Matt Starts Running April 6, 2006
Matt over at PhysicsDiet.com has recently started running for exercise. He’s posted a bit of info about how he’s going so far – Running – Getting Started.
Matt is using a similar approach to how I started – alternate periods of running and walking, going for about 30 minutes at a time. He started about a week ago with run 30 seconds/walk 60 seconds (or sometimes a little longer), and has already built it up to run 45 seconds/walk 60 seconds.
It’s a little concerning to read about Matt’s trouble with his Achilles Tendon, although it sounds like it’s responding to rest/ice/elevation and the soreness is reducing with each run. Hopefully it’s just a matter of strengthening it up over time.
Although I can now run all the way around my 3 km course, I find that it’s pretty heavy going and pushes me well out of my aerobic heartbeat range. I now run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute most days, and run the complete course only once per week to see how well I’m improving.
The interval training method does seem to increase my fitness faster than just running to exhaustion, and it only adds about 1 minute or so to my total time for the course. Those little walking rests allow my body to recover a bit, and I make up most of the walking time by being able to run faster afterwards. Besides, it’s easier than running to exhaustion 
.
It’ll be interesting to follow Matt’s progress and see how he improves in the coming weeks.
iPod Warning February 16, 2006
It’s official – the iPod is a killer device.
An Australian woman living in London was knocked from her bike and killed in a traffic accident, possibly because she was listening to her iPod and couldn’t hear the traffic noises around her.
Reports from Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers contain warnings from police about the use of ‘distracting devices’ in potentially dangerous situations that require your full attention.
I highly recommend the use of iPods while exercising as a source of entertainment and/or motivation, to make the activity less boring and to help you keep going. I stress, though, that you need to make sure their use is not distracting your attention and putting you in danger. It’s one thing to wear your iPod while walking in a park or riding an exercise bike at the gym, but it’s another thing entirely to be taking on city traffic while loud music drowns out what’s going on around you. So many of the safety cues we receive in those situations are auditory in nature, and you are literally risking your life if you choose to block them.
Most of what I listen to while walking or jogging is spoken word – podcasts, interviews and audio books. While music tends to completely drown out background noise, I find that spoken word audio allows much of the background noise to come through in the natural pauses between words and phrases. It just doesn’t ‘fill up your ears’ like most music does. Even so, I only listen to it when I’m exercising in a low-risk environment.
The bottom line is: Use your common sense, and be safe out there.