Running gear

June 10, 2014
3 min read

I guess, you probably can just go out and run, bet where is the fun? So during couple of months I’ve been running, I’ve acquired couple of things to help me with that activity. 

Shoes

This was the first thing I’ve bought after I’ve decided to pursue running. I’ve heard and read a lot about importance of good running shoes and couple of years ago I had problems with some shoes. I’ve got lucky, when I went to the store there was a sale on those Nike Pegasus running shoes. Beautiful and extremely comfortable. Friend of mine was saying how much better it was running at stadium and not on the roads. Finally I’ve decided to try it and didn’t notice ,much of a difference. Not being an expert, I totally give all the credit to my shoes. 

Clothes

Couple of Nike running T-shirts and shorts, also Nike, which one can call an overkill, but there was time when I had to motivate myself to go out and exercise and buying clothes was my first choice. It worked, knowing that I had these pretty expensive clothes motivated me to go running. Can’t say anything bad about them, comfortable even after more than an hour of running, I had some problems with regular T-shirts as they were not very comfortable for longer runs.

HRM + Watch

I’ve ordered Timex IronMan T5K214, just to have some more comparison information, I’ve used it only two times since it arrived, so can’t say much, but it’s fun to watch HR during the run.

Fitbit

It’s just always on me. When I first bought it, it didn’t change my activity. I’ve just tracked it and didn’t change anything in my lifestyle to improve the results. Only 2k steps a day? Meh, who cares? But then I’ve had a week with 6 days over 15k. After that I try to meet my goal every day, even if it means wandering around town with no reason.

Phone

I take phone with me on all the runs. I’ve wrote about how I choose what to run to. I have Pocket Casts and Spotify ready for my run. Also I track all my activities with RunKeeper. I’ve paid to become Elite user, mostly to support the service, but it does offer couple of useful features.

Headphones

In one week both my iPhone and HTC headphones died during the run. I’ve decided to buy something cheap, but at the store I saw Sennheiser CX 685 headphones on sale. They are designed for active use. It’s tricky to buy such headphones as you can’t try them beforehand and because of not traditional design I can imagine people having problems. Fortunately I didn’t have any, they fit perfectly and don’t drop out of ears. So far the longest run with them was hour and 5 minutes and they were fine during all the run.

How I went from hating running to my first 10k

May 5, 2014
3 min read

I’ve been putting off writing this post for a week now, finally got to it!

For almost all of my life I was overweight and running was hard for me. I didn’t like doing things for the sake of it, like running, jumping etc., but I loved playing football, volley and other sports. At school we had to run some short distances every year, I had no problem doing that, but then there was 3600m. I couldn’t do it. Later, about 3 years ago, my weight peaked at 120kg, it was hard even thinking about running, I’ve tried once, ran about 500m and walked back home, I’ve bought a treadmill and was walking/running at home for 30 minutes couple times a week at best. Then I lost about 20kg and for 2-3 years my weight was at about 95 kilo mark. I tried running couple of times and could do 1-1.5k, but never loved doing it and there was no progress.

In the end of last year I started to gain weight, on 08.01.2014 it got to 103 kilos and so I’ve decided to lose some of it, in about a month I’ve lost 10 kilos and decided to start running. I’ve got Fitbit, Runkeeper, really nice Nike Pegasus running shoes and was ready to go! My first run was 2.28km with average pace of 7:02, it felt great and I could see, just by losing weight I could run more. This time I was motivated to run and, most importantly, I’ve enjoyed it. 

In another month I’ve lost additional 8 kilos and so my weight got to 85-86, progress with running was not big, but I could definitely see it and feel it. In exactly a month from my first run I’ve run 5.1km with an average pace of 6:21. It was the longest run in my whole life, the feeling was great!

Then I’ve got couple of colds, so I couldn’t run, but when I did, I’ve got the distance of about 6-7km. The week before my record I barely managed 6km and whole week didn’t have any physical activity.

When I started this particular run, I wished I could do 6km again and after about 3km I was pretty sure that was my limit for the day. After next 2km I was almost dying, but decided to try to beat my own record of 7km and so I continued to run and this “almost dying” feeling was there until 10km, it didn’t get any worse, it just was the same feeling. When I saw 10km on the screen I’ve jumped, I was very happy! It was unbelievable.

Was thinking how to end this story and the only thing I can say, is some cheesy thing, like “you are capable of anything, just go and try!”. But it really is true, you just have to believe you can do it.

What to listen to while running

March 17, 2014
2 min read

In my recent post I’ve wrote about choosing activity tracking app. After that there is even more important and difficult choice – what to listen to. Running without headphones is not an option. I get borred pretty fast and start thinking about how hard it is to run early on. Here are my thoughts about enterntaining yourself while running.

Running with music

About a year ago I completely ditched iTunes and started listening to music only on Spotify. I have Starred playlist with about 700-800 songs, which get cached on my laptop and smartphone. Being lazy person that I am, I didn’t go through this playlist looking for perfect songs for running. Instead I’ve found two playlists [1] and [2], that were a good fit for my tempo.
My first couple of runs were pretty quick. I’ve run a little more than 2km, so listening to music was enjoyable. Then, as my runs got longer, music started to get boring after about 4th song and it does a bad job blocking those “I can’t! I want to stop!” thoughts.

Podcasts

My second choice was – podcasts. I’ve tried many of them, some work, some don’t. They are just too slow and mess up your tempo, but you can find something that will fit you. Looking for a good one in your podcast listening app takes couple of minutes, and then there are ads. If you listen to podcasts, there is a good chance you’ve heard Squarespace ad hundreds of times. Chance are you skip ads and it’s not easy done while running. That means you have to look for a podcast, which doesn’t mess up your tempo, is long enough and doesn’t have ads, easier said than done.

My last choice – audiobooks

As with podcasts, you have to find the right one. Books, though, are much longer than a podcast, which means you can listen to one book for a week or two. This was the last thing I’ve tried and I stuck with it. If it’s an interesting book, you forget about the fact that you are running. Often I get surprised by the distance I’ve run without even noticing. 

Choosing the right one

March 7, 2014
2 min read

It looks like user base is all that matters right now. Facebook bought WhatsApp and Instragram mostly for their users, you won’t use a service (especially social one) if your friends aren’t there. It was the case with me. I’ve chosen WhatsApp, not Viber or Line, because more friends are using the first one. It wasn’t as fun using Foursquare before more of my friends joined.

Finally I’ve found one space, where it’s not true, for me at least.

I’ve been trying (successfully) to lose weight since the New Year’s. I’m currently on a diet (which desires a whole blog post by itself) and also I’ve started running. Although I have Fitbit, I’ve decided to use running app, for more detailed information.

My choice was between two apps – Endomondo and Runkeeper. I’ve used Endomondo couple of times before, when I had a Symbian phone and the website looks the same ever since. Runkeeper is cleaner and more modern looking service, so I’ve started with that one this time.

When I wanted to add friends, I’ve discovered that all the friends who track their activities, are using Endomondo. That made me to return to the Endomondo. After couple of runs I’ve came to conclusion, Runkeeper pushes me more than my friends.

I’m a novice runner, which means it doesn’t matter to me, that my friend ran 10k today. I can’t do that. My record right now is 4.37km. It’s more fun to compete against myself, so all those stats and encouragements from Runkeeper (like showing couple of times, that you beat your distance/time/etc. record) make me feel good and, what’s more important, encourage me to try harder next time.

In the end, I’m using Runkeeper despite not having any friends on that service.