Alameda Runners – Get After It!

I am not a fan of wearing extra stuff while exercising.  The Hydrapak has changed my view of things for long bike rides.  I do wish the bag came with cleaning instructions for first-time use, but that’s something that can be fixed in the future.

Hydrapak sent us a 70 ounce back pack hydration system for review.  Since I despise wearing backpacks, I decided to review this product.  It is amazing how negative I was when I started out the review process for this thing.  A back pack is not like a water bottle where you wash it out and then simply use it.  With a backpack, you have to disassemble the thing then figure out how to wash it.  I did not have any hydrogen peroxide in my cabinet so I cleaned the bag out with bleach.  I cleaned it a few times to make sure it was clean.  It may have been clean but the water still tasted terrible.

My first trial was a 50 mile ride through the hills, in the wine country, to give the Hydrapak a real test.  It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to adjust all of the straps.  There are shoulder straps, a waist strap and a chest strap.

I filled the bag about 2/3 of the way full, adjusted the straps to snug and was on my way.  Wearing the backpack was a bit odd at first, but I soon forgot about it.  The water tasted like plastic so I did not drink much of it.  At about mile 25, I noticed my shoulders creeping up to keep the pack in place.  I stopped to adjust the straps and all was good.  It was comfortable wearing the Hydrapak for a 3 hour bike ride.  I could not drink the water but I had no complaints about the bag.

I cleaned the bag out a few more times and gave it another try.  This time the water was drinkable and it stayed cool for the whole ride.  I drink cold tap water so I am surprised the water stayed cool for 4 hours in the sun and on my back.

The bag has a pouch for the water bag and 3 other pouches.    The way the Hydrapak hangs, I put a lot of stuff in the pouches and was quite comfortable.  The big pouch is big enough to hold 2 wine bottles.  You will have to keep some water in the bag for it to stay comfortable while carrying wine.

The Hydrapak has changed my view of carrying water in a backpack.  I will continue to use it for my long rides.  I don’t have a lot of experience with water backpacks so I grabbed one from the garage for comparison.  Here are some things I like about the Hydrapak that stand out.

• The quick disconnect hose
• The extra front straps
• The holders for excess strap ends
• The way the bag fits on my back
• The size and organization of the additional pouches

Daily deal aggregators are popular among today’s casual Internet users — and athletes are now able to find their own daily deals of the day. Popular service Active.com, which most of us have registered with, has its own ‘Schwaggle’ service that helps keep people active.

Deals range from discounted open water swimming and other event registration discounts to food and products. I’ve seen some rather neat deals posted by Active, though haven’t actually made a purchase just yet. It may be worth a look if you need new summer training gear to play with this summer!

If you’ve ever bought something from Active Schwaggle, you’re more than welcome to discuss what you thought about your experience.

A new report from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission indicates the City of Alameda has roads that need to be repaired after scoring a “fair” rating in 2010.

Our island was given a fair rating when it scored 66 out of 100 — the same rating given to the overall Bay Area — on the 2010 pavement condition index (PCI) charts, which indicated we have roads in need of repair.

The city normally does a decent job of fixing major road issues in Alameda, but there are plenty of roads and bike lanes that can provide a rather bumpy ride for us. At a time when local, regional, state, and national governments face budget issues and political scandals, some roads aren’t going to be changed any time soon.

As someone that has ridden a decent amount around the Bay Area, I still find Alameda’s roads suitable for leisurely rides — and hard training rides around the island. Instead of worrying about roads, I tend to be more concerned about the large number of reckless drivers not paying attention to pedestrians and cyclists.

Editors note:  Some roads are worse than others and some of the jogging trails are in rough shape.  I have no complaints because we have all of the trails with flowers and plants along the way.

Mike’s Followup:  Agreed about some of the jogging trails being in rough shape.  You should always pay attention when running or riding, but the trails help enforce this mentality.

Sports Basement plans to spread its growing sports empire further by opening a new store in Berkeley, possibly opening up in the former Iceland ice rink.

Sports Basement currently has three locations in the SF Bay Area: Presidio, San Francisco, and Walnut Creek. Another East Bay addition would prove Sports Basement to be a legitimate force against Bay Area sports stores competing to control a very select, niche industry.

“We were unable to find a space we were completely comfortable with until we visited the Iceland location,” said Tom Phillips, Sports Basement founding partner, in an interview with the Oakland Tribune. “We love the building, its history and its location. We hope to be a valued community partner to Berkeley and the immediate neighborhood.”

