To factory reset a Polar S725x (possibly S725 or S625 and others?) follow the following steps:

  1. Using a paper clip or some other small, pointed tool press and release the RESET button which is located between the UP and DOWN buttons.
  2. All the LCD segments on the display should light up.
  3. Press and release the bottom left (STOP) button followed by the top right (UP) button. You should now see “Monitor S725” on the screen.
  4. Using the UP and DOWN buttons, scroll until you see “Default SET” displayed.
  5. Press and hold the big bottom middle (OK) button for a few seconds. This should cause “Default SET” to flash, keep holding the button until the display resets to that shown in step 2. Release the button.
  6. Press and release the big bottom middle (START) button

Factory defaults should be applied and any user settings should be cleared.

It’s a shame this procedure is not documented in the Polar S725x manual.

Thanks to “Wayne@PolarUSA”‘s post which gives just enough info to figure out the specifics needed to perform the reset.

Well this is going to be a bit of a ramble as opposed to an articulate article. It comes from my frustration with Android’s bugs and Google’s seemingly unwillingness to respond. If one takes a look at

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list

one can see a number of long lingering bugs which have not been addressed yet. Sure, loads of bugs have been fixed and Android continues to improve. I’ll come back to “improve” below. My gripe is with the bugs, which have been around for a while, that break functionality or standards.

For instance – proper handling of IMAP folders, IMAP drafts, IMAP IDLE support, Exchange sync if you delete e-mail messages while disconnected from your Exchange server, IPSEC L2TP PSK VPNs broken. These are bugs in features that are needed for mainstream business use in a smartphone. Sure not all consumers will run into all these bugs but with the recent #PRISM leaks and continuing concerns around privacy I’m sure more people will start using “their own” (for some definition of own as opposed to BIG providers such as Gmail/Hotmail/etc) IMAP servers and IPSec VPNs.

Business users will typically either use Exchange or IMAP (OK there are still some Lotus Notes users too – ever seen that mentioned on a stock Android device??) coupled with VPNs.  Both of these key features are crippled or lacking in one or more ways. Additionally, Android’s handling of recurring calendar appointments is poor to lacking resulting in potential frustration for business users. I guess haves “issues” in these area and offering a working Gmail app plays right into Google’s plan of owning everyone’s data and obviously mining said data for ad revenue!!!

Android is no longer a “new” operating system and has been through various updates along the way. Simple things like working, reliable e-mail should “just be there”. One should not need to install app (K9 mail for instance) after app (OpenVPN) to get working functionality that is supposedly built in to the OS. As Android ages it appear to be more of a way to make more money for Google than a concerted effort at a proper phone OS.

  • “improve” – yes new releases of Android come out every year or two with new wizzy-flashy graphics to dazzle the eyes. But come on – lets get the basic underlying functionality fixed before rolling out even more buggy code!

 

Hi,

Here is a link to a useful Runner’s World chart to assist in choosing your next running shoe.

http://www.runnersworld.com/images/march-2012-shoe-guide-intro.pdf

Also, a review of some 2012 running shoes related to the above chart is available at http://www.runnersworld.com/article/printer/1,7124,s6-240-400–14221-0,00.html

Usual disclaimers apply, but it might give some insight into some shoes one may not normally consider.

Well I thought I ought to sort out my laptop to connect to my CompuTrainer for the upcoming winter indoor training which ought to take place. As it turns out, I ran into a few issues as my laptop has been rebuilt since I last used the CompuTrainer connected to my laptop. I’ve been using the CompuTrainer handlebar control for varying the power rather than courses or 3D videos.

Anyway the bits of software I’ve installed are:

CompuTrainer 3D

http://www.computrainer.com/html/improvements_to_3d_v3.htm

Download the latest version (v3.0 2010/08/05) and install. Make sure to install into C:\ and not C:\program files.

Coaching Software CS

http://www.computrainer.com/html/coaching_software_support.htm

Download and install into C:\ aswell. This is now free.

Topo GPS

http://www.computrainer.com/html/TopoUSAsupport.htm

Download and install. I also needed to download the “other” topogps.exe from

http://www.racermate.net/forum/download/file.php?id=157

which was included in the forum post at

http://www.racermate.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3516

Without this update I was unable to view/edit 3DC files, as described in the forum post. The error in the application’s fatal.log file was:

Error in X:\_f\lib\velib2\willcourse.cpp at line 113:
nlegs error

This is a great piece of software which allows one to convert .gpx files into .3dc files which can be “ridden” using the CompuTrainer 3D software.

 

I am considering getting the updated RacerMate One software which has recently been released. I do wonder how useful it wil be though. Hopefully DC Rainmaker will do an indepth review of the software in the near future.

Well I thought I would comment on the oddness of the sizing of tri kit. A number of weeks ago I went shopping for a new set of race kit. I prefer tri tops and tri shorts to a trisuit.

In the end I tried on both Orca and 2XU gear. It turns out that for the Orca 226 range I need a LARGE tri tank and a MEDIUM tri pant. However for 2XU Endurance kit I need a MEDIUM 3 pocket tri top and a LARGE tri short.

It is no wonder that I cannot get a trisuit to fit me properly. What is also confusing is that I have an Orca tri top from another range which is a MEDIUM.

I have decided that unless I have previous experience of a particular make and model of kit I will hence forth be buying my kit from a real shop that allows you to try it on. I have gotten incredibly frustrated with getting various sizes of kit sent to me from online retailers only to have to return them.

