Interval

I'm not a runner. I'm a rock climber who runs occaisionally for fitness--speciifcally cardio, and keeping my body fat low. My understanding is that if you run more than 20 or 30 minutes 3 times a week, you are running for reasons other than fitness. If that is correct, most of the music you find on fitPod, ironically, isn't really geared for fitness running. At any rate, fixed BPM mixes of an hour or more duration are of little use to me. I typically run for about 25 minutes preceeded by walking to warm-up, and followed by walking to cool-down. I can walk to just about any BPM. For my running, I'm finding it helpful to organize my favorite running music into two playlists in iTunes. One list has 120-140 BPM music. The other is for when I kick it into high gear, which for me right now is 160-180 BPM. Sometimes I may start with the something from the slow list for a few minutes, kick it up to the high list, and then back to the slow list at the end. Or I may gradually build faster and faster. If I can ever figure out how to do it, I'll post my two lists later as fitlists. A couple of the Nike iMixes on the iTunes music store are organized in this way--but I haven't sprung for them yet. (In fact, reading the comments posted re the treadmill workout is what originally led me to Steveboy and through him to this site) SteveBoy, if you are listening, I'd love to see some shorter mixes that mix it up, BPM-wise. Hopefully this doesn't all come across as a complaint. I really appreciate the music, and this site.

Here's a short guide to picking the best MP3 player for running, indoor workouts or heading into the back country.

Flash Players Flash MP3 players - which store your music on a small computer chip - are skip-proof and very rugged. Most flash players have no moving parts, so a rough and tumble ride through a wooded canyon or a hard slog up the local Heartbreak Hill won't phase it. The real problem with flash players is capacity. Currently, most flash players max out at about 512 megabytes (MB), enough to hold about 150-200 songs, and higher-capacity models usually cost over $200. Before buying a flash player, consider your listening style. If you want something that you'll grab on your way out the door and intend to use for only a few hours at a time, a flash drive of 512MB is perfect. Most current flash players, except the Apple iPod Shuffle, have bright readouts for track and title information and some even have extras like clocks and stopwatches.

Mose is preparing for his first 5k race using the previously-mentioned Couch to 5K training plan which prescribes timed intervals of alternate running and walking. To avoid constantly checking his stopwatch, Mose set up his iPod to let him know when the next interval starts: Using iTunes I’ve created a playlist with a song for each running or walking interval and set the stop time of each song for the length of the interval. Now, when the song changes I know I need to transition from jogging to walking or vice-versa. Clever! To do this, in iTunes, right-click on a song and choose “Get Info.” In the Options tab, set the song’s stop time.

Interval runner Jeff Welch developed a script which creates an iTunes playlist in which songs stop and start at timed intervals so he knows when to switch from running to walking without checking his watch.

The script only works on Windows with iTunes, and it inserts a little DING! noise between songs signalling you to switch gears. Sync it to your iPod and you’re ready to run, no watch required. Read more: