Archive for Equipment
February 24, 2010 at 9:21 pm · Filed under Equipment, Running, Shoes
I was offered some lovely Mizuno running shoes to try out last week but they were pink so I looked around to find an unsuspecting victim and spotted a non-runner beside me.
The non-runner has been known to run on occasion but the occasions are brief and of the sprint and die variety. She was a bit reluctant to try the proper thing especially when I mentioned treadmills and 30 minutes but you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
I didn’t quite grasp the degree of reluctance but there was a heavy thread of edginess present as we gathered our gear and prepared for the gym. I thought I was being rather helpful but I got my head bitten off when I asked if she’d ever been on a treadmill before.
Stroppy with a capital S doesn’t even come close.
We arrived at the gym and I could sense we only had one breathing person left in the car. Recognizing a severe case of gym related anxiety I offered up a reassuring slap on the back and got myself growled at again. We almost cleared the car when we spotted our neighbour entering the parking area. You don’t want to bump into your neighbour on your first day at the gym, wearing spanking brand new, bright pink trainers, so we made a dash for it and arrived at our treadmills sweating but safe.
It’s quite difficult explaining the use of a treadmill to someone who clearly wants to get the whole thing over and done with. In the end we switched it on and decided to learn on the fly, with the suggestion that she followed my pace until she got the hang of things and wanted to up the pace. A few minutes in I noticed a funny side to side action from the treadmill beside me so thought it prudent to point out the emergency red button which she immediately pounded and we got to start all over again.
I few more minutes later, amongst much huffing and puffing I suggested she take on some water but the bottle was sitting just out of reach on the floor. Apparently my non-runner had been expecting a non-running break for refreshments. I passed my bottle over and watched the next incident unfold. Lynn dropped the bottle top and started to bend down to pick it up before sensing the relentless drag of the track beneath her. She managed to right herself and pick up the pace barely millimeters before tippling over the edge.
I have to say it was one of my more enjoyable running experiences, positively entertaining. Of course this wasn’t just about the conversion of a non-runner, it was also about the shoes. I shouted above her grumbles about stitches and being tired and wanting to stop and asked her about the shoes – “How are the Mizuno Wave shoes?”
It was quite amazing, her face brightened, the beetroot tinge seemed to leave her face and she actually smiled. “They’re very comfortable….no they really are”.
I wasn’t doubting her, they did look comfortable. They are very light and still seem to have a heavily cushioned sole. Even the pink bits weren’t so noticeable when they were worn with jogging trousers. I’ll go for a pair of these when my Asics have worn out, they are cheaper than the Kayanos I wear but seem to offer a similar fit.
The satisfaction must have lingered because she’s already suggested she join me for my training run tomorrow.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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Tags: Mizuno Wave running shoes treadmill
January 26, 2010 at 11:18 pm · Filed under Books, Equipment, Running
Two mile runs seem to be the new black (@JogBlog) and my latest spree of treadmill couplets must make me positively gothic.
I’ve slipped to beginner runner status again but I’m gradually pulling back and feel happy to be putting in some mileage even if its slow and single figured. The ballot results for the Great North Run will be revealed in a couple of weeks and as my name is in there I’m going to have to start a proper program soon enough. I might even start running outside again which will result in an investment in another GPS gadget and blog posts littered with pretty maps.
Still, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m scheduled for another 3.1km trog on the treadmill tonight and GPS is just a little bit over the top and besides, if I can wait til September I might get to try out this new toy from Timex.
Despite being practically a non-runner at the moment (and therefore a poor blogger), I am still regularly asked to review or promote running related stuffs on the blog. The latest request was to publicise the first UK running festival, which looks really quite exciting.
It’s called “Love Life Love Running” and is a weekend event aimed at runners and their families. It takes place in the grounds of Cannock Chase over the weekend of the 24th/25th of July 2010. There are two main events: a standard 10k held on Saturday and a rather intriguing 6-hour challenge on Sunday.
I’m particularly drawn to the 6-hour challenge event which is a relay based around a 7km course and can be run by teams of 2, 4 or 6. It suggests on the event website that you can make this as challenging as you like but I haven’t seen the rules so can’t imagine what this means, I’m presuming motorised bikes are ruled out.