Well, Sports Basement will become an immediate draw to the area, though I’m unsure how happy Performance and Mike’s Bikes will be to hear this news. I was a frequent visitor of Performance in Berkeley, and think Mike’s Bikes is just a neat store, so I’m curious to see if either will somehow respond.

Since I’m absolutely addicted to Twitter (@Alamedarunners), it would only make sense I share some Tour de France 2011 Twitter love. July is my favorite month of the year — mainly due to le Tour — and I look forward to what shoulder great battle between Alberto Contador and the Schleck brothers.

Cyclingnews recently published its “Tweeters on Tour: who to follow in July” story, which features 10 TdF riders you can follow this July.

The top three in the list include sprinter Mark Cavendish, “Spartacus” Fabian Cancellara, and contender Andy Schleck.

In addition to VeloNews and Cyclingnews, which are two of the largest sites, there are several other great Twitter resources. I highly recommend following PodiumCafe and BikeRadar if you don’t already follow the Twitter and/or visit their websites.

Enjoy!

Triathlon news source Xtri recently caught up with Craig Alexander, one of the most recognized names in US triathlon, who is recovering from injury.  Until he’s recovered and compete at the top-level of Ironman racing, Alexander took some time to chat with Xtri.  (The interview is available here.)

Alexander even showed some love for one of our favorite products, Athletes HoneyMilk:

It’s healthy, thats a great start, and it tastes AWESOME. I used to drink a mountain of chocolate milk anyway, so this now gives me a legitimate excuse. AHM is a great, progressive company that is pumped about triathlon, and I am honoured that they chose me to support. Plus Lucy now drinks so much of the new Strawberry banana that there is none left for me!

Similar to other pro athletes, it can sometimes be difficult to remember that they are just regular people. I enjoy reading and watching interviews with elite athletes, and it’s great to see how are things are going both professionally and personally.

In the spirit of Ted’s half Ironman next month, we’re going to include additional information about cycling and triathlons this summer.

GU and similar sports nutrition companies are always creating new formulas and flavors to help keep athletes happy.  A good product and strong marketing skills can create a dazzling combination — and GU’s Chocolate Raspberry Roctane flavor is a perfect example of a company doing it just right.

GU launched its chocolate raspberry flavor last month, much to the delight of athletes seeking this flavor. Prior to the launch, GU offered a teaser of the new Roctane flavor, with a surprisingly large number of athletes correctly guessing a chocolate raspberry flavor.

I’m typically not a big fan of anything related to chocolate or coffee energy products, but the added raspberry in this flavor helps offset too much chocolate.  The flavor is sweet but not too sweet to wash down with some water while running or in the saddle for a long time.

Similar to other Roctane-branded gels, the Chocolate Raspberry has a slightly altered formula designed for added nutritional needs.  One packet of GU Chocolate Raspberry includes 100 calories (15 calories from fat), 20g carbs,6 sugar, 90mg sodium, and 50mg of potassium.

The GU Roctane Chocolate Raspberry flavor originally launched last month and seems to be a flavor long overdue. I still prefer the GU Roctane Pineapple or Blueberry Pomegranate, but applaud GU for the Chocolate Raspberry. Even so, I’m going to continue chowing down on the Chocolate Raspberry, because it could easily become one of my favorites.

The Garmin Edge 500 is a fantastic cycle computer that I am happy to own.  The base model Edge 500 is priced around $250.00.  I could not find the base model for $250 in the Bay area.  I wound up buying the full package with the chest strap and cadence sensor from Mike’s Bikes for $350 plus 10% California tax.  I wonder what the state does with all of that money, which is another matter.

When I picked up my Edge, the box was clearly marked “Charge before use”.  I charged it up and was ready to go.  The Edge mounts to a bracket that is mounted onto the handle bar with two rubber bands.  The rubber bands and quarter turn bracket seem pretty flimsy but they have held up for 500-1,000 miles.

After charging and installation, I turned on the Edge 500 and went out for a ride.  I did not read any instructions.  It took me a second to realize that you have to hold the power button down until it turned on.  It is a good thing that holding the power button for startup is common these days.  It takes 30-60 seconds for the GPS to sync with the satellites, push the start button and I was off.  It was useable within 5 minutes of the battery being charged!  The top viewing block reads elapsed time out of the box.  I am old and my eyes are starting to go bad so I did not want to use the main window for elapsed time.    So I read the instructions to change the display windows.  It was not very difficult to configure the Edge to my liking.

