Internal Mono(b)log

» 20 Simple Strategies for Getting Healthy :zenhabits.

ElliptiGo is running a contest with the prize of a new ElliptiGO 8C valued at $2500.  Pretty sweet!

I’ve never tried an Elliptigo, but given that I HATE dreadmills and elliptical trainers in the gym (BORING!) this could be a great device for low-impact workouts post race/injury.

Here’s ElliptiGO’s press release on the contest.

As part of my survey of music while you train devices I bought a set of Jaybird Freedom bluetooth headphones.

The Jaybirds come with a variety of different in-ear cushions, ear locks and over ear hoops to get the best fit for the wearer.  They are a full bluetooth transceiver with a microphone for placing bluetooth calls as well as quality stereo sound for music, podcasts, etc.

In my testing I found the bluetooth reception to be very good, with very few drop-outs regardless of where my iphone was located.  Jaybird suggests a specific body location, but I had no problems with my phone in my left hip pocket, or in a hip bag or fanny-type pack.   I’ve also been really impressed with the 6+ hours of battery life that the Jaybirds have: one of my biggest complaints with wireless music is the almost constant need to recharge.  Not so with the jaybirds.  I really enjoy the sound quality that the Jaybirds provide and regularly use them in my walking-commute to and from work.

Unfortunately, when I’m running, I find the cushioned in-ear style ear-bud provide a noisy interface between my body and ear… i.e. I hear every jostling of my head, every foot-fall (no matter how soft), and while the general muting of the ambient environment would normally allow for lower volume levels, the increased, lets call it “exertion noise”, counteracts that.

I really want to love the Jaybird Freedom headphones and as a generic stereo headphone I do; however, for me, for running, I have a really hard time with the exertion noise and really have to be in a tolerant headspace to get past it.  On the bike, I wouldn’t use them because of the in-ear muting nature of the foam inserts.   In the gym, or on the stationary, they’d be a definite win.

I’ll admit it, sure, no problem-o. I…  listen to music when I train.. There I said it!  Yea I know, some of you are purists and the rumble of the carbon rims on the asphalt, the sound of the wind through your helmet, the leaves and birds in the trees when you run and the rhythmic sloshing sounds of water when you are putting in the miles in a pool or openwater, these are all the things you need to keep you company while you put in the endless miles of training leading up to your next big race.  Well Bully for you! 🙂  (Kidding 🙂 )

Not me man!  I like to give my brain something to do other than be bored and complain.   I fill my head full of uptempo electronic/trance music, or a podcast or even the radio, to help pass the time as my arms and legs do what my brain is telling them.  Sure, it’s different on race day: no music, but the energy and vibe of the race is more than enough to keep boredom at bay 🙂

So, while adroitly bypassing the discussion of what I listen to, and whether or not you like/dislike/distain trance, lets rather talk about how to get those digital voices speaking to you in your head while you swim, bike and run.

The Swim

When I swim I wear silicon earplugs.  I like these cheap-o earplugs because I don’t have to care if I lose one, they seal well, and are.. well.. cheap 🙂  Nothing wrong with cheap if it does the job!  Because I wear silicon earplugs, it pretty much removes all options but 1 from my choices for swim music.  And that’s JUST FINE because the only choice left is BY FAR the best solution on the market today.  I speak of, the several times reviewed on this blog, Finis SwiMP3.

The SwiMP3 uses bone conduction to get the music into your noggin, it’s simple and light and doesn’t force you to wear funky waterproof hydraphonic earplugs that you won’t be wearing on race day.  I can’t imagine the hours and hours spent slogging back and forth in the pool without the companionship that my swimp3 offers me.  No really!  😀  I’ve reviewed the SwimP3 here.

Bike

On the bike, unless I’m on a completely closed course (i.e. never), I really don’t like covering or plugging my ears to the sounds of oncoming traffic.   So things like earbuds, Yurbuds (my fav running music solution that I’ll talk about more in a sec), Jaybirds, etc. are all out.

I had found what I thought was a pretty good solution.  The Tunebug Shake:  a speaker designed to mount to your helmet and use the helmet as a resonator for the speaker, essentially turning your entire helmet into a speaker.

Unfortunately the company making the Tunebug is closed, but if you check ebay there is some stock being liquidated and you may still be able to pick one up on the cheap.  2 things I’ll say about the shake: from a sound quality perspective it’s pretty good; however, the battery life is a bit limited (3ish hours in my testing) and the attachment system is a bit fragile.  I ended up using zipties to connect it to my helmet and it worked pretty well.

Recently, I’ve been testing the Cardo BK-1 Duo, I’ll have an in-depth review of it soon, but as an on-bike, open-ear music-while-you-train device, it absolutely rocks!  Without giving too much away from the pending review, the bluetooth reception is super-strong, the battery life is in excess of 6 hrs, and the sound quality is on par with good quality headphones.

Running

When I run, I perhaps have the most freedom of audio choices: multiple players, headphones (wired and unwired), headphone styles, etc. etc. etc. are available.  Really, the options here are bewildering.  I cannot say that I’ve tried them all, but here are some generalities in my preferences (in order of importance):

• I prefer small (near weightless) devices to heavier/bulkier devices
• I prefer solid state to anything with a disk drive in it
• Must have good battery life (charging every 20hrs of use is ok, but more frequently is a pain)
• I’m not a fan of squishy-marshmellow type in-ear buds
• I prefer wireless to wired

In terms of the player, I’ve settled on 1 of 2 devices.  (There are many many options here and I don’t think that 1 really is significantly stronger than another.)  I live in an Apple dominated electronics ecosystem, so my solutions here are Apple-centric.  My typical running-music player is my 6th gen iPod shuffle: it’s super small, has a radio and great battery life and a lot of storage for podcasts, playlists, etc.  My 2nd choice, and this really is driven by whether I’m expecting an important call, is my iPhone.  The iphone is bigger and bulkier than I’d prefer, but when the “real world”™ intrudes on my training time, it’s nice to have just 1 device for both music and to service those interruptions.