As a family oriented event there are obviously events aimed at the kids as well, such as the mini zoom – a 60m course where speed is of the essence. Not my cup of tea at all but there’s a certificate available for every finisher so I could be persuaded.
Anyway, if you struggle to find the time to sneak off to running events it’s well worth taking a look. You can sell it as a family getaway!
Also this week I was sent a copy of the Ultimate Guide to Marathon Running to review.
It’s a large format, magazine style book covering everything from goals, nutrition, motivation, training, technique and so much more. I’m really quite impressed with it and for the price I think it’s amazing value.
I recently canceled my subscription to Runners World mag, not because I was disillusioned with it, but I wasn’t running a lot at the time and after a 3 year subscription I was beginning to notice that the same things would come round too regularly. The content of the Ultimate Guide to Marathon Running magbook is such that you can save yourself an annual subscription to A N Other running mag but still get your fix of motivational tidbits and of course it is solely focused on the marathon distance and event itself.
It has a good training section, discussing various aspects such as interval training and the long slow run but the final 12 week recommended schedules are a bit thin on the ground. There are only 3 schedules illustrated, a 4hrs + (or get round), 3hrs 30 mins or a sub 2hrs 55mins. Personally I think there’s a huge difference between a 4hr marathon time and a get me round time but I suppose schedules are very personal things, there are stacks freely available on the web and it doesn’t detract from what is otherwise an incredibly useful guide to the marathon.
CREDIT: The Ultimate Guide to Marathon Running is available now on the magazine newsstand from WH Smith, Sainsbury, magbooks.com and amazon.co.uk for only £7.99
As I don’t have a marathon on the horizon and my planned half is quite some time away I thought it would be the perfect giveaway for one of my real running readers. Just leave me a comment telling me why you deserve the magbook more than me and I’ll post the book off to the one that makes me smile. You can be cruel but if you hurt my feelings you won’t win.
On an unrelated note, I will just take this opportunity to plug my latest obsession – warriorwoman can now be found masquerading as Big Betty, riding and writing about the new Triumph Bonneville.
If I’m not on here writing about running then I’m probably on whatapalaver discussing the trials and tribulations of motorbike commuting.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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Tags: GPS, marathon, running festival
December 16, 2009 at 11:16 am · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets, Swimming
Entries for next years Great Swim series are open already. Christmas is not a great time to start contemplating squeezing into an overly snug wetsuit, the annual quality street box is already half empty and the strawberry creams are not improving my silhouette.
Christmas is a time for trying out new gadgets though so it’s time I reviewed my latest toy.
I was sent a swimming watch from Swimovate to try out for a week. It promised to count all my laps for me, freeing my mind to concentrate on higher level issues such as “what should I cook for tea?” and “did I remember to put any Stella in the fridge?”
It does more than that of course, storing my lap history and providing historical data such as distance, stroke rate, calories and efficiency.
It was the counting bit that appealed most to me though. I am always surprised at how inept I am at counting lengths. I start well enough, reciting 1, 1, 1 in my head til I reach the end and turn. Of course I then move on to 2, 2, 2 cos I’m bright and can count but I’m also easily bored so I start adding variety like 2, 2 and the next lap will be 3, next is 3, next is 3. If course when I get to 3 I think blimey that number is familiar I’ve already counted it. Then I have to go through the odd even calculation and match it to the direction of my travel. Basically I never get as far as 10 laps before I’ve stressed myself out and felt the need to re-enrole in kindergarten.
So it’s a lap counter, but a pretty good one. Beyond the first button press you don’t have to bother again until it’s time to get out of the pool. The motion sensors apparently pick up on the drift portion of the stroke at the change round. It will pick up tumble turns and your more sedate stop and turn technique. Provided you don’t change strokes within a length it will supposedly maintain accuracy.
I did my best to fool it but it was 100% accurate up to 16 lengths, beyond that I’m sure the watch maintained its accuracy but I didn’t and decided to just free my mind of the counting. Swimming with a blank mind is really rather freeing, it feels so much more like running.
