When I booked this particular flight combination a few weeks ago, I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with the 5 hour layover.  Additionally, I had mentally thought the flight left at noon, rather than 10AM – meaning that I thought I’d have enough time to swim prior to heading to the airport in Paris.  Unfortunately, neither were true.

But then I had an epiphany!  Why not just do my Sunday swim workout in San Francisco?  It would certainly beat sitting in the airport for five hours, and would provide a bit of fresh air after 11 hours of flying that first leg.  Thus, a plan was hatched!

Thankfully, my flight was not only on-time but actually ahead of schedule.  We descended into San Francisco on a beautiful sunny day (seen above).  Good thing I didn’t fly out Saturday instead, as that flight was delayed some 4+ hours.

Once I landed while we made our way to the gate (in the US, you’re allowed to use your phone then) I pulled open the SwimRadar app and figured out my options for the closest pool:

I skimmed the list for outdoor pools and noticed a 50m one was near the top of the list.  A quick check of the site showed they were open for lap swimming.  Perfect!

With just carry-on baggage and Global Entry, I was through customs in about 2-3 minutes.  If you travel internationally semi-frequently, Global Entry is your greatest friend.  Otherwise, the lines looked at least 45+ minutes long with all the flights from Asia arriving at the same time as ours.

From there I headed up to the Airtran system to get a rental car.

I decided for rental car over taxi because more than likely the rental car was going to be cheaper.  With the discounted rate I had it was under $20, I can’t imagine a taxi both ways would be that cheap – even if only a few miles away.  Further, I then had a safe place to store my backpack and roller board, and a bit of freedom for grabbing food afterwards. The only downside of course was that San Francisco’s airport’s off-site car rental facility is amongst the most time-intensive operations in the US.  Quick it is not.  But, I had a fair bit of time.

The drive was only three miles away, though I think I probably drove half of that just getting out of the rental car facility.  I soon arrived at Burlingame High School, which is where the Burlingame Aquatics Center sits.

I should point out that this high school appeared to have a pretty sweet setup.  Both field-turf for a dedicated soccer & football field, as well as a separate track (with another football field) and tennis courts off to the side – all looking brand new:

I headed on in towards the Aquatic Center’s front door to pay:

Once inside, I was pretty much in paradise:

Let me summarize the ways this was awesome (and different than my usual swims):

1) I would have my own lane…oh glorious lane!
2) It was 50 meters long, and setup long course
3) The water was crystal clear
4) I wasn’t sharing my lane with the usual 10-20 other people
5) No-one was backstroking down my lane with four pieces of swim equipment at the speed of a one-legged turtle
6) I was outdoors
7) It was sunny
8) People were friendly

This pool alone may have us move to Burlingame someday.

With that, I picked out my lane and setup my water bottle (DC this was not).  Funny, my water bottle was actually from the plane, and thus, from France.

From there I set the watch for a 50m pool and got ready to swim:

Now to swim! Back and forth I went.  My workout was a descending workout, with the following structure:

1600m
800m
400m
200m
100m
50m
Cool-down

I would increase the intensity as I descended from set to set.  Thus, the first set was more or less a warm-up.  And the final sets were at a pretty hard intensity.

It’s funny – while it’s rather nice swimming in a 50m long pool (and actually having the lanes setup that way), it’s also the slowest I’ll be.  I’m fastest of course in a 25y short-course pool, simply because of the walls and turns.  I generally have a fairly quick turn (for a non-competitive swimmer anyway), so the fact that I do half as many turns means I’m a bit slower than I would be on a short-course pool.  And of course, with a meter pool over a yard pool, your times will be approximately 10% longer (i.e. comparing 500m to 500y).

On the bright side, with having the lane to myself it meant that I wasn’t having to dodge and weave past another dozen plus people.  Nor did I have a small welcoming committee at the end of each lane blocking any turns off the wall (no way to do that in my usual pool in France):

And they had all the pool toys you could need in big bins – complimentary!

The pool had three different depths over the length of it, a shallow depth of perhaps 1m (3ft) deep, then one about 7-8ft deep, and then one much deeper for diving.   There was also a small shallow pool off to the side for kits, though no kids were present.

And I still can’t get past how clear the water was.  This would make a perfect pool for doing all my underwater product review shots – both because it’s fairly empty (I don’t like having people around when doing shoots), and because of the water clarity.  And being outdoor I’d get great light, versus some of the indoor pools make it really tough to get good shots.  Oh, and for a preemptive question/answer, all the near/under-water shots in this post were taken with this small camera, though normally for product review shots I use a full underwater DSLR setup.

From a swimmers standpoint they also had both a digital timer clock as well as a traditional swim-clock setup at one end of the pool, which wound up actually right at the end of my lane.  There are no clocks setup in the pool I normally swim in (time, timer, or otherwise).

The whole workout took about an hour all-in, including a 2-minutes rest in between sets.

After I was done swimming, I rinsed off using the outdoor showers, and then relaxed a bit on one of the deck chairs.  I did this mostly because I lacked a towel in my bag, so about 5 minutes of air-drying in the sun worked perfectly!

From there it was back out to the car, ready to head back to the airport.

I made a quick swing by Starbucks to grab some food, since I hadn’t eaten since somewhere over Utah a number of hours earlier.  The little ‘downtown’ area of Burlingame is actually rather cute.  Had I had more time I probably would have eaten somewhere local.

