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:
Sunday: Week in Review–May 20th, 2018
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Tuesday: Connect IQ Summit Tidbits: My Keynote, New Features, and More
Friday: Suunto 3 Fitness In-Depth Review
It was a bit light last week, as I’m prepping stuff for reviews for the next week. Between now and the end of Eurobike in 6 weeks I’m currently tracking 29 new product announcements (plus ones not in my tracker yet). Hold onto your hats!
Sports Tech Deals – One Day Left!:
While the Clever Training 20% off sale ended this past week, there’s still an opportunity for you to pick up a handful of different trainers from REI for 20% off. These deals end tomorrow, Monday May 28th at 11:59PM US Pacific Time. All these links support the site, or, if you’re picking up anything else at REI, use the below link first and then wander from there.
CycleOps Hammer (REI Link: $959 from $1,200)
CycleOps Magnus (REI Link: $479 from $600)
Tacx Flux Smart (REI Link: $720 from $900)
Tacx Neo Smart (REI Link: $1,280 from $1,600)
Wahoo KICKR 2017 (REI Link: $960 from $1,200)
Wahoo KICKR SNAP (REI Link: $479 from $600)
Technically it’s a members-only sale, but it only takes a second to sign-up and then use coupon code ANNIV18 for REI. Oh, you can get free shipping to your local REI store. Woot!
For those curious, the Tacx Neo is my go-to trainer that I use when I’m not testing something else. But if you’re looking for the best bang for the buck from the available trainers in this sale, it’s the Tacx Flux.
In addition, you’ve got these sales still remaining for a few days longer:
- $100 off all Fenix 5s – 5/18-6/16
- $50 off Edge 25 units (base and bundle) – 5/18-5/28
- 20% off on Saris and CycleOps – 5/18-5/30
- $50 off Edge 520 5/18-5/28
Here’s the full listing with links that support the site though:
| Product | Sale Price | Amazon | Other site | Sale Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Apple AirPods with Wireless Charging Case - $50 Off! | $149 | Amazon | ⚡ I use AirPods primarily when I'm travelling just to listen in airports, planes, etc... I don't tend to use these for workouts due to them falling out. Personally, I just use the basic model. | |
 | Apple Airpods (2nd Gen) - $30 off $159 | $119 | Amazon | I use AirPods primarily when I'm travelling just to listen in airports, planes, etc... I don't tend to use these for workouts due to them falling out. | |
 | Apple Airpods Pro - $30 off! $249 | $219 | Amazon | ||
 | Garmin Edge 130 Plus - 25% off! $199 | $149 | Amazon | REI | This is the first time we've seen the Edge 130 Plus on sale. The 'Plus' variant is notable compared to the regular unit for having ClimbPro on it, plus a handful of other tweaks. $149 is a good deal for it. |
 | Garmin Edge 130 Plus Bundle - 20% off! | $199 | Amazon | Competitive Cyclist | This is the first time we've seen the Edge 130 Plus on sale. The 'Plus' variant is notable compared to the regular unit for having ClimbPro on it, plus a handful of other tweaks. This bundle includes a heart rate chest strap as well. |
 | Garmin Forerunner 45/45S - $40 off $199 | $160 | Amazon | If you're looking for a runners focused watch, this is a pretty good deal, about 20% off. The FR45 basically packs all the features of the previous generation FR235...just now in the FR45 series. | |
 | Garmin Forerunner 935 $499 | $269 | Amazon | ⚡ Sure, it's not the latest edition, but the FR935 is the staple of many triathletes and runners, and it still an incredibly solid watch. We saw this a bit lower last summer on Amazon Prime Day ($239) - but beyond that, this is pretty darn low. Also, I say $100-$200 off, because the 'base' price fluctuates a bit these days. Sometimes retail is $399 sometimes $499. | |
 | Garmin Instinct - $100 off $299 | $189 | Amazon | Sure, the new Solar variants came out last summer with a few new features, but at their core the Instincts are mostly the same. $189 is still a strong price for this watch. | |
 | Garmin RVR315 Varia Radar - Save 20% | $120 | Amazon | Competitive Cyclist | I believe this is the first sale of the Garmin Varia RVR315 cycling radar. This unit doesn't have a taillight, so it's a bit smaller as a result. Same radar tech though, and compatible with Garmin/Stages/Hammerhead/Wahoo bike computers. |
 | Garmin Vivoactive 4/4S - $100 off $299 | $249 | Amazon | This is Garmin's current offering to compete with the Apple Watch series (alongside the Garmin Venu), and this is a good price, though, it does go lower from time to time (not since Black Friday 2020). | |
 | GoPro Hero 9 Black - $50 off | $399 | Amazon | REI | ⚡ This is the camera I use for all my daily shooting during sports. Actually, I've bought a few of them. Note that if you're a GoPro Plus Subscriber, then it's a bit cheaper at $349 from GoPro directly, but otherwise, it's $449. |
 | GoPro Max - $50 off $499 | $449 | Amazon | REI |
Enjoy (and thanks for helping support the site, even if it’s just buying toilet paper using the Amazon link on the sidebar).