It’s given me an efficiency rating of 73 which equates to below average which I suppose will be about right. They measure efficiency in terms of distance covered per stroke and I’ve always felt that I swim on the spot anyway.
It would be quite useful to monitor efficiency gains if you were trying to work on your stroke but I didn’t get to play with it long enough to see how responsive it was to minor improvements.
The battery is supposed to last for 1 year after which you have to send it back to the company to be replaced. I suppose that shouldn’t be a big problem provided they have a quick turnaround.
You can’t currently use it as a distance monitor for outdoor swims because it multiplies pool length by laps but I have picked up on some internet murmurings that suggest that might be about to change.
It could do with an overhaul of the user interface, moving through the history screens required me to pull out the instruction leaflet twice but all in all it’s a pretty good adition to the sporting gadgetry world and costs around £69 from Swimovate.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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Tags: Stella, Swimming, swimovate, watch
September 20, 2009 at 8:17 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I can get over the treadmill boredom frontier by sticking a gruesome thriller on the iPod but the absence of a reliable data capture device (or sports watch) could call the end to a beautiful gym relationship membership.
I’ve worked my way through a number of fancy running watches over the years but my latest, the Forerunner 405 (reviewed May 2008) was just not designed to be a gym bunny buddy. Fortunately the Garmin Forerunner FR60 was released earlier in the year and appeared to be just what I required.
In summary, it’s a footpod/HR monitor which is ANT enabled meaning you can wirelessly upload data and connect to other ANT enabled equipment such as gym machines and the fancy new BC1000 Tanita weighing scales.
Unlike most of the others in the forerunner series, this watch does not have GPS, it is waterproof though.
I’ve had a few footpod watches before, including the Nike+, Polar 725 and Polar RS200SD and I’ve been impressed with all of them. In most cases they have proved to be accurate out of the box without the need for calibration and are ready for action from the moment you put the watch into training mode so there is no need to hang around stretching out your hamstrings while you wait for a the GPS unit to lock onto a satellite signal.
The footpod speed and distance monitors also have a huge advantage over GPS when it comes to monitoring pace. Pace readings on GPS units have a tendency to fluctuate all over the place while the footpod units prove to be more stable and therefore more reliable in any given instance.
What the footpods lack when compared to their bigger GPS brothers, is the ability to create lovely map trails of where you’ve been. GPS makes you feel like an adventurer, an explorer of uncharted tracks, but let’s face it, GPS isn’t for everyone.
If you run the same few routes over and over again the joy of the GPS map soon begins to wane and if like me, you spend a good proportion of your time on the treadmill, the GPS output would result in a terribly unsatisfying mess centred above your gym coordinates.
Garmin Forerunner FR60 in Action – Screenshots
Here’s a few shots of the Garmin FR60 as I move through the history screens for one workout. The final image shows the virtual partner screen which is one of the view options while training.
Garmin FR60 Compared to Nike+ and Polar
Nike+
The Nike+ wrist unit offers an accurate footpod with a minimal design. It’s ideal for social networking as it makes it so easy to upload stats via twitter, facebook and assorted other widgets. It’s the cheapest option as well but I can’t help finding it a bit disappointing, I just can’t stand the cartoon style display of the stats.
Polar
I really loved the RS200SD, the display was brilliant and the history data lent itself perfectly for being transferred to a training log. It has now been superseded by the Polar RS300X and I was momentarily tempted by it until I started pricing up the extras. The really annoying feature of Polar is that they require you to by all the necessary attachements separately. The ridiculous “flowlink” is required for uploading data to the web but costs £49.99 whereas Garmin include their usb ANT connectivity stick in the box along with the watch.
Garmin
Garmin has the edge over the competition, everything is supplied in the box and the connection is relatively straightforward.
Having uploaded the data it is easy to import the data files into sporttracks or other training logs.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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Tags: Forerunner, FR60, Garmin, GPS, Nike, polar, review, Sporttracks
September 9, 2009 at 2:18 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
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Sainsburys and The Mirror have teamed up to offer a 26 day alphabetic giveaway.
