Software for your Heart Rate Monitor and GPS

To some of us geeky MAMILS (middle aged men in Lycra), one of the biggest pleasures, next to the ride or run itself, is quantifying the vast amount of data available to us about our performance.  The prevalence of GPS based and downloadable cycling computers, combined with various websites and programs have made it possible to catalog, view and analyze mountains of data; metrics from average pace to peak wattage vs. peak heart rate are now at your fingertips.  Here’s a quick overview of a couple of the more common sites and programs out there.

 STRAVA

 

my new favourite after a while playing with Endo … (see next)

Strava.com is the relative new kid on the block in terms of ride analysis.  Offering both free and frankly too expensive subscription services ($6 per month or $59 per year) will allow riders to directly upload rides from their GPS devices and track their performance.  Displaying a GPS track of the route you rode, along with an elevation profile and metrics such as distance, elevation gain, moving time, speed (max and average), average speed, average cadence and average power, you get a mass of information to sift through and analyse.

The coolest thing about Strava and it is something that Endomondo also does is social connection ….  You can link Strava to your Facebook page and twitter account and you can even challenge friends (or strangers for that matter) to competitions.  Strava has a unique feature that allows you to designate segments of your ride and run (climbs, TTs, crazy descents) that you can measure against every other person on Strava that has covered that route (or just a section) before and uploaded their ride.  It’s an excellent idea that promotes competition and growth amongst different riders all riding in the same area.

Here is a section of the Arran ride that someone has made into sections … woo hoo I did well without even knowing it.

For example, imagine your club has a friendly “climbing competition” up a particularly long, steep, or otherwise nasty climb.  Anyone who is a member of Strava who uploads a ride containing that climb will be ranked based upon speed, power, time and VAM (Vertical Ascent Meters) along with everyone else who has ridden that climb.  The best part of the whole thing is that once the climb is designated on Strava, the site software automatically finds that segment of your ride and analyzes it, compares it to everyone else, and posts it in ranking of fastest to slowest.  It’s an excellent tool to use to compare both your form compared to others around you, and to chart your own progress by comparing to your previous attempts.

PROS: Great community based concepts.  ”Segments” option for competing with your friends.  Excellent data presentation and layout. Standalone free iPhone app if you don’t have a dedicated gps hrm

CONS: Pay site is yet another expense (free site only 5 rides/month allowance)

ENDOMONDO

My old favourite social exercise site – allowed you to see your friends workouts and comment on them. Again it allows analysis of the ride or run and also keep a note of your PB’s.

The social interaction may be slightly better on Endo although I prefer the slightly better analysis on Strava …. Again there is a dedicated app for iPhone so you can use that on commutes when your gps or hem is at home. Both these sites are better with Garmin products and that is more to do with the disinterest on the part of Polar and suunto more than the development of either of these two platforms. At the moment I import the gpx track from file although this loses the hrm info from the exercise. At the moment you can import the average and max readings into the endo workout but it is not a true graph.

Alternatives for Me

Movescount for Suunto users

Good analysis but lacking social connections as there is no app and your friends can’t compare to you.

Polar Personal Trainer for Polar HRM users

Better analysis but even less social connections.

Ayr Duathlon – my first race – what a great day

5km run

28km cycle

5 km run

It hadn’t started out to well – I had pulled my calf last week doing hill repeats and it didn’t seem to clear up – it was niggling and I had avoided running for a whole week … did a slow 5km yesterday just to feel it and it was painful. I had doubts as to whether it might make me pull out of the race so it was weighing on my mind.

Last nights sleep was also pretty awful woke up 3 times with the kids and nightmares then the youngest stomped in a 6am in far from the best mood … so I did what any sensible person would do and I went downstairs for a leisurely porridge and honey breakfast.

Picked up Steven my brother in law at 7:40am then headed down to Ayr for the Duathlon … we arrived pretty early and registered looking out at the clear blue sky and the fact the air temp was only 6 degrees C. there was a fair share of TRI bike – saw at least 3 Cervelo P3′s and other TRI  bikes. Also glad to see another plain ti Racer like mine … (a van nicholas but any ti bride is good)

Duathlon prep - freebie shirt and deep heat applied

I decided to do the whole race wearing running tights (the compression i figured would help my calf) and a long sleeve cycling top. A pretty relaxed briefing then we were off …. a short run around the school where the run was based and then off to the coast road – a dirt track with its fair share of potholes. It is an out and back run so by the half way point the leaders were already 500m ahead.

Run 1

By transition I had my first attempt at doing transitions on my Polar RCX5 (which allows you to change sport in the same workout which is great and it also allows you to export separate gps .gpx files for each part) By the time I had my bike shoes on and was gulping down a gel Steven was also in transition. I left about 20 seconds in front of him and then looked down to see that i hadn’t restarted the watch – so add 30 sec and 300 metres to the time on this leg.

bike route and elevation

The ride was great – although I think the boys and girls on their all carbon TRI  bikes must have queried their decision as the road was pretty tatty and the route was quite hilly. You could definitely hear them as the carbon rattled over every bump and hole … I could see sense in an aero machine on a flat well surfaced road but South Ayrshire obviously hasn’t spent money on resurfacing in years and they must have flt every bump. There were a couple of uphills where I stood to climb as the lack of padding despite the lovely ti frame was very much felt.

There were great views and lovely sweep descents and the car drivers were passing very carefully which was great. At one stage I was getting a bit tired but sucked down another gel and then some water (they sure are gloopy) but then suddenly I was back at transition.

