Garmin Forefunner 110 tracks progress on your workouts so you can keep your eye on pace.
When your feet hit the road, you have different demands on GPS than in your car. You don’t need turn-by-turn directions, you need data. Speed. Distance. Devices for runners are sometimes bulky, sometimes difficult to use. Garmin is about to release its Forerunner 110. This GPS device is a watch, and just about the size of an average sport watch or heart rate monitor. It’s packed with featuers.
Forerunner 110 has GPS and a heart rate monitor. Once you set it at the beginning of a run it tracks where you go on your run and your heart rate. From this data it calculates your pace, distance run, calories burned, and stores the information until you upload it to your profile on Garmin Connect. You can track your training progress, look back on a whole season of running, or just see where you’ve been by keeping data on your profile. This is one addition to the standard heart rate monitor we like.
Workout in your own time and location with My Fitness Instructor.
It’s a proven fact that some things are better with a British accent. These include political speeches, the evening news, and of course romantic comedies. Soon to be added to that list: fitness instruction. British Military Fitness, a company founded by a retired British Major as an alternative to “the lycra clad, Swiss ball using, water fountain world of gyms,” is releasing a My Fitness Instructor app for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch this week.
My Fitness Instructor delivers custom workouts to your iPhone so you can conduct your workout anytime and anywhere, fitting with the company’s belief that the world is your gym and your body is your running machine. Each workout will be different from the last. You can choose from a number of instructors and select your workout goals. Begin your workout. An audio clip will play where the instructor walks you through each of a number of exercises such as crunches, twistsets, leg lifts, and other moves. If you aren’t sure how to do the move, you can watch a video demonstration. My Fitness Instructor from British Military Fitness gives you a disciplined workout with the freedom of when you want it.
Are you looking for a lacrosse team to join? Are you looking for a running partner? Do you want to sell the bike you just replaced? Esportsboard is a new local classifieds just for sports and fitness. It’s like Craigslist.org, but just the athletics. The site lets you buy and sell used gear, equipment, and apparel; promote local services such as a trainer, pitching coach, or fishing guide; post announcements including teams looking for players; find people looking for partners for running or cycling; and promote tournaments, camps, and fund raisers. Anything sports-related, there’s a category.
When you visit Esportsboard it recognizes what city you’re in, and asks if that’s where you’re looking. The site says it aggregates classifieds for over 4,500 local sports organizations, and serves 160 million Americans actively participating in sports and recreation. If you’re looking to put your kid in little league, or want to find a group of runners to train with, it’s a good place to find that, and get the gear to outfit you for your sport.
If you’re looking to get the perfect swing you can spend more time on the driving range, video tape yourself to watch your form and get a golf pro to help you. Or you can fly over to Las Vegas or Dubai and hit the Butch Harmon School of Golf, where this golf expert is using technology from the Titleist Performance Institute.
The heart of this technology is TPI 3D, technology that has been long used in the video game industry and for movie animation. Now its being strapped onto golfers, where it can be used to study the biomechanics of a golf swing, and instead of just having the couch eyeball you, or going to a video tape, every intricate detail of a golf swing can be quickly examined and studied.
So while it might not turn you into a Tiger Woods (which given his “problems” is probably a good thing), but this technology might help you out on the course.
CamelBak is on the lookout for unconventional teams outfit with its bottles and hydration systems. It began its search with the “Official Water Bottle Of” campaign last week. CamelBak will provide BPA-free Better Bottles and t-shirts with the team logo and have water-carrying rights at the teams’ sanctioned events. It will also promote the team on the CamelBak Web site and its Facebook fan page.
Unconventional sports on CamelBak’s radar include dodge ball, roller derby, and underwater hockey. They’ll be happy to hear about more quirky sports, and so will KineticShift. So far Santa Cruz Derby Girls and San Francisco Sea Lions Underwater Hockey are charter members of the search.
CamelBak began years ago as a hydration system built into a backpack. It now offers a line of backpack hydration systems, clothing, and hands-free bottles.
We applauded Google years ago when it added walking directions to Google Maps. Public transportation directions are also helpful. The newest addition to Maps is Bicycling directions. Now in beta (what at Google isn’t?), you can look up the bike routes you take, and learn about new ones. I just mapped a ride I took a few times last summer, Manhattan to Nyack, New York. It suggested two routes that differed even a little from the two routes I’ve ridden in the past. Now I’m looking forward to a nice enough day to take the new routes.
For discovery, Google highlights streets by bike friendliness. Dark green lines on the map indicate dedicated bike-only trails. Light green lines mark streets with a dedicated bike lane along the road. Dotted green lines indicate roads without bike lanes, but still appropriate for biking based on terrain, traffic, and intersections. In hilly cities such as San Francisco Google Maps will plot out a course that’s less hilly. Of course you can always drag and drop your route on the map to adjust to your specifications.
Google partnered with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that creates a network of trails from former rail lines, to build the data in over 150 cities for this project. To get biking directions you can go to Google Maps and select bicycling as your mode of transportation, or go to the specific page for bicycling.
Check out Google’s video on its new maps for bicycling.
Rudy Project was the eyewear of choice of Olympic athlete Anastazia Kuzmina of Slovakia who won gold in the women's biathlon.
As the Olympics close, the Rudy Project reports it had a hand in 18 medals, internationally. Before the torch was lit, Rudy Project said it would supply eyewear to a number of Olympic athletes. The round-up of athletes that placed on the podium included gold for women’s biathlon competitor Anastazia Kuzmina from Slovakia, who also won a silver medal. German cross country skier Claudia Nystad won gold in the team sprint. Johan Olsson from Sweden took gold in the cross country 4 x 10 relay.
Kinetic Shift congratulates all the athletes who competed in the Olympics. And kudos to Rudy Project for supporting so many winning athletes.
This SP16-SPAX tool from the Ontario Knife Company has many uses.
An axe is one of the oldest tools in humankind’s toolbox. However it has evolved over the years to be less unwieldy and more practical. The Ontario Knife Company based its newest axe tool, the SP16-SPAX, on a WWII emergency crash axe model, and continued to improve the design. The new SP16-SPAX is useful for emergency first responders and firefighters, but also for outdoor activities such as camping and hunting.
The blade is made of razor-sharp 1095 epoxy powder-coated carbon steel, and has a special hole used for opening and closing fire hydrants and gas valves. The handle is ribbed with Kraton polymer, and features tang construction meaning the blade and handle are all one piece. Sturdy. The hole mentioned above serves a second purpose. The Axe can be gripped higher up to handle tasks that are more precise.
Lost? Check out the GPS readout on your thumb in the X-Plore.XGX gloves from Zanier.
While Olympic skiers have a defined course to travel, the rest of us skiers want to explore the whole mountain whether it’s Whistler in Vancouver or another slop. The X-Plore.XGX gloves have GPS built in. The thumb display tracks altitude, speed, distance, duration, and weather conditions on a planned route. You can also adjust the settings, just don’t do it while flying down the slope.
SportsMEDIA Technology Corporation, the company that draws the virtual yellow line on the football field in TV broadcasts of games, just made it to the green with a multi-year deal with the Golf Channel to enhance broadcasts of its PGA Tour and LPGA tour coverage. This mean when a pro-golfer lines up his shot, the SMART Virtual Putting Line will draw a line to show the optimum putting line. It will use AimPoint’s positioning data system to measure the slope and grain of the putting surface to rate the difficulty. The optimum putting line will show where the ball must travel to make a successful putt.
See the action this week on the Golf Channel’s broadcast of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. You can decide whether the addition enhances the broadcast when the Golf Channel puts it on the line with SportsMedia Technology.
Chocolates are said to be good for your health, but why not give gifts that are good for the heart and get your sweetie moving. That’s a gift for the heart! KineticShift has a few recommendations to get you on the right track this Valentine’s Day.
Measure heartbeats per minute with the SmartHeart from Oregon Scientific
This water resistant monitor tracks heart rate, calories burned, average heart rate, and vibrates to send alerts. The SmartHeart features a touch-sensitive lens so you can toggle through settings with a tap.
Listen to the beat on these retro-style headphones from Urbanears.
Listen to music with style during workouts or jaunts to the store with Urbanears Tanto headphones. The retro-style headphones has a fabric cord to add strength and has 36 mm handmade drivers. The remote/microphone lets the headphones double for a headset with a cell phone.
Shield mobile phones from breaking with a silicon case from Speck.
Protect your sweetie’s phone during workouts with Speck’s PixelSkin. The no-slip grip is due to its textured silicon construction. The phone-specific case provides access to all the phone’s ports and controls. For Valentine’s Day, Speck is offering 25 percent off red, pink, and purple phones.
They say cold hands, warm heart. That doesn’t mean your love’s digits should freeze off by the end of winter. Lightweight Running Gloves from Nike uses a Dri-FIT material made from high-performance, microfiber polyester fabric to wick sweat from hands to relieve runners and those just smitten of sweaty palms.
Keep him warm on the slopes or any other outdoor activity in the extreme cold. Metal has diamond-faced ColdGear construction to remove moisture while holding in warmth. The top has ventilation zones for heat release and temperature regulation. It also features flatlock seams to increase mobility without causing irritation.
Vibram Five Fingers shoes have five distinct toes on each to emulate your bare feet.
Sometimes technology advancements take you back to your natural state. In the case of Vibram Five Fingers, that’s barefoot. Vibram believes the 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and hundreds of sensory receptors, tendons, and ligaments in the foot are a marvel of evolution, and best left in their natural state. Of course living in Manhattan, or many other places, don’t make running or even walking barefoot welcoming. Perhaps the last realm of barefoot action is the beach, or possibly a grassy field. But we opt for the protection of shoes everywhere else.
Vibram Five Fingers “shoes” have five distinct toes on each foot, and the soul emulates a bare foot with an arch. The company claims going barefoot, or wearing its shoes, strengthens muscles in the feet and lower legs; improves range of motion in ankles, feet, and toes; enhances balance and agility by stimulating neural function; and improves posture and alignment by not creating heel lift. Vibram Five Fingers has a range of models that lend themselves to running, water sports, hiking, traveling, yoga, and other disciplines of fitness. There’s a few therapeutic shoes on the market that make claims like this, and we plan to follow the space and take a closer look.
Rudy Project Noyz sunglasses are a pick for 2010 Olympic athletes.
As the Olympics gear up athletes are at the ready. Eyewear and helmet manufacturer Rudy Project outfitted many competitors in Turin in 2006, and will outfit many more in Vancouver 2010. While goggles and helmets will be in order for certain sports, the Noyz Fluo will cover many eyes. The Fluo version of the Noyz sunglasses have a technicolored-look, though the Noyz model is available in many bold colors. The lenses have ImpactX sun technology, which allows for a lighter lens, adds impact resistance, and doesn’t stress crack or craze. For sight, the lenses have favorable optical properties with a lower light refraction index, internal stress, and chromatic dispersion than comparable polycarbonate lenses. This brings a lower surface reflection and higher definition and sharper images.
The Rudy Project was just named the exclusive eyewear and helmet supplier for the USRowing, a three-year partnership including support of the U.S. National Team in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In Turin, Rudy Project gear was on athletes who won 45 medals (18 gold, 13 silver, and 14 bronze). This winter Olympics athletes from Germany, Finland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Italy plan to wear eyewear from this Rudy Project.
