Hortiatis uphill x3 260212

  This morning there was something in the air, in the breakfast I ate, or in the coffee I drank. I'm not quite sure but I understood that today would be the record day. I pumped the tires, put my clothes on and went out. I did a good warm up until Thermi and then started the Hortiatis mountain uphill till the top to the radar. I returned to Thermi via Panorama. And because one equals none and with the second you can not be sure, you do a third one. TRIPLE HORTIATIS MOUNTAIN UPHILL. Something I was thinking about since last summer. After the double I did, and after the fact that mr. Thomas Timamopoulos, one of the best Greek cyclists ever, used to telling me that he had done a triple Hortiatis uphill wen he was young, I decided to give it a try. And succeeded. 2 powerbar gels, a sesame bar and 1 liter of water was all I needed.  Also for the first time in global, I enter the word ''Thassos training'' which is exactly what someone has to do to go well on Thassos ultra marathon. While I was climbing for the third time, an idea came to me. To organise a 24 hour Hortiatis uphill race. The one who do most uphills in 24 hours wins. The bad thing with these uphills is hypothermia on the downhill. Imagine that I did 3 of them. Now it's time for a frappe and watch a movie. Until next time...

3-5 Pigadia ski resort 150212

Oregon 450 vs xperia active pt 3 endomondo

Tuesday was raining and it wasn't suitable for bike training. So I decided to go out for a trail running at Seich Sou forest. This was another chance to test again xperia active and endomondo. Endomondo is the app that I like most, because it supports ANT+, it's easy to use, it doesn't need the use of gps (soit can be used for indoor training) and has a nice and easy to explore website with a lot o information about your workouts. I'm still comparing it with my trustworthy oregon 450. Today I uploaded the 2 gpx archives on both site ridewithgps and endomondo so to compare each other. Until now all fitness apps that I tried on xperia can do multitasking, which means that while you are training and recording your progress, you can also shoot a video/photo, make a phone call ro listen to music. Very useful. Even though these apps are fitness oriented, with multitasking you can also have another apps running in background which can be more geographic such as google maps or my trucks so to watch other info like elevation, altitude or grade. I started with battery level at 95% and after 2 hours of training, shooting video and playing, I ended up with 70%. If you buy endomondo pro you can have the low power mode which use less power and makes battery drain slower. Niiice.

Oregon 450 vs xperia active pt 2 mapmyride

Today the 29+ km/h of wind wasn't enough to keep me inside. So I charged the batteries and went out for the weeks endurance road bike training.
This time I tested mapmyride application which is preloaded in xperia active. I put it in my pocket and started. 129 km to Kalikrateia and back. With the wind on my back everything was ok but at the return it was like going uphill to Kaimaktsalan dragging 3 others with a rope.
Back home and I uploaded the 2 gpx on the internet.
1st thing I disliked in mapmyride is that it needs an internet connection to save the workout, which means that if you go for a weekend on a mountain and want to do 2 workouts, that will be impossible.
2nd thing I disliked is that mapmyrides site doesn't show many details of the workout, just the same things as on your phones screen.
Also mapmyride overestimate the calories consumption as the same does with the total elevation.
So until now, endomondo - mapmyride 4-0.
As for the battery I started with 100% and after 5.5 hours of gps, ANT+, 2 phone calls and some playing, it was at 50% but with the display off because it was in my back pocket. 
Also I just found out that mapmyride does not have an embed option and I had to put it with a link, so it goes endomondo - mapmyride 5-0.


Mapmyride

Oregon 450 vs xperia active pt 1 endomondo

Today I went for trail running at Seich Sou forest. Although I started to follow the Aethlos race route, I changed my mind and followed another one, which was 16+ km in less than 2 hours. Today I also tested for the first time my sony ericsson xperia active with endomondo for training/racing use. This smartphone except for being waterproof, is also compatible with ANT+ protocol. Which means that it can be connected with Garmin heart rate monitor straps, when other smartphones needs battery draining bluetooth straps. So I tested endomondo in comparison to my Garmin Oregon 450 which I always use and uploaded the 2 gpx archives on ridewithgps for oregon and endomondo for xperia active. I started with xperias battery level at 95% and after 2 hours of use (gps and ANT+) it was at 60%. There are a lot of applications for android and I'll try to test as many as I can. Use of smartphones seems to be very practical because they are light enough and they are always in our pocket, but I think their batteries are not ready yet for ultra marathons.

 

3-5 Pigadia ski resort 110112