Tomorrow (Thursday 10th Sept) is day I, as in I for iPod, and they are giving away the ideal runner’s gadget, an 8GB silver Apple iPod Nano.
The competition is free to enter and requires you to answer an apparently simple question. Check it out here: mirrorcashback.co.uk/sainsburys
I’ll be holding back for day 26, I think I have the idle spot for a jazzy zebra rug.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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Tags: giveaway, ipod
July 21, 2009 at 4:02 pm · Filed under Software
I took receipt of the latest wii fit incarnation, EA Sports Active, during the last heat wave in June. It was 33′ out and I decided to embark on a 40 minute challenging work out in the front room.
The kids were suitably intrigued by the contents of the box – a rubber strap with DIY handles and a special thigh mounted holster for the nunchuk.
I looked a right bobby dazzler, sweating with the excessive humidity and struggling to pull the strap tight enough around my thigh for it to stay closed.
It amused the children though, Ruby settled back into the settee to witness the spectacle and enjoy her packet of salt and vinegar snackojacks – all 127 calories of them.
I was a bit disappointed by the character choice on the new game. It may have been insulting but I have nonetheless become rather enamoured of my little wii fit avatar – short, fat and challenged in the t-shirt department which is just too short to pull over my bulging umbilicus. The choices are far more limited in EA Sports Active, you are just a delicately modified version of their average joe (or joleen), try as you might, you cannot create a tubby lard arse. Some may consider this a tick in plus box but personally I prefer a bit of a weeble-like character to remind me why I’m running on the spot in the middle of the living room.
Realism is the key to this game. The characters are real and the exercises seem real too. I started having to walk round a 400m track kicking my legs up behind me to kick my buttocks, then followed this with the knee raises. All very proper stuff but BORING! No slalom skiing on this game or balancing on a wobble board to flip the fish into the mouth of a penguin. This of course will be seen as a big plus for many people, proper, serious, sporty folk perhaps.
I moved on to squats and the machine was insistent that I wasn’t trying hard enough. My knee collapses as it approaches 90 degrees and the only way I could get the machine to accept my exercise was to plonk myself onto the sofa, wait 2 seconds, clamber up and repeat.
More running and stretching exercises followed before we seemed to loop around and start again. Doh! Not more track exercises. It kept moaning at me for being too slow in the buttock kicking exercises. I was all hot and bothered and moany, so Ruby who by now had finished the snackojacks, pushed me out of the way and offered to help me burn enough calories for my own pack.
With a seating change, I lounged back and watched the calorie counter tick towards my treat allowance. Ruby was going great guns so I encouraged her to keep going til we’d burnt enough for a packet of Doritos. A perfectly ideal way to lose weight I think.
There are a few other exercises thrown into the box. There’s your standard boxing routine which never fails to get you going and a rather intense speedline skating routine which has you squatting for speed and then leaping over numerous obstacles. I really enjoyed that one and it didn’t half make the thighs burn.
The kids haven’t touched the game since its first outing, it’s not as fun as the wii fit (not that they’ve touched that for months either) but then I don’t think EA Games are really touting this as a game. It’s a personal fitness trainer and if you are serious about committing to a program and don’t mind exercising in front of the telly and the children you probably would see some benefits from taking the 30-day challenge.
Popularity: 7% [?]
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Tags: ea sports active, games, knee, nintendo, review, wii fit
April 12, 2009 at 7:03 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
Easter is about chocolate, lots of, and family stuff and as the latter involved a weekend at the in-laws with loads of artificially enhanced kids, it also turns out to be fairly conducive to running.
I haven’t been very successful with my running recently so I was grateful that we were in the flatlands of Lincolnshire and that it was a delightfully drizzly day. Here’s my 10k out and back route along the canal:
I was sent the latest Sony Walkman W Series to test out the other day.
It came bundled with a playlist designed to either inspire or drive me nuts, with the challenge laid down for me to create my own inspirational running ensemble.
The new Walkman is an interesting looking gadget, minimal and stylish in a Dr Spock kind of fashion. It clips apart neatly to sit around your neck with no extraneous wires to get tangled up in your arms or t-shirt.
