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/X 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!
DCR Posts In the Past Week:
Here’s all the latest on the site:
Sunday: Sports Tech Week in Review – March 10th, 2024
Monday: FIT File: Google Pixel Watch Updates, Suunto + UTMB? Garmin vs Apple Ski Apps, and More SPD Power Meters
Tuesday: Suunto Opens Platform to Xiaomi Watches, More Apps, Also Partners with UTMB
A few things got moved around, thus you’ll get to see those this upcoming week instead.
YouTube Videos This Past 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!
Stuff 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) Polar taunts “most badass watch ever made”: Apparently, you can sign-up to get notified when something happens. I sure hope that the ‘most badass watch ever made’ will have a Nacho Cheese dispenser.
2) Peloton adds 3rd party rower connectivity via FTMS: This is actually legit surprising, mainly because Peloton has tried hard to make the Peloton Row hardware a key selling point (such as not offering it for rentals). So, to see them go this direction is great. And, it actually means there’s only one hardware platform left to support 3rd party devices: Cycling power meters/trainers. You may remember back in December, Peloton opened up FTMS support for 3rd party treadmills.
3) Peloton Partners with Rapha: I also did not have this on my Peloton bingo card this week, that’s for sure. I don’t see anything wrong with Peloton users wanting better quality cycling-specific gear. Albeit, I do feel like there’s really no sports apparel brand left that Peloton hasn’t slept with at some point.
4) SRAM Ditches Need for Blip Box for Triathlon Bikes: It’s actually more than just TT bikes, but really any scenario where you use just the wireless blips. Up till now, it required a blip box be in place, now you can do it all wirelessly.
5) Oura adds pregnancy tracking features: At present, this seems largely tied to tracking dates and giving high-level guidance. But, knowing Oura, my guess is they’re probably looking at how to start capturing data to figure out more specific insights that can be gleaned by tracking so much physiological data. I’d argue that’s one of the coolest things about all this wearable data, is starting to figure out nuanced trends that have historically been near-impossible to figure out, even in large-scale studies, due to lack of technology to gather or make sense of at scale.
6) Apple Watch study looks at most active US states: I don’t think these results surprise anybody.
7) Garmin details which countries have best sleep scores: Equally, these also don’t surprise me. The Netherlands takes the cake for highest sleep score, which makes perfect sense. One only need to look at the running/triathlon/etc race scene, where races generally don’t start till 10AM-12PM, to see that the Dutch very much appreciate their sleep. Ain’t nobody waking up early simply to run themselves into the ground.
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Thanks for reading!
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Now that Garmin updated the various sport watches with the automatic transitions, can we expect your test results any time soon? Back in January you were trying to get people together to try it out. I’m curious how it ended up doing. Thx!
Yeah, I had a few takers, but the weather got actually to messy for the bike portion (freezing rain made it an ice skating rink). But it looks to be a bit warmer this week, so I might make a go for it.
Garmin has the patent on wrist-based nacho cheese dispenser. No way they are licensing to Polar. They will block imports in the ITC and sue.
😂
The problem with the Apple Watch study is that it requires you to track your activities on an Apple Watch. I’ve been part of two other Apple Watch studies. This one I didn’t join because I don’t use my Apple Watch to track activities. I’d be glad to give them access to FIT files from Garmin or Strava, but they don’t want that.
To be fair, in most of these studies, I think that actually makes sense. Mainly because it helps to normalize the data, and provides a ‘guaranteed’ conduit of how the data gets to researchers.
Of course, not all studies fit that bill, but I can definitely understand the desire by researchers to have all the data coming off of a single platform (whatever that platform may be) to help minimize everything from user support to normalization issues.
Im still waiting for wireless blips for DI2 to glue to my extensions. They go on and off the bike as I need them.
Ray/Anyone – what’s the take on Oura now, a while post latest review? I’ve always been very intrigued/keen to get one but I didn’t because of the reviews making me feel it was too far from a finished product to get value. Is that still the case?
Man, I’m living in the wrong country, 10-12 race starts sounds awesome. As someone who hates getting up early I wish we’d adopt that in the US.
Preach.
I think the biggest surprise about the Apple study is that Colorado isn’t #1. But one look at the number of people I run every week with in Massachusetts, it makes sense.
Hello Ray,
I feel bit stupid to ask but I didn’t found any original data from Garmin about the sleep data worldwide.
Have you read more granular data from them ? Is there a press release somewhere on the web ?
Thanks
Waiting for the Garmin Instinct 3 series….hope you are allready testing it! 😜
A slight correction. Polar doesn’t say it is the “Most badass watch ever made”, They say it is the “Most badass watch WE’VE ever made.” After reading your First Look, I’d have to say that is more accurate. No Nacho Cheese dispenser 😉
Fair point. But yes, lack of nacho cheese dispenser is gonna be a challenge.
Do you see Round-trip routing coming to other Gatmin Watches like the 265? It’s a feature I would love to have for my Fall trip to Europe but can’t really justify the 965.
No, it wouldn’t happen on the FR265. The round-trip routing requires maps be onboard, and the FR265 doesn’t have maps (nor the amount of storage needed for anything but perhaps a single European country). 🙁
That said, you can actually do round-trip routing from the Garmin Connect app for any watch, and then push it to the FR265. And honestly, given how slow the round-trip routing feature works on even Garmin’s high-end watches, it’ll always be faster to do it via the phone (since it’s virtually instant there).
It’s located under: Training & Planning > Courses > Create a Course > [Sport] > Automatic > Choose distance/direction
I guess it’s kinda buried.
Thanks. That helps lots. When my 920xt finally bites the bullet I will think the 265 or equivalent at the time is the one I will be looking at next thanks to your reviews. The 165 would work but after recently getting the 840 I really like some of the training stats that it has that are not supported by the 165. Again thanks this will make my trip easier and I can save money for the trip.
Ray, any intention on reviewing this?
iGPSPORT iGS800
link to youtube.com
I might poke at it, if there’s some demand.
I’ve poked at some of their devices in the past, and always found them sorta like the Bryton ones I’ve tested: They just tend to be kinda half-baked. :-/
But, maybe this one is different.
Would be nice if you did. The screen-to-body ratio alone makes it vere interesting as far as setting trends.. Karoo 3 won’t challenge this (schematics already available), maybe Wahoo?
I know it’s about more than just screen and we still don’t know whether it will be good at all with igpsport…