If you have teenagers, you’ve probably struggled with getting them out of bed in the morning. With my older son, it’s like an arms race of alarms vs. his ability to sleep through them! So when I had the chance to check out the TCL Pulse, I was skeptical – ok, downright dubious – that it would actually work.
Just as Apple Watch opened for pre-orders, the Garmin VivoActive arrived in stores and the hands of runners and athletes everywhere. I had written up announcement at CES, so I was thrilled to get one in my hands to play around with. Now after a week, I want to check in with my initial likes and dislikes of the VivoActive.
I adore my Pebble Smartwatch. When I take it off for a few hours to charge my wrist feels lonely! It’s quickly become an integral part of my daily life, and a big part of that is how I use it to keep myself accountable to fitness goals. It’s not perfect, but what it does do, it does quite well!
People with amblyopia (“lazy eye”) will soon get treatment from the first therapeutic video game called Dig Rush from Ubisoft and Amblyotech Inc. Amblyopia (“lazy eye”) affects approximately 3% or the U.S. population (about 9 million people). It’s condition where a person sees out of one eye instead of two.
Throughout our lives there are transitional moments, starting or ending things like high school or marriages, celebrating awards and achievements. In running it’s no different – we had to start running, and depending on whether we race or not there will be a variety of memorable moments along the way. Running milestones are worth celebrating – let’s talk about why!
While it has been more than a week since I wore three layers over my face, I am still layered up against mornings in the teens with wind chills close to 0ºF. At the same time, I am seeing big clearance sales popping up on winter running gear, so I thought it would be fun to look at my gear!
The approaching “March Madness” college basketball playoffs can often ignite our “hoop dream” passion(s). All the new sensor gear, flashy apparel, and web statistics often overshadows the basic skill that World record-holder Ted St. Martin covers in a classic book – shooting the basketball ranging from the free throw to a slam dunk.
I wonder how many people all of us look at on a daily basis struggle with an eating disorder? How many people would you look at and say “YOU have an eating disorder? I Had No Idea!” Which is why this year’s NEDA Eating Disorder Awareness theme is perfect – it takes us beyond the skeletal frames and vomiting.
Everyone of elementary school age knows smoking is bad for you, so the shock-tactic anti-smoking ads often only serve to scare little kids. More effective is thinking of what you might miss, and what you could be doing instead with better health and more money. That is the goal of Nobituary, which creates a celebratory look at your non-smoking future.
A few weeks ago I got my last ‘running streak’ update from TimeHop on my iPhone, meaning two years ago I stopped my running streak after 65 days. I started the streak because right after my last half-marathon of 2012, I took a couple of days off, didn’t have a goal, and I was concerned I would lose my ‘mojo’.
Because I have lost significant amounts of weight not once but twice in my life (almost 200lbs at 23, ~110lbs at 46) and because people have always seen me out running day after day, regardless of the weather, people tend to come to me seeking help or advice. But they really shouldn’t – I’m about the last person to ask.
I struggled to believe something I heard a couple of weeks before Christmas from a visiting technical group with a couple of runners. They were not used to being away from a city and indoor track, and were surprised about running in the dark mornings. But they said they wouldn’t wear reflectors or lamps because it ‘didn’t look cool’.
MIO Global made a big splash as the first to provide a highly accurate heart-rate monitoring without a chest strap. Now they are back with the MIO Alpha 2, which refines and improves on the original in every way. They also announced the MIO Fuse, which combines their heart rate monitoring technology with an all-day fitness tracker!
We already reported on the new additions to Garmin’s vivo line-up, the vivofit 2 and vivoactive, which round up Garmin‘s consumer wearable line. But they also added to their higher end products with the Epix and Fenix 3. The Fenix 3 is the latest in the company’s multi-sport category, and Epix is intended as a wearable GPS for outdoor enthusiasts.
I’ve always been a fan of Garmin products, considering them the ‘gold standard’ for running GPS watches. Their leap into fitness trackers in 2014 with the vivoFit and more recently the vivoSmart were highly successful and each is on a wrist in my household. Now they are announcing the ViVoActive Smart Fitness Watch that pretty much does it all!
I have professed my unabashed love for the Magellan Echo before, because of how it perfectly melds GPS watch capability while using your smartphone as the engine. I reviewed the Echo almost a year ago, and still use it regularly – because it just plain works. Now Magellan has introduced the follow-up Echo Fit at CES 2015!
I wrote about Wellograph when it was first announced in September, and have had one since they were first available. The rate of improvements has been incredible, so when I heard about the new stuff announced at CES, I thought ‘of course’, without surprise. The new functionality is definitely worth noting if you have considered buying a Wellograph.
We all know that proper hydration is critical, especially when being active. When we’re away from home we bring water bottles or other hydration sources, but there are risks such as hyponatremia or weaker muscles or bones from too much acidic fluid intake. DYLN contains a VitaBead diffuser that generates alkaline water for maximum benefits.
We just passed the start of winter, but in some areas it feels like we’ve been mid-winter for a while. We’ve had some sub-zero wind chill days and it felt more like February than November at times! As things settled down in December, I had to break out more variety of gear and remind myself of my running weather breakpoints!
If you believe you can fly, then the VERT wearable jump rate monitor can measure how high. This device is the first sports wearable to measure and report jump rate data on iPhone, iPad, smart watches and other devices. with an accompanying app for iPhone or the VERTcoach team management app on iPad.
For a ‘free’ sport – you don’t need any special equipment not already in your house – running can get expensive really fast! From expensive shoes to GPS devices, to smartphone apps, to special clothes, and gels and hydration and so on – it really adds up. Worse yet you need to replace it all frequently!