Category: Gadgets

Playing it safe at 6am

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It’s 6:15am. I shouldn’t be awake at 6am, I’m a student, dammit. I shouldn’t be up until at least lunchtime Neighbours (If there is still such a thing as a lunchtime Neighbours. There was in the olden days when I was on the dole in Liverpool. I need to stop saying ‘in the olden days’ though as I said it twice yesterday at my first day back at university and I’m 42, not 92).

The reason I’m up at this unstudently hour is because I want to go for a run before going to university (I’m getting fed up of spelling university in full but Shaun tells me off if I call it uni although even my mum calls it uni and she’s hardly down with da kidz) for the first playwriting seminar of the year. I also want to go for a run early so I can try out my new Run Safe running light.

The Run Safe running light is a little light that attaches to your running shoe laces. It just clips on, so there’s no faffing about threading laces through holes.

run-safe-running-light

The light comes on automatically when it senses motion, so you don’t have to worry about turning it on or off.

run-safe-running-light-on

(Sorry about the blur but it turns itself off quickly and so it wasn’t easy to get a photo of my foot not moving.)

It’s a sensitive little soul though and will come on at the slightest movement, i.e. if it’s on a table and you walk past it. The box says it will flash for 520 miles but it’s going to be flashing in transit so I wouldn’t order it from America if I were you.

I was a bit worried about looking a bit of a dick with a red light flashing on my foot and I expressed my dick concerns to Twitter who reassured me that it’s ok to look like a dick if it’s in the interest of health and safety. 

By the time I left the house, the sun had come up but I took my red flashing light for a run anyway. There’s not much to say about the Run Safe light really – you can see what the benefits are. It’s light (10g), easy to fit to your shoe, and turns itself on and off automatically. The only downside is that I could hear it clacking against my shoe when a quiet bit of music came on, so if you don’t listen to music when you run, that might be annoying (or I might not have fixed it firmly enough to my lace. Also, I have super-sensitive hearing).

A three mile run was on the schedule for today and I’d plotted out a roads-with-pavements-only route and dodged children walking to school (they start early, don’t they? I was pleased to see them walking though and not being driven. Loads of kids round here get driven to school. In my day I had to walk all the way from Essex to London to go to school (yeah, ok, so it was only about a quarter a of mile but that’s not the point)) and dog walkers.

I got back to the house at 2.87 miles and decided to carry on and do the final .13 miles and anyway, Liiines by Ghostpoet had just come on my iPod and I wanted to listen to that.

When I got back I was a teensy bit pleased to see that – although I had walked a bit – I’d done my three miles in 11.01 minute miles which is my old slow-average. Now I need to get back to my old not-so-slow-average which doesn’t mean that’s a fast-average but just a not-so-slow-as-really-slow-average.

Yale Keyless Digital Lock – makes opening your front door fun

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I left my key indoors and shut the door behind me. After cycling to the farm shop and back (loads of veg and a Hershey Bar for under a fiver – bargain), I quickly and easily got back into the house. How, when Shaun wasn’t in, the cat can’t reach that high and I didn’t leave any windows or doors open?

It’s because I’ve got one of these.

yale-keyless-digital-lock

This is the Yale Keyless Digital Lock which is great for runners, as you don’t have to take your front door key out with you. What I like most about it though is that it makes opening your front door fun. When was the last time you opened your front door and thought ‘oh, that was fun, I must do it again’? I never used to be arsed which of us opened the front door but now – although I’m sure the novelty will wear off soon – I’m yelling ‘LET ME DO IT’ when we come back from somewhere.

There’ll be no more scrambling drunkenly in my bag for my key after a night out. And, if I’m so drunk that I can’t remember the PIN, I can have it texted to me (although, let’s be honest here – I’m far more likely to bang on the door and get Shaun out of bed to let me in).

It also lets you set up a temporary PIN for visitors and both PINs can be changed at any time and if you’re worried about people seeing you key your number, you can use any other two digits before and after your PIN to trick them.

I’ll let Shaun blog about installing it but it doesn’t require you to be an electrician, you just drill a hole in your door and fit it. The lock runs off four AA batteries that will last for 10,000 door openings (it gives you three months’ warning that they’re going to run out).

The Yale Keyless Digital Lock starts from £119.99 (including VAT) and is available from your local DIY or hardware store. Call 01902 364647 for stockists or visit www.yaledigital.co.uk to buy online.

Not just another running app. VIA app – sat nav for runners

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Capture

Nooooooooooooooooo, I thought, when I got the email. No, I flipping well don’t want to try yet another running app. Then I read the email properly and thought, well, this is something new – a sat-nav for runners. The best bit though is that it works with iTunes and the audio will work around your music playlist.

The VIA app is the world’s first sat-nav for runners/cyclists. It’s map-based with step-by-step real-time audio directions to talk you through your route. Although it’s a very simple app, it took me a while to work out how to plot a route but I managed to do it eventually by telling it where I wanted it to start and then telling it where I wanted to finish – in my case, exactly the same place where I had started.

Then came the tricky bit. Because it’s sat-nav and not a route planner, it wants to tell you how to get from A-B in the quickest way and so, despite there being pins you can drop in to make it go via a certain point on the map, you only get three pins to use, making it impossible (for me, at least) to get a decent amount of mileage in. I only wanted a four mile route but could only get it as far as about 3.5 miles before giving up trying to place the three allowed pins in strategic places.

I tried the VIA app for the first time on Tuesday and found it a whole heap of fun. The voiceover is a well-spoken older gentleman who I named Brian and imagined him sitting back and relaxing in the non-talky bits by listening to my music. I hope he liked it.

On Tuesday, unfortunately, Brian was having a blond day (in my head he has dark hair) and didn’t seem to know his left from right and I did at one point wonder if I had my phone upside down. This could be because I confused him as he kept saying ‘off-route – recalculating mileage’ and instead of turning round and going the other way, continued until he caught me up. I especially confused him when I went into a field instead of running down the road and after he’d said ‘off-route – recalculating mileage’ about ten times, I thought he was going to start getting angry and shout at me. But Brian remained a perfectly patient gentleman and didn’t shout at me.

At the end of my run when I got home by going the right way and ignoring his requests to turn left when I flipping well knew I had to turn right, a screen came up to show me how far I had ran, the time it had taken, the average speed and the calories burnt. It also gave me the option to be a saddo and share it on Twitter or Facebook. I then learnt that if you go away from this screen, you can’t get it back again as it doesn’t archive anything. Another feature I would have liked is for it to show me the map with the route I plotted before commencing the run, and the route I actually took.

So, on first impressions? Great fun but needs more features and it needs to learn its left from right.

To give it a fairer review (and because it was so much fun to use and having Brian in my ear made the run more interesting), I decided to plot out a route where I would only go on the road and not confuse Brian by going in a field and whichever way he told me to go, I would go and not rebel and go a different way (even though I knew I was going the right way and it was just that Brian didn’t know his left from right).

I switched the sat-nav on, walked to the gate and Brian piped up with ‘off-route’. Hang on Bri, I thought, I’M STILL IN THE FRONT GARDEN, GIVE ME A FLIPPING CHANCE! and I got out of the gate, crossed the road and ran down the road I told him I was going down. After a while I wondered if I had turned Brian off as he was being very quiet. He must have just been kicking back and listening to Calvin Harris

as, after a while he said in 200 yards (or was it metres? I can’t remember) I had to turn right, which was the right way – yay. Brian continued to tell me the right way for the next mile until I had to cross over the road. I’m sorry Brian, but I am not crossing across a big busy roundabout, I’m going to go to the lights to cross over. He didn’t like this and kept telling me I was going off route. Still, we got back on track and I happily ran down the road with Brian popping up now and again to tell me when to turn left or right. He did have a habit though of saying turn right NOW which would usually have had me either going into a) someone’s front garden; b) a ditch; or c) a brick wall.

There was a weird point when he told me to turn right down a road that didn’t exist until I saw it a few yards up on the left but which was a no-through-road, so I ignored him and carried on going and he seemed ok with that.  He navigated impressively through the new housing development until I got through to the other side and he wanted me to turn left when carrying straight on was the way I wanted to go but I thought maybe he knew a shortcut so I went the way he said but then he told me I’d gone off route and so I turned round and went back the way I knew I should have gone in the first place and then I got to the bit where on Tuesday I went along the path that runs parallel to the road but I thought, to be fair to Brian, I will stay on the road and just hoped that he appreciated that it was a road without a pavement and if I got run over it would be all his fault and then I got to the bit of the road where there’s a pavement on the other side and I thought PAVEMENT AHOY! but I was on a bend and couldn’t see if anything was coming and so I had to carry on dicing with death until I got to a straight bit and bombed across the road to get to the pavement and then I went past the primary school and the kids were out playing and I though aah, aren’t they sweet and although people think I hate kids, I’m only not keen on them in public places like supermarkets and restaurants but when they’re safely confined in a playground and huddled together wearing the same uniform I think they’re kind of cute, like puppies in a pet shop, and then I got to the end of the road and Brian said turn right and I’m glad he said that because that was the right way and then I was home and I remembered to take a screen shot of the run I had just done.

VIA-app-screenshot

So, second impressions? I flipping love it! Like I said before, it’s so much fun. If the developers can improve the number of pins you can use to plan your route (unlimited would be good) and have the facility to look back over previous runs and use the routes again, and let you see the route you took overlaid on the route you were supposed to take, it’d be perfect. As it is, unless I didn’t plot it properly, I can’t see how I could use it in marathon training if, for example, I wanted to plot out an 18-mile run. Also, I’m not sure how it would cope if I did plot a long run on it but wanted to also incorporate parks and cycle paths into it (which I will be doing).

But the developers have told me that it is still a work in progress and all the features I’d like to see are things they’ll hopefully be adding in the future.

The VIA app is available in the iTunes store for £1.99 – I’d buy it if I were you, what would you call yours?




Review: MSC Pocket Mobile Solar Charger

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Let’s get the good bit out of the way:

It looks nice. See?

solar_mobile_charger

Sorry, that’s it. This thing drove me crazy trying to work out how I’m supposed to use it. The instructions did not help.

mobile_charger_1

Can you understand that, ‘coz I bloody well couldn’t. I understood ‘please recharge the power pack fully via its cable when use it for the first time’ and that was about it. I plugged it into my pc with the supplied cable and all the blue buttons flashed and then went off and there seemed to be no way to tell when it was charged so we (I’d roped in Shaun to try and decipher the instructions) decided that it had come fully charged and so I had a go charging up my iPhone with it and yay, it worked. It worked flipping quickly, too. Impressively quickly, in fact (you can stick that in as no. 2 good thing above).

Then I tried to recharge it by sticking it in the sun. I tried following the instructions. Yes, I should have known better.

mobile_charger_2

Well, it’s been in the sun for about two days now, either outside or in the conservatory and it’s still saying it’s on low (as you can see in the photo, there are three buttons to say how much power it has in it). I looked at the specification sheet that came with it and it says it takes 8 hours by laptop or 28 hours via solar panel, under full sunlight conditions. WHERE THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND 28 HOURS FULL SUNLIGHT CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND IN AUGUST, HUH?

Well, it worked fine straight from the box, I’m just not sure how much use it would be if you actually needed it as an emergency charger, if you can’t actually get the damn thing charged to take out with you in case of emergency. I suppose you can charge it via pc or mains, but doesn’t that kind of take the point of solar charging away?

Maybe I’m doing it wrong, I don’t know. Anyone had any experience with these things?

The MSC Pocket Mobile Solar Charger is available for £19.99 from Mobile Solar Chargers

Review: Scosche Wireless Pulse Monitor

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scoshe

This thing was a right pain in the arse. I’d been sent it a couple of months ago, along with the Jabra Sport Wireless Headphones and while I’d figured out the headphones easily enough, this Scosche Wireless Pulse Monitor was like going back to the 90s in a ‘what the fuck is this thing supposed to do then?’ way; not intuitive at all.  But unlike in the 90s, when I was happy to sit all day playing with techie things and making them work, then breaking them, then making them work again,  now I just want things to work straight away with no faffing around.

What I hadn’t really gathered was, was that there wasn’t really anything to gather. The monitor (which you wear on your upper lower arm (don’t you love my grasp of anatomical terms?) works with the myTREK app (which you’ll be prompted for when you set up your first workout) via Bluetooth. You tell the app you want a new workout, name it, choose your activity (running, cycling, mountain biking, yoga, walking, aerobics, resting and other), then choose free training or a ‘zone’ to train in (resting, weight loss, fitness, performance or red line), then the type of training (free workout, free distance, time, workout and distance, distance [setting the distance] or calorie).

Setting up your profile on the app is simple enough. You tell it your gender, date of birth and weight and it sets your max heart rate for you using the dubious 220-your age calculation, setting mine at 178 (you’ll see later why this is bollocks).

After I was all set up, I gave it a test run in the house, just by walking around doing usual things like sitting on the sofa. My heart rate skipped along merrily between 55-70 bpm until I got up to get a beer from the fridge when it shot up to 191. Huh? I know I like a drink, but I didn’t think I found it that exciting.

I tested it again a couple of days later and I didn’t name the workout so don’t know what I was doing but whatever it was, it must have been good, as my heart rate hit a max of 231bpm and I burned 202 calories in 22 minutes. If I knew what that was, I’d do it again.

Looking at the calendar now, there are a couple more I haven’t named, so I’ll ignore these, but the next one looks like I’ve managed to set it up better and it says I walked for 35 minutes, burned 78 calories and had an average pulse of 69 bpm. Actually, I’ve just decided this is rubbish as it says that walk was 0.17 of a mile and it doesn’t take me 35 minutes to walk 0.17 of a mile.

A few days later I tested it again on the rowing machine in the conservatory. Determined this time not to fuck it up, I made sure I set it up correctly. It says I rowed for 30 minutes with an average pulse of 117 bpm (max 131), which sounds about right. The only thing that doesn’t sound right is the calorie count of 288 calories. The rowing machine display said I’d burnt 55. Hmm.

Shaun also tested it on the rowing machine (putting his details into the profile settings). His results were 18 minutes, 91 bpm average pulse (138 max) and 98 calories which, seeing as he puts in much more effort than me on the rowing machine (judging by his smelly-dog-that’s-just-been-in-a-river impression on his exit from the conservatory), is probably about right.

The one thing I thought this monitor would be useful for, for me, would be down the gym, to see how many calories I burn in spin and body pump classes. I haven’t been brave enough to go to a class yet with a monitor on my arm (no need for your phone to also be on your arm – the signal from the monitor travels up to 33 feet [although if you do want to wear it on your arm because you use your phone for music, you can control the music from the monitor strap, as well as get audio alerts while you workout]) but yesterday, I wore it down the gym and used it while I was on the machines to see what the results were and how they compared to the display on the machines.

I got on the rowing machine and kept my phone on the floor so I could see the display (your current heart rate is displayed in big white numbers so very easy to see). During my 20 minutes on the rowing machine, my heart rate kept at a steady 120bpm. This all changed when I’d finished on the rowing machine and got on the treadmill to do the Audiofuel Thru the Gears interval session. I love this interval session, the music is fab and really motivates me to push myself. This is now scientifically proven by the heart rate monitor reading which shows that my heart rate went up to 183 bpm then went back down as I cooled down and then went on the cross-trainer, where my heart rate stayed at a steady 160 bpm (obviously still raised after pushing myself on the treadmill).

After I’d finished in the gym, it said I’d burned 890 calories, which I reckon is way over, especially as the machines in the gym said I’d burned about 430. Unless the monitor takes into consideration the calories I’d be burning anyway, just by living, and it’s not just exercise calories burned?

So, I’ll be using it down the gym so I can make sure I’m making more effort on the rowing machine but I’m not sure of its accuracy. How accurate can it be with the dubious 220-your age calculation? Especially as I went over my ‘max’ heart rate more than once? For serious heart rate training, I’d say it was useless, unless you know about the zones and which zones you need to be training in. I’m not sure you can set these yourself though so maybe even if you do know about zones, it’s still useless.

Another thing I’m not impressed with is that I thought there must be more to it than that for the RRP of £139? Some pretty maps and charts and graphs and stuff? But no. It’s £139 just to tell you your current heart rate and there are a lot of watches around that will tell you that for a lot less money.

I’m going to give it a spin at my spin class tomorrow, and I’ll let you know the results.

Jabra Sport Wireless Headphones

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I’m always happy to try out a sports gadget. Trouble is, this involves having to go out for a run, unless I test the gadget by running round the garden, but it’s February, not January, so that was out.

The Jabra Sport Wireless Headphones allow you to listen to music, take calls during workouts and comes with a free download of Endomondo Sports Tracker that has features designed specifically for these headphones, including the ability to get status updates on speed, distance and lap time by tapping the headset. When you finish your workout, it automatically uploads your data to the website, so you can see all those pretty stats and charts and maps.

jabra

Set up is easy. I charged the headphones, connected them to my iPhone via Bluetooth, tested them for music, then asked Shaun to phone me so I could test if calls came through but he took so long finding my number in his phone that it would have been quicker for him to write me a letter and post it, and then he said he had no signal anyway. But as no one phones me and even if they did, I wouldn’t answer it, I’m not fussed about the answering the phone option, let’s just assume it works.

This morning I had a look at the Endomondo app and was pleased to see that it has a countdown timer on it, so it doesn’t think you’re out running when actually you’re still standing in your front garden trying to get your phone into the armband and then the armband on your arm. I set the countdown timer for 15 seconds and a robot woman came through the headphones at 10 seconds, then again at 5 seconds, and then seemed to count down quickly to zero. I was still fussing about with my phone and the armband (supplied with the headphones and which must have been designed for Geoff Capes) when she got to zero and so Endomondo started without me but then realised I hadn’t gone anywhere and told me it had gone onto auto-pause.

To my un-audiophile ears, the sound quality was good. I would prefer in-ear headphones though to block out the sound of the traffic and the sound of my soles slapping cement.

I ran for a while and after a mile, the music faded out and the robot woman told me I’d run a mile and how long it had taken me (how she managed that without laughing, I don’t know), then the music faded back in and then The Polyphonic Spree came on and I wanted it LOUDER and so I stopped and went to use the controls on the earpiece for the first time and I pressed what I thought was the go louder button (which if held down is also a skip forward button) but it wasn’t the go louder button, it was the FM radio button and The Polyphonic Spree disappeared and I stood there pressing buttons on my ears and couldn’t get the music back, all I got was the robot woman telling me how far I’d gone and how long it had taken and how many calories I’d burnt and I still had half a mile to go and I didn’t want to do it without any music and I couldn’t be bothered to take my phone out of my armband and try and get the music back and so I walked down the hill but decided that was really lame and ran the last hundred yards.

I like the headphones. They’re comfy, don’t move about and sound quality is good. I just wish my iPod Shuffle had Bluetooth and I could use that instead as I don’t use my phone for music and even if I did, I wouldn’t want to run with it on my arm. Maybe I’ll use them down the gym, it’ll stop me getting my headphone wires caught up in the rowing machine seat.

