Week in Review–Feb 26th, 2017

The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!

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

DCRainmaker.com posts in the past week:

Here’s all the goodness that ended up on the main page of DCRainmaker.com this past week:

Sunday: Week in Review–Feb 19th, 2017
Monday: 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
Tuesday: Riddle Me This: Running Efficiency Metrics Showdown

YouTube Videos I Published:

Here’s some YouTube goodness that I published this past week:

Stuff that I found interesting around the interwebs:

Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet.

1) Half-marathoner cheater caught by finisher photo of Garmin watch: While most of you have seen this over the last few days, if you haven’t – this isn’t to be missed.  Also take note of this follow-up post from the author.

2) In 1896 there was Strava for cycling…sort of: Interesting little tidbit on the records that used to be carried with bikes.

3) Ultra-tiny GPS tracker with cellular connectivity: This could be ideal for carefully placing under a bike seat or in a seatpost tube.  But I think I’ll hold off on this one until after it’s shipped.

4) Understanding your GoPro Hero5 Black video settings in detail: Abe works for GoPro, but his (somewhat rare) blog posts are always packed full of tiny little nuggets on how to really optimize your footage.  Given he’s tasked with creating the launch videos that convince you to buy a GoPro, he’s a master of eeking out everything you can from the units.  While some things he notes are obvious, there’s also a lot to be read between the lines.

5) Behind the scenes factory visit at Tacx: This reminds me, I should publish some/all of the photos I took the last time I was there (which are largely different than Titanium Geek’s).  Still, more than the behind’s is an interesting tidbit on why the Tacx Neo may smell like something is burning briefly if you throw lots of wattage at it initially.

6) A treadmill for ants: No, not ANT+, actual little ants. For real folks.

7) Two Garmin engineers shot, one killed: Incredibly sad – but even more so given the reported rantings of the suspect.  This isn’t the America I know and love. The two engineers were part of the aviation unit.

8) Nike commercial featuring all women athletes: Given the previous item, I’m just gonna leave this here. Note you can enable subtitles at the bottom of the window if you don’t speak Arabic. (via Casey Neistat)

Sports Technology Software/Firmware Updates This Week:

Each week I quickly highlight some of the new firmware, app, software and website service updates that I see go out. If you’re a sports technology company and release an update – shoot me a quick note (just one liners are perfect, or Tweet it at me is even better) and I’ll make mention of it here. If I don’t know about it, I won’t be able to post about it. Sound good?  Oh – and if you want to get a head start on things, this page is a great resource for watching Garmin firmware updates.

Garmin Fenix Chronos BETA firmware update: This continues the trend of beta updates for Chronos adding in Fenix 5 firmware functionality.

Garmin Index Scale: Performance related items.

Garmin Vivosmart HR Firmware Update: Minor tweaks.

Polar M400 Firmware Update/Un-Update: The previous M400 firmware update has been un-updated. It was withdrawn.

Wahoo KICKR Firmware Update: Ok, all three of these were a few weeks ago and it got caught in the wrong e-mail folder.  This is notable as it pulls in some of the KICKR2 accuracy changes to the original KICKR.

Wahoo KICKR2 Firmware Update: Ability to disable ERG smoothing (an item I raised in my review), among other tweaks.

Wahoo KICKR SNAP Firmware Update: Mostly fixes, tweaks.

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Thanks for reading!