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!

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.

At the moment it seems not a day goes by without there being a new running app being released or brought to my attention. I can now name 6 apps I’m aware of for the iPhone and a number of these have been successfully ported to Android and some even to the Blackberry. The big question seems to be do these apps bring the demise of the GPS watches which are commonly attached to runners wrists?

Without much thought I suspect for the beginner runner this is a definite ‘Yes’, the Gamin/Timex watches are typically expensive pieces of kit. If you don’t know someone that has one I think you could easily not know about them or be put off by the cost and ‘scare’ factor. Whilst Garmin is a big brand it is nowhere near that of Nike and as I sit writing this post I know that almost 1 in 4 of the people I know has an iPhone or Android based phone meaning they can pick up a competitive app for practically nothing.

I have reviewed the Nike+ and Adidas miCoach apps previously on this blog and both offer a great foundation for the runner at a maximum price of £2, or so you initially think. Since getting my iPhone many years ago it has barely left my side, it allows me to stay connected on the go, check emails and write blog posts! Now it could come out for a run with me, but it doesn’t – why not? Even my 2 year old phone is worth a couple of hundred pounds and replacing it would cost more like £500. I wouldn’t dream of putting a laptop in my back pocket whilst running (ignoring the logistics of course!) and my phone is just that. I am a big sweater and also I’m not just a fair-weather runner, when it’s raining I can still be found running and I’ve yet to be presented with a casing I trust in rain, snow and sweat conditions. I know for a fact, even though the iPhone maybe preloaded with Nike+ you will get little help if your phone dies due to water damage! The other big thing is the iPhone isn’t the smallest piece of kit and logically it can’t sit in a useful place to see statistics. Some apps have integrated a voice split indicator, very useful but it’s not available when you instantly want to see it. Come mid run (and I have witnessed this) it’s amusing to see people fumbling around hoping to hit buttons on their arm before giving up, detaching the phone playing then reattaching the device.

What I have to constantly remind myself is I am biased, I have already gone out and got an expensive Garmin so can’t really compare. If I didn’t have the watch and was starting running today I think there is a good chance I wouldn’t have bought one. Finding it difficult to justify the expense possibly opting for an app and making do with my old Polar Heart Rate monitor. I would accept a level of inaccuracy but wouldn’t know any different and I suspect by now I would have upgraded my phone just for this reason. However, which app would I be using? I think that’s for a separate ‘to follow’ post as otherwise once again this post maybe of dissertation length.

I would love to run a test on new runners to find out how people use these apps, I suspect that on the whole Nike will have got it spot on with it’s simplicity for new runners but fails to be of much use to those who need to dig a bit deeper into the data, it provides an app to use on the phone but not online. The adidas unique selling point is the coaching partner but how many people will bother with that – especially when the app is free! If you had to pay for the app it would possibly have a similar effect as paying for a gym in forcing you through financial guilt? The app I played with today (review to follow) seemed much more tailored to people who used Garmins. The website had lots of graphs, stats and information, the developers are clearly thinking for the future by offering API’s, widgets etc (something Garmin still lacks) stuff a coach or dedicated runner can analyse when they return from a run.

Would I stop using my Garmin? Not yet, I can be reasonably careless with it (although i shouldn’t as it is easy to forget how much it is worth!), it can take my heart rate and most importantly I can look at it easily whilst running. I can set up screens to show all the information I would ever need and by just lifting my arm I get these figures. Simples

N

420 miles covered, gallons of energy drinks consumed and several energy gels swallowed all in order to train for the one of the biggest marathons in the world.

This post maybe better suited following the run but I think the huge amount of training that I have done is easily lost in the glory (or not!) of the big day itself. Therefore, after 16 weeks of training unlike anything I have ever done before, and yes I did run the marathon last year, I am going to share my ups and downs since January 1 2010.

I was fortunate to get a place in this years marathon around September time, for the months leading up to the new year I knew I ought to go out for a run but I didn’t. Luckily, I still hadn’t lost fitness and on an initial ‘tester’ run I managed a half marathon distance, it was tough but a good footing for the months to come. At the beginning of the year I had an email from Runners World stating 16 weeks to go, so I decided this year I would take a schedule and stick to it…for 16 weeks!
» Continue reading “Virgin London Mararthon: Before…”

I’m going to try my best to make weds morning a run to work session. At the moment my long slow run is 14M and I did 13.1 today but stopped a couple of miles short of work.

The run went pretty well, I picked up the pace from normal and came in at 2hours but didn’t feel knackered at the end which is promising, still feel I have a long way to go to drop effectively a minute off a mile but will carry on training and see what happens! Got caught in a snow storm which wasn’t so great but fortunately didn’t last to long! My pace dropped a fair bit at around 7M I’m not sure whether this coincides with hitting busier pavements around London, guess it would make sense but I didn’t feel myself slowing down when I clearly was
» Continue reading “W6 D2 Long run to work…”

Well here it is – in a completely unsorted fashion over 4 hours of cheese, pop, rock, rap, dance garage, trance and all forms of tacky music.

No doubt more tracks will be added before now and Sunday but here is the initial breakdown.

1. Eye of the Tiger – Rocky Soundtrack
2. Dont Stop Me Now – Queen
3. Now You’re Gone (Radio Edit) – Basshunter
4. Flux – Bloc Party
5. Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson
6. Homecoming – Kanye West
7. American Boy – Estelle Feat. Kanye West
8. You’ll Find A Way – Santogold
9. Time To Pretend - MGMT

» Continue reading “The Big Day Playlist”