Several years ago, I bought an iPod Shuffle. It was the new 2nd generation model. It seems like it would be great for running. It’s small, light, and made of aluminum which you would think would make it tough. I ran with it on multiple occasions. But during one long sweaty run, I paused it, and it wouldn’t unpause. I thought maybe the battery was low. But I couldn’t get it to charge. The computer wouldn’t even recognize it. I took it to the Apple store, and they tried various things, but they couldn’t get it to do anything either. They replaced it, and gave me a brand new iPod Shuffle. I was pretty sure the sweat had killed it.
I was never particularly fond of the iPod Shuffle to begin with. I HATED being forced to use iTunes to load music onto the mp3 player. I would have rather have dragged and dropped the music onto it. I soon replaced the iPod Shuffle with a Sandisk Sansa Clip which I loved. It had a longer battery life, a tiny display, and was only a little bit larger than the iPod Shuffle. And I could drag and drop my music onto it. I didn’t have to use iTunes!
While on vacation, I dropped my Sansa Clip into a creek. I dried it off, and it worked for a while, but eventually died. I guess being FULLY submerged in water was a little too much for it. So I pulled out my old iPod Shuffle and charged it up. I took it out for a run last night. About 25 minutes into my run, it started raining. The iPod Shuffle was clipped to my shorts, and under my shirt. My shirt got wet, and the wet shirt was contacting the iPod Shuffle. Apparently that was enough. By the time I got home, the iPod Shuffle stopped playing. I thought maybe the battery was low. I hooked it up to my computer and nothing. I even tried charging it with a USB adaptor. It’s dead. It didn’t even get that wet. It was just in contact with a damp shirt. Apparently the iPod Shuffles are hypersensitive to moisture, which doesn’t make for a good mp3 player for running! I mean you are going to sweat, and it is going to rain sometimes! And I have read of many other people having the same issues! I won’t be buying another iPod Shuffle! What a piece of crap! I will buy another Sansa Clip!
My first treadmill was a ProForm that I bought used for $300 on eBay. I owned it for about a year and a half during which I broke the frame, had it re-welded, and then trashed the belt.
The second treadmill I bought was a Horizon T900 for which I paid $1000 new. I owned it for three and a half years during which I wore out bearings and cracked the running deck 4 times. Thankfully I bought the extended warranty, so they refunded my money for this treadmill.
I decided to buy a heavier duty treadmill. After reading reviews, I bought a Sole F85. It was delivered last Friday. The box weighed over 300 pounds! I unboxed it Saturday, and with the help of a couple friends, we managed to carry the heavy deck up the stairs to the room where I planned to have it set up. I am guessing the deck weighed over 200 pounds. And since it was so wide, we had to carry it turned on it’s side to fit up the stairs and through doorways. It took about an hour or two to put it together. I probably could have done it faster, but I was taking my time making sure I did everything right.
The first thing I can say about it is that it is very heavy and solidly built. I didn’t have time to run on it Saturday night, so my first run on it was Sunday morning. I wore the Sole heart rate monitor strap and started my run at about 7:30 pace. My heart rate quickly climbed up into the 190s which was ridiculously high for the pace. I paused the treadmill and rewetted the strap. This time my displayed heart rate stayed a little more reasonable. As I ran at a reasonably easy pace, my heart rate climbed into the mid-150s or over the 144-151 range I trying to run in. I bumped the speed down a 1/10th of a mile per hour, and my heart rate dropped down into the 130’s. I bumped the speed up a notch and my heart rate climbed into the 150s again. I have been training with a heart rate monitor for a long time, and found this very strange. So I pulled out my Polar HRM, and started using it. I found that the treadmill seemed to be picking up the signal from my Polar HRM strap. Cool! But I noticed that the treadmill heart rate display didn’t match the Polar watch display very closely. In fact, I have routinely seen it disagree with the Polar watch by 20 or 30 beats per minute higher or lower. That’s ridiculous!
Next, the built is fans are useless. If I stick my face right next to them, I might feel a little air. So I have a fan on the floor pointed up at me while I run.
When you start the treadmill or change the speed, the speed changes kind of on the slow side. It would be nice to be able to adjust this. It registers the speed/distance during this speed up differently my Horizon. On the Horizon, if I started the treadmill, and hit 10mph, it registered that I was running at 8mph (7:30 min/mile pace) even during the speed up and I would finish the first mile in 7:30. On the Sole, it will register the actual time/distance covered, so if I start the treadmill, and hit 8mph (7:30 pace), with the slow speed up, I might actually finish the first mile in 7:45. I kind of miss the ProForm which came up to speed pretty quickly. Surprisingly the cheaper ProForm had some great features that the more expensive treadmills don’t have.
If I pause the Sole F85 by hitting the stop button once, it’s supposed to pause for five minutes. But there have been a couple times when I have paused it, did a quick chore, and came back to find he treadmill had reset losing the time/distance I had run. I am almost certain I was away for less than five minutes. I used to do this on my Horizon with no issues. The Horizon would also pause for 5 minutes. Again, I miss the feature of the ProForm treadmill which would pause for much longer. It is possible I might have hit the stop button, and it registered two taps which will reset the treadmill. I don’t know. But I have lost my workout data a few times like this which is really annoying.
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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