Omegawave is an interesting training device which measures your ECG and based on the information tells you when to train and when to rest. 

The idea is to optimize training and rest: you won't develop your performance if you don't train enough. But also if you train too much without rest, your results won't improve either. So you need to know when to train and when to rest. And this is what Omegawave tells you. Sounded good for me, so I bought one. 

Omegawave arrived quite fast by mail, in a few days after my order. The product itself is in a nice looking package. 

In the box there is the actual ECG sensor, a heart rate belt that goes around your chest, a battery charger and a brief quick start guide. In addition you need a iOS or Android device where you need to load an app which connects to the sensor. Registering to the app takes a couple of minutes, you need to update your height, weight etc. basic data. 

Starting to use the device was quite easy. I had a brief difficulties with bluetooth pairing with my Android phone, but I got it working in a few minutes. After that the device looks quite like any heart rate monitor. 

Getting the data is quite easy: you put the belt on, lie down on a bed, turn on the app on your mobile device and click Measure-button. Then you just wait 2 minutes while the device gathers data. 

The basic information Omegawave gives to you is Cardiadic Readiness on the scale of 1-10. If it is on green, you are ready to continue training. If it turns red, you need to rest. 

In addition to the information about should you train or rest, Omegawave gives a lot of different measurements also. Since I have just started to use the device I really don't know how to interpret all the data. There are some instructions in the app, but they were a bit difficult to understand. But I guess this is something I need to study more. 

Since I do mostly endurance sports an especially interesting measurement is Aerobic readiness. This should show me how my aerobic condition is developing and give direct feedback am I doing right kind of exercise or not. I am always wondering am I training too hard or too easy, and now finally this device should teach me the right level. 

My overall first impression from Omegawave is really positive. Easy to use, seems to be working as it should. Gives a lot of interesting data which will help me for sure to train in the right way to get better results. 

I have used and tried quite a many different sports tracking apps. I started my tracking many years ago with Sports Tracker, which was kind of ok. The biggest problem with Sports Tracker was that there were quite limited about of sports you could choose from. I then moved to Endomondo which I have used a lot. But many of the main features with Endomondo are only available on paid versions, which I don't like. And some other small things annoy me a bit also.

So now I am off to find the next perfect tracking app. I have tried quite a many, but most app have few small things I don't like. And they all seem really similar.

The best app I have found so far is RunKeeper. 

I have just done some small testing, so no thorough review of the app yet. But I will try it for sure for my next runs so let's see how it works. Another quite interesting, yet not that well known app seems to be Strava Run:

After a brief test I like many usability related things Strava has, so for sure that will be another app I will testing. 

More of my experiences in a week or two after using the both for a while. 

One thing to track is how many hours a day you sleep but a bit more interesting thing is the quality of the sleep. SleepBot tracks the quality by using the sensors in your smartphone which shows the movement in the night. Here is an example of a good night (not much movement) and a really restless night (a lot of movement):

SleepBot recommends people should sleep 8 hours a night and calculates the sleep debt based on this number. I guess 8 hours is a good average, even if there are individual differences. For a healthy adult 7-9 hours is typically recommended. 

As a result of the SleepBot I found out I sleep about 7 hours a day. Which I guess I already knew quite well. Maybe I could sleep a bit more. But in general I have a little mixed feelings about SleepBot and sleep tracking in general. Ok, it is a kind of nice to know how much you sleep and your sleep quality. But what will I do with this data? How does it help me? I don't know yet, but maybe I'll figure out something. 

I don't have much difficulties to find motivation for training. However, sometimes running or cycling training I do could be a little bit longer. For example, on week days I might run 30-45 minutes, but it would be better to run about 60 minutes. 

I couple of weeks ago I received an invitation from a friend to a game called Ingress developed by Google. This has been a great boost to my training. The idea of the game is that you run (or bike or drive a car or whatever) around the city collecting things, attacking the enemy and so on. The game is played with your mobile phone and happens in real time, in real space. So if you want to for example attack enemy at the local train station, you need to physically goto the train station. You can't play the game from your home. 

At first I wasn't that excited about the idea of the game (I don't play a lot of games in general), but this game is  quite addictive. Here are a few screenshots:

As a result of starting to play this game I want to get out and go running (and playing) every day. It is really easy to stay out running for at least an hour (yesterday I was running and playing for 2.5 hours). And it keeps training interesting since you can (and must) go to new places and discover new things.

So if you ever have trouble finding motivation for training, give Ingress a try. And remember, join Resistance :)

Counting steps you take a day seems to be a hit nowadays. Of course there has been step counters for ages, but today just about any new fitness device has a step counter. I have never understood why.

Step counting is not a new thing. I bought a great step counter, the best you can find (Omron), already about 10 years ago. And used it only for a couple of weeks. If you look at new products at the moment, every new product has a step counter: Jawbone, Fitbit, Samsung smart phones, etc. I am pretty sure that when Apple finally releases their iWatch, it will have a step counter. But who needs it?

Ok, I understand that if you are a couch potato who never does any exercise, then step counter might be useful. It tells you you are not exercising enough. But if you already do some exercise, then step counter tells you nothing. For one, it only tracks two sports (walking and running), but not for example biking, swimming, gym etc. And just the number of steps don't tell you anything about speed, distance and many other things you want to track in sports. 

What I would like to see in these future devices are something like foot pods in heart rate monitors. They have a much more better tracking with speed, distance, cadences and many other things. So when these different tracking devices implement something like that in them, I am ready to buy them. 

So, no thumps up from me for step counting. But if you find step counting useful, please tell me. I am always open for other opinions :)