Category: Audio Fuel

Audiofuel Pyramid 180 Max Interval Training

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pyramid180 At the post-Juneathon Party in the Park, Sean from Audiofuel handed out CDs of their latest interval training tracks and after last week’s interval session with celebrity trainer Nicki Waterman (blog to come later), I promised myself that I would incorporate intervals into my ‘training’. So, when I got up this morning and spotted the CD sitting on my desk, I said to myself, ok then, intervals it is.

Unfortunately, updating tunes on my ipod these days – since Windows 7 doesn’t work with the old Shuffles – is a complete flipping faff and involves me putting tracks onto my main PC (which has  Windows 7), then onto a memory stick, then loading them onto my netbook (which has XP) into iTunes, then plugging my ipod into my netbook and updating from there.

I was a bit hesitant to do intervals this morning from a coaching session, as the only one I’ve done before is the Kara Goucher Endurance Boost , which involves running fast for four minutes a few times with three minutes recovery in between. Or something like that. And I can’t even run slowly, let alone quickly, for four minutes without wanting to return to my more natural environment in front of my pc where I don’t have to do anything more energetic than use my index finger to gently press the left mouse button to switch between Outlook, Facebook and Twitter.

Still, I eventually do the necessary to get the tracks from CD to ipod and get outside and press play. There’s a 48 second introduction where Sean (who has a very nice voice and does the voiceover for the Audiofuel pyramid coaching sessions) tells us this session will keep our heart fit and improve our aerobic fitness and will also burn fat and make us look good, which I like the sound of and could probably do with, especially after yesterday’s dinner which comprised of potatoes being cooked in double cream and cheese.

To start us off slowly, there’s a warm up of five minutes at 155bpm and then we’re counting down from 5 to the first sprint at 172bpm. Yes, Sean says ‘sprint’ and I’m scared. I don’t think I’ve sprinted since school and I’m in complete agreement with Miranda who says ‘As an adult you should only run if you’re near a train station and look at your watch first’. Quite.

But, wait! Sean says we’ve only got to sprint for 30 seconds! Woo hoo! I can run for a few seconds, can’t I? Of course I can. Even if it’s only as punishment for using an exclamation mark at the end of three consecutive sentences.

I sprint for 30 seconds and don’t die. Result. Then there’s a recovery of 60 seconds and Sean says to ease off and run at your own pace or walk if I want to. WALK IF I WANT TO? I love Sean. He says I can walk. Yay for Sean. But I am hardcore and don’t walk. I do my recovery ‘run’ of 60 seconds and Sean says to take lots of breath and get ready for the next sprint. ‘Breath’? Just the one? What does that mean? I can’t hold my breath for the rest of the session, I WILL DIE!

The next sprint comes up and this time I’m doing 45 seconds at 175bpm and then once again there’s a recovery of 60 seconds and then it’s a 60 second sprint at 178bpm and I get told I’m nearly at the top of the pyramid and I think oh no, I won’t be able to sprint the last bit as I’m at the bit of the route where I have to tread on fallen down fences and climb over discarded shopping trolleys and then I’ll be on the grassy bit which is hard to run over as it’s all lumpy and bumpy and so when I get told to brace myself for the top which will be 75 seconds at 180bpm I run as fast as I can over the grassy bit which isn’t really very fast at all, more of a tiptoe over the bumpy bits really, and then I get to the slopey bit that leads up to the housing estate which I usually walk up due to it being a bit slopey but because I’m on an interval session and supposed to be pushing myself, I run up the slopey bit and then I’m told ‘that’s the top of the pyramid sorted – just down the other side now’ and then Sean says ‘take lots of breath – more than you think you need’ and I still think I need more than one breath, unless it’s my dying one and then I’ll probably only need one but I’m not dying and after the 60 second recovery Sean says I’m doing 1 minute at 178bpm and I think HANG ON A MINUTE, I ONLY HAD TO RUN SECONDS BEFORE, NOT MINUTES, THAT’S NOT FAIR and then I realise that one minute is 60 seconds. Duh.

