…not just longer.
As the astute reader will note, I’ve been participating in C25K. Today I started Week 8. I was originally planning on doing that on Tuesday this week, but last week I signed up for a session at “The Gym” with a personal trainer, and I wanted to be able to focus on that yesterday, an drecovering from a run would not have helped.
So I did what I could of the run today. Since I had been at the gym yesterday, and worked fairly rigourously on a full body workout, I’m actually recovering from that a bit today as well. Not so happy about that.
The work out started well enough. Other than whatever is going on with my phone. I think I will need to discard a feature that I installed a couple of weeks back. First I listen to the podrunner intervals podcast with the phone, and that seems to work out OK. I also added the Buddy Runner app to the phone a while back, in the hopes that I would be able to use that to keep track of my running progress. So far so good. Somewhere along the line I also added a ‘shake’ app manager. The idea is neat, want to switch to a different app that’s running? No problem, shake the phone. Well, there is a bit of a problem. Shaking the phone is almost a given when running.
So I started the podcast. got the buddy runner app launched, and ready for me to hit the ‘start’ button as I’m doing my warm up walk. I get to the end of the 5 min walk, reach over to hit the ‘start’ button, and… that’s not the buddy runner app. Ok, rip the phone off the upper arm. Close a bunch of apps that I had not intentionally opened, and finally There! I can start buddy runner. All the while I’m trying to both manage the phone and run. Not a good combination.
I headed south on the lake today, and one of the things that Buddy Runner does is gives you status updates for where you are on the run. I got a half mile update, followed by a 1 mile update. I go along to where I planned on doing my turn around, and start comming back, and realize that I should have gotten another update. OK, pull off the phone, App close, app close, app close, … Ah, buddy runner isn’t tracking any more. Wonderful.
I don’t think I got a full 2 miles into the run before I switched to walking. I am not sure if the reason that buddy runner stopped tracking was because I had gone 1 mile, or if there was something else happening. We’ll see now that I’ve removed the shake based task manager.
While I think that part of my early drop was due to the recovery from the workout at the gym yesterday, I do note that while running, and in the walk before and after, I actually felt a bit more fit. I’ve got sore arms, legs, and so on, but they are mostly good sore, rather than incredibly painful sore. We’ll see how the run goes on Friday after I’ve had a full day of recovery.
Good to hear someone other than me using apps for working out! Personally, I think Buddy Runner isn’t as good as its competitors, and I’ve been personally been using CardioTrainer because it just seems a lot better…what with voice command and a race against yourself mod. You can check it out here if your interested or ever tired of BR http://www.worksmartlabs.com/cardiotrainer/about.php
Comment by Samanth — June 12, 2009 @ 3:11 pm
Actually, my plan from here on out is a lot closer to what I started with when I started the C25K Program. Specifically as little or no added gadgets beyond a watch. The real problem with using my cell phone as a method of tracking myself was not in the concern over how well BR, or any other app would work, it’s that I’m carrying my cell phone. The last thing I want to have to deal with while running is someone calling me in the middle of my run.
The first couple of times I heard BR give status updates at half mile points, I was certain that I had just received a phone call. That took my mind off running, which is not a good thing to do when running.
I’ll be posting a blog yet tonight on my current project. I won’t be doing a lot of tracking of my position during the run, because at some level I have already mapped out my course. The effort now is to run the entire course, and get the run time under 30 min. Preferably around 25, though that might be pressing it for a week from this comming Saturday.
Comment by Rusty — June 15, 2009 @ 10:24 pm