EP67 - Most Exciting Fitness Tech of 2024! What I'm Testing, and Western States Letdown!
Alright. We're pulling out all the tools for this one. I've got some some ketone IQ. I've got some some coffee here, and I I don't think it's actually recommended to take ketones with coffee, but, yeah. We're gonna need it today.
Dave:What's up, friends? Welcome back. Today, we have episode 67 here on the Trail Talk podcast. And I just need to warn you upfront that I have a bit of a cold right now, and so my voice is a bit raspy and, not not sounding good. So bear with me on this one.
Dave:So, as you know, if you follow the podcast, on the last episode, I talked about how I was going to improve how often I was posting on this podcast, and I built this new space for the podcast, and, it should result in more and more frequent uploads. That podcast was 45 days ago. 45 days ago was the last podcast. So clearly, I suck. I'm sorry, but I'm back to try to make up for it in this podcast today.
Dave:Now the reason why that podcast was so long ago is that it's been like Tektober and in November, Black Friday, Cyber Monday. And if you watch the main channel, you know all pretty much all of my content is, like, reviewing something or talking about a product. And so because of that, I've been, like, slammed with trying to keep up with, demand there. But I found some time today. Fair warning again, I've got 2 I got 3 kids downstairs.
Dave:They had a half day at school, so it you could hear some some background noise today, or I might get interrupted. I'm not I'm not totally sure. So what is the agenda today? I've been trying to get better at this. I don't wanna just rant on this podcast and and, you know, bore everybody.
Dave:So I do have an agenda today. We're gonna talk about a little bit, about what's been going on with me, just recently in the past couple of months. We'll be talking about what I'm currently testing. I've got a couple of really exciting products I'm I'm really stoked about, that are currently in testing. And then I wanna do sort of a year in review product highlight, I think, like, the best the the most exciting things that were released in 2020 4 now that we've hit the end of the year.
Dave:I typically do this on the main channel and do sort of a award ceremony for, like, GPS watches, which I I still plan to do, but I sort of wanted to do a long form podcast where I just talk about the things I've liked personally using for the past year. Not sponsored or anything like that. A lot of these things could be like a shoe or a hydration vest, or even a supplement like I'm holding here, and I just wanna bring some attention to those brands. As always, if you're new here, this podcast is typically about, fitness technology, running, trail running, hiking, ultra marathons, that sort of thing. But I often just go on a complete chaos sideline if that makes sense and talk about just about anything that that interests me at that point in time.
Dave:I am a dad of 4 kids, so a lot of times I I talk about boring dad stuff. But I'm gonna go ahead and crack these ketones. This is ketone IQ, not sponsored by the way. I it's just a product I actually I kinda like. I've been taking them for a while now.
Dave:These things are so expensive though, and honestly, I wonder sometimes if it's just placebo, but they do give me a bit of an energy boost. So we're gonna do some ketones. I just spilled them on the table trying to get the cover off. This is probably good content for the audio listeners out there. Sorry about that.
Dave:It tastes terrible, by the way. Ketone IQ. If you like the taste of this, let me know in the comments down below. So, couple of things. First off, if you're an audio listener to this podcast, make sure to check out the YouTube channel.
Dave:I have a dedicated YouTube channel for the podcast where not only you can you can hear me, but you can also see me. So that's kind of fun. So go subscribe over there. Hit the like button. Trying to get the numbers up on the podcast channel.
Dave:And let's talk about what's coming up. Right? Or let's let's just do some of the catch up to from the last podcast to now. So I'm sick right now as I've mentioned, and I feel like I've been sick for, like, a month. It's really put a hamper on my daily activities.
Dave:As you know, I I run, like, every single day. I train for ultra marathons, and I like being an active guy. And I don't know what the heck is going on with me, but for literally, I wanna say for the past month, I've I've had some sort of illness. It started with a stomach bug. It trans transitioned into a cold, then it went to, like, a flu.
Dave:I had a fever for, like, a week, and now I'm back with, like, an upper respiratory situation. It's crazy. And my wife has been telling me she's, like, concerned about me because, you know, a year ago, I never got sick, and now I'm just getting sick left and right. Of course, I do have 4 children, so it's like they're all in 4 different schools, and they bring they're all bringing home a new flavor of something on a regular basis. So I'm just exposed to a lot of illness, unfortunately.
Dave:But for whatever reason, my wife, you know, she's got this, like, crazy immune system and hasn't really gotten sick at all. So it's been all on me for some reason. I will say, she's been taking she's been taking a new product, multivitamin called Grunes. It's actually like a little gut gummy vitamin that comes in a pouch, and she's been enjoying those. So maybe there's something to it.
Dave:I don't know. We'll have to circle back on that with, like, a long term review or something. But, I digress. Let's move on to more to more recent things that have been happening. So a couple of days ago was the Western States 100 Lottery.
