Check us out in the June edition of Chicago Social and Houston Social Magazines! We’ve been labeled as one of the magazine’s favorite shopping destinations. With such an endorsement, you can’t go wrong purchasing a watch from ActiveWatches.com. To see our profile in Chicago Social Magazine, click on this link and go to page 36.
The ActiveWatcher
ActiveWatches.com is proud to sponsor four NCAA cycling teams! That’s right, you read that correctly: not just one, but four. (If The ActiveWatcher may say so, ActiveWatches.com must be doing something right!) ActiveWatches.com is sponsoring the cycling teams of Ohio State University, Georgetown University, University of Wisconsin, and Colorado University — the leading cycling organizations in the NCAA. And you thought only runners were interested in our products. Come see why these organizations are sponsored by ActiveWatches.com. Visit the site today!
ActiveWatches is pleased to announce its sponsorship of the “All Wheels for Fibromyalgia” (AW4F) team in their quest to win the famous Race Across America (RAAM), which begins on June 12th. RAAM is one of the toughest cycling events in the United States, spanning 3,000 miles and 15 states, from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland. About 40 teams will vie to become the first to reach Annapolis, including AW4F. However, AW4F’s goal goes beyond simply winning, but includes raising national awareness for fibromyalgia. ActiveWatches is proud to contribute to their efforts. Click here to learn more AW4F, RAAM, ActiveWatches’ sponsorship, and/or to make your own donation to the team’s cause.
The ActiveWatcher and the rest of the ActiveWatches team gives the AW4F’s members a pat on the back and wish them good luck. As champions in the race’s four-person category in 2009, we feel pretty darn good about the team’s prospects. Can someone say “REPEAT CHAMPIONS”?!?!
The ActiveWatcher
The official start of summer means only one thing — the official start of your active season. So it’s time to upgrade your active gear by purchasing a new watch through ActiveWatches’ summer 2010 sale! Log-on to ActiveWatches.com to get 20% off any of our watches. Just enter SUMMER2010 at checkout.
Whether it’s getting in shape, looking fit, feeling great — there are endless number of reasons to get active this summer. And there’s no doubt a watch will help you do that (as if I had to remind you). Log-on today. This offer will expire before you realize this active season’s over (July 1, 2010).
Also checkout our new Facebook page.
The ActiveWatcher
Great article at Boosh News about barometer watches. You can find the article here. Quick active recap: for those of you who slept through your junior high earth science class, barometers measure atmospheric pressure and can be used to indicate current and oncoming weather. Old school barometers used to look like the one below. Like everything else, barometer technology are small enough to fit within sports watches and are now included in many sports watches, particularly ones used for hiking and available on ActiveWatches.com. Isn’t technology great?!?! Enjoy.
Here’s a quick update on The ActiveWatcher’s series of posts on heart rate monitors. Great Q&A article from Active.com on working out with a heart rate monitor (HRM). You can find the article here. The gist: an HRM is an effective tool for controlling your level of exertion, thereby enabling you to save some energy for later portions of the workout. Also note the article’s use of the term “zone” – a fancy way of saying that your heart is beating within a certain range, with Zone 1 having the lowest range and Zone 5 having the highest. For example, The ActiveWatcher’s Zone 1 range is between 94 and 109 beats per minute (bpm) and The ActiveWatcher’s Zone 5 range is between 156 and 172.
The ActiveWatcher was recently on vacation, surfing the Internet, and came across an article in the International Herald Tribune about watchmakers seizing the latest marketing technologies. You can read the article here. The introduction paragraph talks about the potential obscurity of the watch due to the cell phone, which, as everyone who lives on Earth by now knows, tracks and tells time. My interest was piqued, and prompted me to do some additional research on the Internet. That research led to a similar article in the Boston Globe titled “Does anybody (under 30) really know what time it is?” You can read the article here. As the title implies, the article more fully talks about the increasing obscurity of the watch due to the cell phone.
