June 23, 2008 at 11:38 pm · Filed under Challenges, Running, Salomon Challenge
With only 2 days left to cover off 3 tube lines the pressure was on today.
All started positively as my hacking cough ensured I had a spacious seating arrangement on the tube as it transported me across to the other side of the metropolis.
I started to feel a bit more jaded as I headed up towards city boy land and already my plan to tick off two lines this evening was beginning to seem a bit optimistic.
Running alongside pubs spilling out at the seams with pinstriped blokes holding cold beers is not appealing to me very much at the moment. I’m quite looking forward to the return of my genteel river runs and an end to public transport, running in bus lanes and pretty much anything east of Westminster Bridge.
The new Garmin wasn’t performing very well either. Out in the sticks the 405 seems noticeably faster than the 305 but within the square mile it is equally useless, the Nokia N82 in contrast was able to pinpoint my location in seconds.
I’m going to have to do some considerable jiggery pokery with the route before I can publish the map, it didn’t lock on to a signal until I found myself wandering around a beautiful burial ground right at the city limits. Bunhill Fields hides the bones of many plague victims, tipped into unmarked pits as well as some fine memorials to notable authors such as Bunyan and Defoe.
I came out of the graveyard to find all the passers by had lost an eye. It was quite surreal, I must have passed about 10 people with either bulging eyeballs or whopping great bandages obscuring half their face. I was a little worried to proceed lest a similar fate should befall me.
Round the corner I found my explanation. No need to fear daylight attacks by the walking undead.
The Bank branch of the Northern Line was not too inspiring, apart from the dead people, and by the time I’d completed it I was losing the will to live. Walking takes too flipping long, so I bailed on the Victoria Line and went home to open my Big book of Symptoms on the tuberculosis page.
Popularity: 6% [?]
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Tags: Bunhill Burial Ground, cemetry, Garmin, grave, n82, nokia, Northern Line, Salomon Challenge, tube, tuberculosis
June 12, 2008 at 10:53 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
As you all know, I think the Garmin Forerunner 305 is the best thing since sliced bread but I’m so fickle it’s taken barely a thought for me to stick it on ebay and swap it for the new version - the Forerunner 405.
I’d like to say the new and IMPROVED Forerunner 405 but is it?
Reading the spec list it’s hard to see where Garmin made any attempts to improve on what had gone before, they missed out by not making it fully waterproof and therefore tri suitable, for example. Instead they appear to have simply repackaged the existing 305 as a sports watch that can be worn all day with the bonus of a nifty touch sensitive bezel control.
Out of the box, I decided I liked the look and feel of the watch very much. Garmin put a lot of effort into design and the strap closure is ingenious, a big improvement on the 305 which kept coming loose, snagging on my clothing and risked falling off. A minor point maybe, but Garmin are big on the little details.
The watch charged fully in 3 hours by the use of a strange bulldog style clip that slips snugly into a couple of recesses on the back of the watch. Another neat design but I fear it is just going to prove an inconvenience. With the 305 you uploaded data to the PC by slotting it into a USB docking station and it would charge at the same time as uploading. I’d leave my device in for a few minutes longer and thereby ensure I always hard a fully charged unit. With the 405, uploading data is automatic and will occur while the watch is still on your wrist, which now means I’ll have to remember to charge the unit separately.
In standby mode (ie time display only) the watch will supposedly last 20 days, although I’m down to 89% charged after 1 day so I doubt it will last much longer than a week. When used in active mode the battery life is expected to be in the region of 8 hours. So that’s another charging gizmo to be added to my pile of wires under my bed.
I thought the software was a bit of a faff to install, it didn’t happen automatically and I had to hunt around to see what it was that needed to be loaded up. It comes with Training Centre but after installing it I immediately removed it again because I remembered how pants it is. Instead I’m using the ANT uploader linked to Garmin Connect which is quite a neat online training log.
Setting up the watch is a doddle and it takes you through the process quickly with a mini tutorial that teaches you the basics of the bezel control. Basically:
- press and hold on the relevant label to access either time/date, training, menu or GPS functions
- slide around the bezel to move through menu options
- tap to accept
- tap in two separate places to activate the backlight
All very easy really. I had no problems using the bezel on the run, not that you need to use it much, you can tap to nudge the screen to a different view and in virtual partner mode you can increase/decrease the pace of your partner by sliding the bezel. I’m particularly fond of that feature as it means I can ensure I win every race now.