Instead, I went with ‘my usual’ – a turkey-bacon breakfast sandwich and a Mocha-Lite Frappuccino  – both fairly low calorie options.  Interestingly some portion of this Starbucks is now branded like a French bakery (La Boulange de Burlingame).  I assure you, looking at the options in the Starbucks cabinet, no self-respecting French (or French-transplant) would consider them of Boulangerie status.  Actually, even for a Starbucks they looked pretty rough.  My understanding though is the facility next door was the full-on bakery, though I didn’t check it out.

On the flip side, no French bakery has turkey-bacon sandwiches or Mocha-Lite Frappuccino’s, so I’ll consider it a wash.

A few minutes later I dropped off my rental car.  A Mustang as it happened to be (look, I just take what they give me, though I generally prefer the absolute smallest possible car).

And then back onto the Airtran to the airport:

About 2 hours later I was boarding my flight up to Seattle:

And shortly thereafter that, I was passing back past the Golden Gate Bridge towards 35,000 feet and more airtime.

With that I kickoff a week in Seattle for meetings.  Hopefully I’ll manage to get some of the same weather I had last time I was there.  Though at present it’s not looking terribly likely.  Win some, lose some.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week ahead!

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 this past week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this week.

Sunday: Week in Review–May 12th, 2013
Monday: Versailles Triathlon 2013 Race Report
Tuesday: Hitcase Pro iPhone Underwater/Bike/Sports Case Review
Wednesday: Testing out the Pebble watch with new RunKeeper app integration
Thursday Morning: A look at Wahoo KICKR support on Windows via ANT, and what the rest of the industry is doing
Thursday Evening: A London Runaround
Friday: Incredible deals: Garmin FR910XT for $299, FR310XT for $169, Edge 800 for $229, Ambit for $349

Woot, check it out!

I was highlighted this week in The Guardian – which is one of the major UK news organizations.  Here’s the full link to all their thoughts.

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) 5,000 runners told they didn’t run marathon, after directional error: Mid-way through a race all but a single person incorrectly ran the race – effectively meaning everyone else was short about 260 meters. (Via EverymanTri)

2) Recon Heads Up Display for Triathletes (and others) announced: Really cool to see this come to fruition, looking forward to getting some hands on time shortly.

3) A look at the 1924 Paris Olympics…in 2013:  A neat look at one of the Olympic stadiums nearly 90 years later.  And here’s some more recent photos of various Olympic venues rotting away. (Thanks to Woody for sending in!)

4) Think you travel a lot or know places well? Try out this highly addicting Google Earth game where you try and pin-point the location just purely based on Streetview.  You get five rounds to increase your score. Incredibly addicting.

5) Quantified Self Europe Conference Round-up: Here’s all the presentations (videos) from the European Quantified Self conference that recently occurred.

6) A series: 8 Weeks of Simulated Altitude Training: An interesting look at a facility that can simulate not just recovery at altitude, but the actual training at 10,000ft.

7) Specialized opens up in-house wind tunnel:  Interesting stuff.  Though, I view this more as a marketing/PR benefit than one that’s purely technical (obviously there’s still benefits there too).  It allows for arguments such as “We’re the only company to have an in-house wind tunnel”.  That said, would love to get some testing time in there.  Another article with other photos here.

8) The bat-mo-bike?  Well, something like that.  Worth the read through.

9) Wanna go run in North Korea?  Well, here’s apparently your chance. Or rather, was your chance.  Fat Cyclist had a fun post recently about their bike tours too.

10) How they take photos of waterproof cell phones underwater: This behind the scenes post reminds me quite a bit of when I took photos of the Xperia Active ANT+ enabled & waterproof cell phone back a while ago.  Or, how I take underwater photos for all my reviews.

11) Washington DC Bans Water Bottles on Pool Decks: All assortment of entertainment here in this post.  Goes completely full circle. Worth the read through.

12) Android affirms support for Bluetooth 4.0 sensors: While some may see this as a good thing – in reality, this announcement is actually bad.  And it’s not bad because of the announcement itself, but because they’re basically saying it’s going to be months until it happens.  Right now the only way apps and devices get Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Smart) support on Android is when a given app developer puts/cobbles together a custom solution for it.  Nothing standardized.  The hope was back at CES (January) that they’d announce operability and integration into the OS within weeks.  Now they’re saying months to ‘later this year’ depending on who you ask.  Really a big bummer – and a huge disappointment for those hoping to see support for things like the Wahoo KICKR, heart rate/power/speed/cadence/etc sensors and others via Bluetooth Smart on Android.  I bet we don’t see anything now until September at best.

Crowd Funded Projects of Athletic Note:

This is a bit of a new section. Most of this content used to be found within the main section, but I figured I’d just call it out up here and make it easy to find. I regularly sift through Kickstarter and Indiegogo (plus a few others on occasion) looking for sports projects. 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.

Pocket-integrated sports bras: These sports bras include an integrated front pocket which allows storage of all sorts of things from phones to keys to iPods.  Or just a pile of gels. Their product is out there already, their goal with the Kickstarter campaign is to bring manufacturing to the US.

Plume – Recoiling Mudguard: Plume is a recoiling mudguard for your bike. It’s designed to extend when in use, and then recoil back up when not in use.

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?

Site/Firmware Updates:

FitBit adds Samsung S4 Support: More Android phones added to their Bluetooth Smart sync list.

4iiii’s sending out updated Viiiiva’s: I don’t have a link for this, but all registered users were sent an e-mail. If you didn’t receive one, hit up 4iiii’s support to see if a new strap needs to be sent out (free).