You may be saying to yourself, “Yeah, big whoop, how is this issue newsworthy enough to be discussed on such an important and cutting-edge blog such as this one?” Frankly, the ActiveWatcher didn’t realize that the practice of ditching the watch, the sine qua non of the ActiveWatches website, was a bona fide trend. The ActiveWatcher was born at the cusp of Generation X, so he remembers a time in his life, not so long ago in fact, that the cell phone didn’t exist and certainly wasn’t ubiquitous. That meant that watches were necessary to many, despite the ability of us stone agers to tell time from the sun.
The ActiveWatcher isn’t about denying the obvious. He realizes that the utility of a watch has significantly declined given the constant, modern day clutch of the cell phone, no matter where and where. At one point, perhaps about five years ago, the ActiveWatcher even considered ditching his watch to rely solely on the cell phone, but he didn’t. He tried, but he couldn’t. His wrist felt too light, leading to the perpetual feeling that something just wasn’t right. And everytime he sought the time, he was disgusted with the sight of a naked wrist in all its glory, with the tan line outlining his former watch.
Beyond that, the ActiveWatcher posits two logical reasons that the cell phone has not imperiled the first civilized tool coveted by the Type-A caveman.
First, the cell phone is simply impractical for telling time during most physical activities, particularly intense ones. Can you imaging trying to pull out a cell phone during a swim and climbing a wall? “Hey Jack, hold my rope as I hang on this cliff and pull out my cell phone to see if it’s time for dinner?” (Alas, the ActiveWatcher is persuaded that the ActiveWatches’ business model — as a purveyor of sports watches — remains intact.)
Second, the watch is yet another method to showcase your individual sense of style and another expression of your personality. In this sense, it’s another piece of jewelry, albeit with a practical purpose. Grant it, a cell phone achieves the same objective (cue the latest Tag Heuer cellphone), but not so effectively when it’s stuck mostly in your pocket.
Call the ActiveWatcher old-fashioned, but he’s willing to argue that the cell phone just doesn’t cut it as a constant, reliable tool for time, regardless of the setting. The cell phone isn’t readily accessible as a watch, which is attached to your wrist and not stuck in your pocket, and is prohibited in certain settings, contrary to the universal inclusivity of the watch. Not to mention, the cell phone is easier to lose and is inoperable without constant charging. In my book, the cell phone is only marginally better than relying on public clocks or the good-old fashioned, “Hey, got the time?”
Let’s just hope for the ActiveWatchers sake, everyone under 30 agrees.
The ActiveWatcher
The January 2010 issue of Runners’ World has a great blurb about footpods, which are essentially devices separate from the watch that allow the watch to measure speed, distance, and other metrics. You can read the blurb by clicking here. Footpods aren’t new, but haven’t been as prevalent as GPS devices due to limitations on accuracy and reliability. Technology is changing that though, just like everything else. With their accuracy and reliability improving, more and more watch brands are starting to incorporate footpods as part of the watch package and The ActiveWatcher has observed a noticeable increased in interest among the running community. As the blurb says, however, calibration is the key to ensure continued accuracy and reliability.
The ActiveWatcher
Question: I often do repeat/interval workouts. That involves running very hard for a specified period of time, say three minutes, and cooling down for a shorter period of time, say one minute. Can I program my watch to track these times? In other words, how do I get my watch to tell sound an alarm after three minutes and then sound another one after one minute, and repeat this process continuously?
Answer: Yes, you can program your watch to track two different times, but only if your watch is equipped with an “interval timer” (also referred to as a “dual timer”). Most basic digital sports watches have an interval timer, which allows you to enter and track two separate exercise times.
