Month: May 2010

Other G-Shock watches I like the look of


Casio G-Shock Radio Atomic Controlled Multi Band 5 GW-M5600BC-1JF



Features:

  • Multi-Band Atomic Timekeeping (US, UK, Germany, Japan)
  • Receives time calibration radio signals which keep the displayed time accurate
  • Auto receive function (6 times per day)
  • Manual receive function
  • Signal: US WWVB, UK MSF, Germany DCF77, Japan JJY40/JJY60
  • Frequency: US 60kHz, UK 60kHz, Germany 77.5kHz, Japan 40/60kHz
  • Tough Solar Power
  • Shock Resistant
  • 200M Water Resistant
  • Auto EL Backlight with Afterglow
  • World Time – 29 times zones (48 cities), city code display, daylight saving on/off
  • 5 Daily Alarms (1 with snooze)
  • Countdown Timer
  • Measuring unit: 1/10 second
  • Countdown range: 1 minute to 60 minutes
  • 1/100 second stopwatch
  • Measuring capacity: 999:59’59.99″
  • Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time, 1st-2nd place times
  • Hourly Time Signal
  • Button Tone Operation On/Off
  • Auto Calendar (pre-programmed until the year 2099)
  • 12/24 Hour Formats
  • Accuracy: +/-15 seconds per month (with no signal calibration)
  • Case Size : 46.7 X 43.2 X 12.7 mm
  • Weight 101.3 g

Another Day – Another 5km Race


Weather for the day

Getting very very bored of the Z lake route but another run today for some company that is leaving.

SPLIT TIMES:

3:44 / 4:03 / 4:14 / 4:22 / 4:07

Another Sh... Shirt
20min 44sec
Andrew 23min 25sec
Sterling 24min 50sec
Rob 28min 09sec
Chris (torn calf) walked in 35min + ..... muttering

5km Breast Cancer Race


2nd Race in a week but this one in drag.

There weren't 8000 runners - maybe 2000

A bunch of us again. Yazz outdid himself looking like a pro on the hunt for punters.

Do'nt know what I was doing here?

And then GO GO GO … started right at the back of the field where we had been chatting to a bunch of girl soldiers in full kit doing a forced march thing for the 5km (although the cleanliness of the kit made me think this was their first time out) so had to spend half the race barging through the crowd before it was clear enough to run. My km splits were:

4:18      3:53        4:07     4:08     4:15     so not the best results. 1 full minute slower in drag.

20:46 finished
25:10
26:10
28:00 but pretty all the way
30:30 but obviously put off by the beauty

Running in the heat


morning sun HOT HOT HOT

Sometimes like this morning when I stepped out at 6:30am and the temp was already 30C degrees, I begin to contemplate how MAD something like the the Marathon Des Sables is.  My run was just over 5km and I wasn’t even going that fast but came back like a sweat beast.

sweaty post run

Another 5km race on Saturday – this time for Breast Cancer Awareness (giving my colleague ample excuse to dress up like a lady) so will probably have to make an occasion of it and be more sociable instead of aiming to break that 20min mark ……

Weather prediction for the day HOT

Bike and Running App for iPhone update May 2010


* see also RUNMONSTER HERE

* Recap November 2010 HERE

or click on the app / application tag on the right.

For GPS tracking I would go with the free version of RunKeeper think about MotionX (although a more rounded gps all sport app) or use some money and get  CycleMeter.

CYCLEMETER

CycleMeter app

Track

Cyclemeter continually records your time, location, distance, elevation, and speed – years of rides only take up the space of a few songs. Stop and start recording on-screen or with your earphone remote.

Visualize

See your results on maps, graphs, and a calendar, and organized by routes and activities. Know how much distance you’ve rideed by day, week, month, year, and overall.

Hear

Monitor your progress with up to 20 configurable announcements including distance, time, speed, elevation, climb, and more. Announcements may be heard automatically at time or distance intervals, or on-demand with your earphone remote.

Share

Use Facebook, Twitter, and email to share Google Maps of your rides, automatically updated every 5 minutes. Hear replies from family, coaches, and friends spoken using text-to-speech technology. Have emails automatically sent as you ride to keep family and friends notified of your progress and location.

Cyclemeter screen grabs

Another option if you have a garmin or Polar Heart Rate Monitor is the Cychosis App for the iPhone. £1.29 on iTunes

SPEC

  • Charting
    • See colorful high resolution charts of your training and riding progress for Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, and All time.
    • Chart your distance, average speed, and time.
good graphs
  • Twitter
    • Optional automatic tweet (twitter) of each ride after you enter it lets your friends and family follow you on your bike!
    • Export ride data to CSV — private access to last 5 exports via Cychosis exports server.
  • Bikes:
    • Keeps track of the mileage and number of rides on any number of bikes.
  • Goals:
    • Set any number of distance goals and track progress against them.
  • Routes:
    • Keeps track of common routes, distance, elevation, notes, etc.
    • Automatically keeps stats for each route.

  • Rides:
    • Quickly record rides as soon as you’re finished.
    • Filter rides to current week, month, or year
    • Optional summary totals for current filtered period
    • Shows stats for each ride.
    • Pre-fill a new ride with one of your pre-defined routes, or enter a new name quickly.

