Tech Blog: FUSAR is Creating a Really Cool New Action Camera

I am not a tech blogger, but I wanted to take a minute to share this one as it ties in to cycling perfectly. Some really cool things are coming out next summer, and Fusar is working hard to develop and release a very neat device in July 2016 for all action sport aficionados.

On Wednesday I met with Fusar, a start-up based in Jersey City, who are coming up with a very impressive product, the Mohawk camera. I had the chance to talk to the co-founders and meet with the entire team; 10 people working hard to make the Mohawk an action camera "on steroids." I love the product and Ryan and Clayton's vision of FUSAR. What do they do? Read on...

website: www.fusar.com

FUSAR was founded after its CEO, Ryan Shearman, was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle on NYC's Westside Highway on his way to work. With FUSAR Ryan and his team are creating a solution to help make riding a bike or motorcycle as safe as possible while keeping riders connected (the camera can also be used in other action sports like skiing, snowboarding, or skateboarding). If you have a helmet, you can have a Mohawk action camera.

The Mohawk is an action camera with a navigation unit, an activity tracker (think of it as Instagram and Strava combined), a communication system, a black box, and an emergency response system embedded in it. Connect with your fellow riders through the app and track them and/or share your rides, pics, videos with them. Chat with them using the PPT (push-to-talk) technology via the BRC handlebar set.

My favorite feature is the "Guardian Angel Service" feature. In the event of an accident the camera is smart enough to detect it thanks to its crash-detection algorithm. As soon as a crash is detected, the Mohawk will alert your loved ones, report your position, and will automatically share a list of paramedics that are closest to the accident site.

Another cool feature: the black box feature "perpetually records the last 2 minutes of audio, video, and telemetry data." No more arguing with a driver claiming that you are at fault...let the camera prove him wrong!

I should be getting my hands on one in the next few weeks to test it out. I'll let you know how I like it!



Happy holidays all!

May the Kona 2015 shenanigans begin!

Here we go!

Our trip to the big Island for Ironman World Championships has begun, and quite frankly it hasn’t sunk in yet. It probably will when we touch down later today or maybe tomorrow when I go check out the swim start and walk around the Ironman village. I feel like a 5-year old on Christmas Eve, struggling to contain my excitement with what’s ahead of us. I just want to be there and freeze the time for few days or weeks maybe. We both worked hard to get here, and Mariesa did a lot of sacrifices to allow me to be there. It’s time to celebrate and rip the benefits of all those sacrifices.

We decided to break up the long flight from New York and spent a day in Seattle, which greeted us with perfect fall weather: sunny and warm enough so we could comfortably walk around with a sweater. Perfect day! Mariesa’s friend, Courtney, was kind enough to host us. I had a great tempo run around Green Lake in the afternoon. It felt good to see that the legs were still turning over pretty fast after the 5-hour flight. We took off this morning for Kona, and the plan is, if the flight isn’t too delayed, to go pick up the bike from TriBike Transport and ride for a few hours, mainly to shake off the jetlag, but mostly because I cannot wait to get some training in. We’ll see how that goes. I don’t think I’ll be able to get 2.5-3 hours in, but anything will do.

The schedule for next week is phenomenal. Mariesa and I will probably meet up with Enzo tomorrow, a college friend from France who now works as a Sales rep for Endless Pools in the burbs of Philly. Ironically enough, his company will demo their products at Kona. What a small world! I’d love to get in the water and maybe go for a “coffee swim”, or swimming off the beach to a boat, get an espresso shot, and swim back. Apparently that Lava Java coffee is supposed to be the bomb! After that, I will meet up with Matt to go for our 1-on-1 with the Energy Lab!  A 30-40min will allow me to see what hell will feel like come race day. I can’t wait to take it all in and enjoy the experience. We’ll go pick up my parents and Bryan on Monday night, and Bryan will do IronKids, which consist of a 125-yrd swim and a mile run. Aside from that, it’ll be pretty low key I think. I’ll try to get in the water at least once a day, even if it’s just for 20 minutes. I saw some crazy pictures and am dying to take the GoPro and get my own.

Thursday will be busy: Kona Underpants run at 7:30am, followed by some training on the bike, the Trisports Kona Party at 4pm, and finally the Welcome banquet at 6pm. I know that I’ll most likely leave some precious energy with all these shenanigans, but I really want to enjoy the experience. I’ll go hungrier than ever to do well on race day, but I don’t want this to impede on the experience.