Stats (Garmin)
Distance: 1.52 miles
Time: not very quick
Pace: not very fast
Calories: 145
Endomondo (bearing in mind it started without me)
Distance: 1.5 miles
Time: about 45 seconds longer than the Garmin
Pace: about 45 seconds slower m/m than the Garmin
Calories: 151
Music
Mansun
Sleeper
Morrissey
About ten seconds of The Polyphonic Spree before I fucked it up

The Colour of Autumn

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Although it doesn’t take much for me to reach for the central heating controls, I don’t usually reach for the long running tights, long sleeve tops and gloves until it’s proper cold. Like minus-something cold. But, if it had been minus-something cold today and I wanted to wear some gloves, I would have worn these eGlove Running Gloves.

These gloves aren’t just gloves, they’re gadgety gloves. And they’re not just gadgety gloves, they’re gadgety gloves for a gadget.

They’ve got stuff (yes, that’s a technical term) on the fingers so you can use your iPod or iPhone or iPad or iTouch (or any touch screen device) while you’re out on a run or out cycling without taking your gloves off (although, why you’d take an iPad out with you on a run, I don’t know).

I’ve tried them indoors on my touch-screen Shuffle and they work brilliantly.

Like I said, I didn’t wear my eGloves today but I did go out for a run. I don’t know if I don’t go past many trees on the way into town, or maybe they’re the wrong type of trees, but my running route today was mostly on a carpet of gold and amber and I’d forgotten that the only bearable thing about the end of summer is the colour of autumn.

Stats
Distance: 1.67 miles
Time: 17:39
Pace: 10:33
Calories: 176
Pairs of super-cool gadgety gloves for a gadget: 1
Bearable things about the end of summer: 1

Cram Alert Sport ID Giveaway

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The review

I run with no ID on me. None at all. All I have on me (apart from my clothes of course) is my iPod, my Garmin and my house keys. I suppose the emergency services could find out my identification by plugging my Garmin into a computer and seeing on Google Earth where I started my run and knocking on the doors of the houses in the vicinity to see if any of them had lost a female runner, or taking the Tesco Clubcard key-fob to Tesco to ask them who it belongs to, but that still doesn’t give them access to the phone number of someone to phone in an emergency.

Cram Alert Sport ID is a wristband carrying contact information and finder instructions (they also do travel tags, key fobs and mobile property ID) that you register on the website, so if you do have an accident while out running, cycling, walking, etc. as soon as you are found your next of kin will be informed and the emergency services made aware of any necessary medical information that would assist in caring for you.

cram_alert_wristband

I decided to register my wristband this morning before going out for a run. I would have registered my travel tag, key fob and mobile property ID too, but didn’t realise at first that they all have different ID numbers on them (it explains why on the FAQ page) and so couldn’t be bothered to do all of them then, but you can go back and add other devices later.

It took me a long time to find out where to register on the website. Eventually, I found a link under the ‘Cram Alert In Action’ menu, which told me to go to the log-in page. I would have liked a nice big ‘register here’ sign on the home page.

Registering your devices is straightforward. You enter the ID number and then add your family members who you’d like to be contacted in an emergency. They give a helpful list of definitions of ‘family’.

1) Husband, wife and children.

2) All blood relations.

3) All who live in the same household including servants and relatives, with some person or persons directing this economic and social unit.

4) Civil partnerships.

5) Common law relationships.

6) Stepchildren and foster children.

So, that means that Shaun is lower than a servant. Excellent.

The rest of the registration process is simple (well, it is if, like me, you have no allergies or special medical needs the emergency services need to be aware of and all you need to do is give them the phone number of your servant boyfriend).

While I don’t really need anything else on my wrists while I’m out running, it’s a good-looking band and is comfortably rubbery. It was a bit of a struggle getting it on the first time, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. The wristband is adjustable and once you know how long you need it to be, you can cut the overlap off with a pair of scissors (if this really is beyond you, you can see step-by-step photographs, or even watch a youtube video of how to do this on their FAQ page).

Without being run over by a tractor, I can’t say whether the Cram Alert works or not and my dedication in the name of research doesn’t really stretch that far. Plus, if I did get run over by a tractor, the emergency services wouldn’t be much help; a man with a big shovel to scrape me off the road would be of more use.

