Lost Vegas: the gadgets and fun of CES

Each year I go to CES with the thought that this will be the year I eat healthy, exercise every day (beyond the 4-6 miles of walking each day that come with going to the show), win a ton of money, and make a bunch of new industry contacts. Every year, I come home disappointed that I failed at least one of those goals. Usually, it isn't the money one, so I'm often not too disappointed. This year, luck wasn't with me on the casino show floor, but I had some pretty good results against the rest of my goals.

First, let's get into the fun stuff: There were all sorts of great new things to see at CES this year, along with a bunch of stuff that had been previously announced that I finally got a chance to get a hands on look at. The device I went into the show most excited to see was the Garmin 910XT. The top of the line all-in-one multi-sport training watch that people have been clamoring for is finally shipping. My first attempt to get a feel for the new device was at a small event on Monday evening and was thwarted by a dead battery, but I got a chance on the show floor to spend at least a couple minutes exploring the interface of this new summit of triathlon technology. It's at least 10% lighter than my 305, and easily far more advanced. With the ability to track indoor swims, improved open water swim GPS tracking, and a redesigned interface that allows increased user customization, it really has basically everything you'd want in a training device. The reps on the floor said they'd get me a sample to review, which hopefully will allow me to put this thing through it's paces.

This picture of the 910XT is much better than the one I took on the show floor

A few days prior to the show, I saw on twitter that reigning Ironman World Champion Craig "Crowie" Alexander was headed to Las Vegas for CES. He didn't mention what he would be representing, and it turns out that he had joined Jabra, an audio device company, as a spokesman for their new Jabra SPORT headphone line. They specialize in bluetooth/wireless, but also have a couple of nice looking corded earbuds as well. Crowie was on a treadmill for much of the event, getting in almost a full marathon training run while demonstrating how well the product stayed in place for folks on the run. The best part of course was that he stopped to talk to myself and another triathlete for about 20 minutes. A great conversation where I mostly listened (and if you know me, that's saying something). Topics included the WTC point system to qualify for Kona (doesn't like it, and thinks the previous winners get too big an advantage), his race schedule (he's doing 6 races this year including Abu Dhabi in just a couple months), and Lance Armstrong racing Kona in 2012. Crowie says Lance is definitely racing, unless he's in jail. Lances people reached out to Crowies people to get tips. Crowie said they never talked but his advice would have been "don't come!" and thinks Armstrong would bring a lot of attention to the sport if he did line up in Hawaii. Meeting him was definitely one of the highlights of my trip, plus I got to see him ride the mechanical bull!

You get the hat if you ride the bull... I didn't ride the bull

Along with the expected of CES, there were also the unexpected, particularly a couple of fitness tech devices that caught my eye. One of these was the Basis, a new device that uses 5 sensors to provide a more accurate reading of your activities throughout the day, and what stress and other daily effects can have on your body. Starting with the 3D accellerometer, but then adding skin tempreature, galvonic skin sensors, heart rate, and a couple of others allow the device to give a more complete picture of not just what you're doing but how you're doing with what looks like ti will be a pretty snappy web interface. They're still a ways from being available, but at $199, it's likely to give the fitbit a run for it's money.

There is so much to talk about in each of the "extreme sport camera" and headphone spaces, I'm going to devote blogs to those over the next couple days. I'll try to space them out so that everyone isn't bored to death with new tech geekery. Because I know you're all really here to read about me and how I'm doing.

On that point, I'm doing great! Training has been going well, and I lost 2 pounds in Las Vegas (it was that and the $300 I lost in vegas that prompted the title of the blog). Oh, and I'll have more info about my Team Eleonore Rocks fundraising this week too.

Breaking News: Ben Berry to race for Team Eleonore Rocks in 2012

Las Vegas, NV 1/12/12

Today we are happy announce that Ben Berry has accepted the opportunity to race for Team Eleonore Rocks in 2012. In an official statement issued by his press agent dog, Stanley, Mr. Berry was quoted as saying "I was more than pleased to learn of Eleonore Rocks interest in my racing for them. It has been a long time goal of mine to wear the Maglia Rosa at the Giro d'Italia, so in order to prepare for that eventuality, racing the 2012 season in a partially pink kit really appealled to me. Plus, as member of the CAHL Kings rec league hockey team will tell you, purple jerseys are slimming, and I need all the slimming I can get." Ben further stated "When Andy Potts heard I'd decided to join the team, he did the copy cat thing and agreed to help the program again this year, though he wasn't man enough to go all the way and race in a pink kit." Mr. Berry's statement looked to go on for pages and pages, but Stanley edited them for brevity chewed them to shreds, leaving only the final paragraph intact. "In closing, I want to thank the Eleonore Rocks staff for putting faith in me to race on their behalf and be the kind of competitor that can proudly represent their cause on and off the course. I'm going to give 100% to training and helping them help little tiny future triathletes and their families in a time of great need."

The Eleonore Rocks Triathlon team is sponsored by the following companies whose donations assist in making the procress of training and racing easier so that athletes can focus their efforts on fundraising and preparing for racing:

All3sports.com
Rudy Project
Kestrel Bikes
INFINIT Nutrition
CEP Socks
K-Swiss
FuelBelt
Speedfill
BlueSeventy
ISM Saddles
Headsweats
Tribike Transport

(In all seriousness, Eleonore Rocks Foundation is a terrific charity, working on the front lines to help families whose newborns are experiencing serious health conditions. None of the money I raise on behalf of Eleonore Rocks will go to offset race fees or anything else. Every dollar goes directly to the charity, and will help fund the purchase of rocking chairs for Neo-natal Intensive Care Units, or to directly assist in helping these families. As I've also changed my Ulman Cancer Fund/Team Fight fundraising to go towards the Half Full Triathlon, a new Rev3 race where all race fees are donated to Ulman Cancer Fund, not $1 of the money I raise this year will go towards anything but the benefit of the people these charities help fight. I'll begin my fundraising in ernest as soon as I have all the details. I have some great things planned to meet my goals for the season, so please stay tuned over the next couple weeks.)

PS - Vegas is awesome. I'm super sore, tired, and I'm ready to get home to Rachelle and Stanley, but I've met great people, had fun, and I have a whole bunch of new stuff lined up for the blog for the next few months.

Week 1 endeth, Vegas awaits

I'm about 15 hours from touching down in Las Vegas, and I'm nearly ready. A little packing, a little sleeping, and I'm on my way. It's bound to be an exciting and fun week, and I've actually got appointments this year specifically for the blog. Bloggers aren't invited as press this year, but because I'm going as press for the gaming site, I was able to schedule a couple appointments and another meeting or two for the blog. I even bought business cards. Kinda funny, but it will help me to talk to folks about the cycling/tri/sports/health technology that will be on display. I can't wait for it to start, but I also know it will be over faster than I'll want it to.

While I'm looking forward to Vegas, this past week has been quite the interesting experience. My first week of coaching included the following:
- 4 rides totalling 52 miles
- 3 walk/runs totalling 6 mi, including 2 VO2 test runs (5 x 1:00 uphill runs)
- 1k yards swimming, which should have been 2k, but the pool was closed

It was a really great week of starting to train again, but hopefully the memory of how hard I had to work to get started again will stick with me when next off season roles around. My legs are pretty tired from back to back days of 17 mile rides. But I really did enjoy the work. Sadly, with the conference schedule and already planning for the sore feet I get each year for all the walking, I won't be doing quite as much next week, just riding each day unless it turns out the Excalibur pool is open (they say it is, and that it's heated) and worth doing laps in.

Word from the team I applied for is that they're going through the applications now, which is exciting. Plus, I sent it a good part of my planned race schedule for next year into my coach to get her input. I can't wait to start sharing all this exciting news with everyone.

New Year, New Plans, New & Old Challenges, New Successes

Happy New Year everyone, unless you're Chinese then Happy whatever day it is for you! Rach and I kept it low key, just chilling out at home with Stanley. For the past couple years we'd spent New Years Day running a 10k, and then walking off the Massachusetts cold in a local mall. This year, I started my training with Coach Colleen with a 12 mile bike in the gorgeous 68 degree sunshine of North Carolina.

Of course, that weather wasn't to last as it's dropped 15 degrees each of the past two days as I've begun implementing my new training plan. The first couple of weeks are pretty light, as Coach gets an idea of what I can handle it, and to account for my week in Vegas, which results in me having very tired feet every day, so I'll be biking every day and hopefully getting in a swim or two if I can find an indoor pool. 

It isn't all easy stuff these first couple of weeks though; one of the first challenges she gave me was a VO2 run today, 5 x 1:00; uphill. Let me just say that it might not sound like much but to me that was a huge challenge. I made it through, but I totally forgot to put on my HRM, so I volunteered to do it again. Gotta make sure she's got everything it takes to turn me into a lean(er), mean (ok, still pretty nice) triathlon machine. I got through todays run, but boy that 5th minute was a challenge. She's going to roll it in sometime after I get back 

The next challenge was that family drama reared its head again today making this afternoon pretty awful, and Rach needed time out of the house, which meant a trip for coffee that ended up at McDonalds. We drove away with just Rachelle's coffee and had a healthy lunch at Subway.

Dinner has been a real challenge for me lately; I get through breakfast and lunch just fine, but then have trouble keeping myself under control. Tonight, a correctly portioned healthy sandwich topped off my awesome day so well that I have points for a snack, but I'm hoping I'll be able to avoid it. I'm drinking more water as well.

I've got a couple of swims coming up this week, and I'm pretty excited to get back in the pool and start working. Coach is a masters swim coach, so I know eventually I'm going to get some hard core pool punishment. I can't wait! I even was able to tell her that she could double the distance of my first swim workouts. We seem to get along very well, which has just added to my excitement about the coming season and preparing for it.

Oh, and I've lost 2.2 pounds since Friday, which I'm thrilled about considering I'm still giving myself a little leeway on the food while my body adjusts to the workouts. Next week will be a real challenge, but with all the walking for the show and riding for the training, I ought to have no problems. 

To say I'm very excited for the coming year is understating it by about a factor of 100, and that's even with no news on the team selection yet. 

Welcome back!

Christmas is over, Hanukkah is... well I have no idea if it's over because it's based on the Gregorian calendar so it changes every year. Ok, actually I just looked it up and tonight is the last day. Anyways, I don't celebrate it so I just brought it up because I like to be inclusive of those who indulge because of other religious holidays.

In all honest, this was the worst Christmas of my life. Rach and I are fine, and are happily looking forward to 2012 with little Stanley, but stuff happening around us on the holiday weekend made it out to be the worst holiday I've ever experienced. I know it's nothing in comparison to being homeless, destitute or hungry on any given day, but in my life being in that kind of situation is something I was certainly not prepared for. Worse, I find myself still angry about not only the situation, but specifically how my wife and I were treated on what was a family occasion. I don't usually get angry, and when I do, I never stay that way. I've done my best to let it go, but I haven't been able to, and don't see it subsiding anytime soon.

What I can do though, is move on. That's what is truly great about life. Every day, every minute, every second is a new opportunity to make a choice. So, while I have found that maybe for the first time in my life I can't forgive and forget so easily, I can choose to not dwell on it, and move forward. And boy, do I have some great things to look forward to!

- I get my first 2 weeks of planned training from my coach on Monday! So excited to start the new year right! We're going to miss doing the Lowell 1st Run now, but now I'll have training that day. We couldn't find a local race to start the year off, and I think that's been the biggest reason December has been such a challenge for me this year. I'm almost always training for a January race, and this year I didn't.

- I got $115 dollars in Performance Bike gift certificates for Christmas, and I have already put them to good use: I signed up for their Service Plan; for $80 I get 2 full bike tune ups, 2 drivetrain cleanings, and 4 flat repairs. I probably won't use the flat repairs, but full service without the cleaning is a minimum of $75 at most shops, and that never includes retension and truing of wheels, both of which are included at this price. I also got some flashy new red grip tape installed while they did the rest of the service.

I can't wait to take this sucker for a ride today!

- Stanley. This dog is a hoot. Every day he's doing new things, and as soon as he stops pooping behind the TV he's going to be a real winner. He seems to be madly in love with the space heater.

He will sit there and stare at it...

...until he gets tired and falls asleep, often belly up!

- Getting fit. I've never been more mentally prepared and well rested coming into a season. After pushing myself harder than I ever have and dealing with the issues of not reaching my goals, having some fun end of season races and a long break were EXACTLY what I needed. Im recharged and focused, and excited to start working hard again. It would have been nice to get to this point without gaining a few pounds, but I'll keep that in mind going forward.

- The new team. I'm still waiting to hear, but I'm really excited for the opportunity. I'm pretty confident this time that I'm a good fit and I'll get chosen. The app deadline was 12/24, so I'm guessing we'll know something in the next couple weeks. Whatever happens, I hope to support a great cause I'll talk more about once I know one way or the other about the team.

- Race schedule. I'll be talking with coach on Monday and one of the topics will be race schedule. I want to race schedule that keeps me busy but also is affordable. I'm racing Rev3 Cedar Point for sure. I'm still waiting to hear on if the XTERRA Tri that's been run in NC the past few years is happening again or not. There will be a few others thrown in, most likely including Rev3 Wisconsin.

- Page redesign - As in years past, I'll be doing the annual page redesign early in the year. Normally it's been December, but a mixture of transition and laziness have gotten in the way of that.

- Goals for 2012 - I have some ideas here that extend beyond race season, but I'll work with my coach on these as well.

- USAT Rankings - My final ranking for my 3rd season is a disappointing 44.3342. As I'm only racing me, it's disappointing only because it was a step back from last years 46.52845. It's still significantly better than 09 (~41.19) so it still shows the work I put in, and I think reflects a lot of the challenges I put on myself this season. Next season, this number will go up, and I'm shooting for a big improvement!