Enginerve : Bikes

10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain…a 100% reason to remember the name

  • The key to doing the 10000 steps a day is to be mindful of not running into people or behaving like an idiot. 

    I read this recent NYTimes article on the perils of distracted walkers and while I see the benefits of paying attention, I don’t really get the don’t-run-with-scissors-into-traffic list of absurd warnings at the bottom.  I see too many folks navigate while talking on the phone using a headset to worry as much about them as I do about those who text, or who use their phone to count their steps.  It reads a little like the UK IT police who warn us that kids who study computers beyond the curriculum at school have one of the top warning signs of cyber criminal activity (since withdrawn due to its stupidity, along with the warning about computer books, who are these people). 

    Text While WalkingI do notice I stop when texting, although I wonder, is it to make sure I don’t run into others, or simply buildings or falling into an open manhole cover.

  • I like the idea of the 10,000 Steps A Day program, I was just wondering how I can track it easily.

    Google Fit

    I thought I would check Google Fit to see if it could help AND it was all there!  From my phones.  I had a lot of smaller activities that I shrank, but yesterday I did 4,817 steps.  So I think I can boost this to 10,000 steps each day with just a little work and maybe a short walk.

    From the Walking Site

    How many steps do you walk each day?

    Maybe you have heard the recent guidelines about walking 10,000 steps per day. How far is 10,000 steps anyway? The average person’s stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles.

  • Why it is so hard to find a great bike at a reasonable price? Brilliant Bicycle Company

    Somewhere along the line, bicycles became complicated. Speed and spandex overshadowed the fun and prices skyrocketed. But bicycles shouldn’t be ridiculously expensive or intimidating, so we set out to build high-quality bikes for a fraction of the cost and to bring the magic and lightheartedness of your childhood back to bicycling.

    Brilliant Bicycle Co

  • Layer-26Your form changes, as does the terrain, the season, and your needs.  Long lasting or fast during racing season, XC or Trail, what shoe should you buy?  I am a firm believer that you should buy a shoe that feels good and runs well for you with what you are running right then. “You will know”.  Recent studies indicating that the shoes for “pronation” or “over pronation” provide “support” are just a bit ridiculous.  Read some of the serious literature on orthotics [disclaminer, have bought support shoes and had great luck with orthotics, or thought I did] and then go to a modern PT expert and have a real tune up and you start to realize what magic this all is.

    A recent article on the Washington Post site, on this topic of shoe purchase led me runrepeat.com.  Check it out.

    …if you want the closest thing to an objective look at quality and cost, a Danish Web site called runrepeat.com has crunched the numbers from nearly 135,000 consumer reviews it gathered over a year, along with the suggested retail price of most of the popular brands.

    The biggest surprise: The higher the price, the lower the rating in many cases. In fact, the 10 most expensive running shoes, with an average list price of $181 per pair, were rated 8.1 percent lower than the 10 cheapest models (average price $61).

  • Is there one of these that isn’t worth watching.  Thanks Danny M.

  • tapiriikI am trying tapiriik, an open source project, to automatically synchronize my fitness activities between Garmin Connect, Runkeeper, Strava and more.  Yes, I use Garmin Connect on my main machine which does Garmin and Strava, but I couldn’t resist adding Runkeeper and RideWithGPS.