So last week I was searching on Amazon for fitness trackers. The main problem was that I wanted a tracker that had a heart rate monitor and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. I discovered the Letscom Smart Bracelet. It does just about everything my Fitbit Charge HR does (except count floors) and does it for around $ 27.00.
Needless to say I purchased it and have been using it over the last several days. It seems to be working fairly well the step counts are consistent with the counts that I got from using the Fitbit. Heart Rate monitoring seems a little off. While I was exercising yesterday, when I gazed at the HR monitor while I was still breathing rather heavily it said my heart rate was 70. I think not! But it has done what I need it to do and that is get me off my butt and moving.
Getting Moving with a New Letscom Fitness Tracker
Anyway, I did do some moving yesterday. In the morning,  I did the longest workout of 2018. It was a little over an hour and I think that I used just about every piece of exercise equipment that I own. When I was done the calories burned was 164. That amount  is about half of the amount, that the Fitbit has recorded in the past for the same workout. Now I don’t know if that has anything to do with the low heart rate levels it recorded during the exercising period.
Then later in the day, in order to make sure my step count for the day was over 10,000, I went for a 35 minute walk/jog. I decided to use my Walk Jog Run app rather than the Fitbit app to measure the run. What I forgot to do before for I started was to turn off the pace coach. As a result every few minutes (it felt more like every few seconds) during the walk/run the nice lady said “Speed up 6 minutes first lap too slow”  Since my pace was around 14-15 minutes per mile I figured that the target pace must have been set around  8 minutes per mile. Anyway, when I did jog during the walk the lady shut up for a few minutes. So I jogged a little more than I anticipated. Here are the final results.
Distance: 2.53 miles  Pace 14:03 Duration 35:33 Calories 336.3
Not great numbers but it may be a start!! I also started the Letscom workout timer at the beginning of the run. It recorded the total calories burned as 264. Â so it was not that much different from what the Walk Jog Run app calculated.
Walk/Jog Soundtrack – Solitary League – Day Six
The soundtrack for the run was Solitary League the new release from the Progressive Metal band Day Six. Day Six  hails from The Netherlands. The band was formally named Day Six in 2002. Prior to that time the band was named Peanuts. Day Six was founded by two friends Robbie van Stiphout and Dolf van Heugten . The first band they the formed, when they  were 11 years old, was called King of Darkness. Several years later they became serious about a music career and  formed Peanuts (1997). Peanuts as previously mentioned became Day Six in 2002.
About Day Six
Day Six’s s first album Eternal Dignity was released in 2003. The band, at that time, included: Daan Liebregts on drums, Dolf van Heugten on synthesizers, Nick Verstappen on bass and Robbie van Stiphout on guitars and vocals. Grand Design, the band’s second album was released 7 years later in 2010. It was my first experience with the band’s music and I liked what I heard. Since then I have regularly checked in with the band to see if there was anything new. And until the other day when I was visiting  progstreaming.com there was nothing! Considering that there was seven years between their first and second albums, I guess the gestation period for a Day Six album is about seven years!!
The musician line-up has changed from Grand Design – founding member Robbie van Stiphout remains on guitars and vocals. The drummer is still Daan Liebregts. But Eric Smits is now on bass and Rutger Viek is now on keys and synthesizers. He  replaces  founding member Dolf van Heugten. However, their sound which  is a blend of hardrock (METALLICA) with ‘heavy progressive’ (RUSH and AYREON) has not!
From the band’s website biography……..
The band shows strong influences from 70’s bands like, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes, and ELP, as well as modern bands like Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Dream Theater, Muse, and Transatlantic.
So Check Them Out – I know I will be listening to the album a lot over the next several weeks!!
Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of Day Six
Day Six’s Official Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube