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Hey there Newsletter readers,
I am back in your inbox today after a wild few weeks here at the Maker Camp. As you all probably know from years of following Ray, September is akin to March Madness in our house. It’s when all sports tech companies, action cam companies, and Apple decide “IT’S TIME” to announce and drop (multiple) new products. Ray has been to the Apple Campus in California for the September Apple event before. This annual event is basically the kick-off to a landslide of new “Hands On”, “First Look”, “XYZ Comparison” posts. The lineup is insane with Garmin, Wahoo, GoPro, Zwift, DJI, Insta360...and I know there’s more in there I’m forgetting about. Plus, maintaining the balance of moving house, kids starting back at school, starting after-school sports, and just general life things… like, you know, showers and dinner, it’s been a lot.
I imagine a lot of you are nodding your heads, and I’m well aware everyone has their own life balance going on, but that’s just a little insight into ours. Since I’ve just talked up how much Ray has been doing lately, maybe I should just skip ahead now and show you the receipts! Scan down below to see the latest and greatest from the site and YouTube's (and in the time I wrote this Newsletter, he published yet another one). Then slide further down to below the fold to catch up on what I’ve been up to lately.
This is a quick mention of what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve been rounding up Newsletter advertisers this spring and for the last few months, I've been popping them into the banner below. This week I’m saying a thank you to Arch Design Works for their Newsletter support!
The list below is not a full representation of all that is new on the website, more of a “what has Bobbie actually read and found comment-worthy” list.
Most recently, we have the GoPro MAX 2 In-Depth Review. I think the most disappointing part of this video was clearly in the comments. All these people saying “Oh wow, Ray, you’re so great. Best reviewer out there”… and you know what, not a single thumbs up to my continued cannonball contribution to these videos. Sheezsh, what’s a girl gotta do?
Garmin Lifestyle Logging & Health Status features. I know some of you are all going to geek out over this stuff, but if there are any moms reading this, you and I both know we don’t have time for this. How many times did you reheat your coffee this morning? Zero percent chance I have the time to go enter my caffeine consumption on Connect as well. I just need my morning report to tell me how unproductive I’ve been lately, that I’m unbalanced, and have a poor chance at performing well in exercise pursuits that day. Then, that will hype me up to show those developers what mom-endurance is all about.
Next, still in the Garmin aisle, is the Venu 4 Hands-On. One look at the thumbnail photo, and I wondered if the product team remembered to log their caffeine intake during this watch's development. Last I checked the Venu watch was a square? I will admit, after such confusion, I decided not to continue reading the post until further clarification from Ray. [Update from Ray: There is both a square and non-square version...sometimes, but not always.]
Last up, is the Apple AirPods Pro with Heart Rate Review. I knew something was up the man's sleeve when he wanted to get a swim in “for his next review”. I had clarified several times that he was talking about the AirPods and not the Apple Watch, and indeed I had heard correctly. While I was pretty clear in my disapproval of his antics, at least this review didn’t involve any cannonballs. You win some, and you lose some folks.
Last, last, don’t forget to subscribe to the Fit File Podcast. Ray and Des just posted their latest episode, recorded while they rendezvoused at the Apple September event a few weeks back.
Okay, that’s if for now, I know I’ve skimmed over the lion’s share of posts, but I’ve been told by many of you that you skip that top section anyway to get to the real inside scoop of what’s happening in the Maker household as of late. And it seems my sarcasm is high today, and I’ll probably get the eyebrow raise from you know who if I keep at it. |
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In-Depth Thoughts of The Girl
So as I eluded to above, the life balance of the September-Tech-Palooza, kids (in general), school, and sports has been a heavy task over the last few weeks. I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I find the real dagger at the end of each day is the realization of “I have to feed the kids dinner again?”. Did you know you need to feed the kids EVERY DAY? They are so needy. Bawhahaha. No, but in all seriousness, we have really good eaters in our house, so on the busy days, throwing on a box of Mac and Cheese with some chicken nuggets, doesn’t really cut it for our kids.
I wish someone at Garmin would put the time into creating a meal plan instead of us logging our cycle symptoms or caffeine intake. Seriously, I have 2 races on the calendar in the upcoming 6 weeks, Garmin can see my training load, lack of sleep and recovery, weight, “stress load”, etc. WHY doesn’t Garmin then say “Hey, I see you’re borderline overtraining, your sleep scores are terrible, your HRV is unbalanced, temperatures were above 30*C during your 5-hour brick session today, and we saw (AGAIN) on Instragram last night that you were eating Milk and Oreos at 23:07… So we have a simple dinner suggestion for you”.
THAT! That is where I’d throw my money at them for their Connect PLUS Subscription! I don’t want yet another app for meals. Garmin already has my weight, my training history, my training goals, etc. Send me 3 meal options for each daily (traditional: breakfast, lunch, and dinner) meal, that is appropriate in all the macros… because I don’t have time to count that stuff too… and I’ll choose which of the three is something I actually want to eat, and if I have the ingredients banging around my cupboards to make it happen!
Wow, maybe I shouldn’t post that, and I can sell that idea to Garmin?
Anyway, now that we are almost at the end of September, we can finally see some calm seas ahead. Training is back to being consistent again, and mercifully, the temps have started to slowly dip here on the island. It’s amazing how good a run and ride can feel when it's “only” 28*C vs 32*C (82*F/89*F). And training is going pretty well, I’m not in absolute top form or anything, but all things considered from this summer and the past 4 weeks, I’m really happy with where I’m at.
I’ve added a local Challenge Family race to my schedule coming up here in October. Challenge Peguera-Mallorca is simply a couple of highway exits away from our house, part of the bike course is my regular route, and it is exactly 3 weeks out from the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. So I talked it over with my coach, and we both agreed it would be a good opportunity to get one of my last “BIG” brick sessions done, with the caveat that I don’t go crazy and overdo it that day. I tend to be a slower recovery athlete, and there’s a fine balance there of getting a great training session in, vs getting carried away in the racing vibes.
Anyway, I think that’s all the news for today. Of course, there are a million other tidbits I could share, but it’s Friday and you should all close your computers now and get outside for a mental moment! That’s what I’m off to do!
As always, thanks for being a DC Rainmaker Newsletter Subscriber. Until next time! Bobbie |
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