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Week in Review–Nov 22nd, 2015

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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 and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

So with that, let’s get into the action!

DCRainmaker.com posts in the past week:

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

Monday: Paris
Tuesday: A November Garmin (Fancy) Fenix3 Giveaway
Wednesday: LIMITS Responds: Says they aren’t a scam (but still lie)
Thursday: TomTom Spark In-Depth Review
Friday: Arctic Circle Cross Border Hill Repeats: A Finland-Norway Runaround

The DCR Podcast:

Here’s the low-down on what was covered this past week in the DCR podcast:

(The interwebs were not strong enough for a Skype call at our little spot in the Arctic Circle, just horrible quality, sorry. We’ll double-down this week though!)

Thanks for listening! Subscribing and rating in iTunes is much appreciated, and be sure to send in your questions via the voice mail widget at the bottom of the podcast page!

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:

Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet:

1) Man climbs Eiffel Tower with GoPro: These days, this stunt unapproved would probably get you shot off the side of the Eiffel Tower.  Based on the tree cover though, this definitely wasn’t in the last few weeks (the leaves turned here about a month ago).

2) New Balance 3D prints running shoe: And apparently they’re going to go into production with this setup next year.  The idea here is being able to offer far more customization on-demand.  Sorta like Dell does for computers.

3) Garmin on track to get denied expansion: It’s always crazy to me when folks in smaller cities/towns try to limit growth in companies that disproportionally make up the majority of employment in that town.  Never ends well for that locale. (via David)

4) Wanna ride your bike to the south pole? How about a guided tour then?  Oh, I’d so do this…well, except the $70K price tag.  Eeks! (via  J. Michael W.)

5) “I’ve always liked to run and drink beer: Yes, that’s the actual quote from the runner that Brooks just signed a sponsorship deal with, also happens to be Beer Mile World Record holder. (via Randy)

6) Bangkok Half-Marathon was somehow 17-miles long: No, this wasn’t an errant GPS watch, but literally the entire race was long by 4 miles.  Also known as a crapton long. (also via Randy)

7) Marine Corps Marathon issues lifetime ban to runner: Sweetness!  Nailing cheaters, love it.

8) FirstBeat Athlete Software Discontinued: A few of you sent this in to me a week or two ago.  Semi-surprising, but also somewhat expected.  Simply put: There just isn’t a market for HRV type apps these days.  I think if the company had done more to simplify the process (such as making it online, integrating with Garmin/Polar/Suunto back ends for instant-access, etc…), it would be more attractive.

9) What different pro athletes use on their GPS watches: Interesting little summary of what a few different pro athletes have as their data screens.

10) Could the Paris attacks impact the Tour de France and cycling? Lots of talk about changes, but do remember there have been many terrorist attacks on Paris over the decades – so hopefully things will stay just as they’ve been for decades.

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?

Polar releases Pro Trainer 5 to Polar Flow ability: Well well…for those longtime Polar users, this is a pretty big ticket to getting your data into Flow.

4iiii adds tons of new features to Viiiiva: Didn’t expect this one, but Viiiiva got some pretty sweet new functionality, including the ability to connect to Fitness Equipment.

Garmin Fenix3 Beta Firmware Update: This adds in Gen2 Running Dynamics support, among a few other things.  No, I don’t know when/if this will come to the FR920XT, but typically the FR920XT/Fenix3/Epix stay pretty tightly coupled together feature-wise.

Recon Instruments releases updated Jet SDK: This also applies to their snow goggles as well as the cycling/running heads up display system.

Thanks of reading!

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28 Comments

  1. SteveT

    Ray,

    Thanks for the Pro Trainer 5 heads up. I had lost faith in Polar, now I’ll see why it takes to transfer years of data.

    Thanks

    • Jeff Dawson

      Steve,
      I transferred four years of data from Pro Trainer 5 to Flow yesterday in only a few minutes. Good to see that Polar finally seem to have got something right. Now if only they can deliver a bulk update function for Training Peaks! The inability to load workouts created on Flow to my V650 is rather limiting too!

    • Bertram

      To late for me – have 8 years of data on pro, but switched to Garmin this summer. With Windows 10 disabling the iR interface and Polar no longer supporting the pro software I decided to switch to an open system, which hopefully stays relevant longer (though Polar Pro still beats all non expensive software for easy of use and overview of data)..

