT+: Open.

7) Triathlon in the high school: Awesome to see a full-blown class dedicated to triathlon effectively being a course in a public high school.

8) New iPod Nano Distance/Pace Accuracy Post: I recently picked up one as well, and will be adding it into my runs here soon – simply curious to see how accurate the accelerometer based unit is.  In the meantime, check out this post.

9) Differences between exercise in NYC and Paris: Being that I’m taking a train from NYC to DC right now, found this of interest.  A look at the differences between how people exercise in NYC compared to Paris…from the perspective of someone who’s likely not an endurance athlete (aka: Everyone else).

10) A bike that plays records: Crazy!  But yup, it’s got a record player on the back.  But no, I can’t think of a practical use for it.

11) Aerial footage of cyclocross race: I wish I had one of these RC helicopters. And a place to fly it.  Cool stuff.

Random Notes:

Good luck to all those racing this weekend – and in particular the folks racing the Marine Corps Marathon.  Have a great time!

Thanks for reading all!

Now available: DC Rainmaker Stickers!

You asked for them…and I delivered!

Well, actually, you’re local post office will eventually deliver.  It would take a lot of cycling for me to personally deliver them to all the thousands of you spread around the world.  Though, I suppose it would increase my cycling base.

I had initially ordered via Stickermule a small batch of 200 of them, which, in retrospect seemed pretty darn silly.  Given a typical day around these parts is 10,000+ unique people, with another 5,000+ reading on RSS feeds…I don’t know what I was thinking.  So I waited to announce availability while I ordered a crapton more.

The stickers are available via this page with Google Checkout.  I got a lot of feedback saying that folks were willing to cover the shipping/handle costs, and even so much as doing Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes.  For me, I had two primary goals.  The first of course, to get you stickers.  And the second, to do so in a way that didn’t cost me thousands, or have me spending my entire weekend trying to get these mailed out.  After all – I’ve got products to test!

So with the fancy Google Checkout system you just click how many stickers you wanted and it does it for you.  In order to cover the costs of stamps/transaction fee I’ve made it simple: $1.  I take a slight loss on the sticker itself.  And, because I’m always striving to ensure all my international friends can get in on it, you can order too!

For all my US military folks deployed overseas, you can order stickers too – but there’s no charge on them for you – totally free.  Just select US military (and enter an appropriate APO/FPO address) – and behind the scenes in the ordering system I’ll refund the cost.  Sound good?

To get your sticker, simply click on over here.

Hope you like them!  And once you got your sticker – go ahead and submit your photos here to the DCRainmaker Sticker Flickr pool, I’ll feature the best and most creative ones each month and feature them here.  And I’ll even toss in a bit of a prize.  You know I do prizes well, right?

Enjoy the weekend everyone!  And as always, thanks for reading!

A look at Garmin’s new Forerunner FR70 running watch

There are many cases where I receive a new unit and work really hard to get a full in depth review out…and there are some cases where time just doesn’t permit such an instance. And then finally, there are cases like today – where the watch is so similar to an existing watch that for now I wanted to give you a sneak peak at the most relevant portion of the product: What it looks like.

Garmin’s new FR70 watch is essentially the same watch as the super-popular non-GPS FR60, just with an updated band and faceplate.  Why an updated band you ask?

Well, some folks had some troubles with FR60 watch bands breaking.  I actually happened to be one of those such individuals.  These new bands are designed to be far more resistant – and are what is actually used on the new FR910XT as well.  Really durable stuff, it’s like the indestructible fruitcake you received…except in the form of a watch band.  And…oddly enough, almost as colorful.

Colorful you say?

Yes, colorful.

See, my dear friends in Kansas decided that my life didn’t have enough pink in it already.  So they added some…via this FR70 unit:

And, pink isn’t actually where it ends.  It’s also got this very feminine front faceplate.  Swirly things and all.  If swirly’s are anything like Slushies, then I need more swirly’s in my life.

And the little strap holder thingy…ensure not to forget that.  Note the swirly’s continue on the band.

Now, just in case your curious what comes in the box – it’s essentially the same contents as the FR60: Heart Rate Strap (classic edition), USB ANT+ stick, paper manuals:

Like the FR60, this watch (being technically identical) has a 1-year battery life.  Yup, one year.  No recharging.  And also like the FR60, it synchronizes your workouts straight from the watch via the ANT+ stick to the magical Garmin Connect site in the sky (yup, complete with Google Maps now).

For the guys: This watch also comes in a much more manly looking black and blue variant.  I saw some sample photos of it, and it actually looks pretty darn nice, a bit classier than the original blue FR60 (don’t worry Little Blue, I still love you too).

