Due to the busy weekend, I offer you the rare mid-week Weekly Mailbag! Think of it like sighting an elusive wild animal…like a moose…only from the comfort of your own computer.
Here’s this week’s edition of the weekly mailbag. This is a weekly series where I feature a handful of the e-mailed questions I received from the previous week or so. I try and pick a wide variety of questions. Some are technical in nature, some sport related, and sometimes all sorts of other randomness – as you’ll see below.
This week’s mailbag covers the following topics:
1) Travelling with Gels
2) Displaying Live ANT+ Data to a computer
3) Which Garmin’s I use for races
Question #1: Travelling with Gels
From Evan-
“Have you ever tried to travel with Gu packs or over gels? First weekend away training and I am only carrying on.”
Yup, I do it all the time. Since I pretty much now exclusively use water and EFS Gel, I’m almost always in the position of taking gel’s along. Typically I’ll do so inside a plastic gallon bag inside my bike case. This prevents any issues with carry-on, as I’d have to check the bike. It also generally reduces the risk of gel explosion – which is a nightmare to deal with inside your normal suitcase (trust me!). Normally I’ll pre-measure the amount of gel I need into small 5-6oz flasks and have those inside the larger gallon Ziploc bag(s). If I’m going for a much longer time, I’ll sometimes just toss in the entire 32oz refillable jug.
That said, I understand that oftentimes you’re going somewhere without your bike and still want to take gels. As long as you keep each individual packet below 3oz, you’ll be good with TSA and virtually every single county out there. For most gel packets, they’re 1-2oz, so it’s not a problem.
Question #2: Display Live ANT+ Data to a Computer
From James-
“First, I really enjoy the in depth reviews of fitness products. Is there a way to display live ANT+ data to computer? When on the bike trainer or treadmill it would be nice to see the data displayed while running / riding with out having to first record to a device.”
Yes…well…sorta! There’s a cool software application called Golden Cheetah that will do exactly that – though it’s still a work in progress. I featured it back a while ago in my Top 7 Sports Technology groups I’m watching. While Golden Cheetah has a huge number of features (such as being your sports activity log), it also has a ton of cool ancillary features that do things that no other application out there for consumers does.
Oh…and as a quick aside – what is ANT+ data you ask? Well, that’s the sensor technology that powers the wireless sensors connecting to things like Garmin and Timex devices – among a ton others. Stuff like cadence/speed/heart rate/power, etc… sensors.
One such feature of GC is the ability to create what is in effect the monitoring portion of a CompuTrainer…except for $30 instead $1500. Best of all, Golden Cheetah is free (open source and community supported) and you’d only need the ANT+ USB stick. But, because I’m all about pictures and video – here’s a YouTube clip of the functionality. The clip is a bit old now, but it shows off what they’re doing well.
Re: Travelling with Gels.
Imagine for one moment that you don’t live in the USA, and that you have never travelled with Gels. Then read that post again.
I’m a reasonably intelligent person, yet I have absolutely no idea what it is about.:)
Gel explosion? Where? In the cargo hold or in the cabin. In either case aren’t Gels in a vacuum, so how can they explode.
I think this calls for an in depth Blog on the subject. I wait in anticipation:)
so wait…..do you wear two watches during a race? The 310XT and the FR60? Or do you just grab the 310XT in T2 for the run so you are wearing two watches only on the run?
Seems like you might get a bit of razzing from other type A triathlets on the race course for being a bit too “type A” if you are wearing two watches 🙂
Hey Chris-
It depends on the type of Gel, but some (at least Stateside here) are actually vacumn packed ‘for freshness’. The other issue with gel packets is they can get easily squished out/popped with one good baggage jolt from a handler loading it onto the plane. It makes for a sad day when you open your luggage and have to clean well layered gel off your clothes.
Hey Sara-
I do indeed have two watches :). One looks normal, and one is the 310XT. You’ll notice that in most longer races, folks who run with FR305/310XT’s, etc… often have a second normal (simple) stop watch that’s recording the full race, as most folks don’t use their Forerunner’s in the swim (though you can of course).
Nice!! Big props for you on Engadget for your review of the Timex watch!
I tried using my FR60 to time an entire half iron distance triathlon, and to give me pace info for the run as well. My guess is that it quit looking for my foot pod and heart rate belt sometime during the swim, because it wouldn’t offer anything but stopwatch capability by the time I was running. I am now back to looking around for something so I don’t have to go with two watches too.
I ran with two watches for a few months. Not to keep track of total race time, but because I was transitioning from my Polar S625X to the Garmin 310XT (it took me a while to have faith in the Garmin and I didn’t want to risk losing data). And yes, two HR straps and two footpods!
I never got ribbed about the extra equipment, but there were a few hassles:
– You need to practice with two HR straps. If the tension of the top one is looser than the bottom, it can ride down and the units grate on each other. A bit annoying.
– A watch on each wrist means that one of them will be on the same hand as your race wristband. This feels weird but has never bothered me in a race.
– Transition got really complicated. Moving the Polar from swim to bike mode and then bike to run mode is confusing. Add in the Garmin as well, and a bit of fatigue, and you’ll struggle to get it right. Practice, practice, practice!
In the end it was a real pleasure to switch over to just the Garmin (although I do miss the accuracy of the Polar footpod – sniff).
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