I’ve been through a fair few headphones and mp3 systems in my time. It started with the iPod nano with assorted headphones – the best being the ubiquitous lime green Sennheiser PMX80 running headphones and then moved on to the chunky, yet delightful, iPhone. The iPhone coincided with loads of tube commuting time so I shifted to the excellent Sennheiser CX500’s, great for private listening on crowded trains but outrageously irritating now I’ve gone back to the running commute – I have to stop every couple of steps to disentangle the cables.
So, now I’ve got my hands on the Sony W Series mp3 Walkman, all my separate headphones are defunct. I have to admit to not having much of a musical ear but to my mind this unit has the best sound quality yet. The integral headphones seem to sit quite deeply into your ear and the sound is excellent. Mind you the playlist had a few dodgy tracks, rather heavy reliance on the synthesiser and some sounded like they were recorded from the bowels of a coke can but I’m sure that was how they were meant to sound. It’s quite fun running to someone elses playlist but I’m looking forward to getting some “quality” music on board to really test them out.
I found them very comfortable, although I did feel like a prize tool running along in them – you can get them in bright pink if you want to look extra special.
I did a randomish fit test around the house this morning and it seems I was the only one who found them comfortable. Admittedly two of my subjects were of the small child variety and the other grown up obviously has a particularly small head with odd ear canals, but it might be worth testing them out before buying if you’ve had problems with ear related stuff before.
They are apparently a doddle to update by simply dragging the songs across to the external drive (USB cable supplied), I’ll try this out next week with my new and hopefully improved playlist.
Here’s my trial list:
1. Simian Mobile Disco – Sleep Deprivation
2. LCD Soundsystem – Get Innocuous
3. Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor
4. Weezer – Buddy Holly
5. TV on the Radio – Golden Age
6. Mylo – Drop the Pressure
7. Prodigy – Out of Space
8. Michael Jackson – Beat It
9. Don’t Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
10. Gu’s and Roses – Paradise City
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Tags: commute, gadget, mp3, review, sennheiser, Sony Walkman W Series, Walkman
April 8, 2009 at 11:13 am · Filed under Shoes
My general lack of running has been noted and rather strangely rewarded by the nice people at fitnessfootwear, who kindly offered me an alternative route to fitness in the form of a pair of Fit Flops.
If you check out the website you’ll find it littered with comments, from happy feet owners, claiming that the fit flop has “changed my life” amongst other such accolades.
My pair sat on the shoe rack for a few weeks, trying to shoulder up to all the unused running shoes, and left my life resolutely unaltered. I took them out this weekend though, and then sat back to wait for the epiphany.
They have micro wobble boards.
I like the sound of that, it sounds so sporty, at least until I sit down again to ponder their purpose.
If you place the flop on a flat surface it wobbles too and fro but as soon as I apply my bulk they flatten out quick smart. Of course that may not be the bulk at work, perhaps my myriad core muscles have kicked in and stabelised the whole show. Maybe, just by standing on their bed of lovely cushioned wobble boards I am saving myself the bother of attending my pilates classes.
Let’s hope so because I can’t really do much more than stand in them. Walking proved to be a rather peculiar battle. I felt like someone had switched the pavement on and I had to run along on my tip toes just to keep up.
I suppose that could be their design, or perhaps they are just too big for me.
I’ll wait a little longer for this epiphany.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Tags: fit flop
March 2, 2009 at 11:37 am · Filed under Equipment, Running, Shoes
I think I may have suggested a little while back, in a pub somewhere no doubt, that I would put happiness to one side and actually start running again in March. The arrival of the month also coincided quite nicely with the delivery of a damn fine pair of running shoes, so the pressure was building.
These are the Salomon XA Pro GTXs and are a very desirable pair of trail running/adventure madness style shoes. They require rather beefy terrain so yesterday I bundled the non-runner and the mountain bike into the car and headed off to my favourite off road haunt – Swinley Forest in Bracknell.
The non-runner vowed to stick with me on the bike as I led the way on foot through the undergrowth. With an evil glint in my eye I hit an immediate right turn out of the car park and headed up and across the bracken to the forest proper. It was steep, strewn with stump hazards and ruts and altogether pretty tough going. My lungs were burning and I wanted to quit but the expletives exiting my loved one’s mouth made it all the worthwhile and I kept heading up until I thought she was going to quit on me and head back to the cafe.
