Minute 1: Apple Watch dramatically upgrades fitness features
Most of the folks with creative facial hair and black tee shirts waiting in line outside the Apple Store this week were interested in the upgraded $1,000 iPhone X. The new Apple Watch Series 4, however, is targeting a slightly different demographic. Cupertino is banking on athletes and their parents shelling out $400+ for the enhanced health-tracking benefits of the new watch. Most analysts are giving high praise to the new feature that goes well beyond standard heart rate monitoring. The Series 4 actually performs an ongoing electrocardiogram. This is helpful not only to athletes, but to their parents, sending alerts if an elderly person goes into cardiac crisis. This may be good news for millions of athletes, but it has cost FitBit millions of dollars. Their stock price seems to drop every time an Apple Watch enhancement is released.
#thinkdifferent #ecg
Minute 2: Peloton lawsuit
Remember that scene in the classic movie, Breaking Away, where the Italian riders run Dave Stohler off the road? Well Peloton is now trying to do the same thing to rival Flywheel. Peloton has filed a lawsuit alleging that Flywheel copied their bike and their technology, infringing on a patent. We are big fans of Peloton, but do wonder why they would want to mess with a much smaller rival. It has probably generated more name recognition for Flywheel than an army of PR flacks could ever drum up. Every story on the affair also highlights that the Flywheel’s bikes are significantly cheaper than Peloton’s. When you’ve raised $550 million in a deal that valued the company at more than $4 billion, I suppose you can afford a few high-priced attorneys. Wall Street expects Peloton to go public soon.
#cutters #soulcycleischuckling
Minute 3: Trail runners & mountain bikers beware
The Pacific Northwest just experienced its second fatal cougar attack of the season. Tragically, an experienced hiker was found dead this week near Mt. Hood in Oregon after a cougar attacked her. The press conference video by the local sheriff’s office is pretty eerie stuff. This tragedy follows another fatal attack in the Cascades of Washington when two mountain bikers were chased and attacked by a cougar. Sadly, one man perished while his friend tried valiantly to fend off the cougar by swinging his bike at the animal. After being hunted indiscriminately for decades, cougar populations are on the rise throughout the U.S. Typically, they provide a balance to animals that have few natural predators, like deer. Sadly, they are also interacting more with humans in the side country.
#makeeyecontact
Minute 4: HIIT and run
Would you rather go for an easy 20 minute jog or bust it all-out for 4 minutes? Research shows that the fat burn and endurance growth may actually be greater with shorter High Intensity Interval Training. The basic idea is to crank your heart rate to 90%+ or your level of perceived exertion to the “no mas” level, but only for brief bursts. We’re talking about seconds, not minutes. The New York Times health section just published a list of their top 3 HIIT work-outs that can be completed in 10 minutes or less. We are fans of the approach whether it yields greater results or not. Leaving your comfort zone and your excuses behind is usually a good thing.
#discomfortzone #noexcuses
Minute 5: Quick Takes
With summer mojito and rosé parties now behind us, many fitness disciples are declaring this month “Sober September,” according to LIVESTRONG. We think the halfway point of the month is not a bad place to jump on the wagon. (“I would have done the whole month, but I just heard about this …”) If you want to lose weight and improve performance for a full month, your next chance could be “Dry January.” Yeah, that’s also a thing.
While doing your usual Saturday work-out, consider an “OORAH” for a group of Marines who will be doing a charity event that includes running 57 miles and 570 burpees tomorrow. Why 57? That’s the age of the slightly sadistic founder of this event. He is using tomorrow as boot camp for a 100-miler he’s doing in October.
Quick shout-out and best wishes for a speedy recovery to Boston running hero Dave McGillivray. The long-time race director of the Boston Marathon is battling clogged arteries, despite the fact that he ran seven marathons in seven days this year and runs his age on his birthday annually. (64 miles on August 22 this year.)
Minute 6: Daily Inspiration
“Welcome to the grind!”
This is an all-time classic motivational video for runners, athletes and gym rats. If this doesn’t get you out of bed, nothing will.
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