YouTube Videos I Made This Week:
Here’s what hit the tubes over on the You of Tube, definitely don’t forget to subscribe there to get notified of videos the second they hit!
(Pro Tip: This week and the next 7 days or so would be a really good week to do that…)
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) Wearable sensors directly attached to your tendons: Yup, that’s next folks. (via Mark L.)
2) Chain Cleaning – A Complete guide from lazy to obsessive: I’m definitely on the lazy side of things, but certainly worth a gander.
3) Suunto’s big firmware update: Normally I list these down below, but this one is notable enough that I wanted to call it out up here. This post is a good overview of the new features. I’ll be covering said new features shortly in a slightly different manner. Hang tight.
4) Study published on Stryd running metrics: Note, this study doesn’t look at the power accuracy/numbers of Stryd, but rather the underlying pieces like ground contact time and vertical oscillation. Those are critically important to get right in order to estimate power. However, the bigger challenge is some agreement on what exactly is power in running (how it’s defined and at what point/way it’s measured), and then from there you can do accuracy testing. (via Titanium Geek)
5) Triathlete Magazine 2018 Buyers Guide: This was released online now (previously just on newsstands). I wrote some sections in here, albeit, an eternity ago now.
6) Garmin now the 2nd largest smartwatch manufacturer after Apple: They shipped over 1 million ‘smartwatches’ last quarter. Do be aware that these studies don’t generally get actual numbers from vendors, but are more wild-assed guesses. Also keep in mind the definition of a ‘smartwatch’ changes more often than an Instagram model’s clothes. It varies from quarter to quarter, and publication to publication.
7) How Veloviewer is used by pro cycling teams in the grand tour: One of these days the stars will align between my schedule and a team-car trip to write about this in more detail. Super cool stuff that’s flying under the radar mostly.
8) A Fond Look Back At The Hysterical Anti-Citi Bike Hysteria: Change is hard, and in the case of NYC a half-decade ago – implementing a bike share program had more than a few people strongly against it. Funny bit of ‘turn back the clock’.
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 are 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? Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin firmware updates.
Garmin Edge 1030 BETA firmware: Reduction of suck (hopefully). Apparently lots of folks have been having issues since 4.00 came out a couple weeks ago (I’m still on 3.90). This is supposed to fix some of those introduced issues. Note, you can downgrade to 3.90 if you’re having problems.
Garmin FR935 BETA firmware: Added Physio TrueUp – This syncs across the advanced fitness features between certain devices.
Garmin Fenix 5/5S/5X/Chronos BETA firmware: Same as FR935.
Garmin VIRB Edit Software Update: Mostly performance stuff and bug fixes.
Suunto Spartan Series Firmware Update: This adds in intensity zones, better training target options, alongside more notification history and HR on the watchface itself.
A crapton of app GDPR updates: A bunch of apps and platforms also had minor updates this past week focused on GDPR compliance. Too many to list here.
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With that – thanks for reading and have a great week ahead!
Garmin released a new map for the edge 1000. You can install it for free with Garmin Express. But now you need an additional micro-SD card. Because the size of the map 20180.10 is bigger then the internal 10GB memory.
Ray, re GDPR and data portability. How do you think companies will handle requests now and in the future? In theory we should now be able to request data and get it back in format that’s structured/machine readable and can therefore be imported into another site (or even better the transfer between sites is automated).
Seems the Stryd study was done only on a treadmill. They tend to do this
I really wonder why a researcher would focus on a single product when numerous vendors offer the same metrics.
Hey Ray.. regarding Garmin Physio True up
i know you talked about only certain devices getting it (only edge 1030 on the bike side), and in the connect IQ post talked about them maybe opening it up to more devices (hopefully my 820 and the 520?)
Do you see it working between your devices yet? In the Betaforum we are having no results really.. and between my 820 i see no sync up. (I am not even expecting any of the training score stuff)
it’s working on the 520 > fenix 5x
at it’s most basic it seems to send 520 activites from GC to the 5x. These appear in the 5x history and it uses these to calculate training status etc on the 5x
no syncing of HR data so you still get the usual gaps in GC/GCM
The 5 homepage image links are still broken? Firefox browser with Windows 7 64bit. Cursor changes to a hand but no link even though it’s present in the html. Didn’t have this problem previously on same desktop pc?
+1 – same problem…
+1 “Happy” that I’m not the only one.
+1 – same problem from Safari and Chrome on macOS
Works again. ?
Does TrueUp also mean that if you were to reset your device, the physiological metrics like VO2Max and Training Status will be restored when you re-setup the device and sync it with your Garmin Connect?
+1
I’d like to know this too. Thanks.
Doesn’t this happen already if you pick the right options for the setup procedure? I am guessing physio trueup won’t add this function, because it really just downloads other activities from GC and then re-runs the FirstBeat Analytics taking those activities into account.
No. You can back up / transfer some settings and activities manually. They aren’t stored in Garmin Connect. If you don’t do this you can’t restore anything after a reset or to a new device.
The stuff you can backup and restore is activities, records, and settings. It is not the Training Status, VO2Max, and other Firstbeat-type data.
link to support.garmin.com