Where possible I intend to visit Bike and Run, which is based in East Finchley, London, for my tri kit needs. They were most helpful and patient during my fitting session. They have a decent selection of gear in stock – wetsuits, tri kit, cycling kit, bikes and various gadgets, gizmos and tools.

Hi,

A technical post for a change… For a while now I have noticed that my Vista laptop has been running with a svchost.exe process at anything from 50% to 100% CPU busy time. I tracked it down to the plug and play and DCOM svchost.exe process. Using Google to investigate this issue revealed that a number of people had the same problem – busy CPU bound svchost.exe processes.

Common causes seem to be bad sound card drivers or VMware’s workstation product’s vNetwork services.  I tried various things to resolve my problem; none of which worked.

Last night I managed to resolve my problem of a busy svchost.exe process. Turns out to be caused by the Garmin Ant Agent needed for my Garmin 405! Quiting the Ant Agent immediately drops the svchost.exe process back to normal and starting it causes the svchost.exe process CPU utilisation to jump skyward. This only happens with the Ant Agent USB device removed. With the USB device inserted the computer appears to be OK. I guess the root cause is the Ant Agent being over zealous with it’s polling to see if the USB device has been inserted.

So for now I will not have the Ant Agent running unless I need it to download a workout from my Garmin 405.

Well with the increased training comes increased statistic gathering. And statistics now mean using WKO+. While using WKO+ I have found three questions I need answering.

1) Anyone one seen or know how to resolve WKO+ putting the resulting .wko file from drag-n-dropped Garmin .TCX files into C:Users. I am running WKO+ on Vista and the Polar imports or Computrainer drag-n-dropped files create a .wko under the correct directory (c:usersmikedocuments….data) while Garmin .TCX files result in a file called c:usersmichaelm.wko.

2) What heart rate zones should I configure in the heart rate zones area of WKO+ – cycling or running? Swimming could also be added, but I very rarely swim with a HRM.

3) Pauses on my Garmin during work outs results in odd lap highlighting when reviewed in WKO+. The highlighted section for the lap with pauses does not include the entire lap, but rather only the duration of the lap (including the paused time).

Anyone got any thoughts or ideas?

Well the good news is that I have been keeping up with my training so far this year. My swimming seems to be getting nearer the end of last season’s levels and I am feeling “easier” in the water. What I mean is that I am feeling less like a sinking ship. I can tell that my catch is not as efficient as it was as my times are not quite what they were, even for short 50/100m bursts. Maybe it is just overall fitness levels that are lacking, but I think it’s mainly swim technique. I guess it’s time to get some more lessons booked in.

Yesterday I did a 20 minute “time-trial” on the Computrainer. My coaches use this to estimate my FTP based on 95% of the 20minute time-trial average power. I have decided to use the “Computrainer 10 mile time trial” course for these tests. At the moment I am not completing the 10 miles in 20 minutes so it’s safe to use until my cycling increases! I did notice a 4w difference between the SRM and Computrainer figures which I don’t normally see – I’m guessing a mis-calibration of the Computrainer as after the time-trial I re-did the Computrainer calibration for the warm-down and the figures were more in alignment. Hurray for SRM and boo to Computrainer… 🙂

As an aside, I’ve noticed a number of the searches from Google hitting my blog looking for the course profiles of the races I’ve completed. I’m not sure of the best way to provide these, but am considering an upload of a GPX for the race courses for interested people. If anyone has ideas on this, please drop me a comment.

So Christmas has passed and 2009 is only a handful of days away. My first major race (a 70.3 distance race) of 2009 is less than five months away. Not too bad one might say – however I will need to actually be training for more than a 70.3 at that time of the year. Initially this race was scheduled for early May, however due to a clash with the Barcelona F1 race it was delayed by two weeks. Sigh.

So my bike has been fitted with an SRM power meter. I plan on using power based zones for my training sessions leading up to Ironman Austria. I hope that this will be better than simply relying on heart rate based zones. The SRM is great in that it hooks up to the Garmin 705 using ANT+ wireless technology. I am yet to get out and about with the SRM and get some “outside” figures but have done some sessions on the trainer. I am starting to get an idea of my mean maximal power. I have attached a graph from WKO+ showing the power curve from a handful of efforts on the indoor trainer. Not very impressive at all.  It’s a starting point though and I look forward to it improving over the coming months.

Mean Maximal Power 2008/12/30
Mean Maximal Power 2008/12/30

I hope some outdoor sessions will improve this, especially in the 1-10 second region. Looking at the W/kg table in WKO+ (based from Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Allen and Coggan ISBN13: 978-1931382793) is interesting and shows I have a long way to go to becoming a competitive cyclist. One consolation is that the table is for competitive cyclists and not triathletes. OK OK, grasping at straws but you get the picture.  Training and Racing with a Power Meter is a superb book and covers power meter usage in great detail.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am still recovering from a bought of flu and am taking it easy right now. Hopefully next week I will kick into action again and start the training ball rolling once more. Hopefully 2009 will be a great year and one in which I am not dogged by colds, flu or any other injuries!

Well this is a technical note rather than a training related one. I seem to have come down with a touch of flu over the past few days (thanks work colleagues!!) and am out of training for the moment.

Since I have some down time, I thought I’d do some data converting. I have created two Computrainer .3dc files, which are for the Ironman Monaco 70.3 and Ironman Austria 70.3 races. There might be some overlapping of roads (causing some display oddities) but this should not affect the session.

They can be found as follows:

All Racermate free courses

Ironman Monaco 70.3

Ironman Austria 70.3

I am considering uploading some of my more interesting training or race tracks if I can find some time and some good GPS records of them.