Dave:I had 2 tickets in the lottery. And if you don't know what the Western States 100 is, it is basically the Super Bowl for ultra marathons here in the USA. It's probably the most prestigious ultra marathon. And along with that, here in the USA, it is also the hardest to get into. I think 10,000 people applied and got or qualified rather and were in the lottery.
Dave:And with those 10,000 people, there were 40,000 tickets held by all those, 10,000 people, and only 260 people can actually be selected to run. I believe you can I believe there's actually 350 people who run, but that other, you know, x amount of bibs that are handed out go to pro athletes, people who, won races to get into the western states or, sponsor bibs, things like that? So not all of the people running have to go through the lottery process, but for for normies like me, I did have to go through the process. So for me, I ran a qualifying race two times. That was the Vermont 100 endurance race.
Dave:I ran it twice, finished twice. I've actually run it three times but d n f'd one time. And so I had exactly 2 tickets. So that put my odds as 2 tickets in a bucket of 40,000 tickets which, you know, the math worked out that it was like a 0.0 or a 0.8% chance of getting in. Needless to say, I did not get in.
Dave:I listened to the lottery for like 2 hours while they pulled names, had my fingers crossed the whole time. I did not get in, unfortunately. And it's funny, you know, leading up to it, my wife and I were, like, planning our summer vacations and stuff and looking at our summer calendar, what's going on in June July. And I I don't know where this false hope came from with my 2 tickets for the Western States, but I I blocked off the calendar for that weekend. I was telling my wife about it.
Dave:She she even mentioned, like, it seems like you're getting your hopes up. Don't get too excited. But, of course, I didn't get in. Now the cool thing is when I was listening to the people, the names being pulled, there were a few people that I personally knew in my local area that got in, so that's super exciting. So I am very excited for the people who got in.
Dave:If you're listening and you got in, huge congratulations. You better start training because it's only 6 months away. That's kinda scary. So that's the western states. Couple of other things going on right now.
Dave:I just booked my travel for CES 2025. That's the consumer electronics show out in Las Vegas where, like, all the big brands bring their latest and greatest stuff. That could be, like, LG with their new TVs or Samsung with their EVs and whatever else they make. Google will be there, but on top of that, a lot of the brands I interact with regularly will be there like, Garmin, Ultrahuman, Amazfit, Oura Ring. There's a lot of them that'll be there.
Dave:So I'm going as sort of a networking opportunity to meet a lot of, like, industry contacts and just see what's going on in the industry right now, if any of these companies are announcing anything new. If you've ever been to CES, it's a real adventure. Last year was my 1st year going, and I was blown away with just how big the event is. So I think a 130 or a 140,000 people attended last year. And we're talking, like, everything.
Dave:So there's, like, electric, you know, semi trucks. There's electric cars. There's TVs. There's, health and fitness stuff. There's anything electronic you can imagine.
Dave:Cameras, like what I'm looking at now. Headphones over here. Whatever. They're all there, and, they've got their latest tech. You can check things out in person, learn more about them.
Dave:It's really exciting. It's really fun. But this year will be a little bit different for me. Last year, I went solo. I did meet up with a creator friend there.
Dave:We did hang out a little bit. But this year, I'm actually going with some of my buddies that are, like, high school friends of mine. They found it as a good app opportunity to travel to Vegas. They enjoy Vegas and gambling and stuff. I'm not a big gambler, but but they wanted to come to do that.
Dave:And, also, they're gonna be helping me out with, sort of the content creation aspect of things with holding a camera for me or a microphone and, you know, just being around to to sort of be production assistants. So it's actually gonna be pretty nice to have somebody hold a camera. Because last time I went, I was sort of, like, vlogging the whole experience. This time around, I will have some help and more feet on the ground to to to, you know, learn more about the area instead of just my eyeballs. So it's gonna be a lot of fun hanging out with the guys I, you know, used to hang out with when I was a teenager.
Dave:We we don't hang out as much anymore because of, you know, being older now and having kids and stuff. So this was kind of a rare and fun opportunity to do something with them. If you're attending or you're gonna be in Las Vegas for the event, make sure to, to say hi. If you see me, I'd love to to meet. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
Dave:Now that event takes place in January, from 7th to 10th. I'm gonna be there from 6th to 8th. I didn't feel like I should be there for the whole event, so I'm just gonna be there for a couple of days. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Next up, Strava year in sport.
Dave:So this is something that's super interesting every year that I find fascinating. You might also. Strava, the social media platform where you post your runs and rides and stuff, They put out this report every year that isn't like publicly available. It's really it's like a media it's like a media report for, you know, people like me to talk about on the air here. It's publicly available if you go digging for it.
