Tag: Audiofuel

Juneathon Day 8 – A New Week In Which To Redeem Myself

One comment

Sennheiser Thru the Gears

The first week of Juneathon is over and now begins a whole new fresh week – a week in which I can hopefully redeem myself after the slackathon that began the first week.

I had planned to run today but when I got up, my legs were still aching from last week’s run (although I don’t think they can still be aching from last week’s run; it must be from something else. What that something else is though, I haven’t a clue. Maybe lack of crisps or something.) so I decided to go to the gym and go on the rowing machine which usually sorts any DOMS out.

But because I had planned to run though, and because I am supposed to be marathon training training – especially as marathon training singular starts next week, eek – I thought I’d do some intervals on the treadmill when I got to the gym. Intervals are an integral part of training, after all.

So, I did 30 minutes on the rowing machine, then as I was scrolling through my Audiofuel playlist looking for the Pyramid Max 180 interval session, I saw the Sennheiser Thru The Gears track which is my absolute favourite Audiofuel track as it gives you such a fantastic workout on the treadmill, so I gave that a blast, then I went on the cross-trainer for 20 minutes.

Not a bad workout for a Monday, eh?

Well done everyone on your efforts throughout the first week of Juneathon – I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves. Personally, it’s given me the boost I needed to motivate me to get back into exercising as I’ve been a bit slack over the last few weeks. Hopefully it’ll give me a good base for the beginning of my marathon training too.

Oh, and I promise to run tomorrow. Punky promise. (That’s pinky promise as autocorrected by my phone.)

Stats

Rowing machine: 30 minutes
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Juneathon’s completed: 6/30

Janathon Winners Announced!

One comment


Janathon winner

Well done to everyone who won a prize and thank you for taking part in Janathon (and a special thank you to those of you who have done what must seem like flipping billions of them but keep coming back for more).

Those of you who won – you’re under absolutely no obligation to do this but if you did want to share the above image and blog/tweet your thanks to the companies who donated the prizes, that would be nice. Just saying, like.

Anyway, as you were. Here are the winners.

Audiofuel running tracks

Tim Hodson

Beer from Country Life Brewery

Lena Conlin

2 bottles of Beet-It shots

Anke

Handmade bracelet by Corinna Korrubel

Tim Hodson

Online detox class from Mission Lean & Clean 

Carla Greer

21 day detox recipe book from Mission Lean & Clean

Lucy Jiwa

Case of drinks from Everything But The Cow

Stuart Walker

Box of Ener:Gels

Julian James
Angela White
Ruth Rouse
Helena Romanowska
Stuart Walker
Keith Jenkins

A pair of Firefly knee straps

Catherine Henderson

A box of Fuelify nutritious snacks

Freya Rodger

Helly Hansen top and tights

Dave Thomas

Fat Burn Revolution book by Julia Buckley

Ruth Rouse

A pair of shoes from New Balance

Laura Dryden

Thanks again for taking part and thanks to all the generous brands and companies and people for their donations.

 

 

 

 

Powered by Puma

2 comments

Yesterday the delivery man brought me some new shoes.

puma-faas-500-v2

They’re Puma Faas 500 v2 and the other pair of Puma I’ve got are bright pink, so I was pleased with these ones not being pink and making me look like I’m training for a Race for Life, but I’m now worried, what with the turquoise bit, people will mistake me for David Icke. Or maybe a Native American. But, most likely, people will just think ‘ooh, nice shoes’.

These shoes are comfy. One thing I like most about them is the wide toebox; a lot of shoes are too narrow for me and give me blisters even on the shortest of runs. I was impressed with these and as my current shoes are just about ready to be recycled, I reckon these will be taking their place.

Another thing that powered me through my run today was the Audiofuel Juneathon 2010 mix. It’s a fantastic 25 minute mix that Sean at Audiofuel made for the 2010 Juneathon participants and you can download it for free here.

Janathon Day 8: The first week of jogging, slogging and blogging is over!

4 comments

I set my alarm for 7. I woke up at 8:30. Damn, there was my plan of getting up early and getting out for a run by 8 scuppered. And it meant I’d lost 90 minutes of my day but then I thought, if I spend 90 minutes fewer on Facebook and Twitter, that means I’ve clawed back those 90 minutes, hooray!

I decided running could wait until tomorrow though, when I WILL get up at 7am and go for a run and this morning I went to the gym instead.

My gym isn’t very far away and my running-to-the-gym PB is currently 2:42 and today I thought I’d try and beat my PB and, wahoo, I SMASHED IT, I AM BADASS, I NAILED IT, I TOTALLY OWNED IT, I BLEW IT OUT OF THE PARK*, etc. with a new running-to-the-gym PB of 2:36.

Then I did some gym stuff like go on the rowing machine and cross-trainer and, to finish off, I did 20 minutes of the Audiofuel turbo trainer track (that I reviewed here) instead of the treadmill as I’m just a crazy, reckless, carefree, spontaneous kind of girl who likes to mix it up, as The Damned would say (if they were singing the wrong words).

So, now we’re into the second week of Janathon – well done everyone keep up the good work!

Stats
Run: 0.28 miles
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Stationary bike: 20 minutes
Minutes spent in bed ignoring the alarm: 90
Minutes of the day clawed back by not going on Facebook or Twitter: 90

*If I EVER use phrases like that on my blog again, please feel free to ask for my address so you can come round and give me a slap.

Janathon Day 6–A sober Saturday

10 comments

I thought the gym would be full this morning. I don’t usually go to the gym at the weekend as, I run on a Saturday, and Sundays are reserved for hangovers rest days. But, as I didn’t drink anything stronger than hot chocolate last night and was tucked up in bed at 10:30 reading – with, in hindsight, maybe a touch of irony – ‘Hangover Square’ by Patrick Hamilton (blimey, that book is bleak. If ever a book could be described as a colour, that book would most definitely be grey).

So, because I woke up this morning unhungover, off I went to the gym. The gym was empty. Not even the usual people I see in there in the morning were there, they must be weekday warriors, like me.

I bloody loved this workout. Maybe I should stay sober more often*. I went on the rowing machine for twenty minutes, then the cross-trainer for twenty minutes, then despite my legs still aching from Friday’s weights session, I went on the treadmill for a Thru the Gears run. It doesn’t matter how many times I do Thru the Gears on the treadmill, I still get a tremendous buzz from it. If you want the same buzz, you can get it for FREE on the Audiofuel website (I’m assuming it’s still available, as the link’s there but it’s been out a long time now – if it doesn’t work, you can get it for a bargain-worthy 69p on amazon and yes, that is my five star review underneath it).

Oh, and because I am extra-hardcore, when I got back from the gym, I did a 30 minute upper body weights session at home.

Stats
Sober Saturdays: 1
Bleak books: 1
Hangovers: 0
Weekday warriors: 1
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Weights: 30 minutes

*na

Audiofuel Powerblast: Turbo Training

One comment

audiofuel-logo

The stationary bike is what I hate most in the gym. It’s rare for me to go on it, I usually stick to the rowing machine and the cross-trainer. I do like spin classes though and so I thought, how can I make the stationary bike more fun? And then I thought, I know, I bet Audiofuel’s bike tracks will make it fun and so today I took the Audiofuel Powerblast session to the gym with me to try out.

audiofuel-powerblast

Audiofuel’s bike sessions are designed for use with a turbo trainer or spin bike (not to be used outside on the road). I have no access to a spin bike at my current gym but I thought it’d be fine on a normal stationary bike. And fine it was. This track goes on for an hour – I thought how the hell am I going to stay on a stationary bike for an hour without dying of boredom? But then I thought, ho hum, I’ll just stay on until I get bored. There was no boredom. It was all fun. In fact, it was absolutely great – Sean (founder of Audiofuel who does the coaching on the track) talks you through what you’ll be doing and tells you what cadence (RPM) to ride at (80rpm in the recovery bits and 95rpm in the speedy up bits).

Sean also tells you what gear to put it in, saying things like big back cog and little cog. Proper cyclists will probably understand this, I just changed the resistance on the bike according to how I felt (mostly by cruising on the recovery bits and making myself work harder by upping the resistance on the sprint bits).

It’s like a spin class but without an annoying instructor trying to make you wave your arms in the air or getting off her bike and ramping up the resistance on yours to full as she thinks you’re slacking.

The impossible has been made possible. Stationary bikes can be fun.

Audiofuel’s Powerblast is available on the Audiofuel website along with other tracks for the turbo trainer or spin bike, including ones coached by Chrissie Wellington (Ironman champion and spit of FitArtist).

p.s. Still plenty of time to sign up for Janathon!

Sanity saved with Sennheiser

Leave a comment

As you know, I recently went back to my old gym as I wasn’t making enough use of the gym in the town centre. One of the reasons I left my old gym was because customers had control over the music and could whack it up as loud as they wanted, which drowned out my own music on my iPod.

Now the stereo’s been moved into the office, customers can’t control the sound level themselves. But they can ask a member of staff to turn it up – and they do. The other day I almost gave up my workout early as the merging of my and their music was driving me mad.

I’m too shy to complain. I can moan, but I can’t make a complaint face to face. I used to have a friend that would complain about everything – she’d complain about the noise of the air conditioning in a hotel room, she’d complain about the table she was given in a restaurant. I wanted to die with embarrassment when I was with her when she was complaining, although secretly I admired her assertiveness.

