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.
6) Tough Mudder death ruled accidental drowning:However, more importantly was the lack of response. Read the really well done Runners World article, where there’s also a video showing the lack of response (towards the end of article). I thought these two quotes stood out however:
“From the two Tough Mudder fields totaling 14,000 competitors on Saturday and Sunday, City Hospital received a total of 20 patients. The medical issues included two heart attacks, one electrocution admitted for observation and a variety of orthopedic, hypothermia and head injuries.” – Hospital Statement, which then sees this response from the race organizers: “in line with what we have seen” [at other races].
7) Speaking of more organizational irresponsibility: Watch this unreal video below of the Crystal Cup Crit last weekend. Tons of items contributed to this crash, nearly all of them lying on the race organizer.
8) 10 more of the world’s coolest bike shops: Building on their previous installment, they showcase 10 more sweet looking bike shops (all with really high quality photography).
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.
Velodroom’s Smart Bicycle Light: The light switches on by itself when you go for a ride, adjusts to ambient light level and flashes a bright stop-light while braking.
(Thanks to Eli for finding all of this week’s Kickstarter projects!)
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?
ANT+ Releases Racquet Device Profile: This will enable one to measure and record sport specific data such as ball speed, number of shots, shot selection and swing accuracy, which can be detected by the racquet sensor, stored and transmitted in real-time to a watch, smartphone, etc… The display device can also receive data entered by the user (e.g. set count, match count, current score) as well as receive data from other ANT+ sensors such as a heart rate monitor and/or foot pod. A mechanism is provided to transmit this data to the racquet sensor for storage as the sensor may act as the primary storage device. (Description from the device profile overview, which isn’t viewable without an account, so I plopped it here). Reader Eli notes that it may have been used/displayed at the French open last week.
Basis Releases Android App for B1 watch: Pretty straight forward. Now, if only I could get my Android phone to cooperate in getting to the right OS version to install the thing…
Apple expands Bluetooth Smart Support: It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this. In looking at the announcement, I don’t think we’ll really see massive impacts in the sports technology space from this.
iPhone/iPad App updates this week:
Android App updates this week:
Windows Phone app updates this week:
(There were no Windows Phone app updates this week for sports-related apps on my phone)
—
Thanks for reading!
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The Washington Post now has a paywall after reading 20 articles which I have already exceeded, I think most news aggregation pages are able to bypass it, but your link doesn’t. You may need some special code in your link. May be worth looking into as paywalls become more prevalent
After getting the Leikr email this week about the new target date for shipping units–and have seen the date pushed back for Bia watches several times–maybe a necessary subheading below the crowd funded projects section should be added for the weekly delays in delivering funded crowd supported projects of interest. (I saw this only partially in jest…)
Yeah…I tried to cover it with this: “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.”
In the same race that Viginia did test positive (second analysis pending) Bilbao triathlon organizers did put all athletes into the water with a temperature around 12ºC (plus outside temperature at 10ºC), with an extreme current against their way in 2/3rd of the leg (half Irnonman, thus 1900m swimm). Whatever Virginia Berasategi has done to herslef is nothing compare to the behaviour of the race organizers that put athletes on the road to hypothermia.Triathlon basic security rules were not followed.
What would you suggest it should be done about it? Indeed, no big news about this, it does not sell well.
Looking at the photos of that day (race-wise), no doubt it was a miserable day. But in my opinion a miserable day doesn’t necessarily make for a irresponsible race.
Those water and air temperatures are no different than Alcatraz each year, with this year being even colder (and potentially bordering on dangerous). Or other races with large swells that outright hide small boats).
Swimming in 12*C (54*F) water isn’t fun, but it’s also not dangerous in a wetsuit – even for a half-Ironman. Ultimately, it comes down to feeling confident in those conditions. I would agree if someone doesn’t feel confident in their abilities for conditions, then they shouldn’t race that day. But I’m hesitant to have race directors cancel events merely because conditions suck. I think that’s already happening too much today, primarily due to liability issues.
First of all, let me clarify that when I state that “no big news about this” I do not mean it about your site, but about triathlon media as a whole. Bilbao triathlon made a public statement in which they acknowledge that they made a mistake and that is very much it. Yet Virginia’s doping will be all over, as the only souvenir in the years to come.