Dave:It's in their, like, newsroom, on their blog. There's like a link to a PDF. And in this PDF, they have all the stats from the past year in sport that that from all the users of Strava. And some of these metrics are really interesting, like, generally generate like, what generation is most active, whether that be gen x or millennials, who's doing the longest runs, what how many people run-in groups versus not in groups, like male versus female, a lot of stuff. And it's really cool to to read through their breakdown because they have such a quorum, such a huge amount of users on Strava that you can get a good sense of like the general population and what people are doing when it comes to sports.
Dave:But I think the most fascinating this year piece of information in the Strava report is that they have one section showing what GPS watches were the most popular, in in all runners when, you know, for all the watches that are used for Strava. And, of course, you know, there's gonna be some inaccuracies there whether or not you upload a GPX file or, where it comes from. But I think the data they have is pretty accurate. What's really interesting is last year, the most popular GPS watch was a Garmin. In this year, the number one watch on Strava was a Apple Watch SE.
Dave:Very odd. So the 1 and 2 slots, number 1 and 2 went to Apple Watches this year for all runners. We're talking everybody. 5 k, 10 k, marathon, ultra marathon, mountain adventures, you know, doing your own thing, going on through hikes, whatever. If you marked it as a run on Strava, the most popular watch was an Apple Watch.
Dave:I found that super interesting, and I wondered to myself, what made that happen? Was it their marketing in the past couple of years that led to more people buying Apple Watches? I don't know. Is it that the Apple Watch SE is super affordable now? I think on sale, it was like a $150 or something.
Dave:You know, for a $150, it's hard to find a competing watch that can do everything the Apple Watch SE can. For example, in Garmin, the, what, Garmin Forner 165 is $200, I think, on sale right now. And it doesn't have LTE or any of the things that a Apple Watch can do. So it had me scratching my head. I wanna dig a little bit deeper on this and and really get to the bottom of what, what made that shift happen and why Garmin took 3rd place this year out of all watches on the network on Strava.
Dave:Pretty interesting. If you have thoughts on this and why that happened, comment on the YouTube, you in the the YouTube comment section. I don't know why I said it like that. Go on youtube.com and comment in the comment section. Okay.
Dave:That's, Strava's urine sport. I suggest you check that out if you haven't yet because there's a lot of other metrics. I'm not I'm not gonna go through all of them, but there's a lot of other, stats in there that I I thought are super fun to read through, for me at least. Okay. Next topic.
Dave:What do what am I currently testing right now? Sorry. I'm trying to stick to my agenda. It makes it feel a little bit robotic, but, you know, it keeps me organized. So currently testing.
Dave:First of all, the Wahoo KICKR run. This, I am very excited about. If you don't know what the KICKR run is, it's a treadmill, but it's not like your run of the mill treadmill. See what I did there? The Wahoo KICKR run is a $5,000 treadmill, super expensive.
Dave:I mean, for, like, an at home treadmill, very expensive. But I think once you watch my full review, you'll sort of understand where this thing fits in in the grand scheme of things. The weird thing about the Wahoo KICKR run is that you you kinda have to throw away all of your preconceived notion or preconceived ideas on what a treadmill is. Like a standard treadmill, you get on it, you hit start, and then the treadmill itself records the activity. So you don't even need to wear a GPS watch or anything really.
Dave:Like, most people when you have an at home treadmill, they just get on it, they hit start, and then the dashboard in front of them will display their distance, their speed, elevation gain, things like that. And then that data is just recorded into the treadmill or with more modern day treadmills like NordicTrack, for example, that'll sync to the cloud to, like, the Ifit platform. Right? With Peloton, that'll go up to the Peloton plus plus platform. So you can you can send it over to Strava or download your GPX or FIT files, whatever.
Dave:That's where there's a huge departure with the Wahoo KICKR run because it's it's it's really odd. So it is a very simple treadmill. There's no ability built into this thing to record your data directly into the treadmill. There's no start button. There's no dashboard at all.
Dave:There there are little readouts below it that just share simple data, like your speed and duration of time, basically, but no other metrics than that than that because, like, on the dashboard, it won't even tell you how far you ran. So in one aspect, the Wahoo KICKR run is, like, the dumbest treadmill ever. I say that with love. But then on the on the flip side, it's also the most impressive treadmill, the most technologically advanced treadmill at the same time. So what Wahoo is doing here is basically they built a commercial grade treadmill.
Dave:This treadmill is a beast. The installer guys parked in the driveway at my house. They had to carry it around to my my basement door. And this thing, I think it weighs over £400. It's a beast.
Dave:And what I love about it this is I mean, I'm sharing a little bit too much. There will be a full review on this. But what I love about it is how durable and robust the actual treadmill deck is. If you have a treadmill at home, it might be a NordicTrack or like a Soul or whatever, a lot of people will have these, you know, residential treadmills that when you run, they sort of rattle around, and so, like, you put your phone in the cup holder or up on the dashboard or whatever, and it will shake around as you run, or you put your TV remote on the dashboard and it falls off on the floor or something like that. And they just shake a lot.
