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Spartan Races heads to London for some Pre-Olympics Competition

July 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Top athletes are lining up for some grueling sports this weekend in London, and they are not here for something as easy as the Olympics, but rather the latest in this season’s Spartan Races as the event heads over seas.

The event is Sunday July 22 and will actually take place in Surrey and will be held by Priority Events Ltd. The distance will be 5k and the start time will be 10 am for the Elite class and then heats of 250 people starting at 10:30 with another group leaving every half hour until 12:30 pm.

If you are curious, and I know you are, there are a lot of events held in a variety of nations over the next year including Edinburgh, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, London again and of course Fenway Park.

The top five men in last week’s race in Pa were, in order Singen Elliott, Olof Dallner, Chris Place, Brent Kreider and Jan Peter Brajer while in the women’s it was Jill Danley, Jessica Law, Shorty, Katherine Backel and Julie Jennings.

Looking at its point system, the better fit you are and the higher you compete then the greater the points you can earn. There are four race categories, Sprint, Super, Beast and Ultra Beast and each has a different payoff, using the Super races as the baseline. It’s a bit convoluted but in that race the Elite winner gets 5,000 points, second gets 4,999 etc.. The open winner in that race gets 3,750 points, second gets 3,699 etc.. Cash and prizes will be awarded to the top finishers starting at $5,000 and will grow to a total of $100,000 by the completion of the Arizona race.

Filed Under: Contests, Outdoor Activities, Spartan Race Tagged With:

Velocomp’s iBike Powerhouse System Hits Market

July 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Velocomp has delivered its iBike Powerhouse to the market just in time to train another generation of Tour de France hopefuls along with the much more likely crowd of weekend riders looking to step up their game.

The iBike Powerhouse is a portable computerized cycling fitness system that runs on either an iPod Touch or an iPhone and is designed to adjust automatically to an individual user’s exercise goals.

The system features power measurement and analysis technologies and features that monitor your efforts and provide feedback and updates that are automatically-adjusted based on a number of goal-oriented cycling plans that the company provides.

A user simply selects from any of the four to six week goal-based programs that the application features and it will set up a program that is designed to help you reach your goals with a series of rides that vary between 45-90 minutes long.

The plans, which include programs such as “iSlim, ”“CycleMax,”“ Express Fitness, ”“Brazilian Butt,”“ Weekend Warrior, ”and“ Zero to 20 miles also, allow a user to set their skill level so that a couch potato and a potential racer do not have to follow the same regime. Included in the information and feedback for each program are videos from cycling coach Hunter Allen that provide tips on overall cycling and how to improve your performance.

The iBike Powerhouse comes with a water/shock resistant case, a set of electronics for your bike that register your cycling performance and a wireless speed sensor. A handle bar mounting system also ships with the app so that a user can clearly see what is required for the current workout session. The iBike Powerhouse kit has a MSRP of $279 and comes with two workout programs, iSlim and CycleMax while additional programs are available for $9.99

Sports feedback is a very competitive field, with players from Nike, Garmin to all of Ant +’s customers and many in between trying to grab a piece of the market. Velocomp has a well rounded offering that has gained critical acclaim and should be able to carve out a nice niche for itself.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Cycling, Garmin, iBike, iOS, Nike, Outdoor Activities Tagged With: ,

Watching Motocross- Lucas Oil Motocross heads to Spring Creek

July 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I was flipping through the channels last night and came across a guy soaring in the air on his dirt bike doing an acrobatic jump that I cannot do in my imagination. The tag line was this weekend is the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships.

This caught my interest. I knew there was a championship(s) in this sports but it got be to wondering how many divisions there were along with a few other questions, so I went and looked. The first thing I learned is that the championships are not this weekend; it is now just past the halfway point of the season.

I knew that there are several different bodies supporting different motocross or derivative events but the Lucas Oil one is sanctioned by the AMA Pro Racing and that is what I am looking at here. There is a 12 race season that started in Hangtown in early May and the final is in Lake Elsinore in September.

Two heats or motos for each event and three categories, the first two broken down by engine type and the third for women. These are the 450 Motocross, the 250 Motocross and the WMV Motocross. The AMA has been holding sanctioned races since 1972.

On top of the leaderboard for the 450 Motocross is Ryan Dungey with a total of 286 points followed by Mike Alessi at 214, Jacob Weimer at 202, Andrew Short at 178 and Broc Tickle in the number five post with 162 points.

In the 250 Motocross class Blake Baggett is the leader at 273 points closely followed by Justin Barcia at 253 and then Eli Tomac at 236 and Ken Roczen at 235 with Marvin Musquin filling out the top five at 189 points. In the WMX Motocross Jessica Patterson is the current leader with 201 points then Tarah Gieger at 192, Ashley Fiolek at 175, Mariana Balbi at 155 and finally Jacqueline Strong at 144.



Broadcasts

This week the racers will compete at Spring Creek MX Park near Rochester, Minn. The course has 250 feet of elevation. There are several broadcast options for viewers including live streaming of the events. The first motos will be run at each track between 1 pm and 3 pm local time and are live on Fuel TV as well as streamed at allisports.com. The second WMX motos will also be live streamed.

The second motos will be broadcast on either NBC or NBC Sports Network and there is also a highlights program as well on NBC Sports Network.

Spring Creek
Sat 7/14 FUELTV 2:00-4:00pm 1st Motos
Sat 7/14 NBC Sports Network 4:00-6:00pm 2nd Motos
Mon 7/23 NBC Sports Network 2:00-4:00pm 2nd Moto Re-Air
Sat 7/21 NBC Sports Network 4:30-5:30pm Highlight Series

If you attend one of these events or have YouTube video of one we would be happy to look at it and possibly share it in a future piece on the sport. This is a new area for us and we are certainly not proclaiming any expertise, but have a growing interest and would be happy to hear from fans.

Filed Under: Live Sports Video Consumption, Motocross, NBC Sports, Outdoor Activities Tagged With:

This is Sparta: Spartan Races Catching On.

July 11, 2012 by 1 Comment

A buddy of mine wandered into the local pub a week ago and the left side of his face was a solid bruise. When I asked about it he said that it occurred during a Spartan Race that he had participated in over the weekend.

I really had no idea what he was talking about and after he explained it I realized that I had seen this type of event mentioned in Outside Magazine and elsewhere, I just had never figured that a programmer for IBM would be one of the participants.

The race is against the clock, against the set distance, and the obstacles that are in your path, which can vary from site to site. The obstacles can be mud, water, fire, people hitting you, barbed wire and apparently a host of others that the web site politely declines to spell out.

The layout of the race is a surprise, but you can participate in it as a team, allowing your friends the opportunity to get bruised and battered right alongside of you. At select races there is a cash prize for the top finishers.

I always sort of believed there was just a subset of athletes that participated around the globe, sort of like MLB but with barb wire added for flavor. On wandering over to the Spartan Race web site I was amazed at how many events, and participants, the sport has.

It appears to be a well thought out sport seeking to engage as many as want to try it. At many if not all of the races there are multiple events for different skill levels, thus keeping the interest of athletes that might not be ready for the big leagues of Spartan Racing.

The next race is this weekend, being held July 14 & 15 at the Blue Mountain Ski Area in Palmerton, Pa. with a track distance of 5 miles. However it appears that it is sold out so you will have to wait for the London event in a few weeks to try your hand. Images from past races can be found here.

Filed Under: Outdoor Activities, Spartan Race Tagged With:

Timeout Tuesday: X Games Video Clips Overload

July 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If you missed the Summer X Games a week or so ago, don’t fret. Of course it was all captured on video, and thanks to the wonder of YouTube we have a few clips to share with you. I can’t claim to know what the individual events really are (though it’s pretty easy to figure out something called “moto x freestyle”) but you don’t really need to know… just watch.

First up, Taka Higashino’s winning run in Moto X Freestyle:

Then from the folks at GoPro the “day 1 highlights” which are mainly cool for the point-of-view shots:

Not everything lands smoothly at the X Games. Here Toomas Heikkinen doesn’t get enough lift during RallyCross racing practice:

But then when tricks work… if you ever had these cars as a kid, like I did… you know it doesn’t always work. But you gotta love a real-world version of the Hot Wheels double-loop dare:

First, the live shot in real time:

Then, the edited version with in-car cams:

And… I know this isn’t from this year’s X Games but… Shaun White is one crazy skilled dude. Whatever that move is at :56 in… I don’t know its technical description, but… DAMN

(clips courtesy of X Games, ESPN and YouTube. Thanks!)

Filed Under: ESPN, GoPro, Outdoor Activities, Skateboarding, X Games, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , ,

GoPro’s X Games Highlight Video: Simply Amazing

July 5, 2012 by 1 Comment

Did you miss the X Games last week on ESPN? If so the good folks at GoPro have put together a quick mind-blowing recap video, shot completely with their portable HD HERO2 cameras. Take a quick look here to see what the X Games looks like from the athlete perspective:

Filed Under: ESPN, GoPro, Outdoor Activities, Skateboarding, X Games Tagged With: , , , ,
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