Finis SwimP3 V2
SUMMARY: Sound quality good. Makes the laps go by faster..
Since I am training for an Ironman triathlon, I am doing a lot of swimming. Currently I am going to the pool three days a week, swimming for close to an hour. When I run or bike, I like having music. I also wanted music when I swim. I looked at the H2O Audio IS2 mp3 player. I came close to buying this, but decided that the headphones that work as earplugs might not plug my ears well enough. I ended up going with the more expensive Finis SwimP3. It works by bone conduction. I ordered it and was excited to get it. It came on a day I was supposed to go swimming, but I had to charge it first. The SwimP3 is charged by plugging it into a computer USB port. Since that was going to take a few hours or more, I was going to have to wait till my next swim day. Songs are also loaded onto the SwimP3 by dragging and dropping songs onto it as an external USB drive.
So the next time I went swimming, I took my new SwimP3 mp3 player. I wear silicone earplugs, so I inserted those first. Then I put on my goggles. The SwimP3 has two little “speaker” parts. These are tucked under the goggle straps on either side. I turned the SwimP3 player on. I could hear the music. It got louder as I was in the water. I was able to swim and listen to my tunes. Interestingly, when I get out of the pool, and take my earplugs out, the music gets much quieter. So I think it helps to wear ear plugs. My Finis SwimP3 V2 mp3 player really helps the laps go faster. I did find one song on my mp3 player that probably does fit with swimming; Bob Seger-Like A Rock. On the other hand, Life in The Fast Lane by The Eagles works very well. The sounds quality is good. Not as good as wearing headphones. But pretty good considering you under water.
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Aqua Sphere Vista Goggles
SUMMARY: Very comfortable, seal well, but fog up quickly.
I had some Speedo Sprint goggles that seal well, but are tinted blue, and I get double vision when looking at the bottom of the pool. I also had some clear Tyr goggles that I see very well out of, but they don’t seal vey well. I started researching new goggles and masks. I read that goggles don’t give the greatest peripheral vision for open water swimming. I read that some people use swim masks. I have seen Aqua Sphere masks and goggles at my local sporting good store. I tried both the Aqua Sphere Vista mask and the Aqua Sphere Seal Mask. Both style of masks fit and sealed very well. The Vista mask lenses were a little smaller than the Seal Mask lenses. But the Vista were supposed to be the better mask (according to the packaging). I ended up buying the Vista swim mask.
I was excited to try them. I was scheduled to swim the night I bought them. As I said, they sealed very well. They had a very good field of vision. Much wider than the other regular swim goggles that I had. One thing I noticed was that mask fogged up quickly. I tried spitting on the inside of the lenses, but this didn’t help much. I called Aqua Sphere customer support and they sent me some anti fogging drops. I tried these, and they helped some. So instead of fogging after a lap, they fogged after about 5 laps. I contacted the Aqua Sphere customer support and they offered to replace the Vista mask. I also have a Aqua Sphere Seal Mask and I haven’t had the fogging problem with those. So the issue may be unique to the Vista, or maybe I got a mask with bad anti-fog coating.
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I have run two marathons now with several more on the horizon. In my first half marathon I ate Snickers bars. They were pretty good. In my first marathon I ate generic Jelly Beans. They were good but seemed to be lacking something. In my last marathon I ate M&M’s. I was pretty happy with them. But I have had it recommended to me that I try some gels, or other types of sports things. I have tried one GU, I think a strawberry/banana flavored one. But it was kind of gross. I tried a Snickers Marathon Bar and that was disgusting. I resigned myself to not liking any of the GUs, gels, etc. But I got some recommendations for some different types and flavors, so I decided to give them another shot. I visited the local sporting goods store, bought a selection. Among the stuff I bought, I bought a couple flavors of Jelly Belly Sport Beans. I bought Fruit Punch and Lemon-Lime. I really like the Fruit Punch flavored Sport Beans. I tried the Lemon Lime flavor Sports Beans, and they were good, but I prefered the Fruit Punch flavored beans. These would be doable in a marathon. They would give me some carbs as well as electrolytes. A 1 ounce bag cost $1.29, but I know I can buy a 24 bag carton for about $20 plus shipping. I might be able to find them cheaper.
At home I run on Proform treadmill that I bought used on eBay. My treadmill has a few features, but it is older, noisy, and overall pretty basic. I don’t usually workout anywhere else. But my wife and I were celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary, and were staying as the Marriott hotel in Niagara Falls on the Canada side. Even though we were out of town, I still had a running schedule to follow. The website for the hotel said they had a fitness room, but didn’t give details. So one of the first things I looked at when exploring the hotel, was the fitness room. They had two Life Fitness 95te treadmills, a Life Fitness 95xe elliptical trainer, and a couple Life Fitness exercise bikes. But since I was only interested in running, I only used the treadmill.
The Life Fitness 95te is very cool and has a lot of features my Proform doesn’t. First, the thing is pretty quiet. That was a nice change. The side of the 95te treadmill says Flex Deck Shock Adsorption System. I didn’t notice much difference than my Proform as far as how hard the deck is. It was comfortable to run on.
It has a touchscreen which was interesting. I got started by touching the screen. It asked me some questions such as my weight, and what mode I wanted to use. It also asked me whether I wanted to limit my run by time, or distance. I always chose distance, since that’s what my running schedule goes by.
I was able to watch TV on the touchscreen. I used the headphones from my mp3 player. I wish I had had some headphones with a longer cord.
The mode I mainly used was the Manual mode. But some of the other modes were Fat Burn, Cardio, Hill, Random, Fit Test, Personal Trainer, and Zone Training.
Fat Burn and Cardio work similarly to each other. You set the speed, and then it will raise or lower the incline of the treadmill to adjust the intensity of the workout to keep your heart rate near a percentage of your theoretical max heart rate. For the Fat Burn mode, the percentage is 65%, and for the cardio it is 80%.
The Hill and Random modes will raise and lower the incline of the treadmill. The Hill mode has a predefined course with 4 phases. The Random mode has randomly created hills, so the workout is different each time.
There are a bunch of sub modes for the Fit Test mode. They are Life Fitness Fit Test, Army, Gerkin (for fire fighters), Navy, PEB (for law enforcement such as FBI), Marine, and Air Force. I did the Life Fitness Fit Test, which had me walk for about a minute at 0% incline, then it raised the incline to 5%, and I walk at grade for another 4 or 5 minutes. The treadmill monitored my heart rate. I first did it at the default 2mph, but it said my heart rate was too low, and to do it again at a faster speed. So I did it again at 4.5mph. It said I was above average. I don’t know what the other potential results are, or if that is the best one. Of course, I had run 5 miles this morning, and had already been playing on the treadmill with the other modes. So who knows? I am scheduled to run 10 miles tomorrow, so I may try the fat burn, or the cardio mode.
Another neat feature of the Life Fitness 95te is that it is compatible with my Polar heart hate monitor chest strap. I had brought my watch down with me, but found my heart displaying on the screen also. So for my next workouts, I just wore the chest strap, and left the watch in my room.
I wish I had one of these Life Fitness treadmills at home.
Once A Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.
SUMMARY: Book is a classic in running fiction. But…I just didn’t get into it.
I had read raving reviews of this book. Many people listed it on the their top 5 or 10 running books. So I had to read it. The book is out of print, and kind of expensive, but if you are patient, a reasonably priced copy will show up on Amazon, or eBay. I had to wait a little bit, but I found a copy for under $20 which is a good price for this book.
When it came, I was in the middle of a few other books, but I finished them, I started Once A Runner.
I really expected to like it, but it was kind of slow. The book just didn’t grab me. I really didn’t care much about the characters. The writing style was ho hum. I am sure Mr Parker did the best he was capable of. It seems like he was trying to write a novel about running, like what Pat Conroy did with basketball in his novel The Lords Of Discipline. But unfortunately Parker just doesn’t have that level of writing skills of Pat Conroy. But just because I didn’t enjoy the book doesn’t mean you wont. As I said, many other people rated it highly. To each their own.
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