Wednesday and Thursday were cold days here in Portland, but dry. I donned the leggings for the first time this fall and headed out. Both days were somewhat slow (especially Wednesday when I nearly averaged nine minute miles) but I got in relatively good miles: seven and eight plus. My cardio still needs improvement to get ready for the race, but the big area was just my energy in general. About 3/4s of the way through both runs my legs started to tire, which I did expect. I found myself willing myself to keep going through miles that just weeks ago were coming easily. So all in all there is work to do.

I did figure out a new way to drag my ipod along that I thought was interesting and partially a “no duh, why didn’t I ever do this before.” I have a belt clip on my ipod and would clip it to my waistband. To do this and wear my water bottle belt, I would pull my shorts up high so that a couple inches of material was above the belt, then I would clip the ipod to this. The problem was that I would then look like a basketball player from the 70s wearing short shorts. This compounded as I ran and the shorts seemed to work themselves even higher. I’m not hugely into running fashion, but I don’t want to look too dorky! So another solution has been needed. I tried clipping to the water belt, but the belt material was too slippery and my ipod would slide off. So yesterday I decided to just carry it in my hand which wasn’t too bad as I have to do that with my radio if I take that. As I was doing this I checked my watch to see how much time had gone by and and idea hit me. Why not clip the ipod to the watchband. So I tried this and wrapped the extra cord around my wrist. It worked brilliantly. I modified it a bit and switched wrists and it worked even better. I think I finally have a good ipod solution.

Speaking of ipods, the Seattle marathon is ipod-friendly. Apparently some races will not allow any music devices in their races. Supposedly this is for safety, which I agree can be an issue if you are not paying attention. But if you keep the sound down and focus on your environment (watch for cars, kids, dogs, cracks, objects left out) you are fine. Some races also encourage racers to talk to each other. Now this I believe is a really good reason to not listen to music/ But if you don’t have anyone to talk to, then what? Overall I am very glad Seattle allows ipods. This seems to be more and more of a trend with races these days. Go solidarity!

Wednesday and Thursday were cold days here in Portland, but dry. I donned the leggings for the first time this fall and headed out. Both days were somewhat slow (especially Wednesday when I nearly averaged nine minute miles) but I got in relatively good miles: seven and eight plus. My cardio still needs improvement to get ready for the race, but the big area was just my energy in general. About 3/4s of the way through both runs my legs started to tire, which I did expect. I found myself willing myself to keep going through miles that just weeks ago were coming easily. So all in all there is work to do.

I did figure out a new way to drag my ipod along that I thought was interesting and partially a “no duh, why didn’t I ever do this before.” I have a belt clip on my ipod and would clip it to my waistband. To do this and wear my water bottle belt, I would pull my shorts up high so that a couple inches of material was above the belt, then I would clip the ipod to this. The problem was that I would then look like a basketball player from the 70s wearing short shorts. This compounded as I ran and the shorts seemed to work themselves even higher. I’m not hugely into running fashion, but I don’t want to look too dorky! So another solution has been needed. I tried clipping to the water belt, but the belt material was too slippery and my ipod would slide off. So yesterday I decided to just carry it in my hand which wasn’t too bad as I have to do that with my radio if I take that. As I was doing this I checked my watch to see how much time had gone by and and idea hit me. Why not clip the ipod to the watchband. So I tried this and wrapped the extra cord around my wrist. It worked brilliantly. I modified it a bit and switched wrists and it worked even better. I think I finally have a good ipod solution.

Speaking of ipods, the Seattle marathon is ipod-friendly. Apparently some races will not allow any music devices in their races. Supposedly this is for safety, which I agree can be an issue if you are not paying attention. But if you keep the sound down and focus on your environment (watch for cars, kids, dogs, cracks, objects left out) you are fine. Some races also encourage racers to talk to each other. Now this I believe is a really good reason to not listen to music/ But if you don’t have anyone to talk to, then what? Overall I am very glad Seattle allows ipods. This seems to be more and more of a trend with races these days. Go solidarity!