So, when I got home, I emailed the gym and asked if they could keep the music at a reasonable level (I know, how pathetic of me). I also got on Twitter and asked for recommendation for headphones that totally cancelled outside noise out. A friend recommended these Sennheiser earphones,

sennheiser-earphones

so I bought them and they’re great. The sound is a lot deeper and richer than my previous earphones so I hear a lot more of the sound I want to hear, rather than outside sound that I don’t want to hear.

You already know I’m a massive fan of Sennheiser’s Thru the Gears Audiofuel collaboration, and now I’ve got some of their earphones to listen to it through. Sennheiser impress me. Well done, Sennheiser.

Audiofuel Power Up 2012 Interval Training

5 comments

 

Audiofuel Power Up 2012 Pyramid Interval Training

 

I’ve always said Audiofuel rocked. Now they really do. Audiofuel’s Power Up 2012 Pyramid Interval Training tracks have left their dancing shoes behind and put on their biker boots.

A pyramid session is split into sprints and recoveries, the seconds/minutes increasing on the way up to the top of the pyramid and decreasing on the way down. The longest sprint in the session I tried out today is two minutes, so even lightweights like me aren’t scared of giving it a go. What’s even better is that you’re allowed to walk in the recovery bits.

Having a new training session motivated me to get out of the house. I haven’t run for a week as I‘ve got a bad knee but I wanted to try out the pyramid session. I also wanted to try out my new Craft running top.

craft-running-top-pink (Please excuse my cat licking her bum)

I’m a fan of Craft tops. They’re not expensive, fit well, comfortable, stay in place and still look good after they’ve been washed lots of time (unless your washing machine is like mine and eats your clothes).

With my new running top on and my new Audiofuel pyramid session in my iPod, I flew out the door, eager to run. There are two levels to choose from – 20 or 30 minutes. I chose my level of hardcore – 30 minutes. (Actually, I chose 30 minutes because I wanted a 30 minute run but sshhh, don’t tell anyone.)

It starts off with Sean (one of the founders of Audiofuel) introducing himself and explaining about the pyramid session and then leads into the warm-up with Audiofuel’s trademark ‘one two three four’. After the warm-up is the first sprint of 30 seconds, followed by the first recovery – also 30 seconds. The sprints and recoveries go up in increments of 15 seconds until the top of the pyramid of 180 seconds is reached. During the sprints, Sean gives encouragement and shouts out things like ‘COME ON, LET’S GO!’ and ‘LET’S SEE YOU FLY!’ and as he’s telling me to fly, I catch a glimpse of my shadow and um, I’m seriously not flying. In fact, it looks like my shadow would like a bit of a sit down.

On the other side of the road, I see two girls jogging. I’m not sure why I’ve decided they’re jogging and not running, maybe it’s because they’re wearing lots of clothes and going slowly (ha, like I’m not going slowly). I’m on a walking bit of my recovery and I’m hoping they don’t think I’m a lightweight and I want to shout out ‘I’M DOING INTERVALS. I’M ALLOWED TO WALK’ and then I’m on a sprinting bit and I’m about to catch them up and I think oh fuck, they’ll think I’m purposely overtaking them and just as I’m so close I could almost bite one of them on the shoulder*, it’s the recovery bit again and I slow down and then I’m hoping they don’t think I’m playing tag with them and then they go off a different way and I can stop wondering what strangers are wondering and I carry on doing fast bits and doing slow bits and then I’m in a field and as I’m on another walking bit, two girls are running up towards me and they must be proper runners as they’re wearing short shorts and I want to shout out again ‘I’M DOING INTERVALS. I’M ALLOWED TO WALK’ and I wonder why there’s so many people out running today as that’s five in total (I didn’t bother mentioning the man I saw, he wasn’t very interesting and he never says hello to me anyway so he can bog off) and maybe they all got their happy face magazines the other day and thought ‘OH SHIT, I’D BETTER START DOING  A BIT OF JOGGING’ and because I deferred from last year, I also got the happy face magazine and so I’d better stop pissing about and do some jogging too.

Anyway, Audiofuel’s Power Up 2012 Pyramid Interval Training session: It’s magic, as my mile splits – even with the walking bits – are faster than I’ve done for ages. And it’s rock music, none of that poncey dancey stuff**.

*I’d like to point out that I have never bitten anyone on the shoulder.

**I like the dancey Audiofuel stuff too.

Hangover? Tough.

10 comments

I spent the day yesterday making everyone (well, about two people anyway) jealous by telling the entire world that I was going to BAFTA for the Miranda Masterclass. It was brill. And I was in the second row and close enough to poke her (not that kind of poke, you mucky pups). And after I’d been to the brill Miranda Masterclass, I went off to meet my friend Gary for drinks and food. The plan had originally been beer and Mexican food, but somehow that turned into wine and pizza. As I hadn’t had any wine for over a month, I was a bit worried about getting the last train home but all was fine. I even made the second from last train home (although that was due to the fact that the bar in the station, although open, would only give us four minutes to drink up if we bought a drink. Duh.)

Usually after an evening drinking wine, there’d be no chance of me going out for a run, but this is Juneathon and slacking isn’t an option and no matter how hard I searched Hal Higdon’s website, nowhere does it say that I’m allowed to not stick to my schedule just because I’ve been out on the piss.

Bah.

So off I went for 3.5 miles and listened to the Audiofuel Pyramid 180 Max intervals and took the walking bits very seriously indeed. Then I thought Thru the Gears might give me a bit of a boost but I ended up just listening to it as I strolled in the sunshine.

A bit of a lame Juneathon effort from me today then. But I still did it, so there.

Stats
Distance: 3.5 miles
Time: 44:51
Pace: 12:49 m/m
Calories: 328
Miranda Masterclasses: 1
Beers: 0
Wine: Lots
Mexican food: 0
Pizzas: 1
Hal Higdons letting me off due to being hungover: 0
Lame Juneathons: 1
Juneathons run so far: 7/7

Intervals with Martin Yelling

10 comments

Not actually with him, of course, but I thought I’d be brave and try out Audiofuel’s Yelling Performance 180 MAX Interval Training which lasts for 43 minutes and 8 seconds. I’m only used to doing the Pyramid interval training which lasts for 22 minutes. Eek.

After yesterday’s shopping trip for a pair of sandals, I came home with four bras, a silver and purple ring, a top (I had originally thought it was a dress but on further inspection and a quick reminder to myself of the date of birth on my birth certificate, decided it was better off as a top), a dress (of an appropriate length for my age), three books, and a white and pinky-purpley running vest.

I don’t usually wear running vests unless it’s proper hot, but decided today would be an exception as I wanted to wear my new one and so I put that on and then realised that with my pinky-purpley running vest and my pink socks and my pinky-purpley running shoes, if I was five stone heavier, people would think I was out training for a Race for Life.

I set off for my intervals and Marty (I am allowed to call him Marty, aren’t I?) does the ‘run to the beat 1 2 3 4’ thing but I still can’t keep in time and so I just plod along in my own haphazard fashion sticking to my own haphazard beat and then it gets faster and then we’re on a recovery bit and I stop to walk and I wonder if we’re allowed to walk on these recovery bits but Marty doesn’t say anything about walking and so I start to run again and then I’m about to go downhill and I think RAMP IT UP MARTY, I’M ON A DOWNHILL BIT AND I CAN GO FAST ON DOWNHILL BITS and then he’s telling me to run with my arms down by my sides and I think HUH, YOU WANT ME TO RUN LIKE A SPAZ? and I refuse to run with my arms down by my sides, especially as there are three people in my immediate vicinity and then as I get near the bottom of the hill, Marty decides to ramp it up and tells me to go faster and I agree to do this because of the aforementioned three people in my immediate vicinity and I’m thinking ha, look at me as I fly past you, I can see you’re mightily impressed with my athletic prowess and graceful running ability and then a fire engine goes past and I think YEAH, BABY, I’M GOING SO FAST I’M ON FIRE and then we’re going slowly again and Marty says again to run with my arms at my sides and to shake them about but NO WAY AM I GOING TO DO THIS AS I’LL LOOK LIKE PHOEBE IN FRIENDS

and then we’re going fast and then slow again and I get to the traffic lights and my Garmin says I’ve done 2.98 miles in just under 33 minutes but the lights won’t change and I think I’m not going to make under 11 minute miles again and I think CURSE YOU, YOU RATHER ANNOYING TRAFFIC LIGHTS (‘rather annoying’ may not be the exact words that were in my head) and my Garmin ticks over and I need to do another half a mile and so I go up the road and as I cross over Marty says it’s the last fast bit and tells me to give it everything and so I run and run and run and run and run and I run through the park and back home and when I get in my Garmin says I have indeed done under 11 minute miles.

Splits (you can see where the rather annoying traffic lights held me up)

splits_310511

Stats
Distance: 3.5 miles
Time: 37:04
Pace: 10:35 m/m
Calories: 368
Martin Yelling interval programs: 1
Shopping trips to buy a pair of sandals: 1
Pairs of sandals bought: 0
Runners wearing too much pinky-purple: 1
People in my immediate vicinity: 3
Fire engines: 1
Rather annoying traffic lights: 1

1 2