Let’s use a Timex watch as an example (mainly because The ActiveWatcher himself uses a Timex Ironman Sleek 50 Lap when running his own interval workouts). Press the “MODE” button until you get to “INTTMR,” which is short for Interval Timer. Press the “+ / -” buttons to set the desired exercise time for the first interval and then push the “NEXT” button. Press the “+ / -” buttons to select “REPEAT AT END.” Once you see “INT 1” (interval #1), press the “+ / -” buttons to change to “INT 2” (interval #2). Use the “+ / -” buttons again to set the desired exercise time for the second interval. Finally, press “DONE” to complete the setting process. All major watch brands follow a similar, if not identical, process. Now go get active.
Many of the watches on ActiveWatches.com have an interval time. Check ’em out for yourself. Many are reasonable in price. As usual, if you have any questions about interval timers or any of the watches on ActiveWatches, feel free to e-mail The ActiveWatcher at theactivewatcher@activewatches.com.
Time Geek Tips is a regular feature of The ActiveWatcher that provides practical information and instruction on how to get most out of your sports watch. Click on the heading “Time Geek Tips” on the right navigation bar to get more tips about sports watches.
In Part 2 of this two-part series, we’re going to address a question that’s probably more important to you pragmatists out there: Why use a heart rate monitor (HRM)? Hey, if you’re going to drop some cash on a HRM, you wanna know what’s in it for you. It’s not enough that you now know how a HRM works and what it does (see the previous post). Have no fear, The ActiveWatcher is here….
First and foremost, it’s just cool to know how fast your heart is racing during a workout. I remember purchasing my first Timex HRM in graduate school. It was the iPhone of my day. I spent $400 I had no business spending — just so I can measure and see what my pediatrician did annually for a copay of just $10. It was simply cool to see that my heart rate was around 50 while studying, 60 when urinating, 70 watching the Sopranos (hat tip to HBO), 80 when playing video games, 100 on a light jog, and would increase by 5 when drinking coffee no matter what I was doing. I won’t even get into the other non-PG rated activities. My then-girlfriend got so sick of this obsession that it was one of the reasons why she broke up with me. My heart rate was 60 when she did it.
Second and more seriously, a HRM allows you to monitor your pace. This is particularly important on long runs. If you’re like me, you’re not perfectly in-sync with your body; sometimes I just can’t tell how fast I’m going, especially if I’m still half asleep. In times like that, a HRM monitor is perfect; it tells you how much energy you’re exerting, thereby indicating whether you need to speed up or whether you should stay at your current pace.
Third, a HRM as one of the best indicators of fitness improvement. Run a fixed distance at a fixed pace one day. Run the same distance at the same pace a month later. If you did the latter at a lower heart rate, you’ve officially improved your fitness. How, you ask? Because a lower heart rate tells you can do the same amount of work with less energy exertion. Keep up the great work! This obviously works for any type of exercise/activity.
Fourth, if you’re doing an interval/repeat workout (e.g., running, then jogging, then running again, and repeating this a number of times), a HRM will tell you when you’re body has recovered adequately to start the next interval/repeat. (In addition to telling you whether you’re starting off too fast.
Finally and most importantly, a HRM can be used to improve your fitness if used properly. This is where the fancy term “zone training” comes into play, which is a fitness geek’s way of identifying different levels of your heart rate. The higher the zone, the faster your heart rate. By monitoring these zones while working out, you can more accurately assess whether you need to exert more energy. And if you exert more energy enough times, you’ll improve your fitness level . Conversely, zone monitoring will also tell you when to slow down so you can save that energy for the next time you want to get into a higher zone. In a sense, this is no different than speeding up or slowing down based on your own, perceived level of exertion. But going back to the above points, your heart rate more accurately indicates your level of exertion. See the second reason above.)
If you’re more interested in reading about HRMs and how they can help your training, a good article is posted on Active.com, one of my favorite sports/fitness website. You can get the article by clicking here. It’s somewhat technical, but it’s great if you can follow it and if you’re interested in how other concepts come into play, such as VO2 max and lactate threshold.
Of course, if you’re interested in purchasing a HRM, visit our website at www.activewatches.com.
www.activewatches.com
The ActiveWatcher 