So, about now, you may be wondering who’s the target audience of this watch?  Well, it might actually surprise you.  For the FR60, the target audience was runners who wanted a very accurate footpod driven watch that had heart rate monitoring and all the advanced capabilities of the more expensive Garmin Forerunner watches.  And – it tied into Garmin Connect online (as well as any 3rd party site you can think of).  While the official retail price is $129US, the reality is this watch generally sells for about $90 in most places.

At $90 it makes for an awesome deal.

From a footpod accuracy standpoint, as I’ve shown in the past, I can actually go out for a 10 mile run – intervals, even in the snow – and get it to be EXACTLY on spot with a GPS watch, down to the 1/100ths of a mile (something I will admit was really darn lucky).

And – of most importance to many triathletes, the watch is fully waterproofed to scuba-diving depths (actually dived with it before down to 30+ meters).  Then on the bike it works with your ANT+ speed/cadence sensor (indoors or outside).  And, in the event you have one of them fancy ANT+ enabled scales like the BC-1000 or similar, it works with that too.

For those curious, I will indeed do a full in depth review at some point in the future – mostly because folks will continue to search for information on it, and I’d like to provide it for ya.  But, with all the other gear right now backlogged…I know you wanted some of the important details first.

(Left to right: FR60 Blue Men’s, FR60 Women’s, FR70 Women’s…the dates are off simply because I just changed the batteries and didn’t have a chance to update them all)

So here’s what you need to know about the FR70 in one paragraph or less:

If you have the FR60 – no need to upgrade.  If you’re looking at the FR60…then simply grab the FR70 instead for the improved watch band.  If you have any other Forerunner watch, then you can kinda just keep on chugging with that – as you’re pretty much good to go already.

Make sense?  Good.  Not make sense?  Post a comment below and I’ll help ya out.

As far as a ‘true’ replacement for the FR60 goes…I’d suspect what we’re seeing is a repeat of what we saw with the FR405 and FR410 last year.  The FR410 was essentially just a small refresh of the FR405, merely as a stopgap measure until the new FR610 came out in the spring.  I would also point out that timeline wise, the FR410 came out roughly this time as well last year.  I have no information that a FR60/FR70 refresh product is coming next year, and at $90, it’s probably not worth waiting to find out. 

If the FR60/FR70 meets your requirements today – then go forth and conquer!  If not, then consider the FR210 (if you want GPS), or the upcoming Timex Run Trainer (ships Monday).  And if you want full featured GPS, then the FR610.  And finally, failing everything else…the FR910XT.  If that doesn’t work, I’d consider a laptop strapped in a backpack.

Two quick relevant resources:

Garmin Devices - The ANT+ Footpod – Read this post for anything and everything you ever wanted to know about how these foot pods work (this one specifically).  It has years of answers cultivated in it.

Garmin Forerunner FR60 – This is my In Depth Product Review of the FR60, which is identical to the FR70, except with a ‘7’ instead of a ‘6’.  Just like the Annie Get Your Gun musical lyrics: ‘Anything you can do, I can do better’.  Well, sorta.  More like ‘Anything you can do, I can do with a pink band…and swirly’s’.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Tracks, Timex Run Trainers…and a night at the Kennedy Center

To say this week has been busy so far would be an understatement.  A certain company is off going for a record on the number of product updates/releases in a single week, and I’ve been holding on trying to keep up.

But one brief moment of quiet was Tuesday night’s track workout.  As the weather has gotten cooler, this continues to be my favorite interval workout of the week.  Sure, Thursday night’s mile-repeats are fun and all.  But let’s be honest, doing a dozen mile repeats plus 3-4 miles of warm-up/cool-down it’s nearly as ‘normal’ as doing 10x800.

So off to do 800’s on Tuesday night we went.  By time we got there, the light was pretty slim.  Which was fine, since that also meant the track would soon be only ours.

As is usually the case, my 800 pace hasn’t changed any – instead, merely the quantity of them has.  So I’m still tickin’ them out at 2:47 a pop.  The good news is that despite the increased quantity, they’re becoming easier and easier.  I would classify them currently as ‘pushed stable’.  In other words, if someone said to do another 5-6 of them, I could knock them out.  But if someone said to lop off another 10-12 seconds…that would be more difficult.

By time we were done, it was pretty much pitch black.  There are no lights at this track, the only light you see in the picture is a long exposure shot with a single parking lot light illuminating one corner of the track.

In fact, without a long exposure, this is what it really looks like (you can see the same stadium board there in the back):

But…back to pretty shots instead.  This actually became a great opportunity to take a shot of the Timex Run Trainer’s backlight:

The watch worked without issue during the run, as it has for all my runs.  It is a touch bit bigger than the FR210 (it’s primary competitor), but it outclasses it in features (and waterproofing).