Dave:This Wahoo KICKR RUN does not shake at all. Like you could put a drink up on the dashboard, glass of wine or something. I'm thinking back to those mattress commercials, like, way back in the day. And it it won't fall over. This thing is so sturdy and stable that it does not budge when you run on it.
Dave:There are some really cool features of it, but also some headaches that I've sort of been trying to navigate through so far. So I've I've as I've mentioned that it doesn't have a traditional dashboard, so there's no, like, digital screen in front of you or readout. There's, like, a couple of digital displays that are are very simple kind of like calculator text that tell you just your speed and and incline. And then, there's no start button. You simply just get up on it, you stand on it, and then you hit a paddle on the right hand side that will increase your speed or decrease your speed.
Dave:And then on the left side is another paddle, kind of a mirror image, that will incline or decline. So the whole idea here is it's just a mode of transportation. Like the machine is just a treadmill belt that moves, and that's really it. But where the smarts are here is that it has additional sensors to make it incredibly smart. First of all, it has a time of flight sensor, built into the dashboard.
Dave:This is a sensor that can read out your position on the belt of the treadmill. It's a natural it feels natural. You get on it. You hit this run free button. And then when you start running, as fast as you run, the treadmill belt will speed up.
Dave:And then if you wanna slow down, you simply just slow down, and the belt will slow down automatically. It's kind of a trip. It it takes some it takes some getting used to. Like the initial first time you use this thing, you're terrified. It feels like you're gonna fall off the back of the treadmill.
Dave:But they've dialed in the sensor and the software so well that it just feels natural. Once you get used to it, it feels really like you're just running outside, which is super cool. But the other interesting aspect is that in the deck, there's also a a pressure sensor. So it knows your foot strike, and it can pick up your ground contact time. And then if you pair your phone to the treadmill using the Wahoo app, that's where you get a full treadmill experience.
Dave:So you have a phone on the dashboard. There's like a really handy little, desk thing that holds up the phone or or iPad or whatever you're using. And they even have a USB charging port on the treadmill, so you can plug whatever you're using directly in so it doesn't die. And then from there, in the Wahoo app, you can record your activity, and that'll record all the data. You'll get your distance, your speed, your elevation gain, and your heart rate if you pair something like your your Garmin watch and broadcast signal to the Wahoo app.
Dave:And that's where it feels so if you have a yeah. If you have an iPad up there, it feels more like a traditional treadmill. But then even more fun is that you can you can pair the treadmill with an app like Zwift, or there's other apps out there too. I've been I've been messing with, something called Keto Map, I think. And with these third party apps, the app can actually can con control the treadmill.
Dave:So in Zwift, for example, if your virtual character is going up a hill, so will the treadmill. The treadmill will automatically do elevation and decline, and then you can have it in run free mode, and it'll automatically adjust your speed. So the way I set it up in our house is we've got the Wahoo KICKR RUN, and then I put a a 65 inch TV right in front of it. So you can have Zwift up on the TV running on Apple TV. You can have your phone up on the dashboard with the Wahoo app open and get this, like, really immersive, incredible running experience inside your house.
Dave:And I gotta say after using it, like, the experience is it's unmatched. Going back to my my NordicTrack treadmill is, like, kinda painful now after using this thing for a little while because, like I said, the deck is so stable and all the sensors and the apps. It's just a really fun experience. There are some cons, which I do need to cover in the in-depth review, but so far, it's been really fun. The other thing I've been testing a lot lately, I think for the past month or so, is the new Eight Sleep Pod 4 Ultra.
Dave:You probably hear this everywhere now. I think, like, Joe Rogan sponsored by them now and, what Andrew Huberman. They so 8 Sleep is a it's an interesting product because on one hand, it is super crazy expensive, and I I've harped on that in the past in my in my initial review of the pod 3, but, it's also been, like, life changing for me and my wife. If you if my wife was here on the podcast, I should bring her in. She would rant and rave about her experience with 8 Sleep.
Dave:It honestly changed the way she sleeps. It really changed her life. And now we're at a point where without the 8 Sleep, like, if we're traveling, we're in a hotel or something, it, like, ruins our trip that we don't have the 8 Sleep with us because it's so good. Like, if you don't know what it is, it's a mattress cover that pumps hot or cold water through the cover and either cools or warms you. And by doing that, you know, like if you're someone who loves a blanket on you, but sometimes you run hot and you end up, like, sticking your arm out or your leg out trying to cool off, you don't need to do that anymore.
Dave:You could have the actual mattress cool down and still have a blanket on. And it's really interesting because in the winter, it means you can actually turn down the heat in the room and still be warm by having the mattress cover stay warm. And then in the summer, you can have the mattress stay cool. So you don't have to jack up your electricity bill with, air conditioning to stay cool. You can have your mattress stay cool.
Dave:It's really amazing. But this new Eight Sleep Pod 4 has a couple of advantages. It's more powerful. It's quieter. And with the Pod 4 Ultra, that's the one I've been testing.
