W7R1 - Laura's robotic cousin

[Chewy]

I thought I'd wake myself up with the first choice on my play list and having fixed the volume to full whilst getting the phone into an arm holder, I certainly did. AC/DC's Back in Black almost took my head off. I'm so glad I attended all those concerts in my youth otherwise I could have done my hearing some serious damage, as it is I'd already done that years ago.

That was 4 minutes of warm up and I started the run to Pink Floyd's Wish you were here which, being 13 minutes long would take me to the half way mark quite nicely. If you know the song you'll appreciate the scene - As I came to the open countryside Dave Gilmour played his famous four note sequence which contrasted with the red herring bone sky and made the hairs on my neck stand up. That was until endomondo, Laura's electronic cousin, announced the pace for my first kilometre (he got sworn at as well).

Past half way and Oscar Peterson cuts in with C Jam blues. I used to be a lead guitarist in my youth which taught me how to ignore the rhythm section, which is useful, because the tempo was far too fast but I do love the song. David Byrne of Talking Heads took over with a far more gentle "This must be the place" and finally Mink Deville closed out the gig with Spanish Stroll.

All in all a good run. I might wait until Friday for my next run because I'm flying out to the States for a business trip on Saturday and that's going to be an interesting experience for my running but more about that in my next blog.

[suki_007 Graduate]

Oh what a funny blog, that really made me laugh! The bit with Wish you were here and the dawn sky stuff does sound electric - sometimes it's great how things coincide - I love that track (and Back to Black too) and it's another coincidence as I'm just about to do a bit of work on C Jam blues! How weird is that? And your comment about the guitarists and rhythm sections, hahaa... Glad you had a good run, W7R1 was my lowest point, but it's been fab pretty-much since then. Happy running in the US!

[Chewy in reply to suki_007]

That's a really spooky coincidence Suki, especially the C Jam Blues since it's not a common track. The running is feeling good, not fast nor entirely pain free but acceptable.

[vixiej Graduate]

Sounds awesome! Wish you were here is one of my all time favourites. Its funny how the music can just suddenly fit the moment. I also don't run in time to the music, which is just as well, as I think there were only one or two songs on the podcast series that I could do that to.

Good luck with running stateside - hopefully you are going somewhere that has a temperature that suits you (or a good hotel gym!)

[Chewy in reply to vixiej]

Yes mine too Vixie almost since it was released which is a long time ago. It was really amazing with the sky over the fields, really wonderful.

[gdeann Graduate]

Welcome to week 7 Chewy!!!! Isn't it amazing how the weeks seem to fly by? Sounds like the run was good with great music, I hope you find a nice place here in the States for run 2!

[Chewy in reply to gdeann]

Thanks Gayle. I think I may have confused people by mentioning the trip. I'll still have one run here in the UK before I fly out on Saturday and that really should be Thursday. My rough plan is to leave run 2 until Friday and then do run 3 in the States.

[smhall Graduate]

Great playlist Chewy!! I am afraid I would have to find a bench, sit down and enjoy the music!! You are getting close to that much deserved badge!! Keep Running!! Oh yes, and watch that volume, too!!

[Chewy in reply to smhall]

Thanks Smhall, it is a list that can be just listened to I agree which was really what I was trying to achieve rather than a list to inspire the running.

[Fraz73 Graduate]

Well done Chewy. It seems like only yesterday we were here plucking up the courage to embark on W1R1 and yet here we are just a few short weeks later churning out the 25's. Who'd have thought it???? Brilliant job on starting week 7 and enjoy your US business trip. I can't say I'm not a little envious!

[Chewy in reply to Fraz73]

You're so right Fraz, it doesn't seem very long ago. Don't be envious of the trip it's the worst way to see another country because you really see very little other than airports, offices and hotels. But I can't complain, it is at least something different.

[Fraz73 Graduate in reply to Chewy]

Haha, very true. I've been lucky enough to do a lot of travelling for work in my 20's and saw much of the world, including visits to the US , but now I'm couped up in dreary rainy North Wales, I'm still jealous

[Soozz Graduate]

Great tracks, Chewy. Must put some Floyd on my iPod, WHY isn't there some there already? Sounds like you're enjoying W7, happy running.

[Chewy in reply to Soozz]

Absolutely right Soozz, Floyd is a must for running, not for the beat but just the enjoyment

[Hidden]

Ah Chewy, I was wondering if you were a real music head, as previous posts suggested you couldn't wait to get choosing your own tracks! Some great choices; looking forward to future posts and music suggestions. Congrats on starting week 7!

[Chewy in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Newbie. I needed Laura's confidence building earlier on but I think once week 5 run 3 was over I realised that if I could do that then I could do the longer runs, so why not listen to my music choice ?

[Chewy]

A very quick update just in case anyone is tempted to use any of the songs I mentioned.

I stated "Wish you were here" but I didn't mention the track name, I'm sure the Floyd fans will have guessed but I used "Shine on you crazy diamond, pts 1-5" which is conveniently 13 minutes long.

[janda Graduate]

Great stuff Chewy. Impressive playlist as well as the run. My heavy metal was more or less banned and removed from the then record collection in the early 90's! Glad to see you finding endomondo useful too. Good luck running in the US of A.

[Chewy in reply to janda]

Thanks Janda, I'm sorry to hear about your heavy metal censorship. Endomondo is very good, I'm becoming a convert, lots of great features and very easy to use.

[psarapsych Graduate in reply to Chewy]

Hi Chewy, at 54 I'm completely new to running and to C25K and was interested in your mention of Endomondo... I found something called sports tracker which is also brilliant and very useful as it tracks my altitude too - I live in the eastern most alps of Austria! Anyway, just wondered what old Endo does?

[Chewy]

Hi Psarapsych,

I did quite a bit of investigation into the different offerings for tracking yourself whilst running using your phone and they're all much of a muchness really. I chose Endo because people on the forum recommended it and it does seem to have a very slight edge on the features.

All of these type of apps (including Sports Tracker) offer the same basic functions which break down to roughly:

- An application on your phone to record your run

- A website which you subscribe to (for no fee) which allows you to store, analyse and share your results.

It strikes me that they focus on the social networking as much as the recording because they're obviously looking for the "Mark Zuckerberg" Facebook effect.

Endomondo records the GPS data which is standard for all applications of this type which really only records position and time. But if you think about it with position and time everything else like altitude, speed between points, pace etc can be calculated or extrapolated which is exactly what Endomondo does. So simply put, yes, it does do altitude.

The other features I quite like on the pro version (available for pence or cents) include things like being able to design your own goals with time or distance and making up your own interval training etc.

I could go on but I won't, all in all it's a good package but unless Sports tracker is lacking something you want it's probably just as good.