I’ve heard a few people fearing that accidental touches of the bezel would mess up the data but they shouldn’t worry. The start, stop and lap functions are all controlled by the big side buttons. Pressing the bezel during a run just alters the view - not a big deal. I haven’t tried it with gloves but as long as they aren’t massive affairs it shouldn’t be a problem.
For my first run I decided to set up a simple interval session, run 90 secs, walk 60 secs. I know that’s lame but I’ve got a cold and needed the walk periods to retrieve my hankies and have a good blow! Easy enough to setup, you don’t even need the manual. Features and settings are much more intuitive on the 405 than with its predecessor.
The intervals were well “signposted”, I was given a 5 second warning of loud beeps followed by a clear “chirrup” that marked the start of the next interval. I didn’t miss one and I appreciated the warning. A good feature.
I personalised the display I wanted to see on the run, you can choose upto 9 features to be displayed on 3 screens. On my main screen I had pace, time and distance and I accepted the defaults for the other screens. It’s well worth playing around though as there appear to be some great features. This is available on the heart rate screen for example and shows progress within your heart rate zones.
I had set the screens to auto scroll but will turn this off for the next run, I think it is more convenient to control the screen I view by tapping the bezel, that way I don’t have to wait for it to get around to the bit I’m interested in.
Back home, I was just unlocking my door, when the watch beeped to say it was uploading data. By the time I’d staggered through the hall to the laptop, my stats were already displayed on the Garmin connect website.
As a simple everyday watch its functioning fine, but I would have preferred the power save mode to be the time and date screen, not just the time display. It’s a fiddle unlocking the bezel so I can access the date feature. Its also quite chunky so if you have a small wrist you are unlikely to find it very comfortable and it will probably overhang a little. I don’t have a small wrist though so I’m alright Jack.
I’m pretty pleased with it so far and think there are clear signs of improvement, I’ll be scrutinizing it further though and am particularly keen to see if there are any improvements with the speed in which it locks on to a GPS signal.
Popularity: 16% [?]
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Tags: asics, Forerunner, Forerunner 305, Forerunner 405, Garmin, GPS
June 5, 2008 at 11:58 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Challenges, Running, Salomon Challenge
For the last 4 nights I have left work with the declaration, “Right, I’m off to do the Piccadily Line”. Tonight all excuses escaped me and I finally had to knuckle down and get it completed.
It wasn’t as grueling as I expected, Garmin reported a total distance of 11.6 km but there were a lot of squiggles on the trace so it may have been quite a lot lot less.
Not much running in the proper central London bit, too much risk of being mowed down by a tuk tuk.
I started upping the pace around Piccadilly Circus as I didn’t want to make myself a sitting target for Eros.
After the lure of the bookshops on Piccadilly I managed to get a good stint of running done, past the Ritz through the relative oasis of Green Park and then out onto Wellington Arch and the traffic chaos of Knightsbridge.
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
13 Tube Stations
11.57 km
Cumulative:
52 Tube Stations
48.13 km
See the combined progress map here.
Juneathon Tally
Runs: 4/30
Total Distance: 14.6 m
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
38.5 miles total
Popularity: 11% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, Juneathon, London Underground, map channels, Piccadilly Line, Salomon Challenge, tube
June 1, 2008 at 12:05 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running, Salomon Challenge
I completed the Hammersmith and City line today.
I had initially planned to run it as a single long run but in the end I took 3 attempts at it. I’m trying to take it gently with my back but today it was seizing up every time I stopped to take a photo and then I couldn’t get going again, as a result todays run bore a strong resemblance to walking in many parts.
Still, I did have to stop and take those photos, it’s not often that you get to look up a lady’s skirt without getting on your hands and knees.
This mid section of the H&C line was a visual treat. It started with the fantastic St Pancras building which is an absolute beauty from the outside and has now been renovated internally.
I can’t walk past the station without nipping in and gazing up in wonder at the roof and the clock. Strangely enough I manged to resist the longest Champagne bar in the world, I probably wasn’t dressed quite right anyhow.
Immediately after leaving the station and while the garmin is still attempting a lock on, I stumble into the grounds of the British Library and get acquainted with Newton.
I bet he’s got a bad back.
There are loads of interesting buildings to see on the Euston/Marylebone Rd so long as your vision is intact. All this running along busy highways is chucking all sorts of grit and general atmospheric pollutants into my eyes and I can feel my corneas abrading as I move.
This building is the St Marylebone Grammar School or Philological school, set up in 1792 to support families suffering under unexpected misfortune. Directly opposite this is the Samaritan Free hospital for women and children, where “Admission free, without letter of recomendation, poverty and sickness the only passport”.
