But before all that Jimmy shares a vista from Signal Mountain and talks about the importance of wearing trail-specific shoes when going off road. Save those pavement beaters for road racing.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged trail running | Leave a Comment »
It’s vital to have good sunglasses when outdoors especially in the summer. Oakley has become a standard in the sunglass industry and they love showing off how much technology goes into their product.
The Oakley Rolling O’ Lab is as impressive as it is gigantic. We had the opportunity to meet some of the O’ Lab crew and they were gracious enough to allow our cameras in for a peak.
Posted in gear | Tagged Oakley, sunglasses | 2 Comments »
It’s summertime so it must be triathlon season! Our cameras were rolling at the Chattanooga BMW Waterfront Triathlon that took place July 12, 2009 to catch all the action as our very own Jimmy ran the course. Meanwhile Jon took on the tough assignment of interviewing Ms Tennessee 2009, Stefanie Whittler, and chatting with the elite as they crossed the finish line.
We had three camera crews out on the course and ended up with a ton of footage. The hard part is whittling it down to just a highlight film. We salute all those who ran the course and crossed the finish line.
During the race expo the day before, Jimmy came across a race entrant wearing a pair of Newton Running Shoes. Watch as the two of them discuss the merits of these high priced shoes and find out whether or not they’re worth the $200 price tag.
Posted in triathlon | Tagged BMW Waterfront, Chattanooga, Newton Running Shoes, triathlon | Leave a Comment »
Jon interviews Debra Martin, MSPT, CLT of Archer Physical Therapy in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia where she discusses the need for adventure athletes to pay attention to their bodies whether they’re beginner or elite.
Jimmy discusses the benefits of breathable wearables, and shares how to create a personal air conditioner to keep cool while training.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adventure Sports, Archer Physical Therapy | Leave a Comment »
In the past decade the popularity of rock climbing has dramatically increased. It has been estimated that rock climbing
is now enjoyed by more than 9 million people in the U.S. each year.
A new study by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Research Institute at the Nationwide
Children’s Hospital found that as the popularity of the sport has escalated, so have the number of injuries.
Study findings revealed a 63 percent increase in the number of patients that were treated in U.S. emergency departments for rock climbing-related injuries between 1990 and 2007.
The study, published in the online issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that over 40,000 patients were treated in U.S. emergency departments for rock climbing-related injuries between 1990 and 2007. The most common types of rock climbing-related injuries were fractures (29 percent) and sprains and strains (29 percent).
Lower extremities were the most common region of the body to be injured (46 percent) while the ankle was the most common individual body part to be injured (19 percent).Climbers in the study ranged in age from 2 to 74 years, with an average age of 26 years. Climbers 20-39 years old accounted for the majority of the injuries (56 percent) while climbers 19 years and younger accounted for 30 percent. Climbers 40 years and older accounted for the remaining 14 percent. The study also found that women accounted for more than 28 percent of the injuries, a higher proportion than found in previous rock climbing studies.
Falls were the primary mechanism for injury with over three-quarters of the injuries occurring as the result of a fall. The severity of fall-related injuries correlated with the height of the fall. Patients who were injured after falling from a height over 20 feet were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized than patients who were injured falling from 20 feet or lower.
“We found that the climbers who fell from heights higher than 20 feet accounted for 70 percent of the patients there were hospitalized for a rock climbing-related injury,” explained study author Lara McKenzie, PhD, principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and faculty member of The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “This trend, combined with the fact that rock climbers have a higher hospitalization rate than other sports and recreational injuries, demonstrates the need to increase injury prevention efforts for climbers.”
photo courtesty of Flickr via Creative Commons
Posted in accident | Tagged accident, injury, rock climbing | Leave a Comment »
Here’s the press release straight from Patagonia’s Facebook page:
Patagonia formally announced on September 4th that it would terminate all co-branding and co-marketing efforts with SIGG, Inc. It has come to Patagonia’s attention from recent news reports that a Bisphenol A (BPA) epoxy coating was used in most aluminum SIGG bottles manufactured prior to August 2008, despite earlier assurances from SIGG that the liners of their bottles did not contain BPA.
Bisphenol A is a chemical that Patagonia does not support the use of in consumer products, hence the company has terminated its co-branding relationship with SIGG. In addition, Patagonia is ceasing the sale of SIGG bottles in its stores, as well as through its catalog and on-line distribution.
Unfortunately, readers of Backpacker Magazine will notice a SIGG advertisement featuring Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder and owner, holding a SIGG bottle with a 1% for the Planet logo on it. This ad was created in an effort to support and promote 1% for the Planet, an alliance of companies that dedicate 1% of annual sales to environmental organizations, which was co-founded by Yvon Chouinard. Once Patagonia learned through media reports that SIGG bottles did indeed contain BPA in the liners, the company immediately terminated its co-marketing agreement with SIGG and attempted to remove ads from both Outside Magazine and Backpacker. The ads were successfully pulled from Outside. Unfortunately, Backpacker had already gone to print.
“We did our homework on the topic of BPA, going all the way back to 2005 when this subject first emerged in discussions in scientific journals” Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia’s VP of environmental initiatives states. “We even arranged for one of the leading scientists on BPA research to come to our company to educate us on the issue. Once we concluded there was basis for concern, we immediately pulled all drinking bottles that contained BPA from our shelves and then searched for a BPA-free bottle. We very clearly asked SIGG if there was BPA in their bottles and their liners, and they clearly said there was not. After conducting such thorough due diligence, we are more than chagrined to see the ad that is appearing in Backpacker, but we also feel that with this explanation our customers will appreciate and understand our position.”