The hardest part was trying to decide what to put on the screen.  The screen has options to use up to 8 different items to display.  I opted for 5 items with speed on the big screen on top.

The other four items are heart rate, overall distance, elapsed time and time of day.  I like to know what my heart rate is so I can keep from blowing up on the bike.  It is really easy for me to go out too fast only to later crash and burn at the end of the ride.   I also like the lap setting that beeps every lap.  It is set for a default lap of 5 miles.  The beep lets me know it is time to consume calories.   When I race, I need every reminder I can get.

What I like about the Edge 500:

Configurable screens.  There are three configurable screens that can be selected by the touch of the enter/page/menu button.
When movement is detected, the monitor beeps to let you know if you forgot to start the clock.

More than 40 options to select for the three screens.
The software is minimal, hard to find and harder to use but at least there is software.

Portability – I forgot my running HRM one day and wound up running with the 500 in my pocket.  It worked just fine.

Size – It has a nice small foot print on the bike with a readable screen.

Battery life – I heard a lot of complaints about the battery life but I have used it for about 12 hours before charging and it still had about 70% battery life when I plugged it in.

What I don’t like about the Garmin 500:

The software is absolutely horrible.
The web page for Garmin software is worse than the software.

Things I don’t like about the software:

• It is inconsistent to use.
• I can’t sync both the 405 and the 500 from the same computer.  I can sync them to the my.garmin site but I can’t sync them to social media sites such as Facebook or DailyMile.
• I can’t get a list of data that was recorded on a ride.
• The ride dates fold up into old rides making it difficult to find them.
• No instructions for the software.

The mount is a bit cheesy but I give the mount more positive feedback for being easy to use than I do negative feedback for being flimsy.

Overall, I love the Garmin Edge 500.  When I went out to search for a new cycle computer, my budget was $1,000.  Priced at $400, the fully equipped Edge 500 comes in well below that price limit.  I do not look at other computers with envy.  I am very happy with my decision to buy the 500.   I have the Garmin 405 that I have a well-documented love/hate relationship with.  The good parts of the 405 were far better than the frustrating ones.  I am now looking at Garmin GPS units for my car.  Better software would be nice but I don’t need software on my home computer to remind me when it is time to drink or eat while I am riding my bike.  I take no points away from the Edge 500 because of the software.  I wish the software was better but it is good enough.

Tuesday – I just cleared five items off my desk when I came home to more stuff.  One of my new presents was a box of Honey Stinger Waffles in both vanilla and honey flavor.

By Friday, I already went online and ordered two boxes for myself.  I decided to try a waffle after my morning swim.  I liked it so much; I decided to try another, just to make sure the good taste was not my imagination.

I tried again the next day and brought some to work to hand out as snacks.  The feedback was positive.  At 160 calories, they are a bit much for a snack but much better than a bagel or a donut.  I don’t have any big exercise days scheduled this week for a real good trial for the waffles.

This Saturday is a bike/run/bike day.  Not a good day to really crash and burn but I will try the stinger waffles as my primary source of calories for the five-hour effort.  I bought a couple more boxes to make sure I have enough for next weekend’s hard work out.

I love the taste and they work great for my morning post work out snack.  They have 160 calories including 7 grams of fat and 55mg of sodium.  Most of the calories are from the flour and sugar.  I may have to carry more calories with me to prevent crashing but at least the calories from Honey Stinger waffles will taste great.

Even if local drivers speed and tend to sometimes be reckless, I still consider Alameda one of the best areas to ride a bike in the East Bay. Miles of bike lanes and well-maintained roads can be found across the island, including waterfront trails and pathways that are properly cared for.

It takes significant effort to ensure our roads are looked after, so it’s possible you may have had a recommendation, complaint, or other issue.

Wonder who is looking out for us?

If you’re looking for a local bike advocacy group, look no further than the BikeAlameda group. A group based right here in Alameda, BikeAlameda is focused on advocacy while Team Alameda helps get people active.

The East Bay Bicycle Coalition looks “to promote bicycling as an everyday means of transportation and recreations,” is a great area group that helps riders across the SF East Bay. The group’s blog can be found here.

Of note, the family cycling workshop will take place next Sunday from Otis Elementary School, with a focus on safe riding practices. The seminar is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. and will run until 12:30 p.m., and exact details can be found on the EBBC website.

I’ve worked with BikeAlameda and EBBC in the past, and highly recommend looking into each bike advocacy groups.  Unfortunately, there are no official Alameda running clubs — but a small gathering of East Bay runners can be found on Twitter.