.KEYWORD ride
.FLYINGHEAD SPORTS TECHNOLOGY
.TITLE Heather’s big adventure
.FEATURE
.SPOTLIGHT FIGALT cover.gif
.SUMMARY Our own Heather McDaniel is one of the athletes participating in the U.S.->Canada AIDS Vaccine Ride, in which she’ll ride her bicycle 400 miles over five days to raise money for AIDS research. In this article, you’ll learn how she made use of various applications for the Palm OS to help her train and organize her fundraising. You’ll also learn how you can contribute to this extremely worthy cause.
.AUTHOR Heather McDaniel
I’ve committed myself to ride my bicycle 400 miles over a five day period from Montreal, Canada to Portland, Maine in the U.S.->Canada AIDS Vaccine Ride. This is a tremendous personal challenge in terms of physical fitness and endurance. Why would anyone do such a thing? Well, it’s for altruistic reasons and as a personal challenge.
In order to be able to handle the challenges of this undertaking, one question I asked myself was, "How can I keep track of donations, potential donors, fundraising ideas, and training?" Well, I looked at a number of options, and the easiest way to keep track of everything was to use a Palm handheld. In this article, I’m going to show you what programs I use on my Palm handheld to help me get ready for the big ride!
Before I tell more about the software I’m using, I’d like to spend a moment telling you about the research we’re trying to help fund. We’re riding to raise money for three maverick research teams working toward the eradication of AIDS by vaccine. Dr. David Ho’s team at the Aaron Diamond AIDS research center in New York, Dr. Rafi Ahmed’s team at Emory Vaccine Center at Emory University, and Dr. Irvin Chen’s team at the UCLA AIDS Institute are all doing cutting-edge, outside-the-box science that traditional funding sources are slow to finance.
.H1 Training
Getting my body in good enough shape to be able ride my bicycle 400 miles in five days is quite a task. There are several programs for Palm OS devices that are great to use to keep track of training.
.H2 Cyclist’s Log
Cyclist’s Log, shown in Figure A, is an easy to use tool to keep track of the distance you ride, whether in kilometers or miles. The program can also calculate your pace and calories burned during your ride.
.FIG A Cyclist’s Log keeps a log of when I ride, as well as the number of miles.
Cyclist’s Log also allows you to keep track of other cross-training activities, such as hiking or weightlifting.
As you can see in Figure B, entering information is easy.
.FIG B Entering your information is easy.
Once you enter a location, Cyclist’s Log will memorize it, so you don’t have to re-enter the information. It also has an extended notes field so you can keep details on whether or not you were sore during a particular ride or weightlifting routine.
If your goal is to complete a certain amount of miles per week, then Cyclist’s Log will be able to help you reach your goal. The program can create a summary of activities during one week, four weeks, one month, and the entire year. Figure C summarizes my activities for the last four weeks.
.FIG C Here’s a summary of the miles I’ve ridden during the past four weeks.
Cyclists’s Log is available for $10 at http://www.fitnesslogs.com.
.H2 BikeBrain
I think I have found proof that if you have a need for a specific type of Palm OS software, someone will build it. That is certainly the case with BikeBrain from VeloTrend (at http://www.velotrend.com).
BikeBrain, pictured in Figure D, allows your device to function just like a cyclocomputer.
.FIG D BikeBrain allows your Palm handheld to function just like a cyclocomputer.
It keeps track of the distance you ride (in either miles or kilometers), miles or kilometers per hour, and your maximum and minimum speeds.
If you’re afraid to use that brand-spanking new Palm handheld while bicycling all over the place, there’s no need to worry. BikeBrain’s case is secure and easy to install. Figure E shows you how it’s installed on my bike.
.FIGPAIR E You don’t have to worry about your Palm handheld falling while you’re riding.
Another great thing about BikeBrain is that you can HotSync the information with your PC and view the information there. BikeBrain will also create graphs of your trek, like the one shown in Figure F.
.FIGPAIR F Here’s what a ride looks like on BikeBrain’s desktop software.
You can also create and install routes on BikeBrain, like the one shown in Figure G. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to read a given route on your device in bright sunlight.
.FIG G BikeBrain can keep your route on your Palm handheld.
Compared to other cyclocomputers on the market, BikeBrain is reliable and easy to use.
