Week in Review–January 1st, 2011

I’ve long since wondered what to do with all the random tidbits of things I collect each week – or the little thoughts that don’t quite make for a full post.  But I finally came up with a solution: The Week in Review Post.  This takes the place of my Weekly Mailbag – which is over on Slowtwitch.  These are just quick snippets of things that I’ve found interesting.  Nice and easy Saturday reading.  Plus, a recap of my Weekly Mailbag post a well.

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

Weekly Mailbag Over at Slowtwitch.com:  
In case you missed Monday’s Slowtwitch Weekly Mailbag, it was a giant footpod extravaganza post.  All you ever wanted to know (and didn’t want to know) about the footpod.  Go on over and check it out here!

1) Footpod (steps per minute) SPM – what it all means
2) Weird Footpod Values
3) Getting cadence and speed outdoors via footpod?
4) Saving routes with footpod data
5) Troubleshooting footpod dropouts

You can read all my past weekly mailbags at Slowtwitch here.  Or the pre-Slowtwitch days here.

Posts this past week:
I’ve been out in Africa this past week, but that hasn’t stopped the flow of blog updates, thanks to the magic of prepared drafts…and…the Internet in Africa.

Sunday: Week in Review – December 26th, 2010
Monday: So you just gotta Garmin?  Start here.
Tuesday: A Newfoundland Christmas
Wednesday: A hands-on look at the FINIS Swimsense
Thursday: A Day of Chocolate in Zurich

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs: 
You know what?  I didn’t really surf the Internet this week.  Given I was out in the middle of nowhere in Africa, I just enjoyed being in nowhere.  I did catch this one single item late last week though, so, for your consideration…

#1 (of 1): New Elite USAT Draft-Legal Races for 2011: This is an interesting announcement, and clearly USAT’s attempt to try and stay in the game from a monetary standpoint for Pro’s.  But it seems like the press release has an awful lot of uncertainty still in it.

Random Items:

Random Item #1: Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro

Since Wednesday’s publishing of the FINIS Swimsense automated swimming lap counter/distance recorder watch, I’ve been flooded with requests regarding my opinion of the Pool-Mate Pro watch, which is roughly doing the same thing by a different company (wrist watch that automatically records your swim data and then allows uploading to computer).

As some of you may know, I actually have used the original version of the Pool-Mate.  It was sent to me earlier this past year to try out.  I swam with it quite a bit – over a month of usage.  And it did indeed count laps and distance quite accurately.  However, the original Pool-Mate also really frustrated the heck out of me.  The user interface was extremely frustrating – and also really easy to accidentally delete your workout while trying to review it.

While I know some folks do of course love their watch, I found the menu systems and how you interacted with the device a bit clunky.  Ultimately, I elected to not put together a full review on it, simply because I found it such a pain to use. (I have a post that I’ve written up recently on how and why I choose to spend time writing up reviews on some products and not others).

Now, of course – the Pool-Mate Pro (new) is indeed different than the original Pool-Mate that I reviewed.  The key difference that has been made is that the Pro version allows you to download data to your computer, whereas the version I reviewed did not.

Because of all the requests I’ve received, I’ll circle around and see what it would take to get a Pro unit to try out and see if/how the situation has improved.  I’d of course love nothing else than for the unit to be greatly improved, as I think that competition between companies only serves to make better products for consumers.

Stay tuned!

Random Item #2: Delays in E-Mail

As some of you have probably figured out, the backlog of e-mails is a wee bit delayed lately.  Not in the technical sense, but rather in the ‘I wish I had more time in the day’ sense.  With living out of the international (and occasionally domestic) suitcase for essentially the last four months, my e-mail queue response time has risen a wee bit.  Fear not, I do eventually get to every e-mail sent to me, but I just wish I wasn’t so far behind right now.  Sorry!

Random Item #3: Happy New Year!

Have a great New Year everyone!  And thanks for reading and supporting the site!

-Ray

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