December 27, 2007 at 11:21 pm · Filed under Running
Having spent the whole of boxing day sitting in my pyjamas it’s not all that surprising that today I felt the need to both take some exercise and find a replacement for my now threadbare sleeping attire.
So this morning I togged myself up in my classiest luminous yellow running gear, slung the salomon pack on my back, synchronised 2 gps gadgets, plugged in the iPod and set off for a little jaunt along the river in search of M&S. I normally avoid the sales like the plague but I think I got something right today. I was able to jog past the queues of impatient cars honking at each other and once in the shop people just seemed to make way for me. Maybe I dazzled them with my top or perhaps they were running scared of my sweaty, muddy body. Either way I had a clear path to the pyjama section, grabbed my prize and was out in no time.
From the shop I ran on to the allotment where I was greeted by the remnants of a recent massacre. Someone or something had been using my plot as an operating theatre, bright red beads of flesh where sticking to my dibber and not far away from that lay a jolly fresh liver. Not pleasant, but what is worse is that I forgot all about it and at some point during my general pottering around on the plot, I managed to step on it and squish it into the sole of my shoe.
Still, I got over it and after a bit of digging I was off again, turning quite a productive day into a useful 6.8 km training run. That’s 6.8 garmin kilometres, the N82 and sports tracker came out with a very generous 8.2 km estimate. Mind you, I left the sports tracker function running on the phone while I went into the store and although the output appeared to suggest that the N82 was still holding a signal while I was wandering around it must have gone a touch haywire. There is no way I walked 1.4 km in search of those pyjamas!
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Tags: allotment, Garmin, GPS, n82, sports_tracker
December 25, 2007 at 10:26 pm · Filed under Apparel, Equipment, Event, Gadgets, Software
Today was the annual showing of the Christmas Bushy Park Time Trial and I’ve been looking forward to this particular event for about 340 days, since my first introduction to the wonder of the time trial phenomonen back in February. It would have been easy to stay in bed this morning, it was dark and gloomy and of course presents awaited. Still, you can’t really resist that level of anticipation.
As I cycled through Richmond Park in the light drizzle, I puzzled a little over the knowing looks I received from the exhausted reindeer. They obviously knew what was in store for me - that’ll teach me not to leave any carrots out on Christmas Eve. When I mentioned yesterday that a downpour was required to wrap up a thorough test of the Salomon pack, it really wasn’t meant as a Dear Santa letter. I could have waited.
The rain held off for most of the run and I was able to “enjoy” the 5k amongst good company. I was adopted at the midway point by a first-timer and her motivational cousin and was able to experience a vicarious boost that carried me over the finish line relatively unscathed.
I even remembered the new phone this morning so I got to try out the Sports Tracker Beta application. It required a little bit of juggling to switch on both the garmin and the N82 without dropping the phone into the path of a couple of hundred runners but then it is a bit overkill to use two different devices. Sports Tracker has been around for a while and I remember Jogblog took it for a whirl a while ago, but the new version is quite impressive. The phone application links flawlessly to the website offering a live update of your progress, with your route appearing online as you run. Pretty nifty stuff.
The website is particularly attractive and displays some respectable charts. You can view the page for the BPTT workout to get an idea of the detail available.
I can imagine this service being quite addictive and the stats will only get better as you add more workouts. I’m going to be using this again and have already downloaded the application to my N95, I’ll be interested to try it out on my next commute where I tend to have more trouble picking up a GPS signal. I’ll have the two phones going head to head against the garmin to see how reliable the reception is.
So, back to this morning, did I mention that it was raining? I finished up at the time trial and set off on the bike for 7 mile ride home. I was dreaming of roast potatoes and yorkshire puds when the sky starting lobbing buckets of gritty, grimey rain water at me. When I finally got home I was just staggered by the amount of water I’d managed to absorb and peeled the Salomon Raid Revo off directly over the bath expecting at least half a bucket of gulley water to come rushing out of the mini plug holes. As it happens the inside of the pack was still dry which is quite impressive given that no other part of me remained “dry” even my goretex jacket had failed under the onslaught.
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Tags: BPTT, commute, Garmin, GPS, n82, n95, nokia, OGB, salomon_raid_revo, sports_tracker