Respite from laughter was required so we took a short flat section for a breather before heading off in search of shoe testing swamps and hills.
The shoes are very impressive. They’re extraordinarily light, in fact I suspected the box may have been empty when I picked it off my doorstep, but I still felt very supported by them. They have a good cushioned sole a very simple and effective lace system. I really like them a lot actually and as I’ve they’ve got a gore tex lining, my feet stayed dry even after a bit of light puddle action.
They are fortunately very grippy as well.
I took the lead on one particularly exciting stretch of singletrack before realising that I didn’t really stand much chance of staying ahead of a carreering lunatic on a bike. I upped the pace and started squealing like an out of control rhino on a snowboard. Legs were ticking over at a rare ole pace but my body was still in the lead. I expected my chin to reach the forest floor just moments before the chasing bike nipped at my heels and left me with broad tread marks along my flattened body.
At the first sign of an escape route, I threw myself off to the side, to roll gently in a bank of soft mud, only to spot the non-runner, half way back up the slope, hands clenched tightly over both brakes, bouncing ever so tentatively and non-threateningly downwards on locked wheels.
I muddied my shoes for nothing…..
Popularity: 29% [?]
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Tags: review, salomon xa pro gtx, Shoes, Swinley Forest
February 1, 2009 at 9:15 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets, Software
Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t run an awful lot of late, in fact if you want to be reasonably precise, I have run only once in the last month, which also happens to equate to once this year. How neat.
If we want to be 100% precise it could be argued that I’ve run a few more times than I’ve let on, for example, I may have attempted the occassional dash to the bus away from work and I sprinted to the train station last night after my blood doning session but all in all the consequences were ugly and should remain hidden from public conciousness.
I feel like I’m taking confession and will have to start with the hail Mary’s soon but in my defence, I do have some excuses.
For one thing, as the last two months of my fairly sparse blog writing will attest, I am far too happy for running. Running appeals to the miserable side of me, it’s the perfect alternative to a pack of Benson and Hedges and bottle of JD. Mind you it also appeals to the exceptionally jolly side of me as well, so maybe that’s not such a good excuse after all.
Secondly, and this one has to be foolproof, I’m working on a ridiculous placement that means I have to travel between 4 and 5 hours every day.
Not a chance that I feel like running after all that nonsense.
Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have secured myself a proper job, midway between happiness and home and I forsee many exciting new routes ahead of me, incorporating the best of London’s seedy commons and the highly rated Wandle trail. Expect updates of the running variety in March.
In the mean time, what better way to spend one’s non-running time, than by analysing data from runs gone by?
RunSaturday is new website stacked full of new and intriguing ways to analyse data held across multiple sites and generated by multiple gadgets. I’ve been able to bring together runs from my Garmin Forerunner 405, Nike+, Nokia Sportstracker along with all my historical runs stored on SportsTracks. I can also bring in runs manually entered onto Fetcheveryone and analyse my stats from the Saturday morning 5k park runs.
All this makes RunSaturday the most comprehensive database of my running shame prowess, which is quite a lot of fun because the site provides loads of ways to share the data across social websites such as facebook and personal blogs.
Here’s a particularly ancient route showing the mammoth run/walk I did along the Capital Ring. If you click on the heart symbol you’ll see a colour coded route indicating the specific heart rate zones during the run. You can see similar images for speed but as I’m a one speed wonder you’ll have to upload your own interval workouts to see rainbows in this feature.
There seem to be loads of new features coming along, so I’d recommend checking it out for yourself. I’ll add more images from the site just as soon I manage another run but don’t hold your breath til March.
Popularity: 35% [?]
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Tags: analysis, BPTT, fetcheveryone, Forerunner, Garmin, Nike, review, runsaturday, Sporttracks
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The non-runner has been known to run on occasion but the occasions are brief and of the sprint and die variety. She was a bit reluctant to try the proper thing especially when I mentioned treadmills and 30 minutes but you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
