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. Sorry, been a bit slammed this past week or two with travel:
Sunday: Week in Review–June 21st, 2015
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Tuesday: Hands-on with Garmin’s new Edge 20 & Edge 25 GPS units
I think things should be a bit busier over the next week, hopefully!
The DCR Podcast:
Here’s the low-down on what was covered this past week in the DCR podcast:
– Discussion of Garmin Edge 20/25
– Power meter choice & selection
– Strava, Training Peaks, and other sport apps sites
– Polar devices, and keeping it in the family
– Getting faster as a runner
– And of course…. plenty more!
Thanks for listening! Subscribing and rating in iTunes is much appreciated, and be sure to send in your questions via the voice mail widget at the bottom of the podcast page!
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) Fitbit tracking data comes up in another court case: Good to see the data being used to keep people ‘honest’ – or something like that in this particular case.
2) Iron Cowboy pushes on: If you’re into long course triathlon racing you definitely need to be following Iron Cowboy as he races 50 Ironman’s in 50 days (straight). Mind boggling stuff. He’s at roughly number 18 right now.
3) First Ever World Bike Packing Championships: Well then, this is totally awesome. And absolutely brilliant marketing.
4) A moto ride to disqualification in Ironman event: Huh, speaking of data keeping people honest. This competitor refused to show their Garmin data that would have (probably not) exonerated them.
5) Quantified Sex Life Apps: In the event you’re looking to more accurately track the time between the sheets…there’s an app or two (or three) for that. Link IS safe for work (photo-wise).
6) Pro Cycling World Tour Team RV’s when in the US: In case you wondered what the team RV’s looked like on the inside when racing in the US:
7) Steve Magness releases long statement on Alberto Salazar: If you follow the sport of running (at a high performance level), than this is definitely a story you should be following. (via Simon Whitfield)
(I didn’t spent much time on Twitter this week due to a ton of travel, thus, I don’t have as many cool things this week. I promise to surf more interwebs next week!)
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.
(Nah, not much new here this week in the sports tech side of things)
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?
Suunto Ambit3 Update: A bunch of new features, and lots of fixes (for example, they added PowerTap P1 pedal support – which I tested and seems to work at first glance – awesome!). I note this awesomeness because the P1 pedals aren’t yet supported from a Bluetooth Smart standpoint on either the Polar V800 or V650.
Suunto Ambit3 Android Updates: Further updates for the beta releases here. (via Claudio)
Garmin Connect Sleep Metrics: Very nice, finally adding in some additional sleep data. I’ll probably do some comparisons with other sleep tools (i.e. Withings Aura), as a quick post, just for fun.
Garmin Fenix3 Firmware Update: This was/is the most awaited Fenix3 firmware update, focused on GPS accuracy in trickier environments (primarily trees).
Garmin Epix Firmware Update: Improved GPS performance fixes (looks similar to Fenix3 update)
Garmin Edge 1000 Firmware Update: Minor fix for older HR straps.
Garmin Vivosmart Firmware Update: A few new features, and some fixes.
Garmin Vivoactive Firmware Update: A number of new features, especially around notifications and alarms.
Garmin FR225 Firmware Update: Something on the backend to support manufacturing changes.
–
Phew, lots of updates this week – thanks for reading!
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Speaking of Fitbit, there was also a rather significant Fitbit Charge HR update – among other things it apparently fixed high stair count issue and added gesture-triggered clock face, which is great as I no longer need to push the button to see the time.
link to help.fitbit.com
(Just noticed update rollout is paused due some Android update issues)
You might want to note iron cowboy lost his bid for 50/50/50 after he “ran” the marathon on an elliptical the other day.
How can he have lost his bid when he claimed not to be bidding for anything apart from covering the distances each day. He’s not going for a world record. He’s been open and transparent about everything. It’s a testament to his will that he even got on the elliptical after crashing on the bike and hurting his hip. More power to him I say and let the skeptics/haters wallow in their own negativity.
I’d agree that he didn’t lose anything per se. I’d also say what he’s done is incredibly impressive.