Trainer Road Adds Wahoo KICKR ANT+ support (TR 2.1.0):  I covered this fairly well earlier in the week.

PerfPro gets single-USB stick for KICKR: Also covered earlier in the week in detail in my Thursday post.

Bluetooth SIG adds location and navigation device profile: They’ve been on a bit of a run lately with new profiles. Good to see. (via Niclas G.)

iPhone/iPad App updates this week:

Ok, so my iPad found these two iPad apps were updated from the week before:

Android App Updates this week:

Windows Phone App updates this week:

(There were no Windows Phone updates for sports apps that I have this week)

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Thanks for reading!

Let me just put this out up front: This is without question the most significant sports technology gadget sale I’ve seen since starting the blog some 5-6 years ago.  No Thanksgiving Black Friday, Christmas, or Festivus deals even comes close to this.

Let’s dive right into it, and then I’ll give some analysis and recommendations:

Garmin FR910XT: $299 without HR strap, $337 with HR strap (originally $399/$449) – Until May 27th.  Also, you can get down to $249 with a $50 mail-in rebate from Garmin where you send your old Garmin in to ‘Girls on the Run’ (a non-profit). Details at end of post.

Garmin FR310XT: $169 without HR strap, $199 with HR strap (originally $195/$234) – Starts MONDAY! Until May 26th

Garmin Edge 800: $229 without HR strap, including $100 mail-in rebate (Originally $449)

Garmin Edge 800 Bundle: $379 with HR strap, Speed/Cadence Sensor, City Maps, including $100 mail-in rebate (Originally $649)

Suunto Ambit1 (original Ambit): $348 without HR strap, with HR strap $378 (Originally $500/550) – Until May 31st

Also of note, but honestly a bit less exciting are two other deals:

Saris Bones 3 Bike Rack for Car Trunk:  $127 (originally $143)
Saris Axis Steel 2 Bike Rack for Car Hitch:  $159 (originally $179)

I haven’t reviewed or ever touched those two racks, but they came along in the sale bundle, so I figured I’d at least mention them. [Update: These prices were updated due to an error.]

Phew…ok…with that out of the way, let’s talk about what’s going on, and what to do.

Why things are on sale

First up is the Suunto original Ambit (hiking/running watch). This is the easiest of the bunch. With the new Suunto Ambit2 and Ambit2S out, Suunto has removed the pricing restrictions on these products until May 31st.  Allowing companies to price them as they see fit during this time period.  That one is straight-forward given the new Ambit2/2S.

Next is the Garmin Edge 800 cycling unit.  Like the original Ambit, it too was replaced back in January with the newer Garmin Edge 810 unit.  In this case Garmin has removed the minimum advertised price restrictions for the Edge 800, causing the price to drop.  In conjunction with that, they’re also offering an $100 rebate for another 13 days.  It’s like a perfect storm for a massive drop down to effectively $229.

Then we’ve got the Garmin FR310XT multisport/triathlon watch.  This isn’t a huge discount off of the previous price of $195, but it’s the lowest the watch has ever been (and the lowest it ever was until last week when it hit $195).  Obviously with the Garmin FR910XT replacing it over a year ago, it’s not the newest kid on the block.  This is a short-term sale until only May 26th.

Finally, we’ve got the Garmin FR910XT multisport/triathlon watch.  This is a short term sale – and quite frankly what I view as the biggest.  There’s no clarity on why the deep short-term discount, but I have to suspect it’s due to the Ambit2/2S release, alongside with the Tom-Tom release pending this summer – both adding pressure on Garmin and the desire from them to likely ‘lock-in’ any customers on the fence.

Which device to get and why

Let’s get the easiest out of the way first – the Ambit.  While this is a ‘good’ deal, it’s far from a great deal.  It’s only $50 cheaper than what I believe is the maximum reasonable market price for the device.  Meaning, I don’t see how this device can attract any buyers above $400 anyway, given competitive pressure from the Garmin Fenix.  Further, given Suunto’s declaration of limited future support for the device, it’s sorta headed into the retirement home.  There’s no two ways about it unfortunately.

Then we’ve got the Edge 800.  This is an AWESOME deal if you’re looking for mapping.  As I said in my Edge 810 review, Garmin has not made for a compelling reason to justify the price difference between the Edge 810 and the Edge 800.  The feature set of ‘new’ things on the Edge 810 is just too small to make sense.  A graphical user interface overhaul a new product does not make.  Until they increase the phone connected features and open up 3rd party support to sites like Strava, I remain in the camp that the Edge 810 is overpriced and unimpressive.  Thus, at $229, the Edge 800 is a  steal.  Especially if you download the free Openstreet maps for it – saving you the cost of buying Garmin’s map service (for the how-to on that, see my Edge 810 review section on it, but it applies to the Edge 800 as well).

Next is the Garmin FR310XT and FR910XT and trying to decide which one to get.  If you’re a runner, and don’t do the swim/bike thing, then the FR310XT is the obvious choice.  The only thing you’d get out of the FR910XT is a tiny bit bigger battery and a barometric altimeter.  Both of those tend to only be applicable to ultra runners (trail runners in the mountains more specifically).  Beyond that, basically the same watch for runners.

Now, for triathletes/swimmers/cyclists – there’s big differences.  Let’s start with those that swim/run.  In this case, the FR910XT is definitely the better bet.  The FR310XT doesn’t do indoor swimming, but does keep track of distance outdoor swimming.  Though, unlike the FR910XT, the 310XT can’t measure stroke outdoors.  So here the clear winner is the FR910XT for swim tracking.