I know I had planned to get out an In Depth review this week – but some stuff got in the way of that, so instead it’s now good to go for Tuesday morning.  Yup, this upcoming Tuesday.  That way if you had a rough Halloween night, you can ponder ways to work it off reading the review Tuesday morning.  Of course, until then you can always ask all the questions you’d like and I’ll answer them.  I also posted some more unboxing photos the other night up on FaceBook.

Or, if you just want to look at pretty pictures – here’s another one:

Speaking of pretty pictures – let’s move onto something of the utmost importance: Dessert.

This evening The Girl and I went out to the Kennedy Center to watch a show (first time there to see such an event!), but before that we hit up our favorite restaurant in DC for dinner – Tosca.  This would be the one where we had dinner with the First Lady.  What, your new around here?  You don’t remember that?  Well, go get your read on.

Anyway…back to more important things: My dessert.

This is their specialty – which is a Tiramisu, but served in a pretty unique way.  Amazing layers of all the typical flavors, but with both warm and chilled layers.  Awesome.

From there we headed over to the famous Kennedy Center to catch Les Misérables.  Our Coach and his wife had gotten the tickets for us as a wedding gift, and we’ve been looking forward to it since!

We had great seats and the show was awesome.  The last time I saw Les Misérables was some 11-12 years ago as part of a high school trip to London and Ireland.  Except that time I saw it some 6 hours after flying on a redeye from Seattle…thus much of it was rather foggy (plus it was more than a decade ago).  And I believe I was seated in the very last row, 12 floors up or something.  We may have had seats in the bathroom.  Again, foggy.

This time though, with a great view the show was spectacular.  Really well done.

So thanks Coach – we had a great time!

And for everyone else, thanks for reading!

Garmin Connect adds back Google Maps support, keeps Bing too

On a daily basis I see and hear questions on it:

“When is Google Maps coming back to Garmin Connect!”

And Garmin was hearing it as well.

Trust me, oh did they ever.  By ‘hearing it’, I mean that every conversation about anything with the word Garmin in it, seemed to include a preface first about the Garmin Connect maps.  The good news is, they listened to you!

So starting today you can now toggle back and forth between Google Maps and Bing Maps, based on whichever map service displays the best maps for you and your area.  For some folks, Bing maps will offer a better experience, and yet for others, Google Maps does.

Check it out:

You’ll see now displayed above the map the ability to switch back and forth between Google and Bing.

And in fact, with toggling back and forth you can easily see the differences between the two providers:

See, mapping services like Bing Maps and Google Maps use mapping providers to get maps and satellite data.  These are companies like Digital Globe and Navteq.  In addition, they also use local partners such as governmental agencies (USGS) and even private sources.  Google and Microsoft ultimately pay for the vast majority of this data, based on how old the data is, and the resolution of the data.  The newer, higher resolution (defined as how much you can zoom into the image) is more expensive.  So these companies balance their market goals against buying imagery and updating it.  Popular areas like NYC will see more updates than a small village in Kenya.

That’s why when I travel and post snippets of rides and run routes in unique places, I often mix and match the two companies maps.  For some countries or locales – Google has the best data, and then in other places, Bing.  And in many places in the US, they’re about the same.  Of course, that’s not as true outside the US.

In my mind – giving users the choice to quickly toggle back and forth is the best of all worlds.

The new toggle switch is available today in the Dashboard activity now, as well as the activity detail page.  This is the dashboard view:

And this is the activity detail page:

Going forward, they’ll be adding the toggle into the new Course Creator as well (see here for details on that) – which will enable you to leverage the recognition that Google has around bike/running paths when making new courses.

Additionally, you’ll also see the adding of the toggle into the Explore tab – which is where you can go out and find new routes.

The Garmin Connect team felt that getting this out first for the activity view and dashboard view was the highest priority, before doing the other two areas.

As always, if you have any questions – feel free to drop them below.

Thanks for reading!

Garmin iPhone ANT+ Adapter and Garmin Fit app Review

Garmin today announced a new iPhone ANT+ Adapter as well as a pair of fitness apps for both the iPhone and Android phone.  The adapter provides ANT+ enablement of your iPhone, similar to how the Wahoo Fitness iPhone ANT+ adapter works today.  This in turn allows you to use the Garmin Fit iPhone application, which can track your fitness activities with ANT+ data like heart rate or speed/cadence.  The Garmin Fit App doesn’t require you to have the ANT+ adapter however, and will work just fine recording your activities without it.  If you’re Android phone has ANT+ built into it, like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active – then you’re good to go without an adapter.

But first, let’s walk through the iPhone ANT+ adapter unboxing.

The Garmin ANT+ iPhone Adapter:

The Garmin ANT+ iPhone accessory costs $49 has precisely one piece.  Well, the packaging actually also has a piece of paper, but essentially just one physical component.

