Wednesday is Serpentine night and this week Rich and I had decided to go out for a different route. We had talked about heading out a little earlier and doing 3 parks plus an extension along the Thames. However, just as we were leaving we bumped into a group of people outside who were heading up to Hampstead Heath at a pace we would be able to run at.

I have never done this route before but Rich had and he was full of praise for it and to be honest after only about 1mile I was starting to realise why. We headed towards Regents Park and along the canal behind it, I’ve run around this park numerous times but never knew there was a canal there! The canal path was lovely and nice to know as after a bit of research at home it seems it goes all the way upto Stratford!

After leaving the canal we headed up Primrose Hill, wow that’s a hill but once you reach the top you have the pleasure of an incredible view of London. Again this is something new for me, it seems I really don’t know the north very well! After a quick recovery break we set off up to Hampstead Heath. More hills and certainly more challenges! After a few more miles we headed up Parliament Hill and was rewarded with another beautiful sight of London especially as it was getting dark.

After another rest we headed back to base via Primrose again as a final challenge! The route was 10miles pretty undulating and made a great change to the standard 3 parks run. The hills added an extra challenge and made the run more rewarding! We averaged about 8:20 and looking at the watch stats our fastest mile was the last one – admittedly that was the flattest but needless to say pulling of a sub 8min/mi at 9miles is good to see!

Till next time

N

On Friday night I finally managed it out on a run I could test this app out on. I had already been informed of possibly poor results due to poor GPS on the 3G however the app seemed to do well.

As with the micoach the app was pretty intuitive to set up, the interface feels very similar and merely an extension to the old Nike+ footpod app. It seemed to hook into the satellite pretty quickly and before long I had queued up some music and was running.

To be honest, I don’t like playing or even touching my phone whilst running, I tend to try avoid taking it out as I don’t want to damage it as it’s an expensive bit of kit. With that in mind I shoved it in my pocket and let it be. I got updates through my earphones informing me I hit mile markers. These also informed me of my average pace, a nice touch meaning I didn’t have to play with buttons!

One thing that did annoy me was that when a text came through it seemed to pause the app. This is probably resolved with the newer iPhones that allow multi-tasking but for me I was left puzzled as to what was going on. If it doesn’t pause things on the new phones maybe its worth suggesting going to airplane mode but I guess that would stop the app working, will have to try that next time.

The app turned out to be respectably accurate. I think it came in at under half a mile difference to my Garmin or 10%. Didn’t pay attention to the battery indicator but I’m pretty certain it would have drained it. However, my phones life is already tiny with or without apps running! On completing the run I stopped the workout and it instantly transferred the data to nikeplus.

The nikeplus site is sleek but possibly lacking exact data. It could possibly do with some tables of splits etc as the graph is a bit clunky and basic? Whilst I think the graphs on the Garmin could do with being a little smoother using averages the nikeplus seems a little too smooth!

Anyway in conclusion a nice little app, sadly lacking heart rate functionality and also it still fails to store track listings as they are playing (please Nike just add this feature, I want to see what tracks I run faster too!). It’s a nice alternative to the MiCoach App but does not include voice coaching the main differential between the two.

Let’s see how the battle of running gps phone apps progress as I’m already aware of others in preparation!

N

Rather unsurprisingly and just over one month after the release of the adidas MiCoach GPS app Nike have released an alternative. This morning I got an email from nike informing me as a nike+ member I should be the first to know about the nike+ iphone gps app and like a sucker to technology I went off to read all about it and check it out.

I was hoping that this would be the first of the two to join Heart Rate Monitor and GPS as I assumed the newer iphonescould interact with the device but alas, this still seems to be lacking from the build. Although it has led me to question whether the iphone 3gs/4 has Heart Rate facility? Answer in the comments below if you know! Anyway, over to the app itself – oddly they have charged £1.19, peculiar considering the Adidas one is free, I also would have expected some hype and fanfare over the app maybe free for ‘x’ days to get people aware of it, maybe that campaign is still to come however if you had paid and then they made it free I guess you’d be a bit annoyed!

