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 past week.
4) Are you a frequent RunKeeper user? They’re looking for some feedback (via phone call no less!) It’s currently only open to US folks, but they’re looking to expand that.
6) Adidas outs new GPS running watch: Stay tuned for a deep-dive from me on the unit on Monday following a long discussion and demo I had with the product team yesterday.
7) Politician literally ends his campaign on the run: This now-elected US Senator has been holding weekly run sessions during his campaign. And preemptive note: Let’s keep any partisan discussion from either side off the comments. It’s just running and neat, no need to make it political. (Thanks Eli)
8) Cycling race – Brazilian rainforest style: No fancy UCI rules, sponsorships, or race radios here, just simply two wheels per competitor and pedal power. Fun stuff. Start around 1:12 marker or so. (Thanks Rodolfo)
11) 2013 Red Bull Rampage – Top 3 Winning Runs: These mountain bike runs (downhill) are nuts. A quick screen cap below from just after the start, and that’s all before things get crazy in the air. Literally this stuff is straight downhill – that’s the biker in the middle on the rock going down.
12) Jamaican doping story continues to unravel:When I was cleaning my room as a kid, my Mom always explained it’s gonna get much worse before it gets better. I think that’s true here as well.
17) A bicycle with a trunk? Yup, this whacky design actually includes a trunk out of the front wheel. Crazy. (Thanks J.)
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.
BitLock: Turning your smart phone into your bike key: It’s been a while since I’ve backed a sports project on Kickstarter, but this one I did. I like it. Super-clean looking and easy to use. I’m a bit hesitant about their timelines, but, the need for a bike lock won’t go away anytime soon. (Thanks Eli)
FlyKly Smart Wheel: Pretty cool looking fully self-contained electric bike rear wheel (fits just about any bike). They also have a iPhone charger/bike-light system as well on their Kickstarter page. (Thanks Justin)
SEIL Bike Blinker Bag: SEIL bag is designed to show left and right signals. Simply, controlling the detachable wireless controller enables various signals. (Thanks Andi)
Infiniti Seat: Innovative seat design for Touring, Mountain, Road, Tri Bikes and even Spin. (Thanks Thomas)
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?
Elite Trainers releases new iPad App: This is their newest app that handles both their old units and new units alike. A significant improvement over their existing app.
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Wow, I’m really liking the updates/roadmap for TomTom MultiSport. As a cyclist/runner (and now hitting the swimming pool, I’m looking to do my first tri next year), I’m looking to buy a multisport watch before the year end. So far I was looking for 310xt, the lack of interval training was a bummer on the TomTom, but now I’m not so sure if I should go for the 310xt or the TomTom.
Ray, are you going to give the interval mode on the TomTom a spin and update the review?
And thank you for everything, your site is truly awesome! Gadget porn ftw :)
Luis, I can tell you that the TomTom interval feature is not that great. You can set the warm up, work, rest and cool down either by time or distance but with distance, it’s only to the tenth of a mile so forget quarter mile intervals or 100 meter rest. Second, there is no feedback during your workout since there is no lap time or lap pace and third, it doesn’t even record your intervals so you can’t even see your splits once you upload, not even mile or km splits (unless you upload to a site that automatically calculates it based on the map data).
Thank you for the reply Erica, much appreciated. I find so much potential on the TomTom, but it seems they still have much to do. I’ll probably go for the Garmin then.
Thanks once again.
Would it be possible to make the links open in a different page? I hate leaving your website every time I click on something. There is always more to click on!!
I open the links on a new tab when I remember to do it (right click, open in new tab…) but often I don’t think about it. Once I’m on a new website I have the reflex to close the tab once I’m done reading and just like that dcrainmaker’s website is gone from the browser. It’s one of the rare websites that doesn’t open links in a new tab, so I wonder if there is a reason for it…
It’s not because there are other websites that do it that it’s necessarily right. Here, you have the choice to either leave the website, or open a new window by clicking with the correct button. On the “other” websites, you only have one choice… Think about it.
I can see if there’s a way that by default all the links on the Week in Review’s open in new pages from a backend standpoint.
The simple reason I don’t tend to do it is really just that it takes me more time to set it for each link I add. That’s all. The WIR initially started as something that I could quickly spit out, but these days it pretty much takes just as long as any other post to put together/format/etc… (1-2hrs+)
I’m not a swimmer but I recently stayed at the Viceroy Miami, and they have an INSANELY cool and really long rooftop lap pool that would be amazing for you Tri people who like to get wet. (And enjoy nice views).
for the seil bag, it loooks nice and i find it rather cool; but i doubt, that it is a legal replacement of a handsignal…. at least i already see me arguing with a policeman whether this is ok or not XD
Ray,
Dont know if you saw this (downer of a) story on ESPN or OTL about the increasing number of deaths associated with tri’s, most notably in the swim portion. link to espn.go.com
Open source fitness tracker: link to indiegogo.com
They claim it has an optical HR sensor in it along with motion, temp, and blood oxygen. BLE, and a buzzer for feedback/alarms. All with a 7 day battery life. Something tells me they are overpromising but I do hope its real
Ray, I need to replace my Garmin 910 that came up “missing” this week. I plan to purchase the same watch as I still have my HR, cadence, and footpod. Before I purchase, is there an update or new version being released anytime soon? I don’t want to purchase a new watch this week and then find out that a new version is coming out in a month. That’s my usual luck. Thanks for all of your reviews and observations, I find them very helpful.
