A.M. My last pair of Crocs made it to 2147 miles before the strap broke. So I put on a new pair today. Ran total of 12. Benjamin did 8, Jenny and Julia 3, Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 0.5. Benjamin and I did a pickup for 0.5. P.M. Plowed snow. The ATV died and would not start in the middle. I called Brock for support, which ended up being more of an emotional that technical support because it is difficult to troubleshot a vehicle not starting without being there. However, knowing what not to worry about helped me start it eventually and it all ended well. I felt a sense of accomplishment in having subjected a wild man thing such as a 4-wheeler and having done with it something useful. If anything, learning something new at an older age protects you from Alzheimer's disease. Also got another gadget, this one is also out of character somewhat but not as much. It is a GPS/Footpod watch. I generally despise common market devices that tell you how far you've gone and how fast you are running because their accuracy is frequently worse than my own sense of pace. So when I am wearing I fluctuate between being frustrated when the numbers are obviously wrong and wondering if they are really correct when they are reasonable. However, this one is different. It is a MotoACTV (8 GB variant). For the average user it appears no different than a multitude of Garmin-like watches. However, for someone with technical skill there is a world of difference. MotoACTV has an ARM v7 processor with Android and an easy way to replace the boot image. So I put it in the Fastboot mode, replaced the boot image with a custom one I found already prepared by a hacker that had ADB daemon, connected to it with ADB, installed the HoneyComb launcher, removed the default one, installed a couple of my own Android apps to see how they would behave, loaded strace, and started researching the running processes. My goal is to write an app that would use GPS, foot pod, and HRM at the same time along with some knowledge about the runner. E.g if GPS says he was going 12:00 mile, but his HR, his leg turnover, and his ground contact time are following the pattern of 8:00 mile, adjust or even throw away the GPS data and just assume that he was going 8:00 for that period. Or if the GPS pace is fluctuating, but the ground contact time, the leg turnover and the HR are steady, do not trust the GPS. I am wondering if we can throw away the GPS altogether assuming we can get good data on leg turnover and ground contact time. Will have to play with it. The good news is that once it is ready, the app will run on any Android with ANT+.
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