2nd transition was quick although my legs felt like they belonged to someone else.

2nd run

Second run was identical and after exiting I got to see the first person storming down the hill to the finish – so a 18min lead over what I would do. There is a little hill just in the first km and I was struggling … but after that first km I felt steady although my calf was pulling so just kept up with my pace. After the turn around i was heading back and saw Steven again about a km behind me. Had a mid road high 5 that nearly took me off my feet and then was aiming for the guy in front but could make no gain on him.

run comparison

Polar software breakdown

finished feeling good – just really happy that calf felt no worse … chatted briefly to chap in from then just waited for Steven … Watched a guy come in that was at least 60 and looked in better shape than I have ever been in my life and then another man just behind Steven that must have been at least 70 …. really inspiring.

So my first Duathlon finished and i loved it … big shout out to the Marshals who did a great job and the organisers …. I will be be back hopefully with a good calf and a better transition strategy.

Orkney and a great ride

Italian Chapel - built by Italian POW during WW2 when helping construct the barrage protection around Scapa Flow

Went for a great ride today through Orkney – last night I mapped this ride out http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1070843 and although it was slightly different it was a great ride. HERE IS THE RIDE  Went east past the airport then swung south narrowly avoiding a massive pissing cloud then down over the barriers to south ronaldsay. Popped in past the Italian chapel http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=italian+chapel&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari which I filmed in years ago … Most of the times I was dodging the rain having forgotten to buy a rain cape for roadie work – there is nothing worse than doing miles wearing an impossible heavy jacket ….

ridewithgps screen

2 hours, 3 piss stops and 54km later got back a bit wet and a bit cold. Still better than nothing … Any ride beats no ride ….

Alloa Half Marathon – race report

Woke up at 7am and looked out the window to the most glorious weather … Bright sunshine and hardly any wind. Temp slightly fresh at 4 degrees but bound to warm up.
Had my staple breakfast of raw porridge and banana and picked up Findlay at 8am for the drive to Alloa. We arrived early and had too much time on our hands for parking, registration and in findlays case, plenty of time to regret the curry he had the night before.
Temp was still hovering around 5 degrees but I learnt my lesson running the Jedburgh half marathon when my legs were sweating for most of the run, so shorts were donned but realised I only had a vest which might be a bit chilly. Borrowed findlays spare t shirt. Which was two sizes too big but had my vest on top to keep it snug.

Course map – showing long straight where the wind was in our face.

This time I remembered to take plasters to tape over my nipples – one of the problems of being born with nipples which seem to come out under the side of my chest … Maybe I was born to breast feed small animals anchored under my armpit hair.
I have only done one run, 7 miles in the sweaty heat of Baghdad where the seam of the vest chafed away at me and I finished that run in agony. LESSON LEARNED.

Back to the run. Organisation at this event was flawless. Good start zone, electronic chips for the shoes, plenty of changing facilities and loos both on the leisure centre and portaloos near the start.

Start was massive – so many people that it took me about a minute to cross the start line. The first 2 km were spent weaving through slower traffic and over eager athletes that had pushed to front of start line. From 3km there was plenty of space to pass for those overtaking and for those being overtaken. The police did a great job of marshalling and the cars were either kept back or their speed was curtailed by the often passing police motor cycle.

My legs post injury are still not up to speed so I kept my pace quite regular around the 4:30/km. I knew I wasn’t going to get my 1h31 PB in this this race but by the end was very chuffed to get a 1h36m as I was only hoping for sub 1h45

Alloa is a great race and I think I will do it again next year.

Only one slight problem with the race was my polar HR belt had a slight wobble. I don’t use gel on the belt but think that maybe the wicking nature of the shirt meant I dried up on my chest. Suddenly my HR said it was 97 – if only – I only noticed this after 3 km of bad reading – I was only glancing down at monitor every time the watch auto lapped the km to make sure I was doing alright and not flagging too quickly. I can only think the belt was dry as soon as I shifted it it read accurately again.
Still love the RCX5 though …..

Duathlon Training

Last night I was supposed to do an hour on the bike at a very low rate ….. but I felt so lethargic and pissed off (for no reason) that I abandoned it after only 20 odd minutes. This morning I am not too annoyed I think training schedules are sometimes treated like they are gospel … but I guess I am agnostic in this regard or humanist in that i listened to my body which was saying ‘NO’

In light of the Ayr Duathlon I entered (15th April chaps if anyone want to enter) I decided to try a practice run and cycle and also see how the Polar RCX5 handles the transition between sports. Its a bit messed as I did my bike ride at home on the trainer.

run route

The Ayr Duathlon is actually a 5km run – 28km cycle – 5 km run …. but I just wanted to try a 2 sport hit so went down to Glasgow Green and ran along the river until I hit one of my markers then ran back. It is slightly longer than the 2 runs put together at 10.33km (although i am sure MAP myRun and google say it is 10.7km

Into the house – rain coat off and shoes changed then hopped on the bike. Wasn’t going for the full 28km just wanted to get a feel. 16km was enough I think. My wife and daughter came back in ‘my god you stink’ as they saw me red-faced and sweating all over the kitchen. (NOTE to self – I will stay cooler in the wind outside and not stink the house out)

I like the way the RCX5 lets you transition between sport …. there is an option to allow you to change between sports by raising the wrist unit close to the HRM belt (which you can change to show or do loads in the setup) … at the moment I have the bike one set up to show me Time of Day when I raise the wrist unit close to the belt and the Run one to switch on the backlight ……

After 16km i had enough … legs now are still sore a bit … was amazed how long it took me to feel up to speed on the bike. The muscle memory after the run was quite weird – not sure how it would feel to start the run again … hopefully do a trial race before the event (which will be my first)

Heart Rate Graph - no distance info on bike side as indoors on trainer.