Dave:It has a a base to it that goes under your mattress that can actually elevate your head or your feet. And using, like, an AI algorithm thing, it can actually detect when you snore and then adjust your head to stop your snoring. So as someone who occasionally snores, you can talk to my wife all about that, I found it to be really fascinating. And again, we've been testing that for, like, a month now. So stay tuned for the full review on that too.
Dave:Okay. With all that intro banter out of the way, we're already, like, 30 minutes into this podcast, and I, I'm still in the intro section of my notes here. Let's get into the year end roundup. I made that sound very official. So I wanna kick this off with, smart rings.
Dave:This year has been interesting for smart rings because we've had the Ring Con gen 2, the Oura Ring Gen 4, and a few others come out. And I still find myself going back and using the Ultrahuman Ring Air here. This is a ring I've had. It came out last year, so it doesn't even belong in this list. But for whatever reason, I I keep using it.
Dave:I just made a follow-up video about it. It's a good it's a good smart ring. I really like the app. They keep making it better. So, yeah.
Dave:If you're in the market for a smart ring, check it out. Of course, I'll link all this stuff in the description down below or in the show notes. But I've also had really good experience with the new, Oura Ring Gen 4 as well. I made a whole YouTube video about that. The challenge with Oura Ring that I keep coming back to you is their their damn subscription.
Dave:They are the only smart ring on the market to have a subscription, and it's kind of funny that all these other brands come out, like Samsung had their ring come out, O ring not O ring, but, Ringcon has their new ring. And every time a new smart ring comes out, the brand has to harp on the fact that they do not have a subscription. The Amazfit Helio was another one that came out. Also a really good one, very affordable. But the interesting thing is that Oura, for whatever reason, has it's like the hill they are willing to die on, that they're gonna keep that subscription forever.
Dave:It's really affordable. It's $6 a month. It's, like, $72 a year. But, like, the fact that they still have that subscription to me is kinda baffling when all of their competition has gotten away from it. But the other thing is, like, their barrier to entry is also very high.
Dave:Like, the cheapest Ouring is, what, $350, I think, the gen 4, and then it goes upwards from there. So if you want the matte black or the rose gold, you're gonna pay $500 for your ring, and then you gotta pay $6 a month. And that's where the challenge is for me that it's such a big investment, but they are the most well known brand, and that's how they're sort of getting away with it. It's a good product. Don't get me wrong, and I really like the metrics and app and everything.
Dave:But the subscription, man, I wish they would kill the I wish they would kill the subscription because, clearly, the the hardware cost is more than enough to cover their r and d expenses. I mean, it it has to be. What do I know? But like I said, what I keep gravitating back to is the Ultrahuman Ring Air because this one's super affordable and does not have a subscription. So that's the Smart Ring segment.
Dave:What else we got here? GPS watches. This is probably one a lot of you are wondering about. Again, this list I wanna keep this list primarily as things I was excited for to be released in 2024. And when it comes to watches, a few come to mind.
Dave:There were a lot of good watches that came out this year. I mean, the Polar Vantage M3 came out a little while ago. The Corus Pace Pro. I mean, a lot of watches came out. But I've narrowed this down to, like, 4 that I was very excited about.
Dave:I'll kick it off with the Garmin Phoenix 8. I know a lot of you out there have had your issues with the Garmin Phoenix 8, and and admittedly, I have too. You know, there's, like, initially, when it first released there were some quirks and bugs on the software but garments done a great job at ironing most of that out and the Phoenix 8 in a place now where it is fairly I mean, really stable. I've I've got one on my wrist right now. I've been wearing it ever since launch.
Dave:And with the new updates, there's really not a whole lot of issues I find in my daily use. I know a lot of you I know a lot of you out there have, like, specific use cases where there are bugs. I'm just not seeing them. But the watch itself, it's a good watch. It's well built.
Dave:It's attractive. It's very expensive at a1000 to $1200. It's definitely not for everybody, But I think I will say it's one of the most exciting releases of 2024, if you look at the whole landscape of what came out this year. I'll leave it there because I have a full review on YouTube. But there are 3 other watches that I wanna give honorable mentions to.
Dave:The first one sticking with Garmin here will be the Garmin foreigner 165. And I think the 165 is probably one of the best values on the market. It's currently $200. It gets you, like, 95% of what the well, not 95. I'll say 90% of what the Phoenix 8 offers, without it just doesn't have the navigation and mapping and some of the, you know, advanced training tools, but it's got, like, pretty much everything you need to get the job done in a super affordable watch with really helpful daily metrics, like your body battery and training readiness, like that sort of thing.
Dave:In a in a watch that's $200 with a nice display, OLED display, it looks nice. It's well built. It's all plastic, but it feels robust. So shout out to the Garmin 4 in a 165. The other 2 watches I wanna mention here, first off will be the Coros Pace Pro.