For cyclists, it comes down to two features: Advanced power meter metrics and the barometric altimeter.  The FR910XT supports the TrainingPeaks power meter metrics of TSS/NP/IF, as well as the left/right power balance features that some newer power meters have.  If you don’t have a power meter, or don’t plan a near-term purchase, then go with the FR310XT.  If you have a power meter, stay with the FR910XT.  Then we’ve got the barometric altimeter.  For cyclists in the mountains, this can be valuable.  However, for Florida-folks, don’t bother.  Further, even for mountain folks the elevation data will get corrected afterwards in most online services anyway – so it’s really only if you’re truly using it in realtime that you’d want the barometric altimeter.

Finally – for triathletes just starting out.  For you, save your cash and go with the FR310XT for now.  There’s simply no other triathlon watch anywhere near that price point, let alone one better than that (other than the FR910XT).  The closest non-Garmin competitor to the FR310XT is the Magellan Switch/Switch-Up, just over $250.

Oh, and I should point out – there’s no FR910XT replacement coming this triathlon season. Simply not going to happen, it’s far too late for any announcements for the season, and I assure you, I don’t have one in testing either.  Remember the FR910XT really only hit the market in widespread quantities last March-April 2012 (despite being announced in October 2011).  A typical Garmin product cycle is a minimum of 2 years.

That all make sense?

If not, no worries, post questions below and I’ll be happy to try and get everyone all straightened up.  For in-depth technical questions, I recommend you check out the product reviews (and subsequent comments on each one).  Also, there’s the product comparison tool, which has every unit in it.  And finally, my general GPS recommendations post from a few months ago (still relevant)

Garmin FR910XT: $299 without HR strap, $337 with HR strap [Product Review] – And save another $50 with the mail-in rebate for older Garmin Forerunner users.
Garmin FR310XT: $169 without HR strap, $199 with HR strap [Product Review] (310XT sale starts Monday!)
Garmin Edge 800: $229 without HR strap, including $100 mail-in rebate [Product Review]
Garmin Edge 800 Bundle: $379 with HR strap, Speed/Cadence Sensor, City Maps, including $100 mail-in rebate [Product Review]
Suunto Ambit1 (original Ambit): $348 without HR strap, with HR strap $378  [Product Review]

If you use the Clever Training links above (which I have a partnership with), then you’ll help support the site.  It is somewhat important that you use those links, otherwise it doesn’t exactly support the site as I don’t get credit for it.

Also note that everything above qualifies for free US shipping with Clever Training.  Though, it doesn’t qualify for the usual DCRainmaker Clever Training discount of 10% off your cart via coupon code DCR10XBK because they are deep-sale items (but any accessories you buy do get discounted).  Oh, and the Edge 800 rebate PDF form is here.  And the $50 Garmin Forerunner rebate is here.

Thanks for your support of the site, I appreciate it!  And have a great weekend!

After finishing up a day of meetings a little after 6PM, I zipped back to the hotel via two different trains in the London Underground (subway system).  While light was slowly fading, I was able to make record time in changing into my running stuff and heading back out the door again.  Thankfully, it was all of 100 yards from the door of the hotel to the entrance to the park.

Welcome to The Green Park:

Upon my arrival I found plenty of folks out doing various fitness things on the grassy areas.  From boxing to running to sprints to core exercises, lots of folks keeping busy.

I meanwhile started here on my relatively short 40 minute run.  I figured I’d run around the perimeter of the park first.

All of about 3-4 minutes later I found myself at a giant traffic circle in front of Buckingham Palace.  Thankfully, those storm clouds were headed away from me (and it only briefly sprinkled on me as I was walking from the hotel to start of run):

To my right, would be the famous Buckingham Palace, complete with the guards standing out front:

And even more tourists at the gate gazing inside.  Perhaps all hoping for a brief glimpse of the Queen, should she be inside.

I left the Queen and all her men behind and rounded the corner down a road called ‘Birdcage Walk’.  This is only interesting in the fact that it’s where The Girl and I spent a fair bit of time during the London Olympics this past summer watching the women’s marathon.  In fact, this very spot below was where we stood.  It’s crazy to look at those photos then compared to now.

I continued down the road and then made a brief dip through the edges of St. James Park.  This run was becoming a bit of a ‘park to park to park’ run.

After leaving St. James Park behind I was only a few hundred meters away from probably the most famous cluster of sights in London.  Starting off with St. Margaret’s Church:

(Sorry for the fuzzie’s, mid-run and dusk ends up like that sometimes)

Which is part of Westminster Abbey.  That being the place where Kate and Will got hitched just over two years ago.

As I continue around the traffic circle, we’ve got the most famous sight of all – Big Ben:

Behind him you can see the London Eye wheel sticking up:

As I ran under the shadow of him I quickly ended up down along the River Thames, across from the London Eye:

While running along I saw what would be the probably the 1,328th cyclist that afternoon.  These ones on the city’s bike-sharing program’s bikes.  But, beyond that (as you can see in the photo), there were just tons of cyclists.  Easily putting Paris to shame, where I see what I thought was tons of cyclists there.

I decided to go ahead and cross over the river:

From there I worked my way back down to the other side past a bit of some sort of event going on near the Eye.

Of course, while running past that area I saw one of the famous red telephone booths.  Albeit this one with legs, and arms.  I’d watch out for those ones – nothing good comes of a telephone booth that can run after and tackle you.