I see the Infinity Seat turned out to be a massive fail!!!
Unless of course you like to pay over the odds for the base model and that you like black !!
I hope that with the complaints to Kickstarter from the seats backers that something may change but somehow I cant see it myself.
So it looks as if myself and 1300 others have contributed to the good Doctors pension fund.
I hope he enjoys it and doesn’t get lynched somewhere !!
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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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
FWIW The Slowest Generation article was apparently in the WSJ, not NYT.
Didn’t the S4 4.3 update this week also unlock the ANT+ radio?
Yes it did, there’s now an ANT Radio Service and ANT+ Plugins installed =D
Wow, I’m really liking the updates/roadmap for TomTom MultiSport. As a cyclist/runner (and now hitting the swimming pool, I’m looking to do my first tri next year), I’m looking to buy a multisport watch before the year end. So far I was looking for 310xt, the lack of interval training was a bummer on the TomTom, but now I’m not so sure if I should go for the 310xt or the TomTom.
Ray, are you going to give the interval mode on the TomTom a spin and update the review?
And thank you for everything, your site is truly awesome! Gadget porn ftw :)
Luis, I can tell you that the TomTom interval feature is not that great. You can set the warm up, work, rest and cool down either by time or distance but with distance, it’s only to the tenth of a mile so forget quarter mile intervals or 100 meter rest. Second, there is no feedback during your workout since there is no lap time or lap pace and third, it doesn’t even record your intervals so you can’t even see your splits once you upload, not even mile or km splits (unless you upload to a site that automatically calculates it based on the map data).
Thank you for the reply Erica, much appreciated. I find so much potential on the TomTom, but it seems they still have much to do. I’ll probably go for the Garmin then.
Thanks once again.
Would it be possible to make the links open in a different page? I hate leaving your website every time I click on something. There is always more to click on!!
Hold down the ctrl key when you click on a link
Clicking the link with the middle mouse button works here(PC,chrome)
I open the links on a new tab when I remember to do it (right click, open in new tab…) but often I don’t think about it. Once I’m on a new website I have the reflex to close the tab once I’m done reading and just like that dcrainmaker’s website is gone from the browser. It’s one of the rare websites that doesn’t open links in a new tab, so I wonder if there is a reason for it…
It’s not because there are other websites that do it that it’s necessarily right. Here, you have the choice to either leave the website, or open a new window by clicking with the correct button. On the “other” websites, you only have one choice… Think about it.
I can see if there’s a way that by default all the links on the Week in Review’s open in new pages from a backend standpoint.
The simple reason I don’t tend to do it is really just that it takes me more time to set it for each link I add. That’s all. The WIR initially started as something that I could quickly spit out, but these days it pretty much takes just as long as any other post to put together/format/etc… (1-2hrs+)
Looking forward to your take on the Adidas watch!
Ray…. Re: best hotel gyms.
I’m not a swimmer but I recently stayed at the Viceroy Miami, and they have an INSANELY cool and really long rooftop lap pool that would be amazing for you Tri people who like to get wet. (And enjoy nice views).
Check it out next time you’re in Miami.
How long till the electric wheel is hidden in a disk?
for the seil bag, it loooks nice and i find it rather cool; but i doubt, that it is a legal replacement of a handsignal…. at least i already see me arguing with a policeman whether this is ok or not XD
Ray,
Dont know if you saw this (downer of a) story on ESPN or OTL about the increasing number of deaths associated with tri’s, most notably in the swim portion.
link to espn.go.com
Open source fitness tracker:
link to indiegogo.com
They claim it has an optical HR sensor in it along with motion, temp, and blood oxygen. BLE, and a buzzer for feedback/alarms. All with a 7 day battery life. Something tells me they are overpromising but I do hope its real
Supposedly the iphone calibration issue has been fixed:
link to support.apple.com
(don’t have one to test and haven’t heard of any tests yet)
Ray, I need to replace my Garmin 910 that came up “missing” this week. I plan to purchase the same watch as I still have my HR, cadence, and footpod. Before I purchase, is there an update or new version being released anytime soon? I don’t want to purchase a new watch this week and then find out that a new version is coming out in a month. That’s my usual luck. Thanks for all of your reviews and observations, I find them very helpful.
Nothing till next spring at earliest.
I see the Infinity Seat turned out to be a massive fail!!!
Unless of course you like to pay over the odds for the base model and that you like black !!
I hope that with the complaints to Kickstarter from the seats backers that something may change but somehow I cant see it myself.
So it looks as if myself and 1300 others have contributed to the good Doctors pension fund.
I hope he enjoys it and doesn’t get lynched somewhere !!