Tarafrost Blog

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: Disposable tracking devices…

This is interesting….a disposable, inexpensive tracking device that will measure calorie burn, steps taken, activity levels, sleep patterns and more.

Click on the image for the press release. The company, BodyMedia, makes tracking armbands that include sensors for galvanic skin response, temperature, heat flux (heat dissipation from your body), and a 3-axis accelerometer.

Click on the armband above to get more info on BodyMedia’s current arm band monitoring devices.

The ideas are interesting, but not including a heart rate monitor, despite the explanation BodyMedia gives for not doing so, makes this device less attractive in my mind. The devices aren’t cheap at over $179, and are even more pricey when you factor in that you have to subscribe to a monthly plan to be able to upload and analyze your data, when similar devices, like heart rate monitors and the like provide the web site for free. If you have to subscribe, then the device cost should be much, much lower, IMO, to attract enough customers.

I also don’t think that an accelerometer alone, without GPS integration (possibly provided by your phone), will work well for riding on a dirt bike. I suspect the bouncing around will skew the analysis of caloric expenditures and the like.

Still and all…interesting to see some of the new and innovative ideas that are addressing the “Quantified Self” area.

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: Why bother?

What really happens to our muscles as we age if we are chronically active?

The above images are MRI cross sections of leg muscles. Via this recently published study in the journal Physician and Sports Medicine.

So why bother to get out and ride in the dirt? It’s rather obvious, isn’t it?

Contrary to popular opinion…

…I’m not unbalanced!

Thanks to Donna for the great photo. I’m standing on my dirt bike teeter totter, BTW.

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: Cool device from Nike…

The FuelBand from Nike, due to be available in the USA late February, looks very cool and interesting:

Click on the image above for an article about the FuelBand.

I wonder how well it will work on a dirt bike? Might be problematic, since it doesn’t track your speed, location nor heartbeat, just arm movement. The bouncing around on a ride would register, but the resulting NikeFuel score would likely be indicative of nothing useful.

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: Double Blip weekend at the Trials Training Center, TN

I finally found a bit of time to post a slideshow of my photos from the Double Blip weekend I did early in December at the Trials Training Center, TN:

Click on the photo above to see the slideshow!

Santa came…Santa Came!

Seems that Santa was having trouble with the Reindeer losing traction on steep roofs, and not being able to turn in tight spaces. Jumping over the chimneys was getting to be difficult for the ageing reindeer as well, so Santa figured he would modernize his rig!

Given the presents under the tree this year, I guess it must have worked!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

PS. Yes….I rode for about an hour today (Boxing Day)! Bit slippery with the front tire on the tight turns, but great fun nonetheless!

PPS. Hmmmm…..not a bit of purple to be seen. Maybe I need to change my handle to Crimson Beast instead? :D

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: Sleep tracking, Sticker Sensors & Fitbit

Ya gotta rest well to improve your performance, so something like the Zeo Sleep Manager device might be an interesting addition to the arsenal of fitness monitoring tools.

I’ve ordered one, though it’s primarily for my wife, since she has problems sleeping. I’ll report on how it works once it arrives.

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Here’s another interesting sensor concept: Stickers as Sensors

Being tied to an ethernet-wired base station might be a bit limiting, since you can’t take the GreenGoose system/sensors out on the trails, but might still have some interesting possibilities. An automated reminder that you’re overdue for a ride on the trails, perhaps?

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And then there is the Fitbit Ultra sensor.

Unlike the GreenGoose stickers/sensors, which need to be within a few hundred feet of a base station, the Fitbit Ultra will store the data and then upload it automagically when it gets into range of it’s base station, making it something that would work out on the trails.

The built-in accelerometer and altitude sensors are intriguing. Makes me wonder if you could create an offroad riding specific app that monitors bike movement and the like, using the Fitbit API, to track interesting ride measurements.

Interesting times!

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: Embedded body monitoring…

No sooner than I had posted about embedded monitoring of body biochemical levels, such as glucose level for diabetics, than I stumbled across the following two posts that discuss working prototypes:

Artificial pancreas clinical trials begin in London which includes an embedded blood sugar monitor.

And this one:

Implants, tattoos, and tears could measure blood sugar without pain

The “tattoo” concept is very interesting, being less invasive than a larger implant.

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: Hendrie/Williams Ride Replay

Got together this past Friday with Stormchazer (Dave), Upriver (Rob), OrangeKoolaid (Don) and Sadlmakr (John) for a ride in Hendrie and Williams tracts, since the weather forecast was excellent for this time of year, 12C and partly sunny.

Overall stats for the ride were:

Distance: 53.01 km
Time: 3:46:42
Avg Speed: 14.0 km/h
Elevation Gain: 241 m
Calories: 2,326 C
Moving Time: 2:01:51
Avg Speed: 14.0 km/h
Avg Moving Speed: 26.1 km/h
Avg HR: 119 bpm
Max HR: 159 bpm

Here’s a Garmin Connect replay of the ride with my heartrate and speed graphs:

Ain’t technology grand?

I did notice that my iPhone lost the GPS satellite signal in a few spots….particularly in the Williams tract, while my Garmin Oregon had no such troubles. I suspect that the Oregon is more sensitive, especially in forest cover plus it’s on the handlebars in the open, while the iPhone lives in the backpack with lots of other stuff.

As a result of that, I’ll be testing pairing the heart rate monitor with the Garmin Oregon on the next ride, assuming we still have a few days of riding left before the winter snows bring our season to a close up here.

I wonder if I can import the data from the Garmin into the iCardio app…somehow I doubt it, and expect that I’ll submit that as a feature request to the DigiFit guys.

Dirt Bike Fitness Odyssey: ECGs, Bloodwork and more…

Over breakfast this morning, I was commenting that more capable devices, based on the computer in your pocket (aka: smartphone) were on the horizon, and a few hours later stumbled upon this announcement for a Mobile ECG system.

This device is targeted more at physicians, and so the price point is likely going to be way too high for casual use, but as a “proof of concept” it’s an interesting indicator of what we should expect not too far into the future.

There are already iPhone-based glucometers starting to hit the market, which is a “no-brainer” evolution of these devices for diabetics.

I’m still waiting for the “lab results on a chip” R&D efforts to hit the mainstream, where you just get a drop of blood and put it on a postage size sensor, costing $10 or so, and get instant blood work results back (eg. Cholesterol levels), rather than having to go line up (the lines are always long!) at a lab and have a nurse take the blood, send it out, and wait a few days for a result to be sent to your physician. The results would be cheaper, faster, more convenient and with less chance of error (ie. test tube mixup, wrong test run, etc.).

Once these lab results on a chip arrive then the next step is obvious….provide an interface to a smartphone, where you pop in a disposable sensor, do the test, and then can analyze, track, save, send and otherwise manipulate the data either locally on your pocket computer (smartphone) or through a cloud-based service. And after that? Implantable monitoring chips that test key bloodwork levels on a realtime basis, and wirelessly transmit the results to the phone in your pocket.

There are already services like Inside Tracker that will analyze your bloodwork on the web, and provide customized recommendations for exercise, diet, etc. The issue with these is that you still have to go to a lab for the tests, which is inconvenient and not inexpensive, and so is only attractive to those that have a keen interest in such things and are classic “early adopter” types (like me…stay tuned for more info on Inside Tracker in a few weeks time!). The advent of smartphone-integrated testing devices/chips will make this of more interest to the mainstream, IMO.

The next decade should be a very interesting one, from the perspective of full body function monitoring and how you might be able to use this to optimize your fitness and performance levels.