It wasn’t all that long ago that life was tough.
Heading left, away from the grotty dual carriageway, I veered towards Paddington station. Here’s another area of fabulous architecture but shamefully it is one that has worked hard to develop a shabby overcoat. St Mary’s Hospital must have been imposing in its day and you can look up to the second floor window and imagine Alexander Fleming poring over his agar plates of penicillin.
From Paddington onwards, the interest in the route declined for me. The stations were such a flippin faff to get to. Royal Oak for example, is almost an extension to the platform at Paddington, I’ve often wondered what it’s point was but when you try to get to it by road you have to wiggle in and out of streets for about 2k. Ridiculous. Royal Oak to Westbourne Park is even worse and really, why would you want to bother. Get the tube that’s my advice.
Ladbroke Grove is the home of the Portobello Road market so there was a bit of colour here, but I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to hire a nice red Ferrari.
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
10 Tube Stations
10.84 km
Sports Tracker map with photos
Cumulative:
38 Tube Stations
36.56 km
See the combined progress map here.
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
23.9 miles total
Popularity: 8% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, Hammersmith and City Line, knee, London Underground, Salomon Challenge, tube
May 26, 2008 at 11:24 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running
Smack talk from the direction of JogBlog had me climbing out of my pyjamas and into my running shoes, ready to head out into the cold wet night.
I thought a quickish blast around the block would be sufficient to stop her thinking I was anywhere close to slacking off yet, and also I could use it as an opportunity to calibrate the Nike+ sportsband which keeps coming in short.
Heading towards the level crossing I couldn’t summon up enough of a sprint to beat the descending gates so had to take a sharp left and run up along the tracks. For calibration purposes you have to maintain a steady pace, so no hanging around waiting for trains.This curtailed route took me too close to my flat to ignore and as my own shadow was giving me the heeby jeebies I thought it was time to go back to bed.
Total distance, a whopping great 1.34 km and over that piddling distance the Nike+ and garmin decided to agree for once. They must be sniggering behind my back!
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
10.2 miles total
Popularity: 9% [?]
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Tags: calibration, Garmin, Nike, Nike+ Sportband
May 25, 2008 at 11:00 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running, Salomon Challenge
It would have been nice to lie in with a cup of tea and the latest omnibus edition of The Archers but unfortunately I have about 200 tube stations to visit over the next 30 days.
Still, if you have to follow any tube line on a gloomy wet morning, it may as well be a pink one.
I took the Hammersmith and City line and Central line (due to closures) as far as Mile End, the most easterly point in my challenge, and immediately regretted cutting my tube map beyond Liverpool Street. It’s a pretty grim area, not the sort of place you want loiter for long, not that the garmin pays any attention to mugging fears.
I start running along a huge long road until I reach Stepney Green and pass a man rubbing himself up against a wall. This is not improving my appreciation of the area one bit.
The world brightens a bit as you approach Aldgate East and gets positively exciting around Liverpool Street, although its also associated with a GPS black hole and I spend about 50 mins wandering around in circles hoping to stumble upon Moorgate.
I get bored of running up and down the same street so opt for walking up and down the same street until I finally give up by Kings Cross and hop on the tube home.
I accidentally forget to switch off sports tracker which is fortunate as it boosts my pace to an acceptable level.
View Larger Map
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
9 Tube Stations
9.90 km
Sports Tracker map with photos.
Cumulative:
15 Tube Stations
15.16 km
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
9.4 miles total
Popularity: 9% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, GPS, Hammersmith and City Line, London Underground, Salomon Challenge, tube
May 25, 2008 at 12:33 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Apparel, Equipment, Gadgets, Running, Salomon Challenge, Shoes
I was enjoying a nice leisurely Saturday evening when JogBlog reminded me that today was the start of our double challenge combo.
Some months ago, Salomon contacted me (and several others) with the offer of oodles of snazzy free stuff in return for the completion of some crazy running feat. I am quite prepared to commit to almost anything 2 months prior to any requirement to expend actual energy, so I said yes, thought up some crazy feat, then sat back and forgot about it while enjoying the snazzy free stuff.
Unfortunately decisions made in haste have a tendency to turn around and bite you and today is the start of that lesson.