Dave:The Pace Pro, it's interesting because it honestly doesn't offer way more than what Coros already had to offer. Like, if you went and compared the Coros pace 3 to the pace pro, there's some advantages with the pace pro, but, like, if you're just looking at the metrics and GPS accuracy and things like that, like, it's pretty similar across the board. But Coros put an AMOLED display in the Pace Pro. They tweaked some of the stuff under the hood. The mapping and navigation on the Pace Pro is killer.
Dave:It's way better than their other models. And the overall experience just feels like more modern and more polished. So I personally, when they came to me to tell me about this, I was like, yep. That's exciting. And I still believe that to this day.
Dave:I think the Pace Pro was easily, in my opinion, one of the best and one of the most exciting releases of, you know, 2024. Is it the best in the market? No. Definitely not. But I think it was very exciting, which is why I'm mentioning it here.
Dave:And finally, for GPS watches, I gotta I gotta talk about it. You're all waiting for it. The Amazfit T Rex 3. This brand has just been, like a couple of years ago, Amazfit was kind of like kinda like a a shoddy company. They had they had watches like the the Stratos 3, I think.
Dave:I tested that a long time ago. And at that time, I got terrible heart rate accuracy, terrible GPS accuracy. The interface was kinda laggy and sluggish. It just didn't feel like like something worth investing your money in. And that trend continued for a little while.
Dave:But as Amazfit keeps advancing, it seems like they're they're dedicated to to improving their product, adding more features, making better products, and just keep on trucking and moving. And every year, they get better and better. And in this year, the Amazfit T Rex 3 is honestly a watch I can I can I can recommend to people in the right situations? Of course, I have a full review on YouTube about this. I've talked about in the past on the podcast because it caused a whole bunch of a whole controversy.
Dave:A whole s h I t storm for me, but the watch itself is kind of impressive. It's $280 in the features it offers. It's like if you look at the spec sheet, it's got all the same specs as like a Garmin Phoenix 8 at $279. And on Black Friday, it was like $240. So just something kind of out of this world.
Dave:And in my experience testing it, I got good GPS accuracy and heart rate accuracy. I was shocked by that. There are some cons, like, you know, not everything is perfect. The the wellness metrics are a little bit off. Like, the readiness score and sleep score just don't feel accurate, but that's not you unique to them.
Dave:There's other brands where that's a challenge as well. But, you know, overall, if you've got $280, you're looking for a watch with this kind of feature set, it's definitely worth taking a look at. And even their app got a lot better. They they polished it made it made it better. They kind of copied what Woop had and made their app, but that's besides the point just to mention that it's worth checking out.
Dave:So those are the 4 watches I've been most excited about this year. Next up, road shoes. And I've only got one for this one. The road shoe that I've been gravitating towards for, like, daily training this year has been the HOKA mock x 2. This is a $190 shoe.
Dave:And for whatever reason, this shoe just it fits me really well, and I love the midsole. It's not a carbon plated shoe or anything like that. It's not a super shoe, but it is a really good daily trainer. And when I have it on my foot, I feel like I can go really far and my legs don't get as tired. So I'll leave it there.
Dave:I've been wearing the HOKA Maka x 2 for road shoes. Trail shoes. This one's gonna come as a shock if if you know me and what I like. So the the trail shoe I've really enjoyed this year, and I was not expecting it was the HOKA Tecton X3. This is their, like, top of the line trail runner.
Dave:It's a $275 shoe, so sorry about that. Very expensive. But what makes it special is that it's one of the few trail runners on the market with an integrated gator. It's got this, like, built in sock that goes over your ankle. And I was not a fan of the HOKA HOKA text Tecton X2 because it was way too narrow for my foot.
Dave:But the X3, they made wider, so it actually fits me this time around. So I've been enjoying the Tecton X3. I'm pointing at it over here. Don't have it with me at the desk here, but it's been a great shoe and one I continue to run-in. It's actually making for a pretty good winter shoe right now with that built in integrated gaiter.
Dave:Even though it's not waterproof, that's fine. But having that gator just kinda keeps the snow and slush out as you're running. Honorable mentions though, I was I ran the Vermont 100 in July with 2 different shoes. 1 being, the ultra Montblanc carbon. Again, this is a super high end race trail super shoe.
Dave:It's, like, $275. It's got a carbon plate in it from Altra, a nice wide toe box, but this shoe blew me away when I put it on my foot. It was so comfortable. Lots of energy returned, but, like, had a good amount of squish in the midsole, which you don't get in a lot of trail shoes. So I chose to start the Vermont 100 with that shoe.
Dave:Unfortunately, at mile 60, I ended up with some blisters. I probably my fault. I didn't time right. And I ended up swapping out my shoes for the Ultra Olympus, the new ones. I believe it's the Olympus 6, and I ran those to the finish line.