Following a foolish stumble out of the office door last night I am not able to get out and test this app with a run today as I may have liked to have done. Apparently the GPS on the iphone 3 is nowhere near as good as on the newer phones, however I guess it should be as accurate as the micoach review from before. I guess in order to get to the real detail with these reviews I need to get a play with the iPhone 4 but in order to do that the cost somewhat outweighs that of buying a new Garmin!

The install of the app was pretty easy, the user interface felt much like that I was used to from my Nike+ of old. Nike+ saw me through many miles and up until March time I used it almost religiously racking up over 1000miles on the system, however I stopped using it finding my Garmin a lot more usable and accurate – the GPS version *should* rectify this! Fortunately for Nike its website in my mind is spot on, funky and very neat. The graphs presented are clever, albeit a bit difficult to understand, they could show the results in a slightly more obvious manner. I always disliked the fact that it didn’t store information about what track was being played but other than that it did everything that could be expected from an accelerometer.

The iPhone app seems to mimic the colour scheme and feel of the website creating a simple to use experience. Within minutes I had logged onto my online profile and was ready to start the app going. I decided to “go for a run”, which actually meant walking back from lunch which apparently took me 0.2 miles just to see if it worked. The interface was good, allowing the phone to be locked whilst showing useful information, it also appeared that you can get information to be spoken to you in different intervals. Once i clicked stop on the app it seemed to upload it automatically and it appeared on my nikeplus.com profile.

Obviously have been playing with social media for quite some while feeding into twitter and facebook neatly and cleverly, something that adidas micoach to work on and also having a quick squint at the webpage I can get the information and build my own interface for it – Perfect!! Should be a good test when I next get out for a run. I’m sure it will kill my battery so its only going to get a 4miler or so and as mentioned already I’m not expecting too much from its accuracy due to the phone not the app. Update to feature soon when I have actually gone for a run!

Also when I get a few mins free time I think im going to dig out my API attempt last time to facilitate a wordpress plugin or sorts for it. If there is demand for this out there please comment and I’ll get it going sooner rather than later!

Till next time.

It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog post mainly due to me being out of the country! Anyway before going straight into a post about running in Fort Lauderdale I should quickly mention my 14miler with Rich.

On the Sunday before last I met Rich in Kennington following a quick meetup with nan and we ran back to my flat via the Olympic Park. The run went well although quite tough. The pace was reasonable, a talking pace for the most, averaging 8:30min/mi for the distance. The run was in reverse for me as I normally run from the flat to nans. It turns out it’s a bit trickier the other way as after Mile End it’s predominantly up hill! Promising nonetheless and the run was rewarded with a pub lunch straight after.

Two days later we jetted of to the States. Like with Spain I packed my kit but wasn’t sure I’d have quite as much time to run. As it turns out I managed 2 runs. The was first early on in the week. Leaving the hotel at about 7am I crossed the road and ran on the pavement along the coastline. Beautiful. One long road runs parallel to the sea for miles in either direction. I headed along for 2miles before turning back. It was very humid but even still I ran just over 6 miles and returned back to the hotel pleased to have got out.

A few weeks before heading out I googled ‘Fort Lauderdale running clubs’ and the GFLRRC website came up. I thought if they would let me run with them running with company would be nice and fortunately they welcomed me with open arms. So at a ridiculous hour in on the Saturday morning I met them in a mall car park nearby and went for a long run.

At 6am I set off with a group of people, my aim was to do 10 miles at an 8:30-9min/mi pace. I knew from the heat the days previously I wasn’t going to achieve anything quicker especially over that distance. With our group we had a couple of chaps new to training but marathon hopefuls and 2011 Miami Tri wannabes who were running 6miles, an 8mile regular who was pretty nimble on his feet and the coach who would be my guide for the day. Robert, originally from Belgium, took me on a Tour of Fort Lauderdale which was lovely. Some coastal running then heading into the city and running by the canals. He was a great runner, from memory I think he said he was in his late 60s and very very good for age. Much like with Des, from our Thunder Run team, I was in the company of one of the top 50 for age runners in the world.

10miles is normally a challenging run but today it seemed more than that, the humidity really affected things and we came in at an average pace of 8:43. However, if you looked at my clothes after you would have thought someone had pushed me into the sea! My tshirt could have been rung out and my shorts resembled swimming trunks! Having run for about 3 years I can safely say my kit was the wettest it has ever been and that includes running in the rain! I think that should probably highlight how warm it was out there!!

Anyway 10miles is 10miles and it felt bloody brilliant to finish and have some Gatorade and the GFLRRCs Iced Capri suns. I had a brilliant run and was so glad they let me join them for the day. Robert made the run fly by even when I was battling with dehydration

That evening, rather aptly but not planned we headed to Bubba Gumps and sat surrounded by Forrest Gump merchandise. I love that movie and rate it as one of my favourite films even if it does bring back memories of this years marathon…

Now I’m home it’s time to get back onto the road and build up some consistency in September. Let’s hope it doesn’t get too cold!

Till next time…

Last week I was fortunate to get a break from work and we headed away for our first (last minute) break of the school summer holiday.

We were off to Andalusia, in particular Marina Duquesa, a resort on the Spanish coast near to Gibraltar. It was to be a chilled holiday with few excursions booked so I took the opportunity to throw in my trainers and kit in the hope I’d get out once or twice.

On the day after arriving I kitted up for the first time. Opting for an afternoon jog i was soon to regret the choice. I think I set off at about 5pm and was running in a temperature of 30+ with the sun overhead and very little shade. Needless to say it was HOT. I ran along the coastal path for as long as possible whilst having to do detours around numerous dead ends. I called it a day at about 4 miles @ an average 8min/mi pace. I saw little point in killing myself in the heat.

A couple of days later I set off in the morning, aiming for 10 or so miles, I was out of the apartment by 8. At the start the temperature was manageable but by 830/9ish the sun was climbing and the heat rising. I cut my run short at 7miles. I figured that would make up for the missed serpentine 3 parks this week . My average pace was quite slow but I’m going to put this down to the heat again. Running in that temperature is certainly more of a challenge than our climate!

The final run I did was an interval session along the beach. Laura had packed her shoes and wanted to use them so I thought intervals would be the best idea. Whilst we wouldn’t be running together, at least we would be within a few hundred meters of each other. This time it was even later in the evening, about 730pm, fortunately the temperature was falling and running seemed easier. I set off doing interval lengths based on objects along the promenade we were running on. However after 15 mins of warmups, I decided to try out my new audiofuel interval track(review to follow). It was a brilliant session in the end. Heart rate tested and whilst only 3 or so miles were covered it was a great challenge.

Running in Spain was great, whilst I may seem to be complaining about the heat I don’t think it would take long to acclimatise out there. It was great to put on a vest and shades and run with the sea right next to me. I love running abroad as it’s totally different scenery and I find I see places I wouldn’t normally go. It’s not long till my next abroad session which I’m really looking forward too!

Keen to actually try this out and see how well it worked I went out for a gentle ‘recovery’ 4 mile loop during my lunch break. After the weekend race my legs were in no fit state to try the coaching sessions so I put it to free mode and started my Garmin. How would the two compare…

First run result shows a pretty massive discrepancy in my opinion, the Garmin which tends to be pretty damn accurate showed the route to be 4.14 miles whilst the Micoach fell short at 3.74 miles. Almost half a mile is quite a difference over such a short distance.

It also seemed way off with it’s pace calculations. I’m not sure how often that updates but it’s possible it’s doing some maths wrong somewhere!