Polar RCX5 review

The Polar HRM arrived nearly a month ago now and I have had a good chance to use it in various sports.

Firstly unboxing showed a nice little box and neat packaging. When you first switch on RCX it asks you to input basic things like sex, age, height, weight as well as the amount you exercise per week. I fall into a higher (amateur) category of roughly 5-7 hrs / week.

The RCX typically comes in 3 configurations … a gps setup which includes the excellent G5 gps. This is a very nice waterproof unit which holds charge for 20 hrs which is far from what i have had the pleasure of exceeding. The unit comes with an armband although I must confess that one month later i have yet to use it. The unit is very wee and fits into the small key pocket at the front of my running shorts as well as the back pocket of my running tights. I even used it the other day on a ride and had it jammed into a small front pocket of my jacket pocket. Being hunched over I expected the reception and subsequent track to be slightly skittish but coming back i compared the track to the one recorded by my Garmin Edge 305 which is on my stem with an uninterupted view of the sky. The comparison revealed that the Garmin recorded the ride as 51.42km and the edge at 51.62km … that is a 200m discrepancy over a huge distance. thinks it something like 0.4% (better get my calculator out) I am sure a shoulder mount or bar mount would make it perfect (that is me judging the Edge to be perfect …)

Other configurations are the Run pack which comes with the S3+ stride sensor. I have not used this but have seen side by side comparisons to the Garmin unit and from what I gather they are pretty compareable. The Polar unti is much bigger and does everything the Garmin does … the only feature useful to me would be the stride count … but then i am a slight Chi runner and my footfall stride is roughly 83-85/min.

The other configuration i have seen is the bike pack which has a cadence and Speed Censor … the cadence sensor would be the most useful to me … if you have the GPS sensor then i think you dont need the speed sensor.
One point I would say is that it is a shame that it is not the one unit like many of the competitors now do. Times and Garmin do their combined ones. I still use my Garmin unit along with the edge indoors when on the turbo trainer and having this placed on the back wheel makes it very practical.

I think that all the above configurations come with a heart rate belt although it is also possible to buy the RCX5 unit as a standalone piece which is probably only something that athletes that already own a polar belt (although not all older belts can be seen by the RCX5) On the heart Belt itself – amazingly comfortable and using Garmin and Suunto for the past few years I must confess that Polar know what they are doing when they make the belts … so comfy and you never get a strange spike or weird reading that you sometimes get with the Garmin HR belts.
Polar also do sports bras for women which have the HR receiver built into them which should make them more comfy than a standard setup for some.

what works with what POLAR

Back to the RCX unit. There are two colours to choose from a black and a red … I chose red because everyone knows that red is faster.

The square design has been criticised by some but I think it is great … it is slightly larger than a normal watch but once exercising the display is clear and very easy to use.
You can customise the display to show what you want to see .. I have gone into this before HERE

Using the Unit
Strapping the RCX on I immediately noticed how comfortable the watch was – in fact the whole construction oozes class not something i have noticed in the build of any previous Polar, Garmin or Suunto with the possible exception of my Suunto Core

Going outside for a run you can leave the gps on a wall whilst you pre-stretch – and then it latches onto the signal very quickly – the chipset inside the unit is a SIRF6 which allows for quicker lock on. the given wisdom is that cold fixing (in an area you have not been in before) will take around a minute, and hot fixes (starting in an area where you finished your last run / ride) will take 10-20 sec. From experience this seem to hold true. Of course this is a gps so switching it on when inside your house will not be good … but a sky above you should be good enough for the fix.
A tip I learnt for cold or rainy weather is to switch on the gps and leave it in your window whilst you put shoes on and it is generally ready to go when you are.

The unit when setting it up can be set to auto-lap – this is something I use when running having the watch perform every 1km … i find this more useful as a pace guide and a very good nudge to the brain when i need to speed up.
the watch can be set to either follow a programme (which can be configured on polar personal trainer and downloaded) say if you were doing intervals with a 5min warm up, 10 min tempo and 3 fartleks then arm down. The watch also has a great audible warning which can be set to pace or HR. This can either be set to Loud, quieter or off. I find this more useful when doing a fat-burn ride or run when my natural instinct is to speed up and defeat the very purpose of the training.

Post exercise the RCX5 stores your last exercise in the data section fro you to review. By itself the RCX5 gives a good breakdown and review of data. You can look at individual training sessions or see a summary of the week which is useful if you need a motivator to get out the door for a run or cycle. One of the good features is that there is a very good heart rate zone breakdown as well as a neat thing were you can see what percentage of calories was in fat burn.

HR zone breakdown

Speaking of features there is something missing and that is a proper barometric altimeter. Most of the course I do aren’t that hilly and I put bike tracks into bikewithgps or other tracking websites which recomputes gps info and produces a ride profile. For those running in hilly location this lack of altimeter might be a problem but for me it is not a deal breaker.

I think the beauty of the Polar RCX5 is in the heart rate monitoring … a lot of people like myself would look at the lack of ANT+ support and the very annoying lack of integration with other platforms like map my run, bikely,endomondo and others and decide not to go with polar BUT (and it’s a big butt) polar does and has always done great heart rate monitors. The analysis that you can do post exercise is way better than polar and a bit better than the hrm software that my old suunto t6 used with movescount.