Dave:And those shoes performed exceptionally well. They are definitely not a super shoe. They're definitely on that maximum cushion side of things. They're definitely way heavier than the the ultra, carbons, but they performed really well at that race. It felt like I had tanks on my feet.
Dave:Like, if I kicked a rock by accident or or rolled my ankle, they just had a lot of support and protection. And when you're 70 miles into a race, that is really appreciated when you, stub your big toe on a rock, and that is the worst. So those are my picks for shoes this year. Of course, your mileage may vary. I'm not a great shoe reviewer.
Dave:That's all I can tell you. Okay. Next up is the, hydration vest I was wearing this year. So as always, I think I've been wearing the same hydration vest since 2019. That's the Salomon advanced skin 12 set, the old model that people had issues with the zippers.
Dave:I still wear it. I've cobbled it together with zip ties and duct tape, and it still gets the job done. But just recently, I've started using a USWE vest. I think that's how you say it. It's USWE.
Dave:This is a newer company. I believe it's a Swedish company. I hope I'm right on that. And it's a really interesting design. So their whole claim here is that, like, they they reduce the mounts the the bouncing of your hydration vest with a new design, the way it fastens to your chest, and it actually works.
Dave:And I think they call this, like, no more dancing monkey on your back or something like that. I don't know. But the idea being on a traditional hydration vest, the front portion here is where all of your adjustment gets done. Like, if you need to cinch down your vest, you pull a string in the front and it sort of kind of grabs from the front and and snugs it up, almost like a corset or something from back in the day. Now that's good and bad.
Dave:Unfortunately, it can constrict your chest and make it feel like you can't breathe, but it won't bounce as much. But if you loosen it up too much, then it's it bounces all over the place. Your bottles can bounce out, stuff in the back back's bouncing around. It's not great. So that's where Usui came in, and they sort of reinvented the hydration vest.
Dave:Instead of having the adjustment in the front, there's now a, like, buckle, like a car like a car seat belt in the front, And it's really cool. It's got a pivot to it, so it kinda contours your body shape. And it's a static mount. So when you buckle that, there's no adjustment in the front at all. Instead, there's adjustment on the sides in your lateral area where you can cinch it down to your body.
Dave:And what that does is it prevents the bounce, but also doesn't crush you and make it so you can't breathe. And I've been testing this out in the past couple of weeks, and I gotta say it works. So I think maybe moving forward, I might hang up the Solomon and start running in a u suite vest. Time will tell. Maybe with the next race I do, I'll test it out there, but I've been really impressed with so far.
Dave:And, again, I'll link that down in the show notes or the description down below if you wanna check out, the Usui vest. Pretty cool. I should mention some of these will be affiliate links, some will not. I don't have an affiliation with Usui, so, you know, it is what it is. Okay.
Dave:Next up, action cameras. Let's talk action cameras. So this year, a lot of action cameras came out from the big three. That would be GoPro, Insta 360, and DJI. There was the GoPro Hero 13 black that the major upgrade to the camera was, like, modular lenses.
Dave:So you could put a macro lens on there or ND filters or even an anamorphic lens, which was really cool. Then there was the Insta 360 Ace Pro 2, which improved low light capabilities, better battery life, better thermals, still had that, like, flippy screen design. And then the DJI Action 5 Pro, which added OLED screens front and back, crazy long battery life, no overheating, and way better low light performance. Months later, I've been testing all 3 of these cameras all the time. And I think the one I reach for the most is the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro, but it's tough.
Dave:So I have, like, a really certain mix of criteria for what would I want an action camera to do. It's gotta be easy, foolproof. I don't wanna, like, mess up recording. The image has to be good obviously but also it has to have good audio quality for spoken word. One thing that drives me nuts is when an action camera has like great video but when you're vlogging or talking to it it sounds bad or like really tinny or thin.
Dave:So that's where the Insta 360 ace pro 2 is really impressive. They upgraded their microphone on that camera. They added a little pop filter to it. So if you're in a windy situation, there's no wind sound. And it sounds like if you're holding at an arm's length away and you're just talking to the camera, it actually sounds like you have like a lavalier mic on.
Dave:The audio quality is that good. The image quality is good, but the built in mic is really good. The problem I have with the Ace Pro 2 is for my use case as a trail runner, runner, hiker, that type of person, the flippy screen on the Insta 360 cameras is actually a con. It's something I don't like because when I take my camera out, I don't wanna, like, do anything. I wanna take it out, aim it, hit the record button, talk, hit record, put it away.
Dave:Now, with the Insta 360 Ace Pro 2, it doesn't have a preview of the image that you're recording on the front of the the camera, so you don't know what you're seeing. Of course, it's a very wide lens, so one would argue you don't really need to know. But for me, I like framing my shot. So I like knowing what's happening. So in that case, you gotta take out your camera, flip out the screen, frame your shot, talk to the camera, hit stop record, fold away the screen, put it away.