New Watch – Casio G-shock Mudman G1000 1ev


SPEC

Dual Illuminator
Press the button and it isn’t just the watch’s digital display that lights up – the whole of the face is illuminated so you can see as clearly as possible.

Shock Resistant
Shock-resistant construction protects against impact and vibration.

Mud-resistant
Dirt- and mud-resistant construction keeps mud and dirt from getting into the watch.

Low-Temperature Resistant
The timekeeping module is designed for operation at very low temperatures. The value indicates the lowest temperature at which the module will operate. *-20 ?C resistance does not apply to the direction sensor.

LED-Indicator (Display Flasher)
A light diode flashes as soon as an alarm, a countdown-time or the hour signal has been reached.

World Time
Displays the current time in major cities and specific areas around the world.

Stopwatch function (1/100 – 1.000HR)
Accurate measurement of elapsed time with the touch of a button. The fraction indicates the unit of measurement, while the time figure indicates the maximum time measurement.

Timer
Counts down from a start time specified by you. The value indicates the number of timers available, while the time figure indicates the maximum starting time. R indicates Auto Repeat, which automatically restarts timing at the end of each countdown.

5 Multi Alarm, Hourly Time Signal
Multi Alarm lets you set a daily alarm (time setting only), or an alarm for a specific time on a specific day (month, day, and time setting). The value indicates how many multi-alarms are available. The hourly time signal causes the watch to beep every hour on the hour.

Snooze Feature
Each time you stop the alarm, it sounds again after a few minutes.

3 Years – 1 Battery
One battery will supply your watch with the power it needs for about 3 years.

Full Auto Calendar
Allowances are made automatically for months of different lengths, in case date corrections for leap years are required.

12/24-hour Timekeeping
Times can be displayed in either a 12-hour or 24-hour format.

Mineral Glass
Hard glass resists scratching.

Resin housing

Resin Band

Water resistance classification (20 bar / 200m)
Perfect for free diving without scuba gear: the watch is water resistant to 20 bar / 200 metres. The metres value does not relate to a diving depth but to the air pressure used in the course of the water resistance test. (ISO 2281)

Accuracy
+/- 15 seconds per month
Type of battery
CR2025
Dimensions
52mm x 46,3mm x 16,8mm (H x W x D)
Weight
56 g

Law Week 5km Run


‘morning’ he said at 5:45am, ‘I got to bed at 2am’

He’ll be good to run I thought. Drove over to staging and then all assembled ready to race: and then we were off.

19:56


22:06

25:06

25:45

26:06

28:05

29:14

The course was around Z-lake and the temp at 7am was probably just nudging 20 degrees C – nice to break 20min again and roughly similar position 14th out of 500+ runners.

5km road race again tomorrow


Rest day today – tapering down a bit although not really trained for this. Tomorrow promises to be very hot – 7am start but possibly in the high 20’s C so dont think I will fair as well as the other week but will try.

Convinced 5 others in the office to turn up so will see.

Upgrade Spring Fancy


After my little excursion to Carron Valley for the latest test of my equipment (and to wheedle out those below par) I stopped to get things fixed.

‘Spring time is when a young man’s heart turns to fancy’, well I am not young so for me is when ‘springtime is when a 40yo weighing 5kg more than he should buys new toys’ ….

Converting Rohloff from a CC version to a disc version – enough of dreaded rim brakes – want all my braking to be of the one-fingered variety. (Note to Ed – this has nothing to do with your last Kitesurf trip to Tiree)

Also finally had enough of my cycling shoes – I made the mistake of buying shoes last year on a really hot summers day – a nice pair of Specialized MTB race shoes. On my next try out I realised that this had all been a mistake as the shoes were one size too big – I had gone from 42 to 44’s – from too tight (without road bike thin socks) to having to wear thick socks and still having enough toe space for a small carnival in Rio to walk down.

Went in to Alpine Bikes to look at helmets as mine is 10 years old and has been crashed a bit but ended up trying out and buying a pair of last year’s Bontrager RX300 race shoes in brilliant white.

I feel like I am having a death defying moment and the white light is coming for me – until I realise it is just the reflection of the sun from my shoes. Great shoes, full carbon sole no flex but also very little grip for walking running …. But reduced from £140 (which is a pretty good price) down to £60 so can’t be a girl about the colour. I am a bit worried about the very slick exposed carbon sole.But in the past I found that a little bit of adhesive backed griptape (like that used for skateboards) applied and trimmed to fit the sole works perfectly and makes both run sections and those times you can’t quite find the pedal much easier.

Has eSoles foot bed which is very comfy but can also be upgraded to full custom foot bed which will be like floating on the bike …. But this only really seems an option in places like USA Norway and Oz – haven’t seen a stockist supplier in the UK.

So with one set of extremities all white thought I needed to top and tail and as I needed a new pair of gloves – my fantastic Specialised pair having finally given up after 5 years and my fingers poking through all the tips – I saw a great pair of Fox gloves that have a small carbon knuckle protector – just the thing for twatting through braches on tight single-track. These have yet to be used in anger and I am sure they won’t stay white for very long.

Unabomber Glove

  • Carbon on the outer knuckles and fingers to protect against direct hits
  • Kevlar® scrub guard on the palm
  • Silicon gripper on the fingertips for brake lever control
  • Terry thumb for wiping sweat from your brow