Friday will be bike check-in day and all about relaxing before the big dance on Saturday. Exciting! This week will fly by, and before I know it all of it will just be a blur, relying on pictures, videos, and laughter to remember it all. The second week will be all about vacationing and nothing about triathlon for once! See kayaking, zip lining, scuba diving, hiking…what is your program?

Lap-the-Lake 2.4-mile Open Water Swim

I took some time off from Triathlon after IM Texas (2 weeks to be exact) to refocus and be mentally ready to train for IM Canada in July. 

One of the areas that I need to improve on is my OWS skills, and it's fair to say that, though swimming in a pool helps me be faster and more efficient, I need to spend some time in open water. 

the 2.4-mile swim in Franklin Lake, NJ (Lap-the-lake swim) of June 14th was a good opportunity to get the distance in, swimming in a wetsuit, and not worry about the bike and run legs. 

How did it go? 

1:03:37- The distance was 2.62 miles (and no I did not swim off course) 1:22/100yds

Since I've never had a chance to "know my limit" on an open 2.4-mile swim, the plan was to swim hard the whole time and see what my limit was to avoid pushing too hard on the swim leg of IMCA. I wanted to sprint hard to the first buoy and maintain a "fast pace" until the 5th buoy, and just hang on for dear life on the 2nd loop. 

I did just that and found myself in the lead 300 yards into the swim, and felt great. I was pushing hard, but nothing I could not sustain. I got passed at the 4th buoy (out of 8) but I still felt good. By that point it was difficult to sight, and I came out of the first loop a lot more tired than I thought I would be. I was still in the lead pack, which was pretty cool knowing that I am not a swimmer. 

On the 2nd loop, I focused on maintaining a good pace, swimming straight, and getting a better feel of the water. I was very happy with my sighting, swimming fairly straight for the most part. An older swimmer could not keep it straight and would zig zag the whole time. At the furn of the 4th buoy I started to feel really tired, and instead of trying to push harder, I focused even more on my technique, as I know that one's technique gets sloppy as fatigue sets in. 

I came 5th out of the water, 2nd male OA, but got chicked 3 times. 

I was disappointed by my time at first, as I really wanted to swim sub 1 hour, but only 1 person swam barely under the hour. also, 2.62 miles is close to 400 extra yards, so I'm confident to say that I would have swam sub 1 hour if the distance was right. 

On another note, it was great to show up to an event without the pressure I seem to put on myself to do well. We went to the event, swam for an hour, and went to go get breakfast (which was terrible, btw). That was great. I am looking forward to doing more OWS during my mini training camp in Lake Placid in July, and look forward to racing the Jersey Shore Olympic this weekend. 

Happy training all!

Training Weekend in Raleigh, NC

The bitter cold weather of the North East took its toll on me, and I needed to figure out a way to train outside and finally get a chance to test out my new TT. After a weekend skiing in Killington, VT, we decided (I kind of imposed it on Mariesa) to make the trip down to Raleigh, NC for President's day, hoping that the weather would be nicer. 

Saturday: 45F and sunny

After a long drive on Friday night, we made it to Raleigh at around 2:30am, and woke up around 8am, but did not feel like riding outside right away. I did some research to find some bike routes, and it seems like Trek Raleigh, a bike shop about 15 min from where we stayed, had bike courses marked with arrows (red for 50K ride and blue for 100K). I was curious to check it out, so I drove there and started from there. 

I did not get to start until around 12pm, which is late, very late compared to the latest I would allow myself to start riding outside in NYC (around 8am). Passed 8am, you're almost guaranteed to have to deal with the infamous angry drivers of New York / New Jersey. I was only hoping that drivers in NC would be nicer to cyclists...Drivers would slow down, wait for the oncoming cars to clear me before passing me. While passing, they would give me a good 3-4 feet of clearance. Amazing! It made the ride that much more enjoyable. 

I ended up riding a little over 4+ hours on Saturday on my new P5. Roads were in perfect conditions, with barely any pothole to dodge on rather empty roads. A good mix of rolling hills to get the cardio going and flat sections to get on the aero bars made for a great ride overall. I was pleasantly surprised by it, and could not wait to ride more!

Sunday: Cold and windy!

Not the weather I hoped for, but it'll do. The roads are dry and rideable. the 90min brick ride followed by a 90min brick run did not go as well as I wanted. It was too cold to ride more than 75 min, and the wind got me on the run. Luckily, I found a trail 20min into the run, and was able to run in the woods for a good 55min, completely covered by the wind!

Monday: 21 feels like 13...YIKES!

