The Week in Review is a collection of both all the good stuff I've written on the internet over the past week, as well as a ton of links I've found interesting, related to endurance sports in general. I've often wondered what to do with all the cool writing people have written. I share a lot of it on Twitter/X and Facebook, but this forum is a better place to get it out to you. In most cases, these different streams do not overlap. So look for good things in all these places.
Now let's move on to the action.
DCR posts from the past week:
The latest information on the site is as follows:
Monday: Behind the scenes at an Apple Fitness+ studio: from start to finish
Wednesday: Polar Grit X2 Pro hands-on: All new features are here!
Thursday: Strava expands cycling best effort and begins pushing routes to all polar devices
Friday: FIT File: Let's talk about Strava vs. Komoot routes, Grit X2 price
Spring Sports Tech Sale:
While we're seeing lots of new sports tech deals, primarily from Garmin, several other companies are participating in spring-themed Amazon sales. Garmin seems to have some of the best deals here, but other deals aren't too bad either.
| product | sales price | Amazon | Other sites | sale notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Apple Watch Series 9 – $106 off! $399/$499 (mobile phone) |
$292 | Amazon | I don't know why this particular Apple Watch Series 9 combo has a higher sale price than the other editions (on sale for $320), but oh well…the one I linked is the Midnight Aluminum with Midnight Case Sport Loop, currently listed for $293 new. Otherwise, it's $329 ($70 off). | |
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Garmin Epix (Gen 2) and Sapphire – $300 off $899/$999 |
From $549 | Amazon | spirit | ⚡ This deal is back and at just $549 for the basic edition and just $599 for the Titanium/Sapphire edition, it's a very strong deal. Granted, it's not quite as expensive as his $449 at Uncle Amazon back in Black Friday, but those days are long gone. Also, his Epix series just received a ton of new features last week and will continue to add new features on par with his Epix Pro units. |
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Garmin Forerunner 255/255S – $100 off | $249 | Amazon | spirit | This is Garmin's mid-tier running watch, and it's a very sophisticated option with excellent multi-band GPS and, of course, a ton of running metrics. |
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Garmin Forerunner 255/255S Music – $100 off! | $299 | Amazon | spirit | This is Garmin's mid-tier running watch, and it's a very sophisticated option with excellent multi-band GPS and, of course, a ton of running metrics. This model also includes offline music such as Spotify and Amazon Music. |
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Garmin Forerunner 55 – $30 off $199 |
$169 | Amazon | spirit | This is a great little running watch, but it also supports many other sport types. This is the normal sales price. |
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Garmin Forerunner 955 – $100 off! | $399 | Amazon | Pros-closet.sjv | One of Garmin's most popular running watches is back at its lowest price ever. Due to its very strong GPS performance, it is often used for comparison accuracy tests when validating other watches. Please note that this is the basic edition without solar. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better deal on a sports watch from any company today (considering it has full mapping, tons of new features, etc. even this week…) |
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Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: $100 off! $499/$599 |
$499 | Amazon | spirit | See everything I said above regarding the Forerunner 955 base. However, this also has solar capabilities. |
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Garmin Index S2 WiFi Scale – 20% off $149 |
$119 | Amazon | I only use this scale for its weight tracking feature (not body fat). Works fine and integrates with the rest of his Garmin data. Even if you're not in the Garmin ecosystem, there are plenty of cheaper options. | |
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Garmin Instinct 2 Series – Over $60 off | From $238 | Amazon | spirit | ⚡Instinct 2's base price starts at $238 (on Amazon), which is a very solid deal, especially considering all the major software updates that have come in the last year. Also available at REI starting at $249. |
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Garmin Instinct 2X – $50 off | $399 | Amazon | spirit | This is the second time we've seen the Instinct 2X go on sale, and it's received a huge number of firmware updates and new features since its announcement. It is best considered an Instinct 2.5 as it has a slightly different internal structure compared to the rest of his Instinct 2 series. |
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Garmin Instinct Crossover – $50 off | $349 | Amazon | ||
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Google Pixel Watch 1 – $150 off | $199 | Amazon | Although the new Pixel Watch 2 was only released last fall, almost every software feature has been added to the Pixel Watch 2 through software updates. The Pixel Watch 2 has a slightly better optical HR sensor and longer battery life, but is otherwise relatively similar. In fact, the Pixel 1 just received a new software update last week. | |
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Polar Pacer – $70 off! | $166 | Amazon | This is almost as cheap as the Polar Pacer (base unit) price. | |
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Polar Pacer Pro – $70 off! $329 |
$269 | Amazon | ||
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Samsung Galaxy Watch6 – $50 off | $249 | Amazon | ||
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Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic – $100 off | $299 | Amazon | That's a pretty solid deal for a watch that was released last summer. | |
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Tacx NEO 2T Smart Trainer (+ Free Motion Plate) – $400 off! $1,399 |
$999 | Amazon | Pros-closet.sjv | ⚡ This deal is back and now the offer is enhanced by adding $300 worth of Tacx Motion Plates for free (via rebate). So if you didn't come out before, go ahead. |
Last week's YouTube videos:
Here are some videos that were hits on You of Tube: Don't forget to subscribe there to get notified the moment a video hits.
Interesting things I found on the interwebs:
Below are just a few of the considerable things I stumbled upon while fulfilling my civic duty of finding the end of the internet.
1) Added dark mode to Wahoo ELEMNT/BOLT series. Watch the GPLAMA video to learn more.
2) Wahoo also has a new CEO. I got the press release, but no other media outlet seems to have covered it other than this one. I kind of wish the new CEO had a background in sports or sports technology, but at least he's a cyclist and runner (and apparently smart enough not to get hooked on swimming, which is the gateway to triathlons). As usual, I'm going to give him a good shake and see how things cook up over the next year. Sometimes an outside perspective works, sometimes it doesn't. It really depends on the company and the situation.
3) Smartwatches should not force you to choose between Apple and Android: Obviously, there will be a lot of discussion this weekend about the US v. Apple case. In fact, some of them are due to the ability of third-party smartwatches (e.g. Garmin/Polar/Suunto/COROS/etc…) to access certain functions that are currently blocked (such as responding to text messages). Focused. In any case, this article from Victoria at The Verge pretty much illustrates the situation regarding watches.
4) New iGPSport iGS800 cycling GPS computer: Several people have asked about this new unit if I would like to review it. I'm a little confused. In the past I've tried a few iGPSport devices (like Bryton) and while the hardware specs tended to be good, the software side was often pretty rough. In some ways, the company's introduction of this device follows that. Although it was announced on Facebook, there is no mention of the device on the company's site (neither in the news section nor in the product section).
5) A man connects his phone to a drone in search of help on a snowy mountain: After being trapped for two days, the man strapped his cell phone to a DJI Mavic 3, sent a message, and took off to (hopefully) get within range. It worked, and SAR personnel quickly reached him. As I always say, take one drone or three drones with you when you travel.
6) Hammerhead revamps structured workouts in the Karoo: Along with adding support for Italian, we've also improved the granularity of the trainer control bits. Thus, the Italian trainer has two reasons for his users to celebrate this week.
7) TrainerRoad provides red lights, green lights, and signals for all athletes. I've been using this in beta for a while now and it's pretty cool. However, it is a slightly scaled down version of what you see directly on some watches. I might write more about this later this week given the usage above.
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thank you for reading!