Given my options of bridges to cross back over, I picked Westminster Bridge and wandered back across towards Westminster Abbey:

From there I made a bee-line across St. James Park again, this time swinging past the pelicans.  They’re on the rocks out in the water, and those buggers are really rather big!

Definitely would not want to have an angry pelican after me.

Back across in front of Buckingham Palace I went:

And then up alongside Green Park again.  As was the case all night, massive numbers of running groups out.  You don’t really see much of that in Paris on a normal weekday.  There are some weekend-type clubs you see, but nothing approaching the sheer volume of people and organized groups I saw here.

Next it was past Wellington Arch and over towards Hyde’s Park.  This is where the men’s and women’s triathlon zipped through during the middle of the bike course.

A short bit later I found myself running along the Serpentine.  It’s a little pond (mini-lake I suppose).  Where I was running was exactly where the triathlon run portion was held.

And the swim, was held here in the waters in front of it:

In fact, just across the other side of this photo (on the other side of the pond) was where I sat and stood watching both the men’s and women’s triathlon last August.  Here’s my spectator report for the Men’s Triathlon, and here’s the Women’s Triathlon.  I got a lot of really fun photos in there.  It’s kinda neat to look back through them.

With my visit to those grounds complete, I worked my way back towards the hotel.  Obviously, a self-shot was in order:

As I made my way back to the hotel in those last few minutes I got the final two shots needed to properly finish off the post (since apparently neither the Queen nor Kate was going to make an appearance).

First, no London Runaround would be complete unless I had a red double-decker bus in there.  And since there was this old-school red buggy in front of the buses in the background, it was like two for the price of one!

And lastly of course there’s the legit red telephone booth.  In front of the Hard Rock Café no less.

With that, I stopped at the below wall, just next door to the hotel.  Seemed fitting if you asked me!

Here’s my total route picture, or the link if you want to poke around at it and zoom in/out.

With that, I’m already back on the high-speed train home to Paris – it was just a quick trip for some meetings.  Fear not, I’ll be back again!  As always, thanks for reading!

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Oh, P.S. – For those interested in all my London Olympic 2012 photo-filled posts from last summer, here they are:

My Spectator Report: London 2012 Olympics – Women’s Triathlon

My Spectator Report: London 2012 Olympics–Women’s Marathon

My Spectator Report: London 2012 Olympics – Men’s Triathlon

London 2012 Olympics odds, ends, and fun leftovers

And if you still have more time to burn, start here with my previous Olympics posts…

Enjoy!

When the Wahoo KICKR was announced last August, it was touted as being open on both Bluetooth Smart as well as ANT+. And in many ways it was. It was controllable via Bluetooth Smart, and apps could (and have been) designed for it. And it also outputted ANT+ data to various ANT+ devices.

However there was one little wrinkle: It didn’t allow ANT+ control, and required Bluetooth Smart (Bluetooth 4.0). And that was of particular note to households which lacked a newer iPhone or iPad – which have been the only platforms that the KICKR supported control over. Without either of those two devices, your KICKR was effectively a big 46 pound brick.

However, last week Wahoo Fitness released a firmware version which now enables ANT control over the KICKR. And in doing so, opens up the door to apps across any platform – from Windows to Macs, and Android to iOS – to control the KICKR. Now, you’ll notice I didn’t actually say ANT+ control. As technically, it’s not ANT+ control yet. But I’ll dive into that more after I go through all of the apps.

I spent a bit of time over the last 4-5 days playing around with some of the different solutions that have been released over the past week to enable this scenario. So here’s the full skinny!

Updating the KICKR:

Those of you that have the KICKR have probably done this step already, but I’ll refresh it anyway. First up is opening up the default Wahoo Fitness app. Once you’ve connected to the KICKR, it’ll display the usual notification that a new firmware version is available:

At this point it’ll redirect you over to the Wahoo Utility App, which handles the actual update process.

The update takes perhaps a minute or so to complete, and is done via Bluetooth Smart. Now, this is one catch to the whole process. As it stands today the only way to update the KICKR to support ANT control is via Bluetooth Smart. So you’ve still gotta find a way to update it. The good news is just about everyone has at least one friend with an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 (or newer generation iPad), and all they’d need is the simple and free Wahoo Utility app to get you upgraded.

Once the update is complete, you’ll just unplug the power on the Wahoo KICKR to get it rebooted into the new firmware. At this point, you’re ready for ANT control.

Applications that support it as of this week:

I want to quickly run through the three apps that support it today via ANT. Note that this isn’t an in-depth review of these applications, or even a review of the applications. It’s simply explaining how they work in the context of KICKR.

In many ways, all three applications have a core similarity – they allow you to control the Wahoo KICKR via ANT. They all record your entire ride, including other ANT+ sensors like heart rate, speed and cadence. And they all have some level of customization. At a very high level, PerfPro has the most customization and options. However, PeriPedal has a very clean interface. And TrainerRoad has more in the way of social sharing and Strava-like functionality.

Of course, they all have other benefits and features – so again, not a review, just talking about how they function for KICKR. All good? Good.

PerfPro Studio:

I’ll start off with PerfPro. PerfPro definitely had the most in-depth implementation of KICKR support. This is primarily due to all the configuration options that the program has in general, but also the way they surface those options for the KICKR. On the flip-side, it can be a bit overwhelming.

After you’ve added an ANT+ USB stick we’ll be ready to start (note that as of yesterday you no longer need two sticks – just one stick). First up is searching for the KICKR, again using ANT. You’ll see below it’s found the KICKR and listed my ANT+ ID (9195).