I had 2.5-3hr ride to do before heading home, and I was not going to let that slide! no way! We drove 7.5 hours for me to train, the roads are dry and in great conditions, and with the bitterly cold weather in NY, who knows when/if I get a chance to ride my bike outside before Oceanside 70.3.
So, as expected, my bottles froze solid after 50min on the bike, my face was freezing and my body didn't want to warm up...for some reason? It was a cold one, and in all honesty, I would not even consider the outdoor option if I were in NY. I would be on the trainer. However, despite all that, I managed to have a good ride in, and am now ready to go home, having accumulating 160 miles on the bike.

New year, new resolutions

New resolutions for 2015:

Massive focus on nutrition this year with strict restrictions and the will to get it right, or at least to be better at it. I started working with Inside Tracker to track and analyze key biochemical markers and help understand where my nutritional deficiencies were. It is as simple as a blood test, and as easy as reading the results on their website and checking their recommendations. They give you detailed explanations of what each marker is and how they impact your wellbeing. They also make food recommendation that will help re-balance my diet and optimize my markers. so, as a result of that, in addition to watching my food intake, below are some "drastic" resolutions...

- No more soda (except on race day)

I drank a lot of it last year, especially after a hard training day on the bike. Watching this video (click here) about the impact sugar has on your body also helped me reassess my diet and make changes. As Coke is very important and helpful on race day, I won't restrict myself from drinking it, but will refrain from doing so outside of competitions. 

- Pizza once every two months

It was too easy to order pizza on weekends, and having Rustique Pizzeria down the street did not help either.  We ordered too many of those 4 cheese pizzas with coke and Tiramisu. We eventually had to cut down. 

We waited for 2 months to eat our first slice, choosing the Superbowl for the event! 

- Seamless order once every 2 weeks

We you cook your own food, you know exactly what goes in it. Ordering on Seamless is nice and easy, but again, we ordered way too much on the site. And with the focus on eating healthier, take out or delivery food wasn't a good option. 

- Eating more fruits and veggies

That's a given, but not as simple as it may seem. I'm finally getting used to eating more veggies. 

All these resolutions I am sure will pay off in the end. After a month I already feel better, more energized, and I feel like I recover quicker. I eat a lot more fruits, veggies, healthy breakfasts with a cup of coffee (and honey to sweeten it), and oat meal with yogurt. Before that I would easily eat a baguette with butter and Nutella every day...no problem! Eventually that also had to go! Oat meal isn't the tastiest breakfast food out there, but Mariesa's baked oatmeal makes up for it! Delicious! 

I've also started to be a lot more careful with my recovery post training. After a good stretching, I try to get some whey protein mixed with water and fruits (usually banana, strawberries, kiwis, or raspberries). On top of being delicious, it helps me recover quicker and I can genuinely feel it. 

If I can be consistent with these resolutions I think I'll see some results this year! 

FTP results were much better than expected

It was FTP test on the bike this week with a 30min all out set after a 20min warm-up.

It was a very important test to gauge where my bike fitness was 6+ months after my last test. It would set my training for the next 4-6 weeks, and more importantly, it could boost my morale and motivation for the month of Feb and March. I took it very seriously, planned the night before to make sure I'd eat healthy and early enough to have enough time to digest before the test (did it at 5am on Tuesday). I went to bed early, probably around 9pm to make sure I'd get enough sleep.
I woke up at 4am, excited and impatient to get on the bike. I had a very light breakfast right away and gave myself 1 hour to digest. I felt good.

And the test begins...
I've never done a 30min all out on the trainer (or even on the road for that matter). On top of the lactic acid building up in your muscles and your breath shortening, you start having negative thoughts telling you that you cannot do it, that it burns too much. The thighs are burnings, the cadence is low and each pedal stroke gets harder and harder. I struggled a lot, having to dig deeper than I thought I'd be able to that early into my training. It got to a point where it was almost unbearable. I came close to the breaking point where I would quit and go back to the apartment, but I knew I'd be disappointed at myself if I did. More importantly, I had 10min left (which seemed an eternity!) for what would set a good benchmark for my 2015 training. I worked too hard to get here and give up. To clear up my mind I started thinking about the results I had at IM Zurich and at the Worlds of last year where I had a strong bike split. I needed to remind myself that I did it before and could do it again.

30min done...and the results are much better than expected, being only a few watts short of my FTP of last year. It instantly gave me a massive boost of confidence on my bike fitness, and more importantly it showed that I still have the mental strength to push myself way beyond my comfort zone. All this is a good sign that I am on the right track so far.