But all that said…an elliptical isn’t running. If he had done it on the treadmill – even just walked – I’d been just fine (I know others might go with a more strict implementation). But it’s fundamentally different on an elliptical – significantly.
Regarding the Fenix 3, just received my replacement unit after having the bad GPS issues others have seen. This replacement unit came with the latest firmware. Performance is every bit as bad with this new unit. Unbelievable Garmin.
Did you do the letting it sit outside thing first?
I certainly did, and it’s not helped at all. There are several people on the forum who have both the 920 and the F3 who have either given up and returned the F3 or, like myself, only now use it for hopeful testing of firmware and wearing to work. Garmin could do with publicly stating what’s going on, even if that’s via you Ray, if they want to keep their customer base. Right now it’s mainly the thought of re-buying all my sensors that’s preventing me from switching, especially now Polar has a mapping bike computer.
Well, in my case the performance is much improved. Not saying it’s perfect but now it’s alright. That said, I usually run roads with at most moderate tree coverage. Some high-rise buildings around though
They lost me after my fourth Fenix2 which still didn’t work. That, and after the tech support guy finally admitted on the phone that they weren’t planning on addressing the fact that it couldn’t load longer GPX courses their other watches could, and that after a month they hadn’t even bothered to look at the data and VIDEO PROOF I sent them of their watch failing to go over 4 hours on a 12 hour run (it would cycle over and over never getting above the 3:xx mark; that’s right, it wouldn’t even keep time). I had video to prove it, sent it in, and after a month… they’d done nothing.
Happy Suunto Ambit2 user now, and it’s been totally flawless for over a year.
Yes, tried the outside thing. I realize all devices can have bad days, so gave it another shot tonight under better atmospheric conditions – the results were no better. I’m a long time Garmin user, and have spent thousands of $ on their equipment. This experience has let me wondering if I’ll ever buy another.
There were two updates out of Polar last week. One for the M400 to (hopefully) fix the “Something went wrong” issue and the other for the V650 to prepare it for future updates.
Two days left for the long awaited V800 open water swim metrics.
Only 1.5 years after the first announcement (and later withdrawn and replaced by future release)
It was an official “announcement” : “And they’re coming. By end of June.” (link to twitter.com)
Good hope, however with Polar the future remains future for to long.
I always wonder how Frederik Van Lierde, world-champion IRONMAN has been using his watch for over 1.5 years now. Is it only for some extra weight or has he really used it more than a day.
It seems (so far) that the Polar M400 update also sorted out the upload troubles. Since the update the uploads were pretty seamless, before I had to plug in, plug out the watch at least 4-5 times before it actually recognised that the watch was connected.
Super interesting about the use of Fitbit data in a case! I would have never thought it could be used that way!
Hi Ray
I just learned about the bePro powermeter pedals (link to bepro-favero.com) yesterday, any chance that you might get some soon or what’s your opinion on them?
It’s set to arrive here tomorrow. 🙂
Now they look like a good price! Am I misreading the line “Maximum pedal load resistance: 90kg” though? Seems a little low to me, even if I did weigh 90KG surely pedalling forces will increase that? And I know a lot more riders over 90KG than under…
A bit low indeed, though Vector isn’t much higher. Typically the weight is factored into the stress forces (meaning, they assume something like a max load of 2,000w).
Great, looking forward to get your opinion
Behind the curve as always But that pedal load resistance, that would be each side I take it, so In effect unless you were standing on a single pedal your weight would be split across them?
For the sleep tools, also including the Beddit which recently released v2 for iOS?
Withings still seems to lack android support 🙁
No, Beddit won’t be part of it. I don’t have a V2 unit currently.
You got me big time.
I thought you meant bike packing as in: http://bikepacking.net
But with all your travels I should have known. LoL
Still looking forward to the Epix review.
Steve
In case you hadn’t seen it through other channels: maybe interesting video for this weeks blog: Bike, a different look at the cycling specimen in Utrecht, made for this weekends Tour start.