My challenge is to recreate the central London tube line (zone 1 and most of zone 2), running between stations to create my own GPS version of the underground map. Over on the right sidebar you can see a my challenge widget kindly provided by Salomon. It suggests that I will be doing this in a mere 11 days. This is a LIE. The challenge was for a crazy running feat not a suicidal one. My aim is to complete the task within 31 days. I’m also not a “he” but I’m prepared to let that one pass.
I’m not entirely sure what I have committed to, beyond the obvious - hours spent wandering around in circles trying to find the shortest route to the next tube station on the brown line, heck, maybe I’ll even get to learn the names of all those tube lines. It’s very difficult to work out the distances between stations. The London tube map is not to scale so I’ve been printing off geographical versions, tracing pieces of string around the track and totting it all up on my abacus.
An incredibly inaccurate estimate of the track length is 100km, but when you factor in the above ground restrictions, I can imagine my total distance coming closer to the 100 mile mark. This then explains the second challenge. JogBlog is aiming to run 100m in a month as part of her Salomon challenge so we’ve decided to coincide start dates for a little bit of competitive rivalry. Can either of us actually hit the 100m target? Can I do it first?
If I win I may even be tempted to throw a game of scrabble for her.
Anyway, back to today. By 8pm the pressure has built up sufficiently for me to consider a run. I grabbed the Garmin, Nike+, N82 with Sportstracker and iPod. Tooled up with hundreds of pounds worth of gadgets I get on a bus and head towards one of the seediest areas of West London. I was not in slightest bit surprised that when I puffed past a group of lads on the North End Road one of them said “Shall we mug her for her….” I didn’t hear the what for part, I wasn’t really hanging around at the point. Maybe they took a shine to my incredibly red Salomon XT Wings?
I wanted to start off slowly today so aimed to tick off one of the smallest sections of tube line on my map. That’s the district line (green line), Kensington Olympia branch and Hammersmith branch. I made a bit of a bodge though and included West Brompton into the mix which, although part of the district line, is actually on the Putney branch. So I messed up on the easiest section of the whole month, I may have to write tube names up my arm for the trickier sections. As it is, I’m running with the Nokia N82 in my hand watching the little dot moving around the google maps image.
View Larger Map
So todays tally:
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
6 Tube Stations complete
5.26 km total
Sports Tracker map with photos.
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
3.3 miles total
…and in case you are all feeling sorry to be missing out on all these challenges, there is a third one starting on the 1st of June. Tis the annual Juneathon where you commit to run every single flipping day for a month. Head over to Joggerblogger’s joint to sign up and if you have a Nike+ thingummy you can join the challenge here as well.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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Tags: District Line, Garmin, GPS, London Underground, n82, Nike, nokia, Salomon Challenge, tube
April 28, 2008 at 11:10 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I’m supposed to be off work at the moment on study leave but it may as well be called gardening leave as I’m spending all my time on the allotment. Today I thought I’d make my non-studying day a little bit more productive by running to the plot and I’m glad I did as it brought me and the sportband just that little bit closer.
As usual I left the house with both wrists laden with super sporty gadgets but the garmin was playing me about big time. I was walking down the street exceedingly slowly but it was still taking an age sighting satellites. As I passed WHSmith I got bored and nipped in to see if they had anymore veg growing gazettes that I hadn’t yet read.
They hadn’t.
I went back out and the flippin garmin started back from scratch scanning the skies. A couple of minutes later, after numerous elderly folk had stood on the backs of my heels I decided it was time to start running - the gps would just have to run along behind me.
500m later the garmin beeped at me and asked if I was actually inside! I switched it off - power to the people! I was only running 2k so I couldn’t afford 10 mins at the start just to capture data, I could have walked it in that time.
No such nonsense from Nike+ Sportband. Just switch on, walk, press start - RUN.
My new discovery, the bit that makes me almost love the sportband, is all down to Buckeye. The training log over there on the righthand sidebar is driven by buckeyeoutdoor and if you have a blog you owe it to yourself to register and get yourself a widget - just look how cool it is! They’ve set up a Nike+ challenge and if you join that and then enter your Nike+ username in your profile, all your runs get automatically uploaded. In this day and age where I seem to be uploading my stats to about a million trillion different online logs, that sort of convenience is just impossible to resist.
Popularity: 20% [?]
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Tags: allotment, buckeyeoutdoors, Forerunner, Garmin, GPS, Nike, Nike+ Sportband
April 26, 2008 at 11:41 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets
I’ve taken my time to write this post because I’m not sure whether to come clean about my sins or to attempt a bluff.
