Buying an Apple Watch

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We had a funny experience yesterday at the Apple store buying a watch. First, why bother to go the store when we could buy it online and just pick it up or have it shipped? Well, the reason is that the watch itself is jewelry. While there’s an impressive amount of compute and functionality in the watch, the important decision wasn’t about the difference between the models (SE, Series 9, or Ultra 2) – the important decision was about the color and style of the band and the case. As I said, the Apple Watch is jewelry.

So why write about this? Because, the store seemed to be ill-equipped to handle this as the primary sales motion. The demo models were not marked with the names of the colors, so differentiating the Starlight and Sliver cases was really difficult. Similarly all of the available bands were not on display. To top it all off, the sales person seemed indifferent to this selection and wasn’t particularly helpful as he continued to go back to a screen to try to get us to make a selection there.

Maybe it’s not really a big deal – I suppose if we got a color we didn’t like, we could return it. But I’m pretty sure that if I were buying a regular watch elsewhere, the discussion would be all about the style and look. While there aren’t choices in the shape of the Apple Watch case, the choice of watchband and case color is why one would go to the store for one. It would be great if Apple would recognize this.

As a side note, many years ago, I used to refer to all Apple products as jewelry. I’ve apparently never written about this, but it’s one of my long-held perspectives. Apple builds amazing devices with terrific functionality, but one of the main reasons people buy them is because they jewelry. No one walks around proudly with their Samsung Galaxy as a fashion statement, but everyone with an iPhone certainly does. The price of these devices reflects that idea – these are “designer” devices, just like designer clothing – and you have to pay big to get into one. Sure, there are always the SE models, which are cheap, but it’s the fashion designers usually have a few low end models to give those that can’t afford the luxury a taste of the good life.

2023 Athletic Recap

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I’ll start with a big thank you and much love to Sharon (@mtnester1) for supporting and cheering me on as I pursue my athletic endeavors. I know you are tired of me schlepping a bicycle around with me, but I love you for putting up with it :-) 

I also want to thank my coach Kimberly (@ladybaba_13) for her continued efforts to coax another iota of performance out of me.  Thankless work for sure :-)

I became a product ambassador for the first time for @nuunhydration.  It was an interesting experience and I have no idea if I’ll be invited back, but what matters more to me is that if you see a product on my posts, it’s because the product has been good to me as an athlete and I hope others will benefit .  So a shout out to many other products for which I receive nothing but goodwill (and sometimes better performance) – @wildcycler (rad designs), @altrarunning (these shoes enable me to run day after day), @zygogram (the best swim headphones ever), @formswim (smart goggles that let me focus on swimming), @desoto_sport (my tri-shorts and tops), @iamspecialized (my road and gravel bikes), @cervelo (my tri bike), @garmin (my watches, pedals, sensors) and there are others I’m sure I’m forgetting.

I did a smaller number of events this year because of injuries, scheduling and life events.  This year I only did one triathlon – IM 70.3 Honu in June.  As always, it’s a great race.  I enjoy the bike leg the most, trekking up to Hawi and back. 

I started the year with the New Year’s Cheer race in Volcano, HI at Volcano Winery.  It’s a 3 hour race – a trail run counting as many laps as possible – and it’s the first podium I’ve been on, maybe ever.  I came in second but, to be fair, there were only three of us running the race :-).  No matter – I was proud of the effort.

I also participated in a pickleball tournament earlier in the year and my partner Terri Lee (from Maui) and I secured a second place finish in our group.  As I did then, I continue to thank Terri for being a great partner.  

My biggest event of the year was L’Etape du Tour – a race on Stage 14 of the 2023 Tour de France.  It was by far the hardest ride I’ve ever done with 4100m of climbing.  I’ve posted about it before, but it was my athletic highlight of the year and one I’ll remember always.  If I can, I’m going to do another one, but not 2024 (I wasn’t very excited about the stage they are racing this year).  

Another great highlight was in April, when Sharon (@mtnester1) and I rode our bikes around the Tulips in Skagit county.  We don’t often get to ride our bikes together but every time we do, it’s special for me.  

I brought my gravel bike to Israel in October and was fortunate enough to get one good ride in before the terrorist attack on 7 October sent us to our bomb shelters and eventually home.

One interesting thing to note this year is that I started lifting weights again.  I’ve learned how to do belt squats to deal with my continuing back issues and have rehabilitated my separated shoulder so that I can now to push-ups and pull-ups again.  It feels good to be back in the gym.  

Next year’s calendar is starting to take shape.  I’m planning on doing two half-Ironman races (Honu in June and Tri-Cities in September).  I’m considering doing Levi’s Gran Fondo as one of my bicycle events.  If things are good enough to run the Tiberius race in Israel, I may do that 70.3 as well.  I’m sure I’ll find a half-marathon and other bicycle events as the year goes  but this is what’s on the calendar so far.  I hope everyone had a great 2023 and that you achieve your goals for 2024!  

(Semi-) Retirement

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Since January this year, I’ve been semi-retired, working part-time for a great company and enjoying more free-time. Well, “enjoying” is kind of an interesting term – I think I’ve actually been struggling to figure out how to spend my additional free time. For now, I’ve been able to do most of my athletic training in the early afternoons instead of in the early morning (that reminds me – I need to remove the #dawnpatrol tag from my Instagram posts ?). I think the challenge for me is that for the last nearly 40 years, my goals were around work – landing a big projects and climbing the career ladder. Well, there’s no career ladder to climb anymore, so short of athletic goals and eventually catching a fish from my kayak, I don’t really have my sights set on anything.

