Tonight's tempo; My ipod gorilla shuffle

Tonight's tempo run

My tempo run went pretty well tonight. I kept my pace around 9:20 and my hr right around the middle of zone 4 (about 85% max hr) for a full 20 minutes without a break. So that's a big improvement over my past two attempts at tempo runs.  Overall, this has been a great week of training, so I'm feeling great about my training right now.

About the only eventful thing about tonight's run was yet another close call with a driver that wasn't paying attention. This time it was a guy in a truck turning on to the road I was crossing. He stopped just a couple of feet from me. That's the last time I run at night in a blue shirt - I'm sticking with white, and maybe getting some flashing lights and an air horn.

Looking at my hr chart for tonight's run, the first 10min are my warm-up, 10-30 min is my tempo, and 30-end is my cool-down. My tempo range is between 161 and 171 bpm. (I can pinpoint where my close call with the truck happened - blue circle).


More ipod shuffle stuff

So, this is yet another chapter in my ongoing attempt to get my new ipod shuffle to work with my sweatiness. (see earlier posts here and here to catch up).

So this time I pulled out the big guns: gorilla tape.

Gorilla tape is kind of like duct tape on steroids. It looks alot like duct tape, but it's harder to tear and it has a thicker layer of adhesive than regular duct tape.

I kept the duct tape I applied (described here) earlier. I added the gorilla tape over the ends of the duct tape. The gorilla tape folds over onto itself and around the wire, completely sealing the ends of the duct tape. As I wrote in my last post, the ends of the duct tape weren't sticking very well to the headphone wires, and when subjected to moisture (sweat) the ends of the duct tape started to separate. Also, the edge of the duct tape was sharp and irritating on my neck. The gorilla tape seals the ends of the duct tape, and also adds a slight fold to the sharp edge of the duct tape, pretty much eliminating the irritating edge.

Well, I'm happy to report that the gorilla tape seems to have done the trick. So far I've done a 2-mile easy run and tonight's tempo run with this tape job, and the tape is holding up well. Also, I've had no problems with my ipod malfunctioning. It isn't pretty, but it works (plus, nothing else about me is pretty when I'm running, so it fits in well). So, so far, so good. Saturday's 7 miler should be a good test.