Thin is In

I planed on recording this podcast while running, but killed myself via aerobic-ness. So, I recorded it while going on a recover walk while Kai mountain biked in the woods instead.

This is a "meta show." Meta means "the data about the data." What does that mean in tri-terms? If podcasts were a bicycle, this episode would be about how carbon fiber is made. Not exactly useful, but it can be interesting.

Shownotes! No real training, but lots of discussion about

• Voice mail from Hawaii..


• Job's Apple Keynote Speech


• Thin is In.


• The Mac Air is really just an iPod with a keyboard.


• Let's be humans, not consumers.


• Greenpeace is in the PC judging business


• The Planet Bike Superflash will crush your corneas.


• Check me out as I destroy an episode of Trails and Tribulations.


• Josue Stephens is an Ultrarunner in Austin. He's superbad and trying to start his own race in Nicaragua.


• Think the weather sucks? Bill Bowerman says you're a sissy "There is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."


• More running quotes.


• Love the trend of tech upgrading old firmware instead of making you buy new crap.


• Runner's high? More crack, please!


• Triboomer is a genius.


• Austin (the person, not the city) has a badass bomber bike.


• Simon is British, and we're ok with that.


• MORE VOICEMAILS!

Bamboo Bike Rack Progress

I have finished treating an 8 foot, 2 x 5 foot, and a 4 foot section of bamboo to make my bike rack. I also have found some pretty good wire laying around to tie it together. Here is a photo of two 5 foot sections wired together. Click HERE for the full res image.

It takes me about 20 minutes to treat 1 foot of bamboo. I still have a 4 x 5 footers and 4 footer to go. It's not hard work, just time consuming. I can tell from the two cross pieces that it is going to look pretty cool. And it is crazy-strong for it's weight. I took a 5 footer and tried to bend it over my knee. I think the most I could get it to flex is maybe a centimeter.

The only thing I worry about now is if it will flop over sideways. Cross-bracing it diagonally to prevent that won't allow the bikes to go where I want, so the best way to prevent that is with joint strength. I'll have to wait and see how it holds up before I stress to much about that factor. My dad is an engineer, so I'm sure I can pull him in for advice when the time comes.

I cracked up when I noticed all the surfboards, bike wheels, bike box, pump, and wetsuits in the picture. Check out the tiny Apple decal on the bike box, too. Somebody's a tri-geek!

I could ride one of these

Almost fast enough.  We are getting very close to some cool transportation options, folks!

Read the review here!

Distance gives Perspective

So now that my bike commute to work is only 1/3rd the distance of my long weekend run, it doesn't seem like much at all anymore. I bike 7 miles on pavement each way and My long run is 21 miles on trails.

As an example of how not to train, I fell a little sick after pushing it too hard over the past few weeks. There's a great thread on Triscoop right now about how some of that works, so go ahead and put in your two cents. Essentially, you can overdo it in two ways: One is pushing too hard and injuring yourself, the other is increasing your volume too quickly. I pushed my volume of running too much, driving myself into the ground.

The rule of thumb is to not increase your volume of running by more than 10 percent in one week. A quick check of my Google calender to your right will show that I ran 5.92 hours for 30.96 miles one week and then jumped up to 8.23 hours for 42.23 miles the very next week. That's an increase of volume or distance just shy of 40%. No wonder I cratered.

Back to the bamboo front, I've got some pictures of what my bamboo work is looking like. Check these pix out. It is taking a long time, but I am having fun. I am VERY interested in building a bike after I learn more while building a bike rack.

Redesigned Suunto Foot Pod Review

I just took the newly redesigned Suunto Foot Pod for a spin. I'm digging it!

We all go crazy over GPS, but GPS has some issues.

• It doesn't work indoors and can be extremely inaccurate under dense tree cover.


• GPS isn't very accurate at the consumer grade and small size athletes like to use.


• Battery life is short.


• Sometimes signal can take a long time to aquire, or there is no signal at all. What then?

Suunto has done a great job of developing their products around a system of "pods" that allows the athlete to easily pick and choose how he/she wants to measure distance. I was let in on a little secret about GPS vs. Foot Pod by a Suunto rep. "Use the Foot Pod. It's more accurate and the battery lasts much, much longer." Now don't get me wrong. I love GPS, and there's definitely times for it, (sailing, anyone?) but a foot sensor works for 99.9% of running situations.

I have only owned one tiny Apple product in my life, the Shuffle, but I constantly rave about how Apple designed the user interface. Tiny LEDs only activate right when you turn it on, saving battery life. The thing is slim and functions as a clip, making you search for it before you realize you are even wearing it. iTunes talks with it easily, allowing you to manage it from your PC.

The new Foot Pod reminds me of the Shuffle. Being a guy, I went right past the instructions and tried to turn it on. No on switch? What gives? I started reading through the documentation and realized what was going on. Suunto had done some smart designing not only to reduce weight, but also improve battery life and make it more usable across shoe platforms. Here's the list of what I found:

• It now uses a clip instead of a rubber shoe-lace-threaded holder. You used to have to unlace your shoes to mount the holder, not anymore. Just unclip and place it on another shoe. I like that A LOT.


• You pair it with your watch for its first ever use by turning it upside down. What? I quickly realized that the engineers were using the internal sensors instead of a switch. Another weight saving idea.  From then on out, just move the sensor and it turns on so your watch can sense it.


• It turns on after sensing movement. The light either blinks 3 times or 6. 3 = good to go, 6 = 5 hours or less of battery life. That's it, no more lights. Just like the Shuffle, no blinking lights during use saves battery.


• Speaking of battery, they switched out the AAA for a watch battery. The reduction in LED use and probably some other onboard stuff gets you 3 times the hours of use as well. 200 hours on one battery is great. Make sure you dispose of that old battery correctly!


• Then there is the reduction in size. I never thought the old model was huge, but hey, I'll take a smaller size. Less weight = more efficiency!

So there you have it. Suunto pulled an Apple and came out with an innovative reinvention of their old product. I love seeing this trend in the industry. Keep finding ways to make the technology disappear so we can focus on running instead of fiddling with hardware.