Next, if I pedal it’ll go ahead and show it as active, as well as the current speed and power:

After clicking ‘Next’ I’m basically done.

There are however a few options for the KICKR you can access via the menu system. And the menu system you can access by just clicking on the background of PerfPro studio.

Here’s some of the options you have for just the KICKR. The main one being the ability to change wind speed or rolling resistance. Other options are found along the left side there – many of which apply to KICKR workouts.

Finally, if you have any other ANT+ devices (heart rate/speed/cadence/etc… sensors), you can pair those up as well. You can see below I’ve added the Speed/Cadence sensor with my name next to it.

With that, I’m ready to begin my ride (and all of the settings up to this point are saved for next time). After starting the ride you’ll see my load displayed in the upper left corner. That’s the wattage that’s being applied by the KICKR. While to the right of it you’ll see the current wattage being measured. Additionally, you’ll see other ANT+ metrics like my HR and cadence.

Here’s basically the same view focusing on just the workout screen.

Finally, the PerfPro software supports manual calibration at any time by just right clicking in the menu system and selecting ‘Recalibrate Now’.

Alternatively, the PerfPro software will automatically trigger a calibration at the 9-minute marker. Calibration simply involves spinning up to 22-23MPH and letting it coast down to to 11MPH. Now, you can see that they still have a bit of work to do on cleaning up some of the CompuTrainer verbiage (which shows and is 25MPH).

Upon doing the coast-down, it’ll give you the calibration number at the very bottom:

You’ll adjust the power/wattage settings by pressing the arrow keys on your keyboard. With that, everything else is as normal in PerfPro. If you’ve loaded a given workout in, then it’ll automatically change the power and resistance for you based on the workout or course that you’ve loaded.

PeriPedal:

Next up is PeriPedal. PeriPedal is a much less daunting interface than PerfPro. Which has its pros and cons. Obviously, having less daunt means it’s generally a bit cleaner to use. But it also then lacks some of the features and functionality.

Nonetheless, you’ll start off the same with searching for the Wahoo KICKR within the bike profiles menu:

Again you’ll see the device ID listed (9195), and the option to pair it. I can also pair my ANT+ speed/cadence sensor here. Additionally you’ll see the option to choose where the cadence information comes from, and where the power and speed information comes from. For speed and power you’ll want to choose KICKR, and cadence should be your separate ANT+ cadence sensor.

After that you’ll go ahead and choose a workout. You can utilize any of the built-in workouts, or create/modify your own:

In my case, I just went with the stock Revolver workout, which is tied to a Sufferfest video.

Once you’ve got everything cooking you’ll go ahead and start the trainer. PeriPedal will automatically adjust the wattages for you based on the workout specifications. Notable though is that there isn’t any way to manually adjust them once in the workout. Sort of a bear and grin it situation.

Calibration can be accessed through the quick-settings menu option mid-ride, just like in PerfPro and later on, in Trainer Road.

And of course, like the others, PeriPedal will automatically save all the other ANT+ sensor data as well as your power data and allow uploading later on with it.

TrainerRoad:

Last up, TrainerRoad. You can grab their latest ANT+ beta off of their Twitter feed. It’s not final code obviously, but it’s a good start. Once you’ve downloaded it and installed it, you’ll find yourself a new menu option at the bottom of the ANT+ device listing:

Given you’ve only got one option for a next step, you’ll want to go with the big button that says ‘Pair’. A split second later you’ll see this:

And then a few seconds later, you’ll see this:

Like the other apps, you’ll notice the device ID is displayed (9195), and the signal quality as well. Below you’ve got a big handy ‘Calibrate’ button, and then next to it is the mode option. This allows you to swap into the different modes: Erg, Standard, Resistance.

Additionally, you’ve got the calibration button. Calibration initiates calibration mode, which then puts it into the ‘Resistance’ setting temporarily – like you see above.

From there, you’ll just spin yourself up to 22MPH and let it coast for about 22 seconds.

With that, let’s start a workout. I went ahead and selected the same Revolver workout that was in PeriPedal. Once I did that I pressed the play button. The resistance will automatically be controlled by TrainerRoad.

Like the other apps, it’ll record all your various ANT+ and cycling data streams to a file for later analysis.

Additionally, it also supports a mid-ride calibration mode, just by pressing the ‘Calibrate’ button along the bottom. Once you complete the spin-up, it’ll give you the calibration numbers in big text:

With that, there ya have it – a quick tour of using KICKR on the three apps that support it today. Note that TrainerRoad is the only app that supports the KICKR via ANT on a Mac today, as the other two apps are Windows-only.

Understanding some important technicalities:

You’ll remember how at the very beginning I said it’s not yet the KICKR having ANT+ control? Well, that’s because it isn’t. See as it stands today there’s something called the ANT+ Bike Trainer Technical Working Group (TWG), which is essentially all of the major bike trainer companies out there working together to define what the ANT+ Bike Trainer Device Profile will look like. A device profile is essentially a way to define how devices talk openly with each other. Another example of a device profile is the ANT+ Heart Rate Device Profile (for HR straps), or the ANT+ Power Meter Device Profile (for power meters). This is driven by ANT+ as an organization, but collecting and mediating feedback from the member ANT+ companies.

Actually, before we continue, here’s the quick terminology rundown:

ANT+ Organization: This is the organization that’s part of Dynastream (a company) that runs, manages and designs the ANT+ specification. Essentially, a collection of people in Alberta, Canada running the show.