Once you have done the exercise you can upload the data using polar weblink which is a free download from their site. One word of advice make sure you click the RCX5 for PPT option as I inadvertently clicked the other option when downloading the update then tore my hair out trying to figure out what i had done)
With the Polar Personal Trainer software you can create programs as well as seeing very easily how your training load is…. This prevents you overtraining (however rare this is in my case)

Finally I would say that polar, although not integrating as well as Garmin does with ANT+, weblink does allow you to access the RCX5 and download the .hrm files and .gpx files (gps track) – it’s a shame it doesn’t use the .tcx format but i think that is a garmin proprietary format.

I may have highlighted some weaknesses in this review but I am happy with the unit and wouldn’t change it.

First outdoor ride on the Lynskey

The plan was hatched – a relatively early departure from the house then an hour cycling somewhere then an hour back. I ended up heading west through the less pretty parts of Dumbarton until I was under the Erskine bridge. Decided to ride over it as I had seen a cycle path over the bridge before and then attempted to fin my way back to glasgow on the south side of the river.

I had one or two extra meanders but came back through Govan. Here is ride

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/522434/embed

The view from the bridge is quite spectacular

sad to see that where I stopped to take this pic there were flowers in the railings where some sad soul decided to end it all in the past.

titanium on steel

I was using my Polar RCX5 with gps (and the gps was buried in my front pocket of my jacket meaning it’s view of the sky must have been greatly obscured by my body …. ) I also had my Edge mounted on the stem and the similarity between the data was amazing – I was expecting the Polar to be way out …. but after the ride it said 51.49km compared to Garmins 51.69km …. quite amazing. Would have been perfect if I had used the shoulder strap I think.

Uploaded both .gpx tracks into Sportypal to compare and here is the result.

as near as damn it

Suunto ambit – new gps hrm from Suunto

There is a new watch on the block ….

Suunto, the brand leader in functional outdoor instruments, announces the launch of the AMBIT*, the first true GPS watch for Explorers.

The Suunto AMBIT is what every backcountry skier, hiker, trail runner and mountain climber has been eagerly waiting for — a watch that combines a GPS navigation system, altimeter, 3D compass with advanced heart rate monitoring into a robust instrument for mountain and everyday use.

 

 is an awesome product that should be on the wrist of anyone who heads into the outdoors,” comments Greg Hill, the recordbreaking extreme ski mountaineer, who in 2010, ascended two million vertical feet. “The AMBIT is a potentially life-saving survival tool thanks to its full GPS capability and altimeter. It’s also invaluable for anyone who, like me, wants to record their tracks and log their vertical ascents and descents. And it looks great too.”

Specific Outdoor Functionality
With AMBIT’s full-featured GPS the user can choose waypoints to navigate with and see their location in multiple coordinate systems. The AMBIT boasts a host of other features including temperature, track logging, unique 3D Compass and barometric sensor. All these keep you informed of your location, altitude and weather conditions on your adventures.

Advanced Training Functionality
The AMBIT also offers functions for the serious mountain athlete. The patent pending accelometer fused GPS gives highly responsive speed and pace with Suunto FusedSpeedTM. Heart rate monitoring with Peak Training Effect will keep you within your optimimum training zone and Recovery Time will tell you when you’re fully recovered for your next adventure. And after a hard session in the hills, the GPS will guide you home where you can upload your data for analysis on Movescount.com.

Mountain and Everyday Exploration
The AMBIT is housed in a robust BuiltToLast casing and has an enhanced battery lifetime of up to 50hrs in GPS mode. True to Suunto’s heritage in dive instruments, it is water resistant to 100m. Upgrades are available through Movescount.com.

Comments Jonathan Wyatt, six-time world mountain running champion:

”As a trail runner and mountain athlete, what I need in a watch is a heart rate monitor, speed & distance, and altimeter. The AMBIT has all these features in one unit which is really exciting. One of the main problems for endurance athletes is battery life of conventional GPS sports watches so the promise of 50hrs is a big step forward.”

“Fused speed technology also gives a more accurate pace which is vital for anyone serious about their running. Being able to pair it and use it with all the existing PODs and comfort belts is another big plus point for me. This means one watch can be used for all my activities like mountain biking, road cycling, trail and mountain running, cross country skiing and ski mountaineering.”

“Knowing that the AMBIT is built for the mountains and will survive whatever I or the elements throw at it also sets it apart. Being able to personalise the displays of the watch, download updates and analyse the data on Movescount.com all help to make the AMBIT an awesome product for mountain athletes.”

”The AMBIT is everything the outdoor athlete could want in a watch,” comments Jari Ikäheimonen, brand manager at Suunto. ”It’s a unit you can trust. With its GPS and superior functions, the Ambit takes outdoor instruments to a new level. It’s a serious watch packed within a sleek but robust casing. It is the GPS for Explorers.”

Took the Plunge and went for a new Polar HRM

The RCX5 with GPS. The truth is I love Polar HRM and like their analysing software. The things I used to hate was their lack of ANT+ and the fact that using a MAC used to be a no go.

They have changed slowly and although the RCX5 is not as good as the RS800 – it has a look I prefer. I was umping and aching over the new Garmin 910xt and the 610 but I find them ugly (although this is a completely subjective fashionista statement)… I guess I am a square (fan).