BikeBrain is available from VeloTrend for $99.95 for Handspring Visors or Palm V handhelds. For the Palm III series, it’s $89.95. BikeBrain isn’t recommended for the Palm IIIc because the color screen is as good as invisible in sunlight. You’re even in luck if you still have a PalmPilot Professional, Personal, or Pilot 5000 or 1000. For those models, BikeBrain is available for $89.95.
The kits include BikeBrain for Palm OS, the BikeBrain Desktop for both Windows & Mac, a wheel sensor kit, a case, a mounting grip, and a strap.
.H2 The Athlete’s Diary
The third program I use for training is The Athlete’s Diary from Stevens Creek Software (at http://www.stevenscreek.com). It’s pretty simple to use, and it also has the ability to HotSync with both Windows and Mac computers. Figure H shows a log of my workouts on the desktop software.
.FIGPAIR H Here’s how my training log looks on the desktop.
You can enter information on the Palm handheld, as shown in Figure I.
.FIG I The Athlete’s Diary provides plenty of room for notes and your route or weightlifting routine.
What I like about The Athlete’s Diary is that it provides plenty of room for notes and your route or weightlifting routine. It also calculates your pace.
The software can also create graphs that summarize either the distance ridden or time spent training. You can see the graph for my training in Figure J.
.FIG J The Athlete’s Diary creates graphs that summarize either the distance ridden or time spent training.
The Athlete’s Diary for Palm is available from Stevens Creek Software for $39.95. Stevens Creek has bundled the Palm version with the Windows or Mac software for $79.95.
.H1 Fundraising
As part of this commitment, I have to raise a minimum of $3,400 in donations. Right now, I’m using Arranger from Olive Branch Software (at http://www.olivebr.com/pilot.htm) to keep track of donations made or promised, and other fundraising ideas and commitments.
Figure K shows you how I’ve outlined everything I need to do to be ready for the ride.
.FIG K I organized my commitments into six categories.
As you can see, I broke up my commitments into six categories: Tasks, PalmPower Article, Donors, Potential Donors, Training, and Training Partners.
Arranger is very easy to use, and it keeps all of your information all in one place. For instance, if you schedule an event, you’d make a note of it in the Date Book. You can then import that appointment into Arranger.
If you come up with a great idea that you have to jot down before you forget, you can use the Memo field on your handheld. With Arranger, you can import those ideas and create outlines. You can also drag and drop your entries to prioritize them, as shown in Figure L.
.FIG L You can prioritize your entries by dragging and dropping them.
Arranger is available from Olive Branch Software for $19.
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.H1 Conclusion
Since signing up for the Pallotta TeamWorks Canada->US AIDS Vaccine Ride, I’ve been able to use my Palm handheld and a few third-party programs to help me organize all of my tasks, whether it’s keeping track of donations and sponsors, or how fast I’m riding during a particular ride.
Now here is where you come in. I’d like to ask you to donate to this worthy cause (tax-deductible, of course!). If every PalmPower reader donated $20, I’d meet that goal with donations to spare. Of course, if $20 is too steep, every bit helps. And, of course, if you can donate more, please do so. Feel free to pass this on to your friends, as well.
All you have to do is visit https://www.ecenroll.com/ECPTW2/SilverStream/Pages/ECEnrollDirectURL?participant=30331&eventcode=VXCN2001 and fill out the short form. Any and all help is appreciated.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
To sponsor Heather for the Pallotta TeamWorks U.S.->Canada AIDS Vaccine Ride, visit https://www.ecenroll.com/ECPTW2/SilverStream/Pages/ECEnrollDirectURL?participant=30331&eventcode=VXCN2001.
For more information about the Canada->U.S. AIDS Vaccine Ride, visit http://www.vaccineride.org/Canada/.
For more information on Cyclist’s Log, visit http://www.fitnesslogs.com.
For more information on BikeBrain, visit http://www.velotrend.com.
For more information on The Athlete’s Diary, visit http://www.stevenscreek.com.
For more information on Arranger, visit http://www.olivebr.com.
For more information on UCLA AIDS Institute, visit http://www.medsch.ucla.edu/aidsinst/.
For more information on the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, visit http://www.adarc.org.
For more information on the Emory Vaccine Center, visit http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/YERKES/VRC/.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6f52c
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