I was sent the Nike+ Sportband to try out at the beginning of the week but as I don’t have holes in my running shoes I couldn’t possibly go running before I had some hi-tech means of carrying my speed sensor - you wouldn’t catch me putting gaffer tape on my Kayanos unlike Joggerblogger and Jogblog.
The little thingammy pouch that I ordered from ebay arrived just before I left for work on Wednesday though, so I pretty much had no choice but to pack my bags and prepare for an enforced running commute.
My first impressions of the strap weren’t great, I wondered why Nike would design the watch to have a ridiculous piece of plastic wedged underneath the usb face. It angled the watch and meant I kept catching it on my sleeve. Thankfully I spotted the photo of joggerbloggers sleak sportband before I went out in public, the plastic bit is meant to be thrown away! Moron. Now I’m wearing it as a watch although I have to ask the person sitting next to me to read it as I haven’t got used to deciphering the vertical numbers and the screen is too dark but I still think it looks cool.
Anyway, back to the running.
When I left the house it was chucking it down so I packed the long sleeve top again, of course when I left work it was flippin scorching and just to ensure that I got heat stroke at the edge of a deserted canal I left the building with my empty water bottle in hand. With no means of re-entering the building I had to set off sans hydration system - bollox!
3 seconds later the Sportband is telling me to start walking but the garmin is persistently ignoring my request to locate my position. I can’t start walking now or the garmin will have a paddy fit. By the time the gps picks up the Nike system has gotten bored and gone back into clock mode, who can blame it?
I was feeling hot, sweaty and lethargic so I pretty much ignored both gadgets for the first 4k as thoughts vacillated between diving in the canal and diving in the canal. When I entered Brentford I headed straight for the nearest shop where I knocked back a bottle of water before I reached the till and handed over 90p for an empty bottle of plastic.
I set off again but now thoughts were of cool beers, enjoyed by the rivers edge. As I’ve never been known to resist the lure of beer and I was just about to reach the Thames river bank, I rather shockingly dived into the next shop and came out with a can of Stella. Now beer can’t be shaken so I paused both gadgets while I wandered down to the river. I thought I’d just enjoy my can and then carry on with the run.
Oh baaaaad runner! I thought it would be rather pleasant sitting with my legs dangling in the river enjoying a refreshing brew but the reality was rather seedy. I’m clearly a runner - running clobber and shoes, beetroot face and sweat, not one but two running watches and headphones in ear, only I’m walking and not just walking, this is no-good can swigging bum walking. About 300 hundred proper runners came past me in and in the end I realised I wasn’t enjoying this whole cool beer thing and tipped it all away.
Running was pretty tricky from here on in, 300m run, huge gasp, hands to temples and then walk for 1km - repeat. Nice treat at the end as there was a new piece of graffiti on my steps. Not quite Banksy but it isn’t bad.
Painful but the Sportband faired pretty well.
Total garmin distance (running only): 5.78km
Nike Sportband distance (running only): 5.65km
No way of telling which was the most accurate but they were close enough to ensure that I’ll never bother calibrating the Nike Sportband.
Post run, the usb face automatically uploads (after inserting into the usb port of course) to the Nike+ website and displays whizzy graphs.
The Nike+ website is pretty good if you like online motivation. You can join no end of challenges to push you out of the door and it looks like the next Nike organised run will be a worldwide Nike+ only event. The sportband is a great way of a gaining entry to the event, its also got to be one of the cheapest available speed and distance monitors on the market.
Popularity: 32% [?]
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Tags: commute, Garmin, GPS, Nike, Nike+ Sportband, Stella, thames
February 14, 2008 at 11:17 pm · Filed under Commuting, Running
I’m off oop North this weekend to visit Rach so my weekend long run is looking unlikely again, in fact it’s worse than unlikely - it’s just not going to happen, I’m packing my bag now and the trainers and garmin have not made their way in.
Today I was working in central London so decided to squeeze in yet another mid-week long run. I was aiming for an intermediate length run, a light 10k dash across town but my internal GPS system went awry and it took me more than 13k to reach home. Good run though, you’ve got to love London, it’s full of inspiring routes. Tuesdays run took me along the Grand Union Canal, the Thames, Kew Park and then past Virginia Woolf’s house in Richmond, today’s jaunt started in Regents Park, through Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens past Radcliffe Hall’s house, through Holland Park and then back onto the Thames.
I suffered some weird magnetic interference in Kensington gardens and then again as I left Holland Park, and had to ring Shakti to see if she could guess where the hell I was and direct me out of the aberration known as Shepherds Bush.
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, GPS, thames
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