dracs

who's doing the Johnson Crane this weekend? I am crapping myself slightly - training has been poor throughout Jan. Done a few half marathons on weekends as my long runs and battling with niggles, taking 2/3 days to recover etc. Just hoping to get anything under 5 on Sunday so I have my Oceans qualifier in the bag... then will re-assess way forward.

third year running you are going to be disappointed. I am hopeful Hamilton has some competition this year - but more likely to be from Ferrari than his teammate...

What he said. Go to Mike - ditch the orthotics (from someone who definitely does need correction and support)... Mike will put you in the correct shoes, and advise if you need to strengthen certain muscles etc

Clean riders getting some small satisfaction today. Not too many here seeing the positives in that SAIDS are catching the cheats? For sure better late than never? Bio passport convictions are not straight forward Waylon Woolcock ‏@WaylonWoolcock 2h2 hours agoWaylon Woolcock Retweeted Hendrik LemmerYes well done SAIDS! The circle gets smaller... https://twitter.com/GrootLem/status/689039558235787264 … Waylon Woolcock added,Hendrik Lemmer @GrootLem Another one to fall. Former team mates Brandon Stewart, David George. More will follow. Well done SAIDS https://twitter.com/News24/status/689034163983400961 …

As I have decided to focus on running this year, I bought the 235 for myself for Xmas and am loving it. It is now my day-to-day watch and its interesting to monitor resting HR vs training load etc, all-day HR and esp sleep heart rate, sleep quality etc. The main quirk referred to of wrist based HRM's is the overlap with cadence (mentioned in the DC rainmaker review). Until a week ago I didn't experience this issue at all - but at the start of a treadmill run the other day I was initially very confused (and a little concerned) to see my HR up at about 175, until I realised this was also my cadence. Slowed up a bit then got back to normal stride and then HR corrected itself from then on. Other than that I have had no issues with the optical HRM - mostly running but did also try on one ride just to compare. I used a chest strap linked to my garmin 510 and the 235 with the optical HRM. The 2 tracked each other identically with the exception of a downhill stretch where my chest strap (presumably due to drying out a bit), suddenly shot up to over 220 (my max is 184). All in all then, for my needs the wrist based is the way to go - nice not having to hassle with straps, and also in the Dec/Jan heat opened up the option of a quick shirtless run without getting that stupid HR strap tan!

Yes - as long as you are a member of team vitality on the day of the race.

Yep, 0.66% or 0.66 cents earned for each rand. At face value this doesn't compare all that well - most reward programs will give you 1% back, however they multiply this by 10 at a number of stores (eg. pick n pay, dischem, sportsmans, clicks, and now BP) - so then you are earning 6.6%. Also, the stores that qualify (such as @home, toys r us, cape union mart etc) give you 20% cash back. What we do is use Disco cards only at retailers that provide additional rewards (miles multiplier or cash back), and use FNB at others as my ebucks earn rate starts at 2.5%, 5% for online, and up to 15% at places like checkers, fuel etc). I hear many people poo-poo these rewards programs, but its not hard to make them really work for you if you just take a little time to understand them.

Per the website I still get 25% but have not yet done the fitness test this year. I did one last year in about March so I assume you need to do a new one within 12 months of last one to keep the 25% (so the clock seemingly doesn't re-set on 1 Jan 2016). I did find the wording a little ambiguous on this point.

While I would agree you should claim log the event to be sure, in my experience if it is a timed event (racetec or championchip) they do give you the cash back (and points) automatically

I was smoking my socks! corrected now - got R1k back healthy gear. Other cash back was for other disco bits and pieces...

Edit - I see you are correct!! So max of R1k a month back for family, R500 for single...

They posted the attached on their twitter feed... Jan looks pretty good - 3 races I'm already entered are 50% back. dhv_team_vitality_january_combo_calendar.pdf

I get 25% on healthy gear from sportsmans warehouse capped at R4000 SPEND per month (family cap). Per the website if you are a single member the SPEND cap is R2000 per month... edit to correct - tks Shaper

Definitely can pair to chest strap. Your other option will be to use your regular cycling head unit on the cycle leg. The wrist based HRM can broadcast HR as a regular ANT sensor... (well at least I assume it will since my forerunner 235 can do that and its the same tech)

Cheers, yes perfectly - so nothing needs to be done on the wattbike itself (sensors always broadcasting)... the only hack is having to repeat the process each time assuming you can't always get the same bike..

Hi Shaper, pls help how do you do this? I fiddled around once before and didn't come right. Also have a 910xt and use the wattbikes at the VA (so can't always get the same bike but have set up a profile on a couple of them)..

If your HRM links to your iphone and heart rate data shows on strava, this should give you the points you need for a general gym workout. As someone else said, on the app record it as a run and just edit activity type later - from a points perspective it doesn't matter as long as you have done x minutes at x hear rate. That said, I reckon for you the apple watch is not a bad idea as will make all this easier (esp since gather you don't have a garmin or other fitness device). the apple watch will sort hear rate data, and for those days when you are not gyming but just being generally active / on your feet, you will get some points based on your step count.

Beat me to it...

Is the March story confirmed or rumour? if as soon as that I am also inclined to wait

Yup, thinking of getting her the apple watch for this purpose, since I already all garmined up, and eyeing the forerunner 235 when it becomes available... Yea, great option if your phone reads Ant+, but sadly iphone doesn't - unless you add an adapter which costs more than a Bluetooth HRM...

Not correct - the wife is on strava only and, although the connection is dodgy and I have had to de-link and re-link a few times, she is getting points. For next year she really needs heart rate data to benefit fromt he changes - so I am currently considering either getting her a blue tooth HR monitor to use with the strava app (cheaper option) - or (more likely) proper device for xmas...

Btw, on the strava issue, I delinked and then re-linked strava from the vitality app, and that seems to have done the trick, as within an hour this weeks activities are showing on the vitality app as well...

Yep, was awesome. Big tall vitality flags pointed the way... they had their own bike park, proper physio's doing the post race massage, chocolate milk recovery drinks (or your preference of colddrink), woollies sandwiches etc etc etc.