iPhone Pricing in Denmark

Telia is selling the iPhone in Denmark, and the price plan is now public. It includes 300 MB/month and after that it's 1.25 DKR/MB. Laughable. What's wrong with real flatrate data?

I still need an iPhone, and will buy one at the earliest opportunity, and then buy myself out of the contract, because the Telia plans are ridiculous, and it makes absolutely no sense to be a customer of theirs for me.

Triathletic Inspiration

I'm a huge fan of what Alan Couzens writes in his blog, and I try to make a habit of following his advice and ideas, the “The Stotan Code” basically, that he has adopted from Percy Cerutty. The hardest part is the 8 hours of sleep every night. And I didn't come home before 2:30 in the morning yesterday. But I try…

I've heard about Tommy Nielsen before, he's quite the hero with an 8:33' Ironman PR, a full time job and three kids, but now he's even been profiled on Ironman.com as the current Ironman Hawaii champ in his age group.

A very interesting fact in that article, apart from the fact that he is just 2 years younger than I am, is:

He trains an average of 11 hours a week from January to October. In his easy weeks, he trains six to seven hours a week and in the big weeks he trains 17 to 18 hours. This includes one to three swims a week (approximately five to nine km a week) and two to four bike rides (approximately 200 to 330 km a week) and three to four runs a week (25 to 50km a week). This volume of training works for him because of his long history of endurance sports.

The last sentence there is definitely key.

If I keep it up I suppose I could sustain a similar training load in 2010, possibly doing an Ironman again. But I'd still not be as fast as Tommy Nielsen, that would have to be another 10-15 years of consistent training… but then I'll be around 50, and age will curtail speed significantly. Still, that sub-10 hour Ironman that I really want isn't completely out of reach. I just have to do it, to train consistently. And that is hard.

The writing of Alan Couzens, the fact that someone like Tommy Nielsen really exists and race well with a life similar to mine is a huge inspiration to me. I just try and cultivate a habit of consistency in training, because that is the key more so than sheer volume or speed.

Dear fellow cyclists (and pedestrians)…

Keep to the right (or left, if on foot). Keep alert. Pay attention to your surroundings. Please!

Today I was out on a training ride around Amager. On one of the many paths out here I had to pass two older ladies riding side by side talking, blocking the whole path completely. And this on a 3 m wide path, well done! I was doing about 35 km/h at that time, three times their speed, and started coasting so they could hear me approach, and they clearly did. The left lady swerved out left so I could pass between them, which is a really stupid thing to do instead of keeping to the right, but I thought “oh well, quick reaction after all” and aimed to pass between them … and then the old and slow lady started turning to look back over her right shoulder, swerving back right again, blocking my passage!

By this time I was within a bikelength of them and I just had to pass, scaring both them and myself in the process. I heard a shocked gasp as I passed between them.

I should've know they wouldn't react quickly and ridden accordingly. And I should've stopped after passing them and apologized and explained myself. Just for some closure and a chance to tell them what I'm writing now. Because I didn't do the entirely right thing myself, but they certainly didn't either.

So there…

Here's the things I see cyclists and pedestrians do wrong all. the. time.:

• Cyclists riding two abreast and never looking back to check if they're blocking someone, neither paying attention or thinking.
• Pedestrians using the bike path when there's a designated sidewalk or path for them right next to the bike path, just because… this is something runners often do. No idea why the fuckers think that's OK.
• Pedestrians keeping to the right where the law actually says they should keep to the left when sharing the road/path with non-pedestrians. This is a rule I'm really surprised that almost everyone is ignorant of here in Copenhagen, because I vividly remember learning it when I was about 6 or 7. And it totally pisses me off when I get reactions from cyclists when I'm out running in the rigth (ie. left) side.

I understand that the rule about walking on the left is kind of counter-intuitive when everyone else must keep to the right according to Danish law, but it does start making sense when you visualize your situation when out walking on a completely black road at night and some guy comes racing along. You stand a much better chance at jumping successfully for your life if the car in your side of the road comes right where you can see it instead of from behind.

Wildly annoying morning

I sat on a train and waited at Copenhagen central station, already 4 minutes late, this morning, when it was announced that a train had stopped with technical difficulties further down the track in Valby.

Smart as I am I thought that I'd just jump on an S-train and get going, and I saw the right train waiting for me two platforms over, so I ran.

And as I ran down the stairs I heard the train I'd just left 20 seconds earlier start.

Nothing I could do about that, so I ran on, appearing on the right platform just in time to see the train I wanted disappear in the distance.

HTTP Redirection Hell

I've been listening to the Zippcast podcast for a while, it's quite interesting for a bike tech nerd like me, even though it's a marketing oriented podcast. The problem is that the podcast doesn't work in iTunes. Lets look at the latest episode:

Examining the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/zipp I obtain the URL for the MP3 file (The /rss/channel/item/enclosure element, expressed in XPath): http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/zipp/~5/294555004/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3.