  2. Max

    Ray – In your software/firmware updates you may want to add the 4iiii app and firmware update for the Prcision and Viiiiva.

  3. Vince Camm

    Ray, I think RFLKT got a firmware update this week. You might want to look into it.

  4. Steve

    I’ve seen a couple of documentaries on that free climber. He’s one of the more famous illegal free climbers from the UK.

  5. HA

    Hi Ray,

    Any updates from Garmin or Wahoo on adding Wahoo Kickr FEC control using Edge 1000.

    Cheers.

  6. eli

    I disagree with your read on hrv apps. Firstbeat athlete hasn’t been updated in a few years and wasn’t a very good ui plus it didn’t really use hrv to track over training as that was only in the very expensive sport version

  7. Phil Barnes

    Re Garmin expansion – happened in UK on numerous occasions, one I particularly remember the company applied for planning, was refused and then told the council they’d have to relocate; council said OK. they went and took the jobs with them – this in an area of high unemployment

  8. Mark

    Er, Firstbeat Athlete does download data from Movescount for analysis. I have used it as an workout analysis tool and fatigue/recovery monitor as these as quite basic on the Movescount.

    For me it seems that they are dumping low cost/low profit consumer version and continue selling the more expensive Sports Individual version.

    • Mark

      Doh, spelling errors ruining my comment.. meant that

      I have used it as an workout analysis tool and fatigue/recovery monitor as these as features are quite basic on the Movescount.

      799€ for lifetime / 299€ yearly license on Sports Individual seems too expensive.

  9. About the Garmin expansion, from reading the article, it seems that they’re asking for a change in zoning. In sporting parlance, zoning are the land-use rules one agrees to before entering the game. One can change the rules in the middle of the game if both teams agree, but otherwise it’s not unreasonable to be expected to play by the rules you agreed to when you started playing. If the refs (city counsel) suddenly allowed one party to change the rules unilaterally, the nearby landowners, who had bought their land with an explicit understanding of what was and was not allowed nearby, would be unjustly wronged, I’d think.

  10. Marcus

    #7 – FBA discontinued! Help me please to find a replacement…. I really like the way the Training Coach function visualizes the rolling training effect and normally use that to make sure I get up to intensity often enough (lazy by nature). Any ideas?

    • Kevin Joubert

      There is the firstbeat trainer web application. It’s windows only and I have a feeling that it will be sunsetted soon as well.

      link to trainer.firstbeat.fi

      But if you’d like to try it, I actually paid for some coach account credits years ago and never used them, shoot me a direct message and we can set something up.

    • Marcus

      Thanks Kevin! Looks like you are correct – tried to find something about the coach but not very easy. Drop me a mail at fw456 at hotmail.com and let me know what you thought about setting something up.

  11. Sami

    Tacx Utility is now available also on Android. It allows you to update the trainer’s firmware.
    link to play.google.com

    Last Friday I updated my Tacx Vortex successfully and now it supports FE-C.

  12. Hi there Ray,
    Did you notice the new quick release for the garmin fenix 3?

  13. Marc-Andre Savage

    Hi Ray,

    The newly released PRECISION Power Meter Firmware version 0.3.0 now enables users to adjust the scale factor to address a left/right leg power bias. For those of us who don’t have access to a left/right power meter to establish one’s personal scale factor, would comparing the power output file from PRECISION to a Wahoo Kicker give us a rough estimate? I am assuming this is what 4iiii was prescribing when they mentioned the following in their release notes ; “This scale factor can also be used to match PRECISION’s output to other training equipment you use.”

    I know getting two power meters to agree is a bit of a challenge but I wonder if it might be possible to compare hub and single side power data to calculate the scale factor.

  14. Kai

    With the Pro Trainer 5 connection to Polar Flow I was _finally_ able to import my ZWIFT workouts into Flow:

    Zwift (*.fit) -> GoldenCheetah (*.tcx) -> tcx2hrm (*.hrm) -> Pro Trainer 5 -> Flow

    Now, THAT is convenient, isn’t it? ;-)

  15. Paul

    On the Software update front, there was a recent update to Google fit.
    Live tracking, Diet, sleep etc :- link to cnet.com

  16. Jonathan

    I have been using Firstbeat Athlete for three years. I currently have a Suunto Ambit2s. What HRV application do you recommend that I replace it with? Thanks.