Boston Meet results, Tyson Gay, and the greatest interview ever (watch till the very end), and a follow up with the poor girl...
And let me make it clear that I am laughing with this running couple, as this situation has happened PLENTY of times with myself. One of the inevitable dangers of running in the snow, which is one of my favorite times to run for all the reasons stated...
Tuesday, February 4th - 5 miles. Mother Nature decided to take a 5" dump on us (of snow), so I decided to run 5 miles to commemorate this event. Went right after work, and it was coming down pretty good and I looped around 270 and headed down 159 towards QT before heading back and looping around the neighborhood to finish it out. Nice, powdery snow which slowed things down, but not too much of a hindrance. Running into the wind was brutal though - the snow felt like little pellets, and got quite painful. A fun run, but a toughy as well. ~40-45 minutes total.
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| Brrrr! |
Thursday, February 6th - 6 miles + strides. Change in workout, as it was getting too close to the race to do a hard workout so we did easy miles. Forest Park run - Wydown loop with Crystal and Gibbs on a cold night. I hadn't run Wydown in a long time, but it's a nice road through some neighborhoods with a couple long, rolling hills. We started out slow, but Crystal picked it up for us and ended up moving quite well towards the end. Crystal provided the 2014 Running Moment (currently) by giving this jack@ss SUV the double bird, for basically driving in the bike lane (and narrowly missing us). 46:40 overall (7:20's coming back in)
Friday, February 7th - ~4 miles. Nice and easy run, and wanted to give my new Meb Sony Walkman a try. Ran my Village Circle loop nice and slow, nothing crazy. As for the Walkman, here is my quick review:
Here is the box:
Here is a zoom up:
Here are the buttons:
Equipment: The entire unit is the pictures shown above - which is awesome because there is one cord that connects the two ear pieces (similar to Bluetooth devices), and nothing else! Not too heavy, and the package contained a couple ear buds that I could adjust (bigger, smaller) if the fit didn't work. Which I ended up having to do because my right ear kept slipping out throughout the run. Thank goodness for my running headband, but wondering what it would be like in the summer? The cord is nice because you can wrap over your ear for more stability, and it never gets in the way. I didn't realize how nice it was to not have a dangling headphone cord to deal with - I always seem to hit it when I'm running!
Software: Nothing difficult to install. My computer automatically installed the drivers, and the Walkman pretty much acts like a USB which is pretty nice. The best part about transferring files is that it's all drag and drop. Windows Media started by default, and my music library showed up so I could literally pick the songs I wanted and drag over. Very nice and simple. 2 Gig storage, which isn't the most in the world but you can still get quite a few songs in there.
Usage: Took about 5-10 minutes before I got used to where the buttons were at, since you really don't have a visual with the buttons being on your ears. I loaded up on music, and set on shuffle, and away I went! Scrolled through a couple songs and kept hitting "pause" by accident, but eventually got used to it. The sound quality wasn't mind blowing, but I never have my music blasting since I need to have the ability to hear cars honking at me since I run the roads a lot. It was definitely good enough, and could hear everything well. The Walkman was pretty lightweight, and the cords held the ear pieces relatively stable.
Summary: In a nutshell, I really enjoyed this product, and look forward to continued use. The fit was my biggest issue, but there is a solution with multiple ear buds available. I can't stop raving about the lack of cords - it's a pain in the butt to have a dangling cord, and it's so much more nicer to basically be wireless. I'm not very high maintenance when it comes to equipment like this, but I think the simplicity of the Sony Walkman makes it a big winner. 4/5 stars
Saturday, February 8th - 8 miles (2 up, STAN MUSIAL BRIDGE RUN 6K (24:02 PR (31/~3500)), 2 down). Drove downtown with Megan and Crystal for the opening of the new bridge/race, after a snowfall the night before. We parked relatively closeby, and warmed up going down Washington Avenue and back. While it didn't snow very much, it was enough to pretty much destroy any good grip and it was annoying to run on because my feet kept slipping. My race goal was mainly to have a good time, but push for some pace in between 6:15-6:25 average. Because of the wind and course layout, I wanted to go out in 6:20-6:30 and really push headed back in towards the finish (out and back course). First mile, I ran with Colby and we were trying to go out conservative, but found out we were hitting 5:30's so I backed off significantly. The road was wet, but definitely runnable and we made our way towards the actual bridge. The incline to the bridge was a lot more steep than I thought, and the snow was pretty slushy especially on the way back, so I shortened my stride and tried to hang on. On the turnaround, the conditions were worse and had a couple people pass me as I kept weaving in between the 2 tracks (kind of cleared from whatever vehicle rode on it earlier) to try to get the best traction, but it was slippery nonetheless. I lost some time on the bridge itself, but picked it up significantly coming back in. I didn't kick very hard, and really pissed at myself for not pushing myself at the finish, thus leaving some time out there. In retrospect, I was a little despondent on some poor splits, but should have pushed through because everyone's time was slower. Cooled down with Crystal, Colby, Silker, Fenley, and Sunny. 11:51/12:11 3K splits (6:14, 6:25, 6:35, 6:12 last mile pace for 0.75).
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| Prerace during warmup |
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| Post race right before cooldown |
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| Congrats to Crystal for winning, and Colby for winning his age group despite a 17 mile warmup! |
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| On the bridge |
Sunday, February 9th - 11 miles. Long run with Yoch, Colby, and Crystal. Because the sidewalks and trails were snow covered, we ran the roads. Ran towards the track, then looped Ebbets Field for a couple miles before doing a big loop on the backroads (past the new YMCA, past the Metro East Church, onto Governors Parkway then home). I felt like poop, and was hoping we'd keep a slower pace. We were hitting high 7's and feeling comfortable, but the traffic got sticky on the backroads and the pace picked up. By about mile 7, I started to get my legs back and we all hammered the last few miles which felt a lot easier. Glad to have this one done early, as the rest of the lazy day of sitting around and watching t.v. felt earned. 1:24 total (~7:41 average pace). Brought my broken Garmin 610 out of retirement, and was nice to have an "old friend" track my mileage. 42 miles this week, 50 miles in February, 207 miles in 2014.
My new toy comes in on Tuesday night! Can't wait to give it a spin!
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