Category: Running

Music on the run - cheap

Tried a new MP3 player today: SKU34705 from dealextreme. This 11 $ player ships without a memory card, which will cost about another 11 euros for a 4 Gb micro-SD card. The build quality is not great - but I wasn't expecting too much for 11 $. It works however, and there are no cords since the memory-stick, player, and battery all fit in the back. That does make the headphones a bit more back-heavy than the conventional corded Sennheiser PMX I've used before (39.90eur at the local shop, for only the headphones!). The battery is charged from the USB-port, and the SD-card shows up as a disk-drive in Ubuntu automagically without installing any drivers.

Hope the flu is finally defeated now. 6 k at something close to 5:47/km today did not feel too bad.

2:12:56 Helsinki City Run

Despite forecasts of rain during the week the weather cooperated nicely and we only got wet after 18 km or so.

At about 14 km my legs started to feel heavy, and after the last gatorade+water station at 17 km I started walking all the uphills.

I finished in 6345th place (yay!) out of 13100 runners, and the timing-chip time was 2:12:56, my own garmin said 2:12:59, and my official time (start-gun to finish) was 2:13:16.

Results and info here: http://www.helsinkicityrun.fi

Sunday seventeen

The books seem to tell me that to gain endurance you don't have to run fast, and often recommend a pace 90s to 2min/mile slower than race-pace for long runs. That's around 6:30 to 7min/km pace if race-pace is a 4h marathon. My avg. pace was 6:48/km today at avg. HR 154. A recovery jog on Monday or Tuesday, and then a faster 5k on Wednesday or Thursday - that should be about the final prep for the half-marathon next Saturday.

This scenic loop is close to what they use for part of the Helsinki City Marathon (2009 map here).

Thursday eleven

This pace is slightly slower than a 2 hour half-marathon, but that is partly because of the traffic-lights and other obstacles in the course. Kilometers 9, 10, and 11 felt pretty good - I wonder how much beyond 11k the wall lies?

In other news, lucid lynx is out, and my desktop machine is taking forever to download about 2600 Mb of upgrades.

Tuesday 5k

The GPS has serious problems on "Nokia avenue" in between high buildings...

Legs still feel a bit heavy from 10k on Saturday. Pace is 4h marathon pace, or around 5:32 to 5:40min/km.

Sunday 12k

Slow 12k today. Felt fine until about km 7 or 8, then it was more work to get home. I should learn to eat and drink better during  the run since takes more than one hour.

Only three weekends, four weeks, until the planned half-marathon. I'll try to do 14k next week, then 16k two weeks before the event, but then probably ease off the week before the half-marathon, which is 21097.5 m long.

Through "micke-midlife's" blog I found a new Finnish running site last week, www.42195.fi

Sunday Seven

Long time no run (outside, that is). Snow is a soft and forgiving, if not very fast, surface to run on. Recommended.

Made another PIKANTO on Saturday, this time with a clear gelcoat. Will be interesting to see it out of the mould on Tuesday or Wednesday, stay tuned.