Patagonia continues to support 1% for the Planet in all possible ways, but will no longer do so through co-promotion with SIGG.
With regard to Patagonia customer support, Patagonia is currently accepting returns of any SIGG bottle purchased through Patagonia and is offering its customers full refunds. All unused SIGG inventory on Patagonia retail store shelves is being returned to SIGG to be recycled – and the company is currently searching for another bottle vendor. Customers interested in returning their Patagonia-labeled SIGG bottles can bring them to their nearest Patagonia store, or click for complete directions for mail-in returns.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged BPA, patagonia, sigg | Leave a Comment »
So you’re a rock climber? Have you tried to obtain life insurance in the past and run into problems? Been told that insurance companies don’t like your kind? It’s too hazardous; we don’t like that kind of risk.
Don’t fret – there is hope. A number of reputable life insurance companies don’t frown upon rock climbers. Their underwriters understand that scaling a rock under 5,000 feet is much different than climbing K2.
In order to avoid being “rated up” (charged more for a policy than someone who keeps their feet planted on the ground)
it’s important to know which insurance companies to quote with and present them with enough relevant information in the form of a risk profile
Some of the information is needed is:
Insurance companies that have experience with rock climbers will know how to properly assess this information and give you a competitive rate.
Contact us if you’d like more information on life insurance for rock climbers.
photo courtesy of rofanator under Creative Commons
Posted in insurance | Tagged life insurance, rock climbing | Leave a Comment »
According to AppleInsider, Apple appears to be working on an activity sensor similar to the Nike+ iPod sport kit geared towards skiers, snowboarders and mountain bikers that would be capable of determining their “air time,” “speed,” and the amount of “power” or energy absorbed during those sporting activities.
“It is well known that many skiers enjoy high speeds and jumping motions while traveling down the slope. High speeds refer to the greater and greater velocities which skiers attempt in navigating the slope successfully (and sometimes unsuccessfully),” Apple wrote in a new patent filing discovered by AppleInsider this week. “The jumping motions, on the other hand, include movements which loft the skier into the air. Generally, the greater the skier’s speed, the higher the skier’s loft into the air.”
The Cupertino-based electronics maker further notes that the interest in high speed skiing is apparent simply by observing the velocity of skiers descending the mountain. Meanwhile, interest in the loft motion is less apparent, though it is known that certain enthusiastic skiers regularly exclaim “let’s catch some air” and other assorted remarks when referring to the amount and altitude of the lofting motion.
“The sensations of speed and jumping are also readily achieved in other sporting activities, such as in mountain biking. Many mountain bikers, like the aforementioned skiers, also crave greater speeds and “air” time,” Apple wrote. “However, persons in such sporting activities typically only have a qualitative sense as to speed and loft or ‘air’ time. For example, a typical snowboarding person might regularly exclaim after a jump that she ‘caught’ some ‘big sky,’ ‘big air’ or ‘phat air’ without ever quantitatively knowing how much time really elapsed in the air.”
There are also other factors that extreme sportsmen sometimes assess qualitatively. For example, if a snowboarder goes down a double-diamond ski slope while a friend goes down a green, easy slope, when they both reach the bottom, the double-diamond snowboarder will have expended more energy than the other, generally, and will have worked up a sweat; while the green snowboarder will have had a relatively inactive ride down the slope. Currently, there is no method or system to quantitatively compare how rough their journeys were relative to one another.
This is where Apple is looking to step in with a device — or series of devices — capable of detecting and displaying a visual and quantitative measure of how much “air” time and, in certain aspects, how fast a user moves in a particular activity.
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Aspen Daily News report:
An Aspen woman continued to recuperate Monday at Aspen Valley Hospital after a 40-foot rock climbing fall and a swift but very technically challenging rescue.
Forty-year-old Karen Sahn, an Aspen Highlands ski patroller and accomplished endurance athlete, fell due to an equipment failure while lead climbing a rock face in the Lincoln Creek Cliffs area off Lincoln Creek Road on Sunday, according to Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office reports.
The three other climbers she was leading, all local men, were unhurt.
Read the rest of the article in the Aspen Daily News
Posted in accident | Tagged accident, rock climbing | Leave a Comment »
A recent study brought to light in an AP news story extols the dangers of doing a triathlon and the heart risks involved. The study cites that participating in a triathlon (15 heart related deaths per million participants per year) is deadlier than running a marathon (4-8 heart related deaths per million participants per year). 
The AP article fails to mention what distance those triathlon deaths occured. Were they all Iron Mans? If so, isn’t it a bit misleading to compare statistics when a marathon is one third of the distance traversed in an Iron Man? Were those 4 to 8 marathon related deaths resulting from stand alone events or did they draw them from full Iron Man distance triathlons too?
Even if they were Half Iron (or Long Course as referred to on the West Coast) you’re still not comparing apples to apples. If they were Sprint distance, then we may need to talk more about this.
This is by no means meant to trivialize any deaths occuring from a sporting event: marathon, triathlon or other. However, the study appears faulty in at least the way it was reported and a bit asinine to those who compete in such events. By all means do get routine physicals and advise your physician if you intend to train and compete in an endurance event.
We conducted a quick and very unscientific poll in the iMULTISPORT hallways this morning and unanimously concluded that sitting on the couch day after day, eating potato chips and watching Law & Order reruns is far more hazardous to your health than training for and participating in a triathlon of any distance. What do you think about that?
Posted in running, triathlon | Tagged marathon, medical, triathlon | 2 Comments »
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