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, Facebook, 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 in the past week:
Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week:
Sunday: Week in Review–February 15th, 2014
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Wednesday: Valentine’s Day Double-Gadget Giveaway Winners!
Thursday: App du Jour: StravaPlus plugin for Strava
Saturday: A Week of Sunset Swims and Runs in South Africa
A Handful of YouTube Videos I’ve Posted:
I had some time this week during/after workouts to put together a few YouTube videos on the Fenix3. Most of them stemmed from questions folks had, or areas that were new/unique to the Fenix3. These will eventually supplement some of my In-Depth Review, coming out the first week of March. But I figured it was silly to hold them back just for the sake of it. Here they are:
Enjoy!
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) London Tube Racer Takes on New York Subway: After defeating London’s public transportation, James Heptonstall races mass transit in New York.
2) Some companies test their gadgets with live lobsters: Clearly…I need to up my game and add a lobster tank for gadget scratchproof testing. Crazy video though.
3) A look at why there’s a surge of cycling events in the desert: And, the specific reasons behind why the riders/teams are going to them.
4) Another wearable to measure your romance dance time: Oddly marketed at/towards the more geek/IT crowd.
5) A wearable heart rate sensing banana: Or…something like that.
6) Congrats to DJ Patil – now White House Chief Data Scientist: Huge congrats to DJ, a reader of the blog and really sharp dude I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in person as well. He’s well versed in the wearables and health/fitness monitoring front.
7) USSA Nordic Ski Team Uptown Funk: I’ll just leave this here.
8) Paris Triathlon opens up for registration: It took a break the last year, but is back on again for July 5th! I’m all signed up! It crosses back and forth all over the city and ends under the Eiffel Tower. Pretty cool. (Thanks to Caspar for the reminder!)
9) Snow Running 101: While a bit older of a post, for those of you blanketed in snow in the US right now…might be of use. Tons of detail in there.
10) Mo Farrah runs 8:03 two-mile world record: Just in case you wanted to feel slower…
Crowd Funded Projects of Athletic Note:
I regularly sift through Kickstarter and Indiegogo (plus a few others on occasion) looking for sports projects. If you’re unfamiliar with projects, read my detailed post on how I decide which projects I personally back. Note that as always with crowd funded projects, assume the project will be late and will under-deliver on features. Thus far, on the numerous products I’ve helped ‘fund’ (except a leather bike handle), that’s been the case.
(Not too much of interest or note here this week)
Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:
Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one liners is perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?
Garmin FR920XT Beta Firmware: This adds in Garmin Cycling Dynamics & Shimano Di2 support, and a few other tweaks for Connect IQ.
Garmin Edge 510 Beta Firmware Update: Various minor improvements
Garmin Edge 810 Beta Firmware Update: Various minor improvements
Garmin VIRB Edit software update: A few minor updates.
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Thanks for reading!
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Any idea when you are going to put out your review of the Charge HR?
Thanks for the work you put in!
Yes, yes! Charge HR please! I am ready to purchase an activity tracker with continuous HR monitoring and am eagerly awaiting your guidance.
It will be up either tomorrow, or Wednesday. Thanks!
OGE Cycling Team has just had a go at Uptown Funk too:
link to youtube.com
Will DJ Patil introduce the President to dcrainmaker.com?
If the lobster test isn’t working, at least you can eat them afterwards 😛
I may feel slower…but I also feel cleaner.
Care to back up to back up your insinuation?
My god is Mo fast!
Can’t wait for the Fenix 3 review and the availability in Europe.
Did notice the Polar V800 has decreased in price everywhere and now “only” costs about €300 in stead of the €400 about a year ago.
Does Polar feel the heat of Garmin or is there a new even higher end model on the way.
Hi Folks,
I recently bought an Edge 810 for my roadbike. I really like the fenix 3 and I’m struggeling right now with myself, if the edge is really necessary.
I think the main benefit of the 810 is the routing capability.
What about cycling-navigation with the Fenix, any good usage possible?
At present, there’s no navigation in the Fenix3. While some apps will give you some basic navigation functionality, it won’t be at the same offline capability level as the Edge 810 in terms of depth of mapping.
Thanks Ray. I guess, I keep the Edge then. For longer routes – through not familiar places – you better have that option.
I guess cellphone only is not the best idea for a trip through the alps 😉
Yet another sleep tracker that promises to be better then the others:
link to igg.me
I currently have the beddit. This one promises that you don’t have to tell it when you go to sleep and when you wake up so you only need to use your smartphone/tablet to view the results of what it tracks. Plus they claim it can act as multizone mattress pad heater and can connect to other wifi connected devices like IFTTT, Nest, etc. So lots of promises, if it lives up to that I have no clue cause it is indiegogo 😉
Speaking of the USSA Uptown Funk (INTERWEBS #7 above), did you notice the US team in the “10K Ladies (Free)” yesterday (Feb. 24) in Falon at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships? Not only did they get silver (Jessie Diggins) and bronze (Caitlin Gregg), they also had two more skiers in the top 15 – Liz Stephen 10th, Kikkan Randal 15th. Well done!
On the Fenix auto-climb video, your climb screen shows grade. I can’t find grade as an available data field anywhere. Are you running software 2.50? Could you tell me where to look? I realise I should probably ring Garmin support :).
Found it. Thanks!
Looks like the Microsoft Band has had a major update so cycling is now supported and it has a SDK to write custom apps:
link to winsupersite.com
Hi Ray,
Any idea on when you’ll be able to post your in depth review of the fenix 3?
Later this week.