Call them chicken, but Spanish triathlon fed rules dictate that below 13ºC the swimm leg must be canceled. Which was not the case and it ended with 13 people being treated for hypothermia by the local Red Cross, some of them even going into emergency room. For those folks, swimming at 13ºC is dangerous (or whatever the temperature was, some affirm that it was more likely around 10ºC, the organizers claim that they measured it the eve of the event)
Not to mention that an incredibly high amount of folks had to be literally rescued on the verge of extenuation after a long time swimming against the current to no avail. Not to mention that some of the folks that managed to climb the river against the current with an extremely intense effort find out on the spot it was the first tri ever in which they werd dqd for not making it to the swimm cut-off time. Not to mention that on top of that, autonomous police officers forced quite a few athletes to retire during the cycling leg against the rules of the organizers.
On and all, many athletes are starting to feel that we are nothing but milking cows and that organizing a race is just a business often times. Indeed, go take part in any of the ASO organized “Etape du Tour” and above all prettiness of the thing, no love for cycling, just business. Still, there are places and events were the local folks do a great job with little ressources and feel a passion for what they do. I tend to stick to those, yet they are decreasing thanks to un-grateful tri-bears…
Do not get me wrong, I do not mind paying MONEY for taking part in a sport event, but I expect that when it comes to things as security, food & aid stations, etc, the organizer does not take into account costs.
I have participated in many sport events in both the US and Europe and in my humble opinion, in the US you get what you paid for. That used to be the case in Europe as well, but ever since it got into a business, the athlete is just a by-product or ingredient of the money making machine.
Anyway, congratulations for your site, you are on your way to become reference #1 in terms of tech and tri sports and you deserve it.
Disclaimer: I did not participate in the race at all.
Comparing one power meter to another power meter doesn’t tell you anything. It simply tells you that one power meter diverged. Which one? As I’ll show in the update, assuming that the PowerTap is always correct is pretty flawed.
Peeing on the bike is recommended if you can not do better and suffer from a freehub failing to engage due to extreme cold. Unfortunately I was rather dehydrated on the occasion I needed this and ended up having to walk and scoot out 6 miles at -10C
Those with long memories will recall Ray’s 2009 Chesapeake Man Aqua-Velo race report, complete with photos of the many, many gel flasks taped to his bike with electrical tape – and his bike peeing confession.
Wow, that Crystal Cup crash is crazy. At first I didn’t realize that it was a cyclist who hit the official and the car was just helping out, vs. the car hitting someone. And then when the mass of cyclists came up, it’s amazing there weren’t bad injuries.
I flipped over to HGTV last night towards the end of a House Hunters International episode from Paris, and apparently one of the apartments they were looking at was right above Bertie’s Cupcakery! How cool is that! She didn’t pick that one, even though that seems like the ideal location…
Yup, it’s really cool! We appreciate all the folks who sent it in to us! We’re looking forward to seeing the actual episode ourselves (it’s not broadcast here).
I am a new fenix user and am still exploring features. Still confused about how to activate calorie counting, both real time [fenix shows 0 calories when active track displays all other variables including heart rate from my Garmin chest strap], and how if possible to get and install Firstbeat. Would appreciate URL[s] with info and/or explanation. Many thanks, it will make my wilderness adventures even better.
DougS
It’s interesting stuff. I haven’t had a chance though to really sit down and understand the HRV/RR side of things as much as I want to though. It’s on my bucket list.
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Ray,
The Washington Post now has a paywall after reading 20 articles which I have already exceeded, I think most news aggregation pages are able to bypass it, but your link doesn’t. You may need some special code in your link. May be worth looking into as paywalls become more prevalent
Joel
there was some cool documentation on arte some weeks ago about tokio, also covering the bike storage. really crazy what is going on there! :D
After getting the Leikr email this week about the new target date for shipping units–and have seen the date pushed back for Bia watches several times–maybe a necessary subheading below the crowd funded projects section should be added for the weekly delays in delivering funded crowd supported projects of interest. (I saw this only partially in jest…)
Yeah…I tried to cover it with this: “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.”
;)
In the same race that Viginia did test positive (second analysis pending) Bilbao triathlon organizers did put all athletes into the water with a temperature around 12ºC (plus outside temperature at 10ºC), with an extreme current against their way in 2/3rd of the leg (half Irnonman, thus 1900m swimm). Whatever Virginia Berasategi has done to herslef is nothing compare to the behaviour of the race organizers that put athletes on the road to hypothermia.Triathlon basic security rules were not followed.
What would you suggest it should be done about it? Indeed, no big news about this, it does not sell well.
Looking at the photos of that day (race-wise), no doubt it was a miserable day. But in my opinion a miserable day doesn’t necessarily make for a irresponsible race.
Those water and air temperatures are no different than Alcatraz each year, with this year being even colder (and potentially bordering on dangerous). Or other races with large swells that outright hide small boats).