For sound presentation to my ears using either device I alternate between Yurbuds and Jaybirds.  In “my perfect world”  these two companies would partner and give me a yurbud earpiece with the jaybird bluetooth stereo headset, because I absolutely love the fit and feel of the yurbuds and the wireless freedom of the jaybirds, but I really dislike the jaybird in-ear spongy bud.  Not enough to not use them, but enough that I have to be in the right mindset to use them.  I just don’t like the dull rumble-thud that you get from sound transmission from  your body into the ear with the marshmellow-type bud.  If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ll know that I love the Yurbuds.  In fact I have several pairs some with microphones, some without and some spares.  When I want the wireless-freedom-feel but not feeling the Jaybirds, I’ll either wrap the Yurbuds cord around my visor band, or coil it up and tuck it inside my hat.  Both work well and keep the wires out of the way.

So there it is.  My choices for swim/bike/run electronic companionship:

Swim: swimp3.2

Bike: Cardo BK-1

Run: iPod shuffle and yurbuds

Happy Training!

StayFill Review – Slowtwitch.com.

I’ve been wondering for years why this didn’t exist… happy to see that it finally does!  Now… to me me some!

Six Simple Shoulder Moves for Better Glide : LAVA Magazine.

Good advice and well timed for many of us who are really ramping up the swim milage in anticipation of late summer/fall IMs.

Funny story. True story.

Yesterday when finishing my hills-repeats run, I’m running back home and in the distance I see a person wearing what appears to me to be a heart-rate monitor strap and a pair of black bib-style cycling shorts. I think to myself, “hrm.. I wonder where their bike is. Well they’re stopped at the light, maybe I’ll catch up.”

As I run and get closer, I realize that this person is a woman wearing a black backless dress and the strap I thought was a HRM strap was, in fact, her bra strap.

I actually laughed out loud at myself and continued on my run home 🙂

The Smog Dilemma: To Exercise Or Not To Exercise? | Sweat Science.

I’m inclined to agree w. Alex: I’ll exercise in the heat and with the smog.  I can’t control the weather on race day. If it’s super-hot and humid, I’ll just have to cope. Best to train in it and get used to it, than to hide from it.

Knowing that the smog won’t do any long-term damage is a plus. 🙂

Joe Friel – Coast or Pedal on a Downhill?.

I’m definitely guilty of pushing on the downs.  I LOVE to hit 70+ km/h on my bike.  I’m not sure that I’d have the discipline to coast above 50km/h…

I guess I should try.  😛

I’ve recently been working with 2 very different paddles from Finis: the PT Paddle (the paddle you’ll love to hate) and the Agility Paddles.  These paddles work very different skills in the water and are both extremely efficient.

The PT Paddle

PT stands for Perfect Technique.  These paddles effectively remove any advantage your hands may have in your catch or stroke, but keep your hand in a natural swimming position (unlike fist drills).  By removing the ability to use your hand in your stroke, you’re forced to enlist your forearm and body position more effectively to move yourself forward.    I’ll tell you, from several hours of personal experience, that these paddles do exactly that.

When you first put on the PT paddles and start swimming, you feel like you’re flopping around in the lane (definitely move down a lane (or two) when you start using these, unless you already have great form).  Your arms feel like they’re paddling around through the air and your tempo is definitely impacted.  A good time to start with these is when the pool is slammed with people who are slower than your normal pace – it’s a handicap that will improve your form. 🙂  After a few lengths you’ll have started enlisting better form. As you go, you’ll actually start to approach (or perhaps surpass) your normal pace.  Don’t stop at this point though: you’re (re)training your body and establishing new form – if you stop too soon, you’ll lose your gains.

After you’ve put in a bunch of time with the paddles, take them off and go back to a catch where you can use your hand, but try to not revert to hand-dependency.  You’ll immediately feel the difference in your swim and how much harder you have to work with your hand at the end of your arm.    Because you’re building new form, I suggest not doing too much of a swim after using the paddles, rather, get out of the water and let the new form “sink in”.

Because you’re pulling less water with each stroke, the PT paddles also make for a good time in working to increase your stroke cadence and get those neural pathways set as well.

The Agility Paddle

Finis released the agility paddle earlier this year, they’re very popular and can be a little hard to find, and with good reason.

Unlike many (all?) other paddles on the market, the agility paddle is held on your hand by placing your thumb through the hole in the paddle.  That small pinch, combined with the force of the water against the paddle is all that keeps the paddle in place.  Similarly, if your hand position is bad in your catch or just before your recovery starts, the water will happily pull the paddle out of position alerting you to your problem(s).   Similarly, if your catch enters the water without a good forward stretch or if you’re stalling in your stroke, the paddles will react to the water flow and push out of place or fall off completely.

I had been using the little sculling paddles with all but the middle-finger strap removed and achieving some similar results; however, the sculling paddles are a bit small and force an unnatural hand position.  The agility paddles keep your hand in an excellent swimming position, and due to their size also give you a good pull work-out, while all the time, helping to improve your stroke and hand position.

Two great products from Finis to help you improve your swim!  Train hard! 🙂