ANT+ Alliance: This is all the member companies that are a part of ANT+. Some 300+ companies in total, from Garmin to Timex to Magellan and just about everyone in the fitness world except Polar and RacerMate.

ANT+ TWG: The Technical Working Group (TWG), that’s made up of companies in the ANT+ Alliance that are interested in a given topic. The TWG works for a period of time, from alpha to beta and then final release of the specification for that topic.

ANT+ Bike Trainer Device Profile: This is the profile that is being created by the ANT+ TWG in conjunction with ANT+ as an organization, which will standardize the way trainers and non-trainers communicate about trainer-related things (control of resistance, reporting of power, etc…).

Since the profile is still in the pre-release stages, the “profile” that Wahoo is using is technically a private-ANT implementation (that just happens to be open to others using it). Now, the ANT+ Bike Trainer Device Profile will end up looking a heck of a lot like the Wahoo profile, mostly because the Wahoo profile was used as the foundation for what the ANT+ TWG is cooking away on. Sorta like starter dough.

Right now though the timeline for the ANT+ Bike Trainer Device Profile is calling for a summer alpha release of the profile, and then a final release around September for Interbike. Personally, I think that timeframe needs to be pushed a bit harder so that companies have a final spec by the end of July – allowing for better apps/devices come Eurobike at the end of August, then Interbike in September. Otherwise I suspect we’ll see companies lag on implementation well into the Northern Hemisphere trainer season.

The end-state goal of the ANT+ Bike Trainer profile is industry standardization in the same way that we see that for ANT+ heart rate straps being ubiquitous. But, it’s also to allow for non-singular activities at gyms. There’s significant interest in linking up a multitude of trainers together at once and controlling them all at once, while also allowing individuals to control/override/record their own data. Because of the limitations of Bluetooth Smart being 1:1 (one sensor can only be controlled by a single master device, like a phone), we won’t see multi-control or multi-pairing there until the next hardware revision of Bluetooth.

Now, the Wahoo KICKR ANT variation isn’t perfect as it stands today, I did find some minor issues with the implementation across all three software suites. Primarily that I saw resistance drops (typically 1-second in length) across all three. Not super-frequent, but enough to be noticeable. However, all three apps just added support for what is a beta profile this week. So some beta-type issues are likely to be expected. Or, it could just be something in my house impacting it (not the first time).

So what does that mean for the rest of the industry?

So why does this really matter? Well, because if it’s going to be ANT+, it means it has to follow a specific open-standard that’s accessible by any ANT+ member organization (some 300+ companies, from Garmin to Timex to RunKeeper). That’s a good thing here because it means that once the ANT+ profile gets finalized, any company can use it. And the possibilities are somewhat limitless.

For example, let’s start with existing trainer companies. Right now they all use various private protocols to control and report power levels on trainers. Some are ANT, but none control via ANT+. CycleOps, Tacx, Elite and BKOOL all fall into the camp of being private-ANT today, such that only their own devices can control it. CycleOps however is the only company in that group that will openly give access to 3rd party apps that request it.

The good news here is that CycleOps, Elite and BKOOL have already agreed to and plan to implement the ANT+ specification for control of their trainers once it’s finalized. I have not yet heard back from Tacx on my request for their plans (and for those curious, RacerMate who makes the CompuTrainer is not a member of the ANT+ Alliance).  Update: Tacx has confirmed that they have joined the TWG and that they will adopt the ANT+ specification.

All of the companies I talked to planned to adopt it once it’s finalized, but they didn’t commit to dates, noting it’s a fairly complex endeavor to change things over. It is somewhat easier for Wahoo and their KICKR since they didn’t have anything else in place previously.

Now what about phone apps? Well, this is where I suspect we’ll see a big rush too. Primarily on the Android side, but we’ll see some bleed into the iOS side. On the iOS side it’ll come from apps that may leverage the Wahoo Fitness iPhone/iPod/iPad ANT+ adapter. Take for example Kinomap. They could then not only support the KICKR trainer, but any other trainer such as the BKOOL or CycleOps trainers.

But the Android side is where I think we’ll really see things take off. With the ANT+ service now making it as simple as an ANT+ USB stick and adapter to access ANT+ devices on Android, I think we’ll see quicker uptake there. I’ve talked with the developer of IpBike (popular Android cycling app with ANT+ support), and he plans to implement the support once the specification is finalized as well (or earlier). Effectively bridging the gap between KICKR/trainers and the Android world – at least until Bluetooth Smart gets fully lit up on Android (and from talking with Wahoo this week, that’s not going to happen soon due to limitations/slowness on the Google side).

And head units too? Lastly, there’s head units. Devices like the Garmin Edge 510 or Edge 810 that you’d normally use to record rides, they too could add in support for ANT+ to control trainers. O-Synce has already committed that as soon as the ANT+ trainer specification is finalized, they’ll add it into the O-Synce Navi2Coach unit that I reviewed last week. My discussions with Garmin around this topic in April certainly had them pondering it as well. And while there’s always a development cost associated with any new functionality – the cost associated with supporting trainers via ANT+ is significantly lower since it’s a software change versus a hardware change (such as having to add Bluetooth Smart).

Summary:

I think the next 3-4 months will be pretty interesting in this space. Every company I’ve talked to about this is looking at the next 3-4 months as a bit of a ‘pilot period’ for how everything might work, with the goal to be ‘ready and done’ in time for the fall trainer season starting in September. The same timeframe of course as the two major bike shows of the year – Eurobike and Interbike.