Lets examine the headers:

% curl --head http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/zipp/~5/294555004/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3
HTTP/1.0 302 Moved Temporarily
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:28:29 GMT
Server: Apache
X-FB-Host: app15
Location: http://cdn4.libsyn.com/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3
P3P: CP="ALL DSP COR NID CUR OUR NOR"
Keep-Alive: timeout=30, max=100
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Type: audio/mpeg

If you don't have curl(1) you can use lynx(1), links(1) or w3m(1) instead, refer to the respective manuals for how to see HTTP headers. The curl(1) prgram is standard on Mac OS X, and even works on Windows too.

The Location: HTTP header is a redirect. Lets follow:

% curl --head http://cdn4.libsyn.com/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:29:11 GMT
Content-Length: 206
Content-Type: text/html
Location: http://media.libsyn.com/bounce/http://cdn4.libsyn.com/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3
Server: Footprint Distributor V4.2
Connection: keep-alive

% curl --head http://media.libsyn.com/bounce/http://cdn4.libsyn.com/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.1.4
Location: /media/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3
Content-type: text/html
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:29:46 GMT
Server: lighttpd/1.4.15

Ooops! According to rfc2616 the Location header must be an absolute URI, not relative as here. Lets see what happens if I fix it manually:

% curl --head http://media.libsyn.com/media/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.1.4
Location: http://cdn1.libsyn.com/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3?nvb=20080602203748&nva=20080603203748&t=00d47876b74e289c7df18
Content-type: text/html
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:37:48 GMT
Server: lighttpd/1.4.15

% curl --head 'http://cdn1.libsyn.com/zipp/080519_ZippCast_0049.mp3?nvb=20080602203748&nva=20080603203748&t=00d47876b74e289c7df18'
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 9581864
Content-Type: audio/mpeg
ETag: "40f21e8c7f96c1a78999155117a5c32c"
Last-Modified: Mon, 19 May 2008 15:18:02 GMT
Server: AmazonS3
x-amz-request-id: 8EE745DC60620FC8
x-amz-id-2: Trs3w1sY7bwGJIUya2WesWU6SBDyCtQWGEG8PUrySXr6+0YjC/r73J0mrNImSoOY
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:38:41 GMT
Connection: keep-alive

Finally I get the actual audio file.

Whether it's the invalid Location: header or the number of redirects to get to the file that iTunes chokes on I can't tell, but it seems to be a misconfiguration at Libsyn.

If I were to create a corporate podcasting setup I'd seriously consider not using external partners for it as Zipp does. Too many things can go wrong, as seen here, and it just looks bad. But it's probably significantly cheaper to risk looking bad, so in the end it's a question about money as always.

iPhone Coming to Denmark

Yay!

It will be Telia that brings the iPhone to Denmark “…later this year.”

I want it, the new 3G enabled model of course, even if it means becoming a Telia customer, I'll just ditch them as soon as possible. Luckily it's illegal locking customers to a provider for more than 6 months in Denmark…

Finding Titanic was a Cover

The search for Titanic was a cover for a secret search for nuclear submarines it turns out. I remember the pictures when they found Titanic, they were amazing.

Dr. Ballard who led the expedition that found the Titanic got the money from the Navy on the condition that he first located and investigated wrecks of USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.

The Thresher was tailed by a support ship as it was undergoing trials, and they reported loosing power and sinking.

The Scorpion on the other hand is a much more interesting story. The recently declassified material (40 years old) says it was one of the submarines own torpedoes that had circled around and homed in on the vessel. But why did it fire a torpedo? Certainly not just for fun, and it had just been dispatched on a mission to spy on a group of Soviet ships near the Canary Islands…

It reeks of a classic cold war cover up.

I just love cold war history.

The Definition of EPOC

I found Suuntos definition of EPOC. It stands for “…Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption and indicates the amount of extra oxygen that your body needs to recover after exercise.” and “…the higher the EPOC, the more demanding the exercise…”, so it does sound a little like TRIMPS, except that I don’t understand how they can measure Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption while you’re exercising. I could understand if you were supposed to wear the heartrate monitor for an hour or two after exercise, but you’re not.

So I’m a little sceptical, Suunto can at best measure the stimulus that results in EPOC, but they’re certainly not measuring it directly.

There’s a Wikipedia article about EPOC too.

Simplifying Continued, now with Reasons

I forgot to mention my rationale for the ideas I mentioned in yesterdays post.

There's no doubt in my mind that using the type of hardware and software I'm using now for training is state of the art. I think my heartrate monitor is the absolute best, but my bike powermeter could be improved. The software I use is the best, period, but it is hopelessly Windows dependent, and while they've talked about making a Mac version of WKO+ on the private Wattage Google Group, the conclusion was that there wasn’t a business case for it. They only have Device Agent running on Mac for now.

Being a triathlete further complicates matters, as I can't use the same heartrate strap for my Ergomo as my Polar RS800, they use different frequencies, so in races I have to compromise one way or another. And I don't like to compromise.

There's a silver lining though. It seems several manufacturers are now starting to use the ANT+ protocol for wireless communication, so by the end of this year consumers will have a choice between the Garmin Edge 705, SRM PowerControl VI and Quarq Qranium cycling computers paired with either the latest SRM or Quarq CinQo cranks, with the Cycleops Powertap hubs following suit and gaining ANT+ capabilities sometime next calendar year it seems.