I’ll write more about this in the coming days, but for now, I wanted to share a link to a video that I thought was helpful in thinking through how to approach retirement – Riley Moynes on how to “squeeze the juice” out of retirement. It’s a fairly short video and I think it’s mostly common sense, but I like the way he talks about the 4 stages of retirement (no spoilers – watch it yourself). I’ve mentioned this video to a bunch of friends so I thought I’d just post it here for future reference. Enjoy!

Bicycle Gearing for Normal Humans

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I signed up for a gran fondo this summer that will have more climbing over 100 miles than I’ve ever done on a ride. I’m seriously concerned that I might not make it to the end, given the number of cat 1 and HC efforts required. So I decided to see if I could do something about the gearing on my bicycle. I have a OneNote page filled with interesting thoughts and links to products that might support this effort, but where I landed I think makes better general sense than what’s on most road bicycles today. So let’s start there.

The gearing on most road bikes today follows the Shimano pattern of 50/34 chain rings with cassettes ranging from 11-28 to 11-34. From a climbing perspective, your most powerful ratio is 1:1 (34/34). At the top end, you have the 50/11 combination. So what’s wrong with this? Originally, I had my triathlon bike and my road bikes configured this way (tri-bike 50/34 and 11-30, red road bike 50/34 with 11-28 and yellow road bike with 50/34 and 11-30). What I observed is that when I’m “on the flat” (which is never truly flat), I’m operating at barely in the middle of the cassette when I’m in the large chain ring and rarely do I ever use the small cassette cogs.

I always joke that the cleanest cog in my cassette is the 11T cog. Maybe I’m just not a fearless enough descender to really take advantage of it, but frankly having it is a waste. And the jumps between the cogs when I’m in the big chain ring are so large I find myself constantly struggling with a gear selection that’s a little too easy or a little too hard. So after a bunch of research, I’ve changed the gearing on one of my road bikes to see if it improved things.

I’ve updated my yellow road bike with FSA K-Force Light 46/30 cranks paired with an 11-34 cassette. The first question everyone will ask is – what did I lose by going with such a small set of chain rings? Only one thing – the equivalent of the 50/11 combo. The gear ratio of 50/11 is 4.55. The gear ratio of the 46/11 is 4.18, essentially the same as a 50/12 combination. It turns out that an 11-34 cassette jumps from an 11 to a 13 (there is no 12 on most of them), so the sacrifice is really small. But the benefit from the smaller 46T chain ring is that all of the gear ratios are closer making it easier to find the optimal gear to be in. For an 50T chain ring, the ratios for the top cogs are 4.55 to 3.85 to 3.33 to 2.94 to 2.63. With a 46T chain ring, the ratios are 4.18 to 3.54 to 3.07 to 2.71 to 2.43. While the numbers don’t look to dramatically different, the jumps are smaller with a smaller chain ring (the numerator is smaller) leading to a better road feel when trying to get into the ideal gear. With this setup, I find it easier to hit my power targets while spinning at a comfortable cadence.

On the climbing side, there’s the addition of a the 30/34 combination for a 0.88 climbing ratio. On an 11-34 cassette, the next cog up is a 30T, which is 1.0. The smaller chain ring leads to closer gear ratios for climbing as well, so instead of a jump from 1.0 to 1.13 to 1.26, I’m jumping from 0.88 to 1.0 to 1.11 to 1.2. Everything is tighter and better. And the extra climbing gear is great for when the grades go over 10%. Last weekend I did a ride with some unexpected climbing and plowed my way up a 10% hill with a crescendo of 13% at the finish. The gearing really helped and I wasn’t trashed at the top. Similarly, I did a really nice 60 mile ride yesterday with rolling hills and I never used the small chain ring until near the end where there was an actual climb. The entire ride felt strong.

So, in a sense, I’ve traded the 50/11 for a 30/34 but I actually think I got a whole lot more. I’m way more comfortable pedaling now and not finding myself stuck between too easy and too hard. Given my cycling strength (probably average for a dude my age), it’s not clear to me why Shimano persists in putting gearing on bikes that’s really not well suited for most riders. Strong riders will always find ways to move up but average riders will usually just stick with what they bought and be miserable. I think they are making the wrong choices here. SRAM is doing a better job with this – they are offering a wider variety of chain rings and cassettes, targeting their 46/33 chain rings and 10-33 cassette (12-speed) for someone like me. The new Roubaix Comp is equipped with SRAM 46/33 and a 10-36 cassette, which makes it similar to my bike, although I’m not sure why they decided 33 was a better number than 30 for their small chain ring.

As I continue to tinker, I may opt to go with an 11-36 cassette instead of the 11-34. The Shimano R8050-GS derailleur capacity is 37T, so a 46/30 and 11-34 cassette is 16 + 23 = 39T, so I’m already a little over spec but it’s working just fine. I actually think the capacity is incorrectly stated on the Shimano site since they indicate support for 11-34 cassette with this derailleur and they only offer cranks with a 16T delta. Wolf Tooth offers a derailleur extender to allow me to move to an 11-36 cassette. I’m a little concerned about pushing the derailleur capacity but I might give it a try since it’s an inexpensive change. The 11-36 cassette doesn’t match up exactly with the 11-34 so I’ll have to decide if I like the ratios I currently have:

11-36t: 11-12-13-15-17-19-   22-   25-   28-   32-   36
11-34t: 11-   13-15-17-19-21-   23-25-27-   30-   34

But two sub-1.0 ratio climbing gears might be nice.

WIth my success here, I may also move my tri-bike to the same gearing, again driving for the same benefits I’m seeing on my road bike. I’ve already ordered the cranks for the red road bike and can’t wait to get it set up. To circle back, for the normal humans that are reading this, I encourage you to consider this setup as I think you’ll ultimately be a happier and more successful rider. Ride on!