I think with the addition of ANT support for KICKR, we’ll at least start to see significant progress in the next 60-90 days on Android and Windows apps for that, hopefully catching up with the iOS focused apps. Those apps should be able to make a relatively easy transition to the final ANT+ device profile once that’s released. And then as we head into the fall, we’ll ideally see the hardware companies catching up as well in implementing support there. In many ways, software and hardware companies really have no choice – if they don’t, they’ll be left behind and seen as uncompetitive.

When I saw the announcement last week from RunKeeper and Pebble that RunKeeper had released the final non-beta integration with the smart-watch, I was excited to dive into it.  While the Pebble watch was certainly not the first smart watch out there (that title goes to a long line of poorly designed watches aimed at geeks like me), it was the first watch to get massive media attention.  Which in turn translated to massive Kickstarter sales and funding.  Becoming at the time the biggest Kickstarter project ever (by funds raised).

During their Kickstarter campaign a year ago both Pebble and RunKeeper had touted the potential integration between the two companies.  After all, it was the very first app partnership announced.  It seemed like it might just be the start of a new wave of fitness watches driven by the phone.  For those not familiar with Pebble as a concept, it’s a smart-phone connected watch that displays notifications from apps (be it e-mail, texts or 3rd party apps) on your wrist.  The idea was that apps could leverage Pebble for deeper integration and control – ultimately minimizing the need to remove your phone from your pocket.  It would still be there, you just won’t have to touch it as often.

However, after using it, there’s really only one word to describe it:

Underwhelmed.

No wait, there’s another one.  Well, actually, an image might be better:

So why am I so un-impressed?  Well, let’s go through a brief overview.

First, you’ll need the RunKeeper app installed. Quite logically obviously, since in the Pebble ‘design’, the app is driving the experience.  No problems, I had that and was good to go!  Note, available on both Android and iOS.

Now, there isn’t really any configuration options for the Pebble watch within RunKeeper. You can’t turn it on or off, it’s just…well…there.  You can see it in this tiny little icon in the upper left corner:

Essentially if your Pebble is nearby, it’s about to get RunKeeper’d.

Once that’s done, you’re basically ready to run.  You’ll just want to hit the big ‘Start Activity’ button on the app and stash your phone somewhere.

I stash mine in a simple armband.  Nothing fancy.

About 15 seconds later, the run will actually start. This is a timer delay built-in to ensure you have time to do the stashing.  In the meantime, the Pebble display will now change to the RunKeeper page:

Once you’ve started your run, the watch will display your total time, total distance and average pace.

If you want to pause the timer (like at a cross-walk such as below), you simply press the middle Pebble button, which pauses the app on the phone instantly.  Same goes for resuming.  I’ll give credit where credit is due, this part works well.

Next, if you want to change the display field to something other than pace, you’ll just press one of the up/down buttons.

Oh.

Wait.

You mean those buttons don’t do anything?

Oh, I see.

No worries, I must be able to configure it somewhere else, right?  You know, like in the RunKeeper app settings on my phone or something.  Or change to speed for cycling?  Or trigger a lap, right?

No, no, and no? Oh.

Hmm.

So, what can you do Mr. RunKeeper Pebble?

That’s it?  You mean, this post isn’t destined for In-Depth Review status?

Well then. That’s…uhh…underwhelming.

And thus, the end of my Pebble/RunKeeper experience.

I guess I don’t get it.  As it stands now, the level of coding displayed seems to rival that of what a single high school student could do in an afternoon (without even a can of Mountain Dew or pizza).  They had a YEAR to do something cool.  And ultimately, it does the most basic thing on earth – display three non-changeable data fields.

They had a year to sit there and make a mess of Cambridge whiteboards on creating a kick-ass app that could have shown the rest of the smart-watch world what an app could have done in a connected device scenario.  Surely that’s 365 days of back of the napkin ideas that could have been implemented.

They had a year to leverage the power of Bluetooth Smart on the phone platform and do stuff like show heart rate metrics that RunKeeper already supports today.  How hard could it really have been to simply add a way to customize the data pages?  Or to create laps?  Or to show laps since RunKeeper was tracking them anyway.

On RunKeeper’s site, they almost sound embarrassed about how bad it is. Just read the first three bullet points.  Maybe I’ll check back in the fall and see if they’ve spent any actual effort on it.  Ultimately, I would think that if anyone were to understand the importance of getting apps right, it would be Pebble in this circumstance.  After all, if they want to have any sort of a long-term play in the market (ignoring fitness entirely), they’re going to have to up their game with their partners on apps.  Being that as soon as the big players come along with higher resolution displays and touch screens (i.e. Apple), it’s going to be game over.  This is sorta their time to build inroads into the market with features and functions that make people go ‘Awesome!’…not ‘Ho-hum.’.

And while some of you may want to say the onus is fully on RunKeeper here, I beg to differ.  Pebble gave RunKeeper fairly exclusive access to the development side of things, far before any other apps.  They heralded it a year ago as their first app to join Pebble (one of the reasons I ‘backed’ Pebble).  As such, they would have undoubtedly been part of many discussions with RunKeeper on the state of the app.  In fact, the app we see today looks absolutely no different than the images we saw a year ago as part of their widely distributed press kit.

Thus for the meantime, the trend of crappy ‘smart watch’ experiences for fitness continues.  Someday we’ll get something worthwhile, but unfortunately today wasn’t that day.