Anyway review to come I am sure.

I love this Garmin Video

Virtual Partner:

Today’s record is tomorrow’s motivation

Virtual Partner™ can turn any training session into a virtual matchup. Letting you race your previous bests or challenge any activities uploaded to Garmin Connect™.

Train with Christophe Le Mevel this winter with pre-planned training activities available for download at garmin.com/wintertraining.

Watch this video from Timmelsjoch in Austria as Team Garmin’s Christophe Le Mével climbs using the Edge 800 cycling GPS.

http://www.garmin.com/wintertraining

 

Subvert Beat post 2: Running the wrong way (aka anyone found my nipples)

By BEN@ SubvertBeats

Earlier I wrote my first blog entry here at Kitesurf Bike Rambling. Titled ‘Running the right way’ it focused on the benefits of efficient running style. This is a brief follow up post describing yesterdays training run that I was planning on using to try and focus on improved running economy and running the right way.

I ended up running both the right way, and the wrong way simultaneously; I was pleased with the results of a more efficient running style. However, I had absolutely no idea where the hell I was running to!

I’ve just relocated to East Anglia, and am living in a peaceful village, with plenty of rural lanes that (discounting uneven surfaces) are great for running.

So yesterday, following an 8.24 mile run on Monday that I still felt a little tight from, I planned to head out on a short 3 or 4 mile recovery run.

Not knowing the lanes, I consulted Google maps and identified a route that looked around the right distance. All well so far.

I donned the running gear, laced up and headed out. Standing on my driveway waiting for the Garmin to acquire a satellite fix it started peeing down.

I don’t mind a bit of rain when running – I usually find it quite refreshing. Twenty seconds later and I was off, heading out of the village along the route I’d planned.

Got to the T-Junction at the end of the road. This is where it started to go wrong. The T-Junction I’d arrived at was supposed to be a crossroads that i’d head straight over!

Ah well, sod it….I knew there was a turning on the opposite side of the road a couple of hundred meters along, so went that way.

For me, the first couple of miles of a run are always some of the hardest. My joints seem stiff, I get a bit of knee pain, sometimes a little shin pain, and generally things don’t seem so smooth, and I was trying to ignore all of this and get into a groove whilst running along this B road, still thinking that I knew roughly where I was, the direction I was headed, and confident that I’d be able to find a turning and make a loop back home for a total of 3 or 4 miles.

Only the turning didn’t come as soon as I’d hoped. 3 miles in and I hit a T-Junction. The signs concerned me. Neither left nor right indicated my village. The sign to my village was pointing back the direction I’d come from, indicating 3 miles. Usually having a pretty keen sense of direction I still thought I could find a way back home without needing to double back on myself (for some reason I hate doing that; illogical I know), so I headed left.

By this time I was just getting into my stride, and starting to focus on my running style. The Garmin kept beeping at me – another mile down. And I was feeling pretty good, though getting slightly anxious about where the hell I was and how far away from home I now was.

After 5.5 miles I hit another junction whos signs indicated that a left turn was 4 miles back to my village, and a right turn was to some place I’d never heard of, so I headed left, and soon realised I was heading back toward the lane I’d started on. (Turns out that if I’d headed right at that last junction I could have made a nice loop back home without re-tracking down the same route I’d headed out on – note to self – road signs are sometimes best ignored!)

By this time I was drenched. I mean completely and utterly soaked. It hadn’t stopped raining for a second since I started out. Usually I sweat a lot, but this time the vast majority was rain water. I could feel my running jersey bouncing up and down with its weight (which though I didn’t realise it at the time, is likely the cause for my extreme nipple chafing, that is still aggravating me this morning)

I wish I’d weighed all my gear when I got back – I’m pretty sure there was several pounds worth of additional weight from the rain water absorbed into my clothing.

During the run I was probably passed by 20 or so cars, and the looks on all of the drivers faces amounted to them thinking ‘nutter’. Similarly I passed many a (very smelly) farm and got even funnier looks from some even funnier looking folk…

But I was loving it, especially heading back knowing that this would accidentally become my longest ever run. When I rejoined the road I’d run up before, safe in the knowledge that I was heading home, and just how far home was, I was able to increase the pace, and my fastest mile was actually between mile 8 and 9.

I’d been going for well over an hour without fuel or electrolyte replenishment though, so for these last couple of miles I was feeling it in my legs – or more accurately, I wasn’t feeling much in my legs anymore – they just seemed to be kind of moving on there own with the momentum of each stride driving the next.

Eventually, 9.5 miles after starting out, I arrived back home, and only when stopped realised how little I had left in my legs.

I was pleased that I’d run so far though, with relative ease due to being more economic with my style, and it gave me confidence that with some mid run fuel I’d be able to continue for much further – certainly that half marathon seems far more achievable than it did just a couple of weeks ago!

I’m off to buy some plasters. Theres no way I’m running that far again without adequate nipple protection. It’s just not worth it. Ouch.

 

A new Heart Rate Monitor GPS for multisports: Garmin 910XT

Garmin has launched a new model in its sport GPS range, the Garmin Forerunner 910XT. It promises to be the ideal solution for those that want a multisport watch even though it’s intended purchaser is the tri-athlete.

Major plus points for me

1. Large display
2. gps
3. ANT+
4. waterproof
5. map display
6. Better Training Effect courtesy of Training Peaks.

 

Building on the success of Garmin‘s previous multisport GPS units, the Forerunner 910XT adds swim features including swim distance, stroke count, swim efficiency and pace.