However, it’s not all negative feedback. It seems the device stores the tracks you listen to (although I appear to have broken that by breaking out into iPod mode). It was set to give feedback every 10mins which was nice even if it seemed incorrect – I definitely wasn’t running at a 5min/mi pace like it suggested at one point!

Just some insight I am testing this on an old 3G so it maybe an unfair test ad perhaps it just not powerful enough to do all it needs to. The music did jerk occasionally suggesting the phone was being tested. I also used up a third of the phones battery life for a sub 40min run. I don’t think I’ll be running a marathon with this on my phone!

It would be interesting to know whether battery drain and distance calculations were ok for others using newer iPhones/Blackberrys. I’m aware that most people who use this don’t have access to a Garmin or gps so can’t easily compare however you could compare to a plot on gmap pedometer or similar!

I will give the device another go possibly with one of the audio coaching tracks selected. That said my phone is to heavy for my short pockets meaning I have to hold it which rules out the sweaty sprint stages

Please comment below if you have any experience or issues with the iPhone Micoach device.

I’m going to start this post with what would normally be a conclusion but I wanted to ensure you all got the point before getting bored and leaving! The Adidas Thunder Run 24 is a team relay lasting 24 hours with laps of 10km. This weekend was possibly one of the most enjoyable running experiences I have had since starting back in 2008. It’s not down to personal bests or any of the usual highs associated with running but instead it’s due to being able to join forces with a bunch of lovely people and have good fun. Sure, I may not have been as good as 75% of the team but by the end of the final lap it didn’t seem to matter. The run itself was incredibly well organised and perhaps because it was still a relatively small event the atmosphere was buzzing from 11am Saturday, when we arrived, until 3pm the following day when we said our goodbyes. The small group of spectators who lined the course, most likely fellow team mates or friends and families, cheered on everyone no matter what speed or size because after lap 2 or 3 it was impossible to know what lap they were on! Fat, thin, fast, slow, male, female it genuinely didn’t matter on this event, if you were prepared to stick at it you could be admired by the hundreds of people who were at the event. As the tag line of the event says ‘Impossible is nothing’.

Anyway now it’s time to go back to how I ended up getting involved in this event. About 2 weeks ago I got contacted by a Digital Agency working for Adidas asking if I’d like to be involved in an event and test out some of their kit. I said I’d do some research and also asked if I could invite some other runners. I got an affirmative to the later question so on top of asking my colleagues who were all busy I contacted my running partner Rich from the Serps who gave the answer ‘why not’. I confirmed and double checked we would be entering a FULL team of 8 and said to go for it. I know I can run 12 miles with my training how it is at the moment and in my calculations we would end up doing about 24 laps or 18miles tops…

Setting off bright and early on Saturday morning we made our way to Catton Park in Staffordshire. Rich and I had both looked on the website a little but as neither of us had considered training there was little point getting too worried about what we had signed up for. As we turned down the final road to the entrance of the park I clocked a running path that swung left into a forest up a pretty sharp hill. This was the moment I wondered whether it was such a good idea!

Other than a few emails a couple of days before the event I had no idea of who would be on our team. We had been put together through the agency based on being previous triallists or bloggers. For some unknown reason I had been nominated as captain and the agency chose to call us the Lock and Loaders. About 30 mins after Rich and I arrived most of the team was formed and after a brief introduction we started putting up our tents and pulling on our ‘test team’ kits.

I’m going to be fairly blunt here and say that at a normal running event or running club I don’t think any of our team mates would have talked to us. They were all much faster runners with very impressive PB’s to match. Rich and I have chatted before about the better/best runners all sticking together, which to be honest is perfectly acceptable – afterall they have no reason to run with us! But here we now were with a group of runners who win events or if they don’t they are close runners up. Not like mid-pack Rich and I! Within the first 20 minutes of meeting I made a rather big slip up in their eyes by saying “we are here to enjoy this, not to win it” – the looks that greeted this from some of the team were priceless and I suddenly realised that I was in company that ran to win.