On the heartrate monitor front only Garmin makes their basic Forerunner 50 and advanced Forerunner 405 that are ANT+ compatible. I could certainly live with the Forerunner 405, at least as soon as Garmin finish their Mac drivers for it, because it use an ANT+ USB dongle for downloading data, instead of being a USB Mass Storage Device like the Edge 705 is.

Besides, Garmin have a useful developer website, unlike Polar and their rather awful Software Developer License Agreement; be sure to read “2. Grant of License”, that’s the unpalatable part for me. Polar have useful file format documentation though.

So if I was to start purchasing a heartrate monitor and bike powermeter for triathlon training again, I would buy an SRM Pro Solar crank, Quarq Qranium computer, which I like a lot, and a Garmin Forerunner 405, and then get started writing software that can merge powermeter and heartrate monitor files from a triathlon or a bike-run brick workout without so much hassle, and doing it all from Mac OS X (or any other OS preferably) and having a training blog to upload to.

That would rock, but it would also be a lot of work to make, and that was why I started thinking about simplifying as much as possible and using Suuntos “Training Effect”, but I think I’m mistaken in thinking that Training Effect is like TRIMPS, and Suunto seem to be even more closed, proprietary, everyone-runs-Windows-don’t-they? types than even Polar, and that is quite something.

There’s another alternative: keep using my Polar RS800 and change to a Polar CS600 bike computer, they both use Polars proprietary W.I.N.D. communication protocol, and will work with the supremely comfortable Wearlink+ chest straps. Then write the software to parse the files and calculate TRIMPS scores (I have some good ideas for a better TRIMPS score, but that’s another blog post), merge data etc. This plan hinge on somehow making the open source RS400 Tools work on Mac OS X with some sort of external IrDA port (really hard to find for Macs) and then hope that the Polar RS800 and CS600 devices use the same communication protocol as the RS400, which is not unresonable, but you never know.

I think I’ll have to suffer on as usual for a while at least, and then see if I can’t somehow get a fully ANT+ capable triathlon training suite of electronics that Just Works™ with Mac OS X, or go the Polar RS800/CS600 route, which is less optimal but much cheaper, probably financed entirely by selling my Ergomo.

Simplifying Training, Logging and Analysis

Back in my mid-90’ies triathlon career mk. 1 I had a nice Polar heartrate monitor that could show time below, in and above the target heartrate zone after a workout, plus time, laptimes etc. No PC download or other fancy stuff, especially since I didn’t even have a computer back then.

My coach, Seamus Granell, would then prescribe workouts based on time spent, below (low), in (mid) and above (high) the target range, which—if I remember correctly—was set to 80-90% of tested Anaerobic Threshold (AT) in cycling, 85-95% of AT in running. Simple.

A bike workout would then be something like 30’ low, 15’ mid, 45’ high, 30’ low. The “High” intensity meant going at or just below AT, always primarily going by RPE rather than heartrate. It worked extremely well, and was really simple. Often there was further instructions about how to go about it all, but the above was the basics. Volume was measured in time on the bike, km on the run. The swim training I managed quite well myself, 4×/week, 10,000m/week, no excuses, Just Do It™! I got very fit.

With my fancy running computer and bike powermeter I have huge amounts of data now, and the software to crunch the numbers and present it in a useful manner.

In the end the only thing I really appreciate in all of this is the Performance Manager Chart (PMC), which is absolutely great. I’ve blogged about it before. While it’s nice to know that I can push 200W average on a not too hard 2-hour ride I can’t really say I care. I’m much more interested in how many tonnes of fun I had on that ride, because if I have a lot of fun training the results will come anyway.

The only thing I need for the PMC to work is some sort of objective metric for how hard each workout was; in WKO+ it’s called TSS, but it could be anything.

In Analysis of Power Output and Training Stress in Cyclists: The Development of the BikeScore™ Algorithm by Dr. Philip Friere Skiba validates his BikeScore against TSS and concludes that they’re almost the same, mentioning that a simple TRIMPS score, which is based purely on heartrate, would fare almost as well.

That got me thinking: If I could have a heartrate monitor that could do all the things that my old Polar from 1995 could do and calculate something like TRIMPS too, that would be great, then I could just write a little script to take the numbers I’d write down after each workout and draw the PMC for me, the math to do that is public.

Enter the Suunto t3 which calculates what they refer to as “Training Efect”, apparently “a better TRIMPS” score.

Hot.

I’m close to selling the Ergomo and the Polar for that… it would really simplify my life, because all the cables for downloading and messing around with a virtual Windows XP on my Mac that doesn’t really work well with the peripherals anyway is starting to get to me. I’d love just to be able to train and write a little about it, manually entering a few numbers each time in my own little specialized webapp. A custom built training blog, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

How much can I get for an about 20 month old Ergomo with ISO square taper bottom bracket and Ergomo compact crankset with 175mm arms with less than 3000 km on it?