The Garmin Forerunner 910XT can track a whole Ironman race

It also calculates a SWOLF score – the sum of the time taken to swim one length plus the number of strokes for that length (the lower the score, the better your swimming). Like the Forerunner 310XT, it also measures distance in open water using its GPS tracking feature. The shape of the unit has been designed to be sleeker and smaller, so it will fit under a wetsuit more easily and won’t hamper your progress going into T1.

It’s designed to be used across all three triathlon disciplines and can be moved from wrist to handlebar using a quick-release feature and bike mount. Transitions can be logged and the battery life is a promised 20 hours, so even an Ironman can be recorded from start to finish.

You’ll also get all the training functions that Garmin’s previous Forerunner units performed so well, such as heart-rate tracking, training effect, and the Virtual Racer feature. Forerunner 910XT will be available mid November 2011 with a suggested retail price of £359 without heart-rate monitor and £389 with heart-rate monitor. Look out for a review on triradar.com next month.

Bryton Cardio 30 – A Full Review

I will start this review saying I really really wanted the Bryton Cardio 30 to be a great product. On paper it seemed perfect – a small size, waterproof, gps enabled but I have been sadly let down.

Out of the box it seemed nice presented in a neat case with instructions and lead enclosed.

Physical:

It is smaller and lighter than I thought it would be – the tiny face displaying 3 lines of data. The strap is comfortable which is a major point for me. The waterproof rating is very good and the construction seems robust.

In Action:

This is were I start to well up – it is hopeless as a training HRM. It may pair easily enough with ANT+ coded items and it may acquire a satellite reading in an OK time but it sucks when you want to read any info from it in a run. The display is useless – it always shows distance in the top line of the display and it will show Heart Rate / Time / Calories / Distance(rpt) but what any running watch needs to show is at least HR and Disatnce AND Time …. preferably at the same time.

The second bad point is that although it can be set to autolap at every 1km say it does nothing else … there is no lap time shown / there is no summary to read and no way to gauge how fast your last split was unless you deduct the last km from current and try work out the split …. and when you are pressing on in a training run this is the last thing you can do.

So this leaves it as a GPS tracker with which you can analyse your run when you finish …. but the disaster here is that the GPS is wildly inaccurate. I used it on the MTB marathon in Wales and it was way different from the Garmin Edge 305 I had on the bike (this is a steal these days at £170 ish)

Blue=Bryton Green=Garmin

This was bad enough but did a run on my regular river route and the Bryton came up very short again … you can see the type of track it records … this is an open park with near zero tree cover and NO tall building nearby ….

My Suunto T6 with GPS and the Garmin Edge (as well as sites like WALKJOGRUN) gave the same reading only ever differentiating by about 50m over a 12km run – but the Bryton is bad – it is out by 800m on this run which is an 83.9% accuracy according to a comparison on Sportypal…. so distance wise it was 800m out on this run and 2km out over a 52km ride. Very Very VERY poor

So thankfully Wiggle operates a good return policy and I will be buying something else that is ANT+ compliant (prob a Garmin of some sort)

BOTTOM LINE – Avoid the Bryton Cardio like the plague ….. it is faulty with bad software, bad GPS and terrible interface.

I have since bought myself a polar RCX5 which is just fantastic …. review HERE

Want a Heart Rate Monitor?

Selling two on the lovely fleabay

 

 

The Suunto T6C with GPS pos and HRM belt and Bike Pod

 

 

 

 

 

An older but still highly specced Polar 625x HRM with S1 footpod and Cadence Sensor ….

Reticent but know they will just sit in the drawer – need to go ANT+ with all my various bike / running / kiting gear ….

 

Bryton Cardio 30 Review (via Andrew Birkett’s Blog)

Thinking of getting one to combine my cycling and hrm training – and to replace the Suunto T6C ……

This GPS sports watch is the smallest on the market and that’s the first advantage of this unit, many people find other large bulky units irritating for running so. I played around with the Cardio 30, took it for a run or two before using it in a race. It was very easy to learn how to use the unit, with a very simple and uncomplicated interface. What is probably the best thing about the Bryton Cardio 30 is it provides you with all the essentials … Read More

via Andrew Birkett’s Blog

Bike Run and Heart Rate Monitoring apps which make the grade

Finally some apps I think are good enough for Heart Rate monitoring and Running and time on the bike.

For this to work you need an ANT+ Heart Rate Belt (garmin, timex, VDO – but not Suunto or Polar YET)

and a wahoo fitness dongle for £70 (to get that data into your iPhone or iPod)

In alphabetical Order

Ascent Mobile $9.99

AscentMobile allows you to record, display, and analyze activities involving movement. Tracks can be recorded on the iPhone using the internal GPS, or downloaded via WiFi from the companion desktop application “Ascent”. Altitude profiles and maps are displayed, as well as various reports and graphs that show your performance over time. Tracks recorded on the iPhone can be sent as an email attachment to your favorite email account for loading into any other compatible program or web site.

BikyCoach $2.99

Your pocket bike computer. Whether you use a mountain bike or a racing bike, Biky Coach is your personal trainer that helps you keep track of your progress and meet your fitness goals. Train yourself with your personal coach while listening to music and sharing your progress with friends, all with Biky Coach’s many features.

*** FEATURED BY APPLE ***

Using the GPS feature of your iPhone, Biky Coach provides real time information of all your race statistics (speed, distance, elevation, calories burned…) and stores them for later review. Biking Coach gives you all the information you would get from a GPS biking computer but for a fraction of the cost !

