Wimbledon Common - and a free Flip video camera and free ipod

Just a short post today. I found the following clip of the Wimbledon Common Time Trial on youtube today, and thought it would give people who are considering entering an event an appreciation of just how varied the people are who run in these events. Hopefully it'll spur you on to do some yourself!!



Now, for the competitions!!

Over the next couple of days, I'll be announcing a competition for a free ipod and related goodies. If that's not enough for you, I'll also be announcing a competiton for a free Flip video camera! How good is that?

Remember to check back (or even more easily, subscribe to this blog using the links on the right to make sure you don't miss out!

Running music

When The Fat Runner started running, he used to do it without music. Since then, he has seen the light (so to speak) and started listening on his runs.

Initially, he used to listen to standard podcasts, either comedy or news or business. It enabled him to focus on something else other than the run, which seemed to work for him.

However, he always wondered how he could get some good music on his ipod - ideally a long mix which would just keep playing throughout his run. Well obviously he could buy some tracks from iTunes, but he's too tight for that.

So after a little searching, he found some podcasts with pre-mixed music and a minimum of talking, which he is now (or at least was) listening to on his runs.

The first ones are just general kind of 'music with a beat' mixes, but are actually quite good:

• Beatport.com burners
• Radio 538: Tiesto's club life podcast

The next one is specifically designed for working out to, and has a nice website to go along with it!

• fitPod.com: fitMix Archives

TFR's favourite, however, is actually a podcast which has published a set of hour-long mixes, all recorded with different BPMs - and the BPMs are included in the title so you know exactly what speed of music you are listening to:

• PodRunner

Now TFR has heard that running with higher BPM music can be a way to help your legs turnover faster, and therefore create some more speed. Perhaps this is true for elite athletes, but right now TFR's leg speed is more limited by the fact that when he increases leg speed, his heart rate goes up and he hits the limit he has set on his Forerunner.

But right now, by picking a song with a BPM which is close to his typical running speed (which is about 155 steps per minute) he can run, trying to keep time to the music, which just adds a little bit of a game to his workout, and means he doesn't hit the limit on his Forerunner quite so many times.

Try it out!