I saw this phone on the net a few weeks ago and thought if that isn’t the perfect phone to run with I don’t know what is. If it can live up to what the marketers say it can then it is water resistant and also drop proof. It’s the first claim which really interests me.

I have said a number of times my major reservation as to why I don’t take my iPhone out is the fear of water damage be it rain, snow or most likely sweat. The phone is not a cheap device and to break it whilst running would set me back a few pennies and great annoyance. I have lost one (albeit cheap) phone at the marathon where my body overcooked and the sweat destroyed it. The defy however suggests my phone will be safe and tonight I took it out for a run.

I loaded up endomondo to see how good it was as a gps device and ran. Unfortunately it wasn’t an overly fair test, I let the phone off this time. It wasn’t raining or snowing and as I didn’t have any pockets I held onto it so it kept away from most moisture. During my next long run I will shove some audio on it, put it in my pocket and leave it. Hopefully a couple of hours later I will finish and it all be functioning as normal *hopefully*.

This is never going to be a fully fledged review of the defy – I’m sure you can find that elsewhere I just want to see if they are the perfect running device- Music/Phone/GPS/Smartphone everything you could need surely. I also noticed in endomondo a sync with Bluetooth HeartRateMonitor, not sure who supply those as I think both polar and gamin use proprietary transmission mechanisms.

Next time this puppy gets further testing and hopefully (for the phone testing part) it will rain!

Not wishing to spend every run on the dreadmill I took to the streets again last night. I planned for a 40min light run covering 5 or so miles. The pavements where I live are in that slushy/icy stage which is still to dangerous to run in without some form of spikes so I chucked on the stableicers again and set off.

I tried to stick to relatively busy roads where I knew roughly the ice would have mostly melted and as it turned out I had no slips. Somewhat by accident I added a few hills to the route – I should know this is going to happen – I ran away from London and into Essex!

As I said last time it’s much harder running in the snow, my heart rate was high even though I was traveling relatively slowly. I still have symptoms of a mild cold which probably isn’t helping matters either! Regardless of this the run went well and I had wrapped up so well this time I was actually pretty hot when I got back!!

Oh and whilst I can’t be certain as I’m not very good at celeb spotting, I’m pretty sure as I ran past Woodford Station I passed Arg from The Only Way is Essex. This would make a bit of sense as he does live in Woodford apparently! Sure, he’s no A lister but I don’t think I have ever spotted anyone else whilst out running!

Some (most) may consider me mental but on Sunday following the settling of the snow I chucked on my kit and went for a run. I wanted to give the stableicers I bought a while back a go and figured a gentle jog couldn’t do me any harm…

Wrapped up in lots of layers at the top and wearing my a400 skins to cover my legs I left the flat. After my Garmin was hooked into the satellites (which seemed to take an eternity this time) I started to move. I had no issues whatsoever with grip, at no point did I feel I may slip however the combination of snow and the stableicers certainly tested different muscles in my legs.

I took a 6 mile route I have done countless times but never in snow. It was much tougher and more testing running on this surface. I struggled to maintain a sub 8:30 pace which seemed slow considering what I have been running recently and my heart-rate suggested I should be moving much faster!

6 miles later I was back home, reasonably dry and pretty warm all things considered. I had a nice run and the scenery was so different and much much nicer when covered with a couple of inches of snow!

10 hilly miles in Stockport was the one of the major things in my mind whilst I was taking on another glass of wine at the work Xmas do on Friday. Sure I would have recovered from the side effects of the alcohol in 2 days but I didn’t much like the thought of a nauseous train journey at 8am the following morning. So like a good boy at about 930 I stopped drinking, a wise move I think!

Staying at a hotel next to Euston meant we didn’t have to get up at silly o’clock for the journey and after a pleasant journey we were in Stockport with plans to head into Manchester city centre and the Xmas Market. Manchester was heaving, as to be expected, and frickin cold. We met up with Lauras uni friends and drank mulled wine, ate German sausage and pancakes and over the course of 6 hours I gradually lost the feeling of my hands and toes due to the cold. I don’t think any of what I had done in the buildup to this race would be listed in the 101 guide to racing and tapering. Fortunately we did manage an early night which was somewhat of a result.

With the race starting 5mins from where we staying thanks to the generous hospitality of Sam and Matt the morning was chilled. Shower, breakfast, kit up then head out. We left the house. Have I mentioned it was cold…the roads were icy and slippy – this was going to be interesting! The journey was short and before long we had collected our numbers and waiting for the off.