View your statistics with any of the 15 customizable graphs available. Unlike other applications, there is no need to upload your data to a website to analyze your results so you can quickly track your progress right in the app itself.

Biky Coach will give you personalized vocal updates on race statistics through your earphones! Hear all your stats including distance, speed, calories burned, and amount of time lapsed without slowing your pace or breaking your concentration to check your phone.

Allow your friends to follow your progress on Facebook, Twitter or by mail.

Biky Coach is now compatible with ant+ fisica key and heart rate sensors.

Fiscia / Wahoo Sensor Utility £free

REQUIRES the Wahoo Sensor Key or Wahoo Sensor Case, enabled by ANT+ technology, and compatible fitness sensor. Visit http://www.wahoofitness.com for more information on compatible sensors and more information.

Wahoo Fitness App takes advantage of all of the existing ANT+ sensors in the market including power meters for cyclists. It supports automatic upload of workouts to MapMyFitness, Nike+, TrainingPeaks, Garmin Connect, Strava and also exports files via email for upload and analysis anywhere! We’ve added several new features with V2.0 including importing wirelessly from select Garmin devices and free Live telemetry via MapMyTracks.

iMobileintervals $5.99

iMobileIntervals (iMi) turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a powerful cycling or running computer. iMi is GPS and ANT+ capable with a feature-set to beat any of the leading hardware solutions. Telemetry to webpage-embeddable widget. Optional use of speech technology or tones to guide you through your workout.

///////// HIGHLIGHTS //////////

—– Performance Data & Location —–
With the WahooFitness Fisica ANT+ accessory, see your HR, speed, pace, cadence or watts, just like the leading hardware solutions costing hundreds of $$$.
Uses GPS for speed/distance/pace if no ANT+ stride, speed or speed-sending power sensor is detected.
Moving map of athlete’s location.
Telemetry: Send live data, viewable in embeddable widget or custom imobileintervals.com page. Includes a moving map. Not dependent on WahooFitness accessory.
All brands of ANT+ wireless stride sensors, speed sensors and powermeters are supported by the WahooFitness accessory.
Direct upload of data and route to Nike+, including heart rate.
Sync .fit file to your Dropbox (useful for Garmin Connect or WKO+)
TrainingPeaks workout calendar integration, both reading workouts and sending results: Automatically log completed workouts directly to TrainingPeaks, and see your data graphed immediately.
iPhone GPS Location track data logged to TrainingPeaks and Nike+.
Works offline; app saves multiple workout sessions and reports when network becomes available.

Livecycling $12.99 OUCH

You can view the full list of compatible devices on the LiveCycling website.
Your iPhone will turn into an high quality Cycle Computer!

What LiveCycling can do:

• Display the Heart rate and Speed/Cadence data in real-time
• Display the chart of Heart rate and Speed/Cadence data in real-time
• Register multiple bicycles and save each sensor and odometer
• Log Speed, Cadence, Heart rate and GPS
• Display the training log on the MAP
• Display the chart of the training log
• Display KML maps
• Display the total travel distance

not as versatile expensive but a nice bike display

Rubitrack $free

Turn your iPhone 3GS and 3G into a fully fledged activity recorder with rubiTrack Recorder! With rubiTrack Recorder you can record all your outdoor activities like biking, running, walking and hiking.

• Features

The activity recorder displays a live track preview with optional maps background with compass arrow and elevation chart. rubiTrack Recorder lets you lock the device so you can put it in a pocket during the recording. The history lets you quickly review and compare done activities showing their most important data and instant track and elevation charts.

In conjunction with the Fisica dongle by Wahoo Fitness and compatible ANT+ sensors, rubiTrack records and saves sensor data from heart rate, cadence, speed, power and footpod sensors.

rubiTrack Recorder directly uploads to rubiTrack for Mac via Wi-Fi without having to upload your data to an online web service.

Saturday morning run commute to work

It’s nearing summer in the Middle East and running has to either be done early doors – late at night or in air conditioned luxury indoors.

Ran in this morning and watched as temp on the Suunto HRM first said 29 then rose in the warm sections to 34 degrees C. Lap times fairly consistent – 1st km and a bit is on corrugated dirt road then the rest is mainly tar road – although some sections get busier with traffic. Bits where there is no traffic you can see as the lap times barely deviate from the 4:25/km heat cruising pace.

lap times

Remembered to stretch off after the run so hopefully legs wont be sore later.

Saturday 5km Race – 151st ESB Farewell

Saturday morning and a 5km race around one of the lakes.

happy before

A group of us decided to run so bleary eyed and registered at 5:30am then a 6am start. It was quite cool this morning around 28-29 degrees so I was thankful for that.

Summary and HR

A great run – I watched as the New Chris streaked off in 3rd place whilst I struggled along in about 13th (unlucky for me). Chris eventually came in 5th with an amazing 18m40 – I came in 13th with a 20m17s

Nick joined us on his 40th Birthday and ran a very good 23m50s which is great as he doesn’t really run much. Pip training for the Great North Run did 25m40s with Jess a little way behind her. Top marks also to Chris F who at over 60 finished in 30m paced by Jules and still beating over half the field.

My lap times were fairly consistent – felt tired towards the end but didn’t bother with any last minute dash as no sprint finish with anyone.