Dave:So in that scenario, that's 2 extra things you have to do every time you take out your camera. And if I'm, like, running a race or something like that, it's just it's a thing I don't wanna do. I don't wanna have another added process to my, you know, already cumbersome camera process that I have to do. So that's where the GoPro and the DJI have an advantage. The built in preview display on the front is a major pro for me.
Dave:I really like having that. Even though they're tiny, it still lets you know roughly how your shot's gonna look, and I really appreciate that. So I've been leaning towards mainly the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro. I really like the GoPro 2. Like, it's really tough to pick.
Dave:All of these cameras have amazing image quality. All of them have fantastic stabilization. All of them actually have surprisingly good audio quality from their built in mic microphones. But I keep gravitating back to the DJI because two things. It's the smallest form factor.
Dave:It's got the best battery life and default settings with, like, the lower bit rate. And the previous screen on the front is OLED, so it's a little bit crisper and easier to see in, like, direct sunlight. So take that for what it's worth. They're all in the same ballpark of pricing, but that's yeah. It's tough, man.
Dave:Like, if you're in the market for an action camera in 2024, first of all, you can't go wrong. So maybe just buy whichever ecosystem you wanna get into. If you're focused, laser focused on dark situations like, you know, shooting at from with moonlight or something like that or indoors, don't get the GoPro. It's not good at low light, but in good light, the GoPro kinda looks the best. It's got really good colors and contrast, so so it's tough.
Dave:If you're mainly in good light, which I would argue most people are if you're using an action camera, like, go for the GoPro. I don't know. I like the DJI, though. That's I like them all, but the DJI is kinda like the one I've been reaching for. Okay.
Dave:Next up, earbuds. So this one is I don't have a whole lot to talk about here. I used to review earbuds, like, heavily on the channel, but I've sort of backed away from that because I don't know. I see earbuds a lot like shoes where there's a lot of subjective a lot of subjective stuff like what sounds good to me may not sound good to you. I'm not like an audio file.
Dave:So maybe I shouldn't be doing that and the same goes with shoes like if it fits my foot and it's comfortable, how do I know it's gonna fit your foot and be comfortable for you? So that's why I typically stay away from reviewing that stuff, but we'll talk about it here anyways. With the earbuds, you're gonna be surprised here. The most exciting earbud I got this year, I got a lot of them, was actually the Nothingbuds Pro 2, which are, like, $59 on Amazon. They're not high end class leading earbuds at all, but I was shocked by how good these earbuds are for the price point.
Dave:They sound great. They look great. They got a cool case with a a dial that clicks. It's really satisfying. But also you can map that dial to change the volume of your phone and stuff.
Dave:They're really cool. So shout out to Nothing Buds Pro 2. I was not expecting much from them, to be honest, because they're so inexpensive, but they turned out to be really cool. The other earbuds I've been using are nothing new. Like my daily running earbuds, I alternate between the Sennheiser Momentum Sports with the built in heart rate sensor and the Beats Fit Pros from a couple of years ago.
Dave:I still use them almost every single day. The battery has held up. They've held up. I really like them. They feel like bomb proof earbuds, so they get that little hook that keeps them in your ears.
Dave:And then, of course, my everyday convenient earbud that I use for just about everything, podcasting, listening to them in bed, or even taking phone calls sometimes, the Apple AirPod Pro twos, they're just so convenient. If you have Apple product, like an iPhone or a iPad or even a MacBook Pro, the way they just work and they auto switch between devices and stuff, it makes it really easy. Okay. With that, we have reached, I think, the end of this podcast. We've been recording for over an hour now, and I am tired.
Dave:My voice is starting to get a little bit raspy because I am not feeling too hot. So I'm gonna end this here. Thanks for tuning in. If you are tuning in for the first time, make sure to hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcast outlet, whether that be Spotify, Apple, or over on the YouTube channel. Subscribe over there.
Dave:Leave a comment down below on YouTube. I'd really appreciate that. And as always, check out the Chase the Summit merch store. Right now, I'm doing a 20% off promotion for Black Friday, Cyber Monday stuff. The code is black Friday.
Dave:Pretty simple. So chase the summit.com, pick up a hat or a a sweatshirt. Got a I've got one of the black stealth hats here. These things are great. Big fan of the hats.
Dave:And, yeah, 20% off right now with the Black Friday discount code. So check it out. And, I think that's it. I think we've made it to the end of this one. Sorry.
Dave:Got kind of ranty and kinda odd, but I'm just trying to hit record and not do a lot of editing on these. So it is what it is. Stay tuned. Gonna try to get back in the groove with this podcast. I do wanna try to get some guests on here.
Dave:We gotta work on that, but that'll be for another time. Alright, friends. Thanks for tuning in. I I hope you're having a great day. Happy holidays.
Dave:If I don't talk to you, happy New Year. Hopefully, I do one before then, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.
