Filed under: Bupa Great Capital Run, St Albans half marathon, nike+ sportband, running, running gear | Tags: nike+ sportband, running, running gear
Judging by the number of hits I’m getting on my previous post on the subject of calibrating the Nike+ Sportband, there are a few other people out there struggling to make theirs work.
The weird thing is, after calibrating it once and being convinced it was nowhere near accurate, I’ve worn it for a couple of accurately measured races and discovered that it’s actually not far off the pace. It measured 12.56 miles for at the St Albans half marathon, and 5.86 miles for the Bupa Great Capital10k. I haven’t re-calibrated it at all.
So, my advice is, try calibrating it over a short distance – then wear it for a couple of longer runs that are accurately measured, and see what it says. Maybe I was just having an off day and thought I’d gone further than I actually had…
An hour’s worth of exercise, five days a week. Which makes my 45 minutes of circuits at the gym this morning a bit of a waste of time on the weight-loss front. Bugger.
Filed under: Pulse8, X-bike, gym, running, spinning | Tags: gym, Pulse8, running, spinning
It’s become apparent that there is a hardcore group of gym bunnies at my gym – Pulse8 - who turn up every single morning without fail. I thought I’d try to emulate this myself and resolved to go every morning for a week. It didn’t start well: I was a tiny bit hungover on Monday after the post-Bupa Great Capital Run celebrations, knew I had to write a proposal when I got to work, so switched the 6am alarm off and stayed in bed for another hour and a half.
However, I did make it the rest of the week:
Tuesday - half-hour circuits class with Miki, (Pulse8’s resident motherly figure, a 67-year-old former triathlete who puts us all to shame with boundless energy). Then 20-minute run on the treadmill, experimenting with songs with varying beats per minute (more about that some other time). 3.57km.
Wednesday - spinning with Richard “pull those abs in tight”. Exciting because the 35 new X-bikes have been moved to the other end of the studio onto a tiered platform arrangement so that everyone can see the instructor on the stage at the end. They’ve got some nice floor lights and bought some new speakers as well, I think, as the music seemed to be louder. After spinning, did some abs and lots of stretching.
Thursday - gym again for 30-min run on treadmill with more new music. 5.27km. Some random exercises on the Swiss ball, in a vague attempt to improve core stability.
Friday - spinning again, with an Aussie called Luke I think, who I’ve never seen before. Lowlight of the class: a Fleetwood Mac number.
I have to say it’s actually easier to get up every day at the same time than it is to get up at 6am one morning, and 7.30 the next because my body seems to cope with a regular wake-up call better than a randomly timed one. I’ve slept consistently well every night – though that’s partly to do with some very long days at work and not going to bed early enough – and felt more productive during the day. So maybe there’s something in this early bird business…
I also remain quite impressed with the facilities at Pulse8. There’s clearly investment going into the equipment, but my pre-9am fee is just £23 a month. There’s quite a lot of griping among the regulars about some of the instructors, but I think they’re all pretty sound. You get some that are better than others, but that’s the case wherever you go. I just need them to change the radio station in the changing rooms from the inane 2TENfm to Radio 4, and get them to install a few more plugs for hair straighteners, and I’ll be an even happier gym bunny myself.
Filed under: Bupa Great Capital Run, running | Tags: Bupa Great Capital Run, running
The official photos are available to buy (at £17.99 – yeah right). I can’t post them on my site because of copyright restrictions, but you can see an example here.
Why do I never look as though I’m moving?
Filed under: Bupa Great Capital Run, Commando Challenge, great north run, running | Tags: 10k, Bupa Great Capital Run, Commando Challenge, great north run, running
Early start yesterday, but arrived at Hyde Park in plenty of time – unlike my old running partner, LB. He scoffed at my intention to get there at 9am for a 10.30 start, left home in Ware a good hour later than me, discovered his train was cancelled, got on a bus which got lost, got on a different train to a Victoria line tube stop, discovered the Victoria line was closed and had to get a cab to Hyde Park Corner. He was very late.
By contrast, I met RedRocket for a leisurely amble into the Park to the start line in plenty of time to find a clean portaloo with no queue in front of it, dropped the bags off then lay down in the sunshine while all the other runners bopped around us obediently as instructed by the man doing the warm-up on a big screen. It didn’t feel much like a race.
We were herded into the start area – colour coded into four waves which are then each broken down into three sections and set off virtually bang on time. The Great Run people really do know how to organise an event – they should talk to the Reading Half people who have never, to my knowledge, started a race on time.
Anyway off we went for a very pleasant, flat run around Hyde Park. There were around 12,000 people so you had to pretty much stick to the pace – which was a comfortable 6-minute kilometre. It was lovely and flat all the way, and the route looped back on itself so that we saw the front runners hooning it down the 7-8k stretch as we jogged up towards the 4k mark. Well done them – I’d struggle to do that pace for 100m.
There were a lot of people lining the route, but few people giving the runners any encouragement. At one point, a girl yelled “come on, give us a cheer” and there was a half-hearted clap from a few people before they lapsed into complete silence again. It would be nice to see Londoners with the same level of enthusiasm as the Geordies at the GNR, but they just looked bemused.
