Day: 58
Distance: 8.38km
Time: 45:31 secs
Calories: 649
The training plan specified "45 mins easy" as the run to kick off Week 9, but in the spirit of rebellion brought on from listening to the Clash, Rage Against the Machine and Girls Aloud too often I decide to try something different tonight.
I read an article in the Guardian a couple of weeks back which talked about exercising with music. The article mentioned something called AudioFuel and my interest was piqued when I read further and saw that one of the co-founders of AudioFuel had said that office workers should play "a track that really energises you - maybe a powerful rock track" to get you going. Being the curious type I clicked on the link provided by the Guardian and found myself at the AudioFuel website which provides:
Even more interestingly, they offer a free sample to download. This freebie consists of 16 minutes of dance tracks specially designed to get you running at different tempos. The session starts off with a track called "This one rocks" which, I'm told, starts at 150bpm and slowly increases to 155bpm. I set off and am surprised to find my stride locking into the beat straight away. The next track ups the tempo to 160bpm and I do actually feel myself speeding up and counting off the beats "1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4" in my head. So far, so good. OK, it's not music that I would choose to listen to normally but it seems to be a very effective running tool.
The remainder of the session includes tracks at 165bpm, a very short 'sprint' (frustratingly the voiceover doesn't tell you the bpm for this section) and a warm down. As I'm doing a 45 minute run I play the free sample three times in a row, which makes for a pretty varied run all round. Given that the session consists exclusively of what I would sneeringly generalise as "dance" music I'm surprised to find myself almost hypnotised at times and I realise that - unlike my running playlist - running music doesn't have to be music that you love.
So, would I recommend AudioFuel? I started off somewhat sceptical, but I have to say that based on this short promo I would recommend it to fellow runners. It's not for everyone, the voiceover which advertises AudioFuel at various points is somewhat annoying and I certainly won't be using it for every run. That said, if you enjoy listening to music whilst running or need some encouragement I'd say give it a go. At the very least, download the free sample from http://www.audiofuel.co.uk/free/audiofuel.html. At a price like that what have you got to lose?
The training plan specified "45 mins easy" as the run to kick off Week 9, but in the spirit of rebellion brought on from listening to the Clash, Rage Against the Machine and Girls Aloud too often I decide to try something different tonight.
I read an article in the Guardian a couple of weeks back which talked about exercising with music. The article mentioned something called AudioFuel and my interest was piqued when I read further and saw that one of the co-founders of AudioFuel had said that office workers should play "a track that really energises you - maybe a powerful rock track" to get you going. Being the curious type I clicked on the link provided by the Guardian and found myself at the AudioFuel website which provides:
"Ready made programmes for walking, jogging and running that combine coaching with music that has a beat to match and drive your stride"Interesting.
Even more interestingly, they offer a free sample to download. This freebie consists of 16 minutes of dance tracks specially designed to get you running at different tempos. The session starts off with a track called "This one rocks" which, I'm told, starts at 150bpm and slowly increases to 155bpm. I set off and am surprised to find my stride locking into the beat straight away. The next track ups the tempo to 160bpm and I do actually feel myself speeding up and counting off the beats "1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4" in my head. So far, so good. OK, it's not music that I would choose to listen to normally but it seems to be a very effective running tool.
The remainder of the session includes tracks at 165bpm, a very short 'sprint' (frustratingly the voiceover doesn't tell you the bpm for this section) and a warm down. As I'm doing a 45 minute run I play the free sample three times in a row, which makes for a pretty varied run all round. Given that the session consists exclusively of what I would sneeringly generalise as "dance" music I'm surprised to find myself almost hypnotised at times and I realise that - unlike my running playlist - running music doesn't have to be music that you love.
So, would I recommend AudioFuel? I started off somewhat sceptical, but I have to say that based on this short promo I would recommend it to fellow runners. It's not for everyone, the voiceover which advertises AudioFuel at various points is somewhat annoying and I certainly won't be using it for every run. That said, if you enjoy listening to music whilst running or need some encouragement I'd say give it a go. At the very least, download the free sample from http://www.audiofuel.co.uk/free/audiofuel.html. At a price like that what have you got to lose?
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