The dongle itself is a touch bit bigger than a quarter, and is slightly larger than the standard iPhone/iPod connector:

Installed, the dongle would add a bit of height to your iPhone – but as myself and many other iPhone accessory users would tell you, it’s not too bad.  I routinely use the Wahoo Fitness iPhone dongle on my iPhone all the time without issue:

When you plug the accessory in for the very first time it’ll automatically notify you that an app is available to download, which will take you to the Garmin Fit application page.

In addition, if you’re a feisty one and want to download the app using a QR code scanner, you can do that as well from the back of the packaging.  This would allow you to check out the app packaging in a retail store and then download the app first.

Now that you’ve got it all set and installed, it’s time to get on with using it.

Quickly though, for those familiar with the Wahoo Fitness dongle, you’ll find this nearly identical. Below, on the left is the Garmin ANT+ dongle, and on the right is the Wahoo Fitness dongle.

The Garmin Fit App:

When you first open up the app (which, btw, costs $.99), you’ll find the same series of questions around user profile that you would if you bought a Garmin Forerunner or Edge device:

From there you can go ahead and either create a Garmin Connect account, or sign in to an existing one.

Once signed in you’ll be brought to a welcome screen, where you can start a new activity.

You’ll also see all of your Garmin Connect activities along the top – which includes ones that you did on other devices.  For example, my swim for this evening with a FR910XT:

You’ve also got a settings icon where you can configure some basics such as units (miles/kilometers) and whether or not Auto Lap is configured.

Additionally, in here you can configure ANT+ sensors – including a heart rate sensor, bike sensor (Speed/Cadence) and running footpod.

Back onto the main page you have a history button, which enables you to look at any activity uploaded to Garmin Connect:

You can then drill down into a given activity to see maps, charts and laps:

It’s this ability to quickly browse the Garmin Connect site that you get your 99 cents worth out of the app.  The app is very quick to respond, and the charts and detail come up seamlessly.

And from here you can also create new manual training log additions on the fly:

Finally, you can go out and record activity and have the ANT+ sensor gather the data along with GPS from the iPhone.  The app supports running/walking, cycling and ‘other’.  With ‘other’ essentially being anything you can think of.

When recording an activity, you can choose Indoor or Outdoors.  When Outdoors, you’ll use GPS for speed/distance.  While indoors you’ll use the ANT+ sensors (footpod or speed/cadence sensors):

Additionally, you can configure a playlist with the option to shuffle.  Once you’ve started your activity it gives you four screens of information.  First is the map screen, which shows you present location and total distance/time:

Next is a bit of a summary screen which shows time, distance, pace and calories:

Then we’ve got another screen showing heart rate, avg HR, cadence, and strides:

And finally, we have the lap screen, which shows information about the current lap:

Once you’re done you can select to end the activity and it’ll be automatically uploaded to Garmin Connect for you.  Additionally it’ll show up in the main screen of the Garmin Fit application.

General Thoughts:

At this point, I haven’t been able to get full use of the app yet due to it only be populated tonight in the iTunes store.  However, based on what I’m seeing thus far – it offers far less functionality than many other iPhone apps out there – including free ones.  It does however offer a really good way of viewing activities stored in Garmin Connect.

While I fully understand that this is indeed an initial release of the application, I had hoped to see some more bridging of the ecosystem between Garmin’s fitness devices and this app, aside from just looking at Garmin Connect uploaded data.  Of course, being a first release – the pickings usually tend to be slim.  After all, most iPhone apps that are now powerhouses in that arena started out with few data fields.  There’s no reason to think that eventually with more development this app wouldn’t end up the same way.

It should be noted that the Garmin iPhone ANT+ adapter is not compatible with the Wahoo Fitness dongle, and more importantly – not compatible with any of the 100+ applications out there today that support the Wahoo Fitness dongle.  In my opinion, I think the ANT+ ecosystem would have benefited from Garmin simply re-branding the Wahoo Fitness dongle (like other companies have done) – rather than creating yet another ANT+ dongle (there are many past entrants here, most eventually ending up dead).

With the app priced at $.99 it’s already priced higher than incredibly popular and free MapMyRun/MapMyRide and RunKeeper apps. And there are of course literally hundreds of other fitness tracking apps out there.  Thus at this time, I’d be leery of the value it delivers compared to other apps out there in the market that are free or of similar price.

I do think that ultimately the accessory will sell well – merely because of the Garmin brand and name recognition.  Ultimately there are tons of creative things that Garmin could do or develop to make this accessory unique.  For example – adding ANT+ Forerunner download support like Wahoo has done.  Or an assortment of other ANT+ enabled functions like Geocaching with the ANT+ enabled Chirp.  But we didn’t seem to see those being delivered in the first generation, which ultimately would have significantly differentiated this app from the already crowded field.

Thanks for reading!  If you have any questions, feel free to post below.  Additionally, with the app just launching in the Android store today as well – I’ll look to update this review in the near future for that also.