As we jogged towards the 8k mark, I spotted LB on the other side approaching the 4k post. He looked quite comfortable – despite starting late and having to run through crowds of runners and walkers at the back.
Finished in 57:35 – not bad considering my training could have been better. It would be good to beat that time at the Nike Human Race on 31 August. And I really need to get into shape for Commando Challenge in October. Obviously all of that took a back seat during yesterday’s post-run celebrations at various venues between Kensington and Notting Hill – the best pub by far being the quirky Churchill Arms near Notting Hill Gate. Worth going for the people watching and vast array of pot plants in the loos. Go easy on the chili prawns though…
Filed under: X-bike, gym, healthy eating, running | Tags: healthy eating, running
Stood on the scales this morning and weighed in at 10 stone 5. Oh dear. I think that’s the heaviest I’ve ever been. At 5′4″, I probably should weigh about 9 stone 7 – I’ve got down to that a couple of times over the past couple of years, but that’s generally been when I’ve been having a bad time for some reason. I’m happy enough just under 10 stone, but definitely don’t like going over.
This is largely the reason I started running in the first place. I didn’t just wake up one morning and fancy a jog. Rather, I put on a stone in my first year at University after living on crap Hall food and snakey-b for two terms; and decided drastic action was required. I’ve been running since then for 12 years – albeit on and off, and mixed up with other types of exercise. It sure as hell beats dieting.
I’m afraid it makes me laugh inwardly to hear other people banging on about their latest diet, which involves cutting out wheat, dairy, meat, any form of carbohydrate or living on cabbage soup – but fails to suggest doing any form of exercise.
I absolutely love cooking, eating and drinking…especially with friends and family. So I run to compensate. If I burn off the same number of calories as I consume, my weight should remain roughly the same. Looks like I got my maths a bit wrong lately though – time to hit the road/treadmill/x-bike with a bit more enthusiasm…
Also requiring significantly more enthusiasm is my website project. I’ve got as far as buying www.irunbecauseilovefood.co.uk, and now need to find a hosting company. Any tips gratefully received – though you’ll probably have difficulty communicating them because my comments box won’t work since I pointed the blog at the new domain. Boo to complicated techie stuff that I don’t understand.
Filed under: gym, running, running gear, spinning | Tags: headphones, running, sennheiser
Last week was a disaster for exercise. I had a tough week at work, felt completely knackered, didn’t go to bed early enough and failed to get up early to get to the gym Monday right through to Saturday. (I was also a grumpy cow at work which I am sure is related, because I know that exercise affects my general mood and wellbeing). Managed a fairly pathetic 4-miler in the pouring rain at The Look Out on Sunday and that was it.
This week, I have made a concerted effort to get back into the swing of things again. After a long day trip for a meeting in Paris on Monday (sounds glamorous, but was just exhausting), I must admit I did sleep in on Tuesday. Anyway, dragged myself out of bed for spinning yesterday, had an early night and toddled off to the gym this morning for a treadmill run complete with iPod and new-ish headphones.
I’ve struggled to find a decent pair of headphones for a while. I used to have a fairly robust pair of over-the-ear style ones but lost them and couldn’t remember the name of the manufacturer to get a replacement pair. Then I bought a pair of Philips headphones that looked similar in shape but were made of a flimsy white rubber material – arguably more comfortable but just kept bouncing away from my ears so I ended up with an atrocious tinny sound. They were about 35 quid, so not exactly cheap.
I did some research before making another problematic purchase, and read a few complimentary reviews and blogs about Sennheiser. The company makes a range of headphones designed for sports use. I plumped for the neckband model PMX70.
Nice headphones, vile colour
I’ve used them a few times now, and I’m already a convert. The neckband style looks a bit strange but works very well – although if you have long hair that you wear in a ponytail, you need to secure it into a some kind of bun affair to stop it banging against the band and distorting the sound. Once you have that sorted, the sound is excellent – a nice lot of bass and plenty of volume for noisy gyms and busy roads.
The Sennheisers don’t channel sweat into your eardrums like other styles, and I’m led to believe by other users that they last longer than the average 12 months or so even if you are a very sweaty runner like me.
So, what don’t I like about them? Well, they’re a little tight (or maybe I just have a big head) so I can’t imagine running for a couple of hours in them without feeling a bit uncomfortable by the end of the run. But I hope they’ll loosen up with more use.
And obviously the colour is utterly hideous (there are no other colours available). I can’t help thinking Sennheiser has missed a trick there given the range of colours the iPod Shuffle and Nano come in. The green/grey combo would really only go nicely with the green Shuffle, or maybe the silver one at a push. What it definitely doesn’t go with is my pretty little lilac Shuffle that perches nice and neatly on my right hip…with a stonking great attention-seeking green wire sticking out of the top of it.
Anyway – on balance – a good buy. And available at the bargainous price of £14.99 from Amazon.
Have a look at this, courtesy of a colleague at work who circulated this by email (to the boys and girls). Now hands up who put in their own/girlfriend’s/wife’s bust size, then repeated the exercise with the FF+G option. Yeah, me too.
Drifting into my day job for a moment, this is an absolutely fantastic example of viral marketing by Shock Absorber. You just have to send it to someone else/blog about it/smile.
And of course it is proof, if it were needed, that even small girls need proper support. Larger ladies risk serious injury without it…
