Meanwhile, I thought I'd blog about a few of the bits of gear that I use for running. They've been cobbled together somewhat over a few years - birthday presents, bargains etc - so they're quite a mixed bag. Today I'm starting with my iPod and headphones.
This is a 'somethingth' generation iPod nano. Small colour screen, 4GB storage. I bought it about 7 years ago when I was training for my first marathon. The first time I'd really done any serious running. GPS watches were still the preserve of the wealthy at the time, but you could buy an iPod nano for £99 and an Nike chip and foot sensor thing for £40. I wanted something to track my runs, and I'd always fancied an iPod, so I invested.
This had the double effect of giving me some feedback on my progress and also giving me something to listen to. For long runs I would build up a playlist of podcasts and songs, sometimes trying to fill up to three hours. A few songs first, then a podcast, then a few more songs, another podcast etc. The playlist was important because, once you had the Nike thing running, it was particularly fiddly to change between tracks. So I was particularly careful in creating a playlist for my first marathon. Generally I had found that songs were okay, but podcasts were better, more distracting. I wasn't sure how long it would take - I hoped for under 4 hours, but actually came in under 3:30 - so I built a playlist full of podcasts and threw in the odd song. Sadly, I did something wrong in the week before the race. Maybe I updated iTunes or something, but, unbeknown to me, the option to include podcasts in playlists had been unchecked. The result being that I ran the entire marathon to a playlist of 7 songs. On repeat. Forever.
Nowadays you're not really supposed to wear headphones for marathons, so I guess I won't get the opportunity to redeem that particular failure. But I do still do solo runs with my iPod. I used to wear it in a little wallet on my arm but, now that I have a GPS watch and I'm not depending on it track my speed, I find it easier to carry it in one hand, with the headphone cord wrapped round a few times, and easily switch between tracks.
My headphones have been upgraded too. The standard issue Apple ones were fine, but they had a habit of slipping out, and the outer shell of them would pick up a lot of wind noise. These new ones I have are from Panasonic (or more accurately, from my parents-in-law). They can't fall out, due to the over-the-ear design, and the wind noise isn't a problem because they are of the type that sticks right into your ear canal. The only weakness is that you have to have just the right sized ear canal in order for the rubber bits to make a sealed chamber. Without that, you don't hear any bass. Fortunately they have three different sized rubber caps (I seem to need the extra large) so I've found the one that fits best. But 'jogging' can do exactly what it sounds like, gradually jogging them looser. For podcasts it's fine, but for music you do have to keep sticking them back in fairly frequently.
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