Cambridge Park Run (Week 9)

Today was week 9 for Cambridge Park Run. After last week's PB of 22:53 I was keen to know whether I could improve once again. My problem this time was that I'd been for a 6 mile run and a 4.5 mile run during the week so my legs felt sore. The Achilles tendon injury was still nagging despite being much improved. During a quick warm up I became aware that I had some groin discomfort on the right side. I expect this was caused by walking with a slight limp while I've had the achilles problem. Anyway I wasn't hopeful for a fast time due to all of these leg issues. 

My strategy this week was to go out more slowly and either build my speed or at least sustain it. Last week saw a fast first mile and then increasingly slower 2nd and 3rd miles. My strategy paid off this week as I managed to get a new PB of 22:39 and with a much lower max heart rate than the week before. I was averaging 7:20(ish) per mile.

Something else I've neglected to mention is that for the past 3 weeks my wife has accompanied me to the Park Run. This week she smashed her PB by 3 minutes which was incredible. I'm very proud of her. She's training for the Race for Life again so the 5K Park Run route is an ideal training distance.

Non default template

I was getting really tired of my blog template, i.e. the look and feel of things. All of the standard supplied templates were not inspiring me anymore. But then Mashable posted this: http://mashable.com/2010/03/24/free-blogger-templates/. I tried a few and settled on "Notepad". I think it looks great. I slightly hacked the HTML to remove a couple of things I didn't want and I'm happy with the result.....for now!. They have loads of templates but I couldn't be bothered to trawl them all. What do you think?

iPad Parody

Mashable posted this link to an awesome iPad parody video. I love the iPad but equally I'm more than happy to enjoy watching people mocking it. Enjoy it. Fingers crossed the link keeps working for a long time to come.

Sport Relief Mile 2010

At lunch time today I, along with my wife and kids headed down to Milton Country Park to participate in the Sport Relief Mile. The weather was fantastic. A great temperature for running and the sun shining. The park was full of people and the atmosphere was amazing. At exactly noon we set off. I was actually doing the 3 mile run (which turned out to be 3.3 miles according to my GPS). I got around in a good time finishing 3rd for the 3 milers in my time slot. The kids and my wife also completed their one mile in good time. It was great fun to be enjoying running whilst raising money for charity. 

I think the achievement that impressed me the most today was a young man, who presumably had cerebral palsy and would ordinarily be in a wheel chair, managed to walk the whole mile route aided by several helpers but nevertheless he took every step himself. It was inspirational and we gave him a big cheer and a huge round of applause as he finished the journey. What a fantastic person.

Multitasking to come in iPhone 4.0 software

According to several sites on the Internet the general opinion seems to be that in Summer version 4.0 of the iPhone software will be released and will include multi tasking capabilities. This will extend beyond the core apps to allow concurrent execution of 3rd party apps. Sounds good to me. 

The image above is a good representation of how the screen could display your running apps and allow you to switch between them. Power consumption and available memory are concerns with running several things at once. Plus the potential for Spyware\Malware being able to "lurk" in the background is now a threat. I for one will be keen to see how Apple handle these issues. I expect there will be a maximum number of apps that can run concurrently. Will my iPhone 3G be able to cope with v4.0 software and multitasking or will I have to get the next iPhone model which will probably have more memory a faster processor and a better battery (I hope!).

Cambridge Park Run (Week 8)

This morning at 9am it was Week 8 of Cambridge Park Run. A 5K run around Milton Country Park in Cambridge (UK). I've only managed to complete 3 runs in 8 weeks due to my long list of running injuries. I still have tendonitis in my right Achilles tendon but I pushed that to the back of my mind today and set out for a PB. I started way too fast and completed the 1st mile in sub 7 mins. My heart rate was off the scale (it finally peaked at 194BPM). Keeping up the pace was impossible but I kept as much pace as I could manage and did get around in 22:53 which was my PB by 12 secs. The photo here shows my pained face as I pushed to the finish line. Luckily despite gasping for air, feeling dizzy and monitoring my high BPM I returned to feeling ok pretty quickly. It's so good to get back out running. I've been laid up for 2 weeks without running a single step and even prior to that I've been on "light duties" because of the tendonitis.

Headphones - Sennheiser PMX80

If you're like me sometimes you just want to run free and unencumbered by technology. No music, just the delights of nature. Birds singing, the breeze dancing through the trees, the steady thud, thud of your feet, your senses clear to drink in the joyful smell of nature and freedom. Absolute freedom and relaxation. There's nothing like it. It's why I run.

But sometimes I just feel like I do want to go out and run with some music playing. So I'll load up my iPod with some great tunes and hit the road. Now, this is where my first few ventures out with music didn't go as planned. Why? because my headphones were not giving me the pleasure I had hoped. Some reasons for this were:-

• They were just too hot and sweaty after a few miles of running
• They would stop working if too much sweat leaked into them
• They kept vibrating themselves out of my ears
• They blocked out too much external noise so I felt nervous when running near traffic
• The sound quality was poor against my breathing and footfall
• I kept snagging the cable with my arm and yanking the headphones out of my ears

So what to do? Luckily this is when I stumbled upon the Sennheiser PMX80's. A lovely lightweight pair of headphones. What's so good about them?

• They look great
• They fit perfectly
• The do not move at all when I'm running
• The cable only goes up to one ear instead of both so I can avoid snagging
• The sound quality (for the price) is great
• They're water\sweat resistant

I heartily recommend them to anyone who wants a good set of running headphones. My wife borrowed mine and liked them so much she asked me to buy her a pair, so I did. They're currently at Play.com for £17.99.