Aaah good day always when you start with a run …..

happy after the race with the lake in background

What have you done this weekend so far?

iPhone iPad app to make your sailing better

Best sailing tool might not be a gps or amazing fitness – it may be post race analysis to see where you are poorest … tactics. This is fascinating for sailors wanting to improve. I was watching a series the other night on my my iPad and it was really interesting to see why the goog always rise to the top. Was watching on particular race series and enjoyed one were a guy who was pretty good had a bad second race start … was interesting to see how he tacked his way out of trouble on the first leg. See their home page here

BLURB

We’d all like to improve our sailing, but often it’s hard to really know what to improve. On a typical weekend, the good guys are quickly in front and there is no way to tell what they are doing right and you wrong.

Sometimes a race is lost on a “bad leg”, but what actually happened and what went exactly went wrong? Often we never find out. How do we identify our current weakest point of sailing that we should be attending to first? What is needed is information; hard facts, that are often not available to you on the race course.

With the availability of inexpensive GPS tracking devices, such as the QStarz BT-Q1000X,  it’s now easy to record a boat’s track around the course. And with TackTracker, you can play your GPS tracks and watch the race again, as it happened or navigate tack by tack.

But TackTracker is much more than just a player. It is a race analyser, and can give us leg by leg information on how far we have sailed, how fast we were going, and how high we pointed on both port and starboard tack.TackTracker can even deduce the ambient wind direction, and indicate which tack a boat is on at any time, and whether it was close hauled, reaching or running!

Its fun to play your track around the course, and there are plenty of things to learn. The real value is attained when a number of sailors get together and share their tracks with each other. Then you can ascertain who travelled the shortest distance on the windward leg, who was sailing fastest, and who highest. At moments in the race where you may have fallen back, you can see what you were doing in relation to the other boats you were competing with.

 

A Complete GPS Solution

TackTracker is designed to deliver a complete solution, streamlining and automating the entire process from uploading tracks into the software, archiving and managing tracks, to viewing and playing tracks.

The track browser maintains a library of your tracks organised by date, so you can easily find tracks from past races.  You can select individual tracks, or an event (race) which may contain multiple tracks. As each track or event is selected, it is displayed in the track player.

The track player has a group of navigation buttons at the bottom, which you can use to drive your boat around the course. You can also press “Play” and sit back and watch. Then speed up and slow down the action as required.

The track player lets you pan and zoom with the mouse, or you can turn on “auto zoom” to have the player automatically track the race boats. You can also drag the mouse to create a distance and bearing meter allowing you to assess the separation between boats at any point.

Races are defined in the “Event Editor”, where you set the start time and lay the course marks. This is all done graphically, allowing you to define the course in a matter of minutes. Once the course is defined, all participating tracks are analysed and all race legs computed. The Legs table gives you a summary of all the key statistics for each leg for each competitor.

 

You can sort the table by any column to compare results for any leg or competitor. Powerful!

TackTracker also has a great range of interactive charts that provide additional insight into your boat’s performance. The speed chart shows boat speed over the course of the current leg, whilst the deviation chart shows how high or low you are sailing to the true course. Together, these charts are an effective visual summary of your sailing efficiency.

The vertical bar indicates your current location. As your boats progress through the leg, the bar moves to the right. Alternatively, you can drag the bar with the mouse, and the boats will follow. (My daughter says this is really cool!)

There’s lots more to TackTracker, but this will serve as a quick introduction.

To learn more, the best thing you can do is download and install the free race player from the Download page. You can watch and interact with races available online that have been recorded at regattas for a range of classes. You can also read the User Guide, available from here.

I hope you have fun using TackTracker and that it helps you improve your sailing.

 

For a limited time, the TackTracker Player App is a FREE download from the Apple App Store.  Go to the App Store

New! You can now get a TrackTracker Player for your iPhone and iPad. You can browse the online races database and play and review all the racing from the convenience of your handheld device, wherever you are.  You’ll be impressed by the full-featured player with multi-touch panning and zooming and all the familiar graphics from the PC players. Includes a full regatta browser, competitor selection, and leg by leg stats and charts. See stats and charts for any two competitors side by side.

This new player is the first manifestation of a significant investment TackTracker is making in the Apple platform. We now have all the core software running natively in Apple’s application frameworks. Stay tuned for more to come.

iPhone Screen Shots

 

Searchable Regatta Index. Tap any Regatta to see the Regatta detail, including a photo and list of races.
Player: Note you can tap in the player to hide the top navigation bar.

 

 iPad Screen Shot

The iPad is a wonderful medium for TackTracker, with plenty of screen real estate for a compelling replay wherever you are.

 

WordPress 5km run Done and Dusted – around Glasgow Green

wordpress 5k

Tomorrow is my brother in laws wedding and with the amount of relatives coming to stay and general business I wasn’t sure if I could do the WP 5km in time for Sunday. I was going to do a longer run today but thought it made more sense to do this 5km now. The weather is glasgow has been dreich – well actually pissing down the last 2 days. Still a bit of wind about (but I am working instead of at the coast kitesurfing like i would prefer ….

So off for the run – down to Glasgow Green (with an annoying pause at busy road junction see HR drop) and for a wee run around heading back hopefully to make the 5km mark. Running with a Suunto t6c and attached GPS pod so finding distance is pretty good. Well almost good as I overshot the mark and stopped the clock at 5km mark and just cooled down the last 500m.

5km 22min 10sec PACE (slow 4:25/km)

Might do a double on the Sunday – a 10km run to celebrate all those attempting the run.

heartrate