At 10:15 the race started, after two laps of the track we headed out of the AC and into the park. The paths were icy but before long we were on even icier roads and pavements. This race was to continue on a similar vain and I would be watching my footing throughout ensuring my race didn’t finish early due to a slip! I was prepared for a hilly race this time, unlike with Dartford, I had done a little bit of hill work locally but nothing substantial. I had no idea of the profile except there was a hill at 6miles and again at 9. Setting my virtual partner at an 8min mile pace I should definitely beat it but I wasn’t sure how hilly it was and how i’d cope with the ice. The first mile came in way ahead of the watch and so did all the subsequent miles except 1 – the 6th mile which came in at 8:01, that’d be the mile with the ‘hill’. We covered 60meters in a mile with a final steep climb of 10meters in under a tenth of a mile – tough! That said what goes up must come down (in a point to point race anyway) and a mile or so later I clocked a sub 7min mi which I was happy even if it was artificially aided by the gradient!

I well and truly obliterated my virtual partner coming in at 1hr13. Sam, who I was staying with came in just two minutes behind me, very impressive as she had set her pace at 9min/mi. Don’t think it will take her long to be overtaking me so at least I got in there first with one race! Justin, who I met at the Thunder Run also came over from Leeds to take part and he flew (finishing in 63mins), one day I hope to be able to stay with him for just one mile…one day! The last and only other 10m race I have done was the Great South in November 2008, I finished that in 01:25:34 so in just over 2 years I have taken 12 minutes off of my time – not bad!

This is the last race I am booked into in 2010 time to relax, rest and recover. I will do some light runs over the coming months but ultimately it will be an opportunity to prepare for whatever is to come in 2011!

Well done Sam and Justin for great races also for Tom Williams of Marathon Talk and his wife Helen who also ran and we bumped into at the end – it was a great event to finish the year with! It was also great to meet Justin’s girlfriend Ash who came along to support with Laura and Matt, I suspect she was a little bit envious and would have like to have been out running too!

On Sunday I somehow forced myself out of the door for a run. I don’t really know how this happened as when I woke up even though I had prepared my kit the night before had my routine breakfast almost everything was telling me not to bother! I think had I had done a few more miles during the week I would have had an excuse to use but because of the snow I hadn’t.

At 945 am I couldn’t put it off any longer and headed out of the door still uncertain what type of run I would do. During the first 10 minutes my body sulked, a high heart rate made it appear like the run was not going to be fun. However, shortly after things seemed to settle and I realised I was going at a respectable pace. Knowing I only had an hour I opted to push myself with some hills in further practice for next weekend. The route consisted of every hill I could think of bar one and all of them fairly substantial hills. There was one which was a steady incline for a long distance and the others short(ish) and sharp hill in chingford as well as other inclines.

Anyway – it turned out to be a tough but rewarding  session.

I’m a bit slow in blogging due to being incredibly busy at the moment both at home and work although the Thursday before last in the evening I did manage to squeeze in an hour run. I had decided to give the route I used to run with my dad a go
but in reverse, I did this once before about 2 years ago an it is significantly harder as the hills are much steeper the other way and features a killer mile about 5miles in.

Fully wrapped up baring my gloves which I couldn’t find I headed put into the cold. Heading in any direction other than towards London from mine presents you with an undulating terrain of varying difficulty. This route has it all. The run went pretty well actually considering I had been out for a gentle jog with my colleagues that lunchtime. I came in at sub 8min mi average – the ‘hill’ was my slowest mile but even that wasn’t too bad. Other than being a little bit cold – and that is only going to get worse over the next few weeks, it was a good run!

So a couple of weeks ago I got sent some odds and sods and in the pack were two material feet attached by a cord called stuffitts. Intrigued by them I read up on What they were and the purpose of them is to quite literally stuff into your shoes following a run and they will absorb the moisture and presumably stop trainers smelling so much.

They have been cleverly designed, the cord allows you to carry your trainers or even loop them to the outside of your bag and because they sit in your trainers when your not using there is no issues of more junk in your gym bag.

If they work – and over the next few months it should be pretty obvious to tell, they are a great idea. Possibly a little pricey as in my opinion they have priced themselves out of the ‘gift’ market which is where I think they would really work as I don’t know it’s something you would buy for yourself, not the first time anyway!

Love the idea though and they have kept the insides of my trainers nice and snug over the last few weeks! My trainers are going to love me all of a sudden