After a shakey start we had constructed our initial list of runs. For some reason, I don’t no why, we wrote a plan based on 1hour laps. After the third runner had gone out we realised we were way off, sub 40,sub 40,sub 40 I think it was!? It was about now I realised how incredible the runners on my team were. Our expected 60mins per person was thrown out of the window and by 8pm we were back to the pad reorganising things, not before my first run though….

The run itself was unlike anything I have ever done before. For a start it wasnt on a road! Starting off on a nice little bit of green path it didn’t take long before a sharp right up and into the forest! Weaving through the trees on uneven surfaces and narrow trails – this was no PB territory. After 5 or so minutes of sharp turns and bends I exited the forest onto a wider trail and back past part of the campsite. From this point on I can remember bits and bobs and patch things together, a couple more inclines, one lasting a fair while some more between the tree running, one short but very sharp drop etc etc. About 46 mins from the start I found myself almost at the finish line with one more incline to go. My team mates, Laura and her firend Megan were there to cheer me on. From this point on it was down hill and time to hand over our “relay batton” to Atheer and away he went!

My first 10km was over and with only 2 more runners in our group left to run it wouldn’t be long before people started their second laps. It was now time for me to eat and refuel and get off my feet before I was scheduled to go out again about 6 hours later…

» Continue reading “The 2010 Adidas Thunder Run 24″

First of all before even using the tool I have to say well done Adidas – you got there first before Nike and Garmin and from the screenshots and initial load it looks good. Let’s hope it works well, if not you’ve still got a bit more time but I’m sure the competition will soon be on your heels!

Finally a well known brand releasing a GPS running application, offering voice coaching (which must relate to pace and unfortunately not Heart Rate like the pacer). The device is completely free and the user interface looks simple and neat.

At lunch I’m out for a run so will try the app out. I am also going to do some digging to see whether the two devices can be used together because at the moment it looks like I can either get pace based training with the iPhone or heart rate monitoring with the pacer and I want both!

Testing review to follow shortly, to get the iphone app click here or for the blackberry app here. If you have used the app already and have feedback please comment below!

This post is not one to review the unit, that will come in a few weeks time. Whilst I have had the device for at least a month now today’s treadmill run was the first time I really used it for it’s coaching powers.

miCoach offers real time audio coaching allowing sessions to be hooked into the device. The unit revolves around heartrate training (although I have read reviews to suggest pace based training will appear soon) and by specifying heart rate zones you can push your body accordingly. The sessions have audio to tell you to enter the zone and maintain that heart rate for a given duration.

Today I opted for the VO2 test, one that incorporates all zones. At it’s toughest the device wanted me to enter its ‘Red’ zone which is max heart rate for 2mins and at it’s easiest it was running at a pace just above walking. The session is designed to be tough and it sure was, my t-shirt resembled something straight from the washing machine and by the end of the red zone intervals I couldn’t have slowed the machine down any quicker!

I may have to play with the zones a bit though as I’m not sure it’s calibration is ideal – I suppose that’s fair enough considering I didn’t calibrate it! It was good fun though, reminded me of the Nike training tracks they did a while back which offered similar audio coaching.
» Continue reading “My first ‘proper’ miCoach run”

When the music you are listening to is rubbish! However, as i found on my run on Sunday, if this is the case having the ability to turn the volume down without fiddling with my iPod is a great addition to the new Sennheiser range of sports earphones.

Almost exclusively since starting running a few years back I have been using Sennheisers. This pair is my third neck band pair following an incident with my first and a tree and my second set, whilst still functioning, have seen better days after being thrown numerous times to the bottom of the gym bag and squashed. I have always found the neckband earphones comfy and simple to use so when I got this new pair I had no real hesitations to ditch my old orange pair for the new black/yellow combination. » Continue reading “It doesn’t matter how good the earphones are…”