Swimming in 12*C (54*F) water isn’t fun, but it’s also not dangerous in a wetsuit – even for a half-Ironman. Ultimately, it comes down to feeling confident in those conditions. I would agree if someone doesn’t feel confident in their abilities for conditions, then they shouldn’t race that day. But I’m hesitant to have race directors cancel events merely because conditions suck. I think that’s already happening too much today, primarily due to liability issues.
Ray,
First of all, let me clarify that when I state that “no big news about this” I do not mean it about your site, but about triathlon media as a whole. Bilbao triathlon made a public statement in which they acknowledge that they made a mistake and that is very much it. Yet Virginia’s doping will be all over, as the only souvenir in the years to come.
Call them chicken, but Spanish triathlon fed rules dictate that below 13ºC the swimm leg must be canceled. Which was not the case and it ended with 13 people being treated for hypothermia by the local Red Cross, some of them even going into emergency room. For those folks, swimming at 13ºC is dangerous (or whatever the temperature was, some affirm that it was more likely around 10ºC, the organizers claim that they measured it the eve of the event)
Not to mention that an incredibly high amount of folks had to be literally rescued on the verge of extenuation after a long time swimming against the current to no avail. Not to mention that some of the folks that managed to climb the river against the current with an extremely intense effort find out on the spot it was the first tri ever in which they werd dqd for not making it to the swimm cut-off time. Not to mention that on top of that, autonomous police officers forced quite a few athletes to retire during the cycling leg against the rules of the organizers.
On and all, many athletes are starting to feel that we are nothing but milking cows and that organizing a race is just a business often times. Indeed, go take part in any of the ASO organized “Etape du Tour” and above all prettiness of the thing, no love for cycling, just business. Still, there are places and events were the local folks do a great job with little ressources and feel a passion for what they do. I tend to stick to those, yet they are decreasing thanks to un-grateful tri-bears…
Do not get me wrong, I do not mind paying MONEY for taking part in a sport event, but I expect that when it comes to things as security, food & aid stations, etc, the organizer does not take into account costs.
I have participated in many sport events in both the US and Europe and in my humble opinion, in the US you get what you paid for. That used to be the case in Europe as well, but ever since it got into a business, the athlete is just a by-product or ingredient of the money making machine.
Anyway, congratulations for your site, you are on your way to become reference #1 in terms of tech and tri sports and you deserve it.
Disclaimer: I did not participate in the race at all.
link to youtube.com
Any response DC?
Why would you bother? I couldn’t even finish listening to this life form.
Comparing one power meter to another power meter doesn’t tell you anything. It simply tells you that one power meter diverged. Which one? As I’ll show in the update, assuming that the PowerTap is always correct is pretty flawed.
Hi Rey,
So do you pee on your bike and carry about 20 gel packs during your race?
champ
I carry gels primarily in larger containers (more like flasks). No comment on peeing on the bike…
Peeing on the bike is recommended if you can not do better and suffer from a freehub failing to engage due to extreme cold. Unfortunately I was rather dehydrated on the occasion I needed this and ended up having to walk and scoot out 6 miles at -10C
Those with long memories will recall Ray’s 2009 Chesapeake Man Aqua-Velo race report, complete with photos of the many, many gel flasks taped to his bike with electrical tape – and his bike peeing confession.
This Eli person seems to have way too much free time….
Speaking of free time there is a neat list of software for cycling, some should be obvious but some I never heard of: link to darrencope.com
Wow, that Crystal Cup crash is crazy. At first I didn’t realize that it was a cyclist who hit the official and the car was just helping out, vs. the car hitting someone. And then when the mass of cyclists came up, it’s amazing there weren’t bad injuries.
I flipped over to HGTV last night towards the end of a House Hunters International episode from Paris, and apparently one of the apartments they were looking at was right above Bertie’s Cupcakery! How cool is that! She didn’t pick that one, even though that seems like the ideal location…
Yup, it’s really cool! We appreciate all the folks who sent it in to us! We’re looking forward to seeing the actual episode ourselves (it’s not broadcast here).
I am a new fenix user and am still exploring features. Still confused about how to activate calorie counting, both real time [fenix shows 0 calories when active track displays all other variables including heart rate from my Garmin chest strap], and how if possible to get and install Firstbeat. Would appreciate URL[s] with info and/or explanation. Many thanks, it will make my wilderness adventures even better.
DougS
What do you think about Firstbeat SPORTS Individual software ?
It’s interesting stuff. I haven’t had a chance though to really sit down and understand the HRV/RR side of things as much as I want to though. It’s on my bucket list.
Dear Ray!
Any updates at the HRV/RR side of things? :)
Not quite yet. Sorry!