The Cram Alert wristband costs £9.97 and if you buy any other items, they will be discounted by 40%. The first year’s family registration is free, thereafter a £15 per annum administration fee applies.

Unless you have a long list of medical requirements and/or want to register a number of family members, I can’t really see that this has many benefits over a cheaper ID band with no yearly registration fee.

The giveaway

I’ve got 5 Cram Alert packs (worth £15.95 each) to give away. Each pack contains 2 devices:  1 x Cram Alert wristband and 1 x either a travel tag, key fob or mobile property ID. Also included is a year’s free registration.

cramalert 004

 

I mentioned on Twitter that I was going to try out the Cram Alert wristband and runningokintheuk asked if it had superpowers. I said not unless the number goes through to Superman’s hotline and he comes to rescue me, which gave me the inspiration for today’s giveaway.

For a chance to win one of 5 packs of Cram Alert ID, leave a comment here letting me know which superhero you’d like to come and rescue you (it doesn’t have to be a superhero: if you want The Hoff to come and rescue you in Kit, that’s fine with me. Or maybe Daisy Duke is more your thing. Maybe I should stop showing my age).

Terms and conditions
Closing date midnight Friday 12 August
5 winners will be chosen by an internet random number picker
UK entries only
Superhero not included

Take that, Cedric!

3 comments

That was Travelling Hopefully’s reaction when I said on Twitter that I’d beaten the stick man (not the rather diminutive chap that I live with but the virtual partner on my Garmin, who I call Cedric [Travelling Hopefully is also trying to think of a name for her’s and has a naming competition on her blog that you can enter and win some sweets]).

I had a bit of a dilemma this weekend. Last year I took part in the 35 mile Great Kent Bike Ride and had hoped to do it again this year. Doing it again this year had indeed been the plan for months and months, although there was a local 10k on the same day that I fancied doing. Then I saw that there was the Big Wheel of Kent on the day before, and so I thought ‘aha, I can do the the Big Wheel of Kent on the Saturday and the 10k on the Sunday. Sorted.

Then I looked at the route and map for the Big Wheel of Kent and the map didn’t actually say where I’d be going and the route looked all twisty and turny and confusing and so I emailed the organisers to ask if there would be arrows along the way. They said no. Bah. Another off-putting thing about the Big Wheel of Kent ride was that it was one way, so after cycling 19 miles from Ashford to Canterbury, I’d have to get the train back. The decision was made for me, however, when I checked the weather forecast for the weekend and it said that it would be raining all weekend. I don’t have a problem at all about running a race in the rain but I’m not cycling in the rain for hours and so I decided to ditch both bike rides and do the 10k on the Sunday and do a 20 mile bike ride on my own on the Saturday after I’d ran.

Because I was doing a 10k on the Sunday, I was going to stick to my schedule that said today I was to do 5 miles but I decided that would be overdoing it a bit and so this morning I thought I’d wake up Cedric and get him to pace me over two miles at 10 minute miles. Then I decided that was too quick and so I set him up for two miles at 10:30 minute miles and yay, I beat him!

Stats
Distance: 2 miles
Time: 21:02
Pace: 10:23 m/m
Calories: 213
Stick men beaten: 1

Update for cycling stats:
Distance: 20.56 miles
Time: 2:19:42
Speed: 8.8mph
Calories: 601
Hills: quite a few
Pubs went past: about 3

iPhone App: Runners’ Injuries

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runners_injuriesThis app has a load of high-definition videos featuring two of Washington, D.C.’s top physical therapists showing how to prevent and treat common runners’ injuries.

The videos are broken down into categories of:

Getting Started
Ankle Sprains
Achilles Tendonitis
Iliotibial Band Syndrome
Low Back Pain
Runner’s Knee
Plantar Fasciitis
Shin Splints

Within these categories are videos showing stretching and strengthening exercises and includes separate tabs for cause, prevention and treatment, making navigation quick and convenient.

Designed for the iPhone and the iPad, this app is available from the iTunes Store for $4.99.

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