And then there’s two intervals to go; the penultimate one being 45 seconds at 175bpm and I’m told to take shorter strides if I need to and I think if I shuffled with strides any shorter, I’d trip myself up and then I’m on the final 60 second recovery and told that the final 30 seconds will be a sprint at a cruisey 172bpm. Cruisey? What kind of word is that? That’s almost as bad as ‘take lots of breath’, and I would offer my services up as the voiceover and therefore use proper words and maybe even squeeze an ‘innit’ in it but no one would buy anything with my less-than-dulcet Essex/East London tones and then I’m told to steel myself to go in 20 seconds and then I’m running the final interval and then there’s a five minute cool down and Sean says I can walk it if I want to and so I take him up on his kind offer and then he says ‘if you got through this interval session sprinting the whole way, you’ve had a great workout. If you haven’t, you’ve got something to aim for next time’.

Um, I didn’t do any walking, so that means I ran it, doesn’t it?

I get home and feel great and upload my stats and SportTracks says I did my first mile in 8.59 and I think WOO HOO, WAY TO GO ME as I usually do 11 minute miles and so of course, being the modest unattention-seeking person I am immediately tell everyone on Facebook and Twitter about my 8.59 minute mile, being careful to omit the fact that the second and third miles weren’t maybe quite as quick (the third mile not actually being part of the interval session – the session lasts for 22 minutes [which is probably how long it’s taken you to read up to here, sorry] – and so being mostly walking back to the house).

Running fast for seconds at a time. What a brilliant idea. Everyone can run for a few seconds, can’t they?

Audiofuel’s Pyramid 180 Max Interval Training is released today, costs just five of your English pounds and you can buy it from the Audiofuel shop.

On the 12th day of Juneathon, I ran to the new Juneathon 2010 Audiofuel mix

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Junathon2010Mix That nice Sean man from Audiofuel (I would call him that nice young Sean man but I have since found out he’s older than me) has made us lucky Juneathoners a new mid-Juneathon 2010 mix for us all. Yay.

You can download it for free here.

I took it out for a test run and very good it is too. I even had a laugh out loud in the street moment when, at 18 minutes into it, Sean says ‘well done on the run and don’t forget to blog about it when you get home’.

Um, I didn’t forget to blog, I just didn’t blog.

Until now.

Oops.

Sorry.

Juneathon runner’s up prize announced

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You may or may not know that I’m a huge fan of Audiofuel Running Music. I don’t know what magical properties they put in their tracks but they really work when I need a bit of a boost, whether I’m out running or in the gym.

You need Audiofuel.

And because you need Audiofuel, I asked that nice young man Sean (not to be confused with Shaun) if he could donate a track or two to the runner up of Juneathon. And because he is so nice, he said the runner up can choose four compilations from their music store.

This does not mean you can all slack off in the hope that you don’t get the first prize and you get the runner’s up prize instead. The Independent Adjudicator will be watching.

Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses

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That nice Laura chick from Marketing Zone (aka Jim’ll) sent me some new Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses to try. I think she sent them to me when it was snowing, so it took a while to try them out. In the meantime, I just looked at them occasionally, admiring their stylishness.

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They came in a hard case and with two extra interchangeable coloured lenses (ok, pedants, one is clear and not a colour. Well spotted). I said to Little Crutchey Man ‘is this so you can swap them round to suit the colour of your outfit?’ and he said no and started going into one of his long rambling too-full-of-technical-details lectures and so I emailed the nice Laura chick and said ‘hello, what are the different lenses for?’ and she said ‘Glad you asked. As it happens, brown is a polarized lens that’s great for very bright days and will give you clear contrasts. The orange is for not-so-sunny days  –  or if you’re out as the sun is setting or coming up. They’re easy-peasy to switch – so whatever the conditions you’ll have some Polaroids that are right.’

So there you go. (Probably best not to wear the orange ones with a green top though, eh?)

Because there’d been no sun, I hadn’t been able to try out my nice new sunglasses. And also, because I look really stupid in sunglasses (doesn’t everybody?), I’ve been too scared to try them out for fear of people pointing and laughing at me more than they do usually.

But today I had no choice. I was going running and it was sunny. So on they went and I went outside. The lenses are nice and dark and made my arms look nice and tanned, instead of the pasty pink they’ve turned over the last couple of days.

I set off for my scheduled two miles and the sunglasses stayed on perfectly and didn’t move at all. I felt quite cocooned in them, as if I was invisible and I wondered if I could wear them at races and eye up the fit blokes before the race started without them noticing. It’d have to be at the start of the race as there’s no fit blokes at the back, where I usually hang out at races. Yes, ‘hang out’ is the new ‘being really slow’.

Anyway, I think the sunglasses must have had extra magical properties too, as I even contemplated going further than my scheduled two miles. Or it might have been the scientifically proved magical properties of Audiofuel Running Music giving me a boost.

And speaking of those wonderful people at Audiofuel, they’re going to let the runner up of Juneathon choose four compilations from their website.

(That doesn’t mean you can all slack so you don’t win the VFFs, even if the Audiofuel tracks are a better prize.)

Audio Fuel – Easy Beats

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A man named Sean (not to be confused with Shaun) took pity on me yesterday and emailed me and said as you’ve lost your phone, wallet and forty English pounds, would you like some free running music from Audio Fuel?  And I said no, not really, what do I want any freebies for? but you’ve probably already guessed that is a complete lie as what I really said was ooh, what a gentleman, yes please, I would indeed like some free running music and so the man named Sean (not to be confused with Shaun) sent me five compilations of free running music and I extract the files and with each compilation is a 22 page pdf giving advice on exercise, music, injury prevention, running kit and good nutrition and I especially like the running kit bit as that means clothes and I also especially like the good nutrition bit as that means eating and the compilations are a piece of you know what to install onto iTunes and the compilations I’ve been given range from Easy Beats for a slower run to Full Tilt for (to quote the man named Sean (not to be confused with Shaun)) when a rabid dog is chasing you when you are desperate to use the loo, and your house is on fire.

Unsurprisingly, as I’ve been such a weed lately, I decide to test out the Easy Beats compilation which starts off with a 10 minute track at 125bpm and continues with five more tracks at 140bpm and 145bpm and that’s the last thing I’m going to say about bpm as I haven’t a clue what I’m talking about.

I get outside and switch on my iPod.  How am I supposed to run to this?  I’m never going to keep up and it’s going too fast and I don’t understand this dancey kind of music as it’s all jumbled up and I’m an indie/rock chick but it’s kind of uplifting and I don’t hate it and so I carry on and the first track ends after 10 minutes and I look at my Garmin and I’ve done almost a mile and I think wow, that’s faster than I’ve done for a long long time and the next song comes on and I think I recognise this but then they’re singing in French or something and I think hmm, maybe I don’t recognise it after all but I like it and I get past the tree and there’s an old couple on bicycles coming down the road and the old lady is in front of the old man by quite a way and I think yay, you go old lady, beat the old man and I get to a mile and a half and I stop and turn round to come back the way I came and I’m quite enjoying the music even if I can’t keep to the beat and I go past the tree and there’s another old man on a bicycle and I think it must be National Old People On Bikes Day today or something and he’s got a very red face and I think it’s the sheep killer from the other day and maybe he’s got a red face as he’s embarrassed to be a sheep killer and then I’m back out on the main road and there’s a cyclist coming down the pavement and I think OI, CYCLIST, GET OFF THE PAVEMENT and he pulls in and lets me go past and I feel bad and I should stop thinking all cyclists are like London cyclists, i.e. ignorant, selfish twats and I get home and I’ve done three miles in my quickest time for ages and ages and ages and I think the free running music compilation worked.  Yay.

Stats:
Distance: 3.1 miles
Time: 32:51
Pace: 10:34 m/m
Calories: 310
Men called Sean not to be confused with Shaun: 1
Free running music compilations: 5
Old people on bicycles: 3
Cyclists on pavements: 1
Music:
Audio Fuel’s Easy Beats compilation

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