It's been a while since I posted on this running blog. I've started a few but they've all kind of just felt flat while I was writing them. That and I was just not in a good place at all for a long while and posting just felt like one big endeavor to share my depressive mood. I wasn't having that! Hence the unpublished posts.
So, here we are now entering another season of cold weather running. It's always bitter sweet. Like most folks, when I began running, I scoffed at the idea that there could possibly be anything enjoyable about running in sub-freezing temperatures. That is until I became an established runner and entered that first serious cold winter running season. I've never felt so alive as a runner. I was following a Hal Higdon winter training plan and as I remember it, it alternated between 45, 60 and 90 minute runs. 90 minutes! Out there in the freezing cold for 90 minutes! Except, it wasn't freezing cold. First of all, I had the right cold weather gear. Secondly, I discovered what a lot of other runners have discovered: When it's cold outside and you go for a long run, your body heats up quite nicely as you hit the heart of your run and you don't feel cold. You feel so invigorated to be free from those warm days where it felt so good to start a run but after a few miles your body would heat up and sap your strength and you would just feel totally spent. As I wrote, beginning a summer run feels very nice. However, beginning a winter run is somewhat opposite. Even with the right gear, it is often a bit frigid for the first mile or so and just knowing this creates a psychological barrier to forcing oneself out the door. So, the getting out the door is the hard part. For me, I have to remind myself that getting out that door is the most difficult part. I have to force myself to feel the chill and force my way through it. Sometimes it's more difficult than others. It's especially difficult when the sun has gone down as it often has by the time I am able to get out the door in the early evening. Some days, you just have that winter chill in your bones and the thought of heading out into that cold is about the last thing you want to do. Once out there though, it's a magical, crisp, quiet other world and that experience is what keeps getting me out there.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Saturday, July 9, 2016
JJSB RunDate 16053: Life Hack - Tube Sock as Arm Band
I'm back with a post after many moons. I actually started this one way back in April.
I wanted share a little life hack that a friend told me about a year or so ago which has worked out quite well for me. I was talking about needing to get one of those arm bands that people use for running, and a friend shared a link with me which showed how to make one out of a tube sock. Sure, you can buy an armband which works pretty nicely for the smaller phones like an iphone 5c etc. but finding one that works for a larger phone like the HTC One M8 that I have is a bit more difficult. It turns out that a tube sock fits the bill perfectly for me.
Now, most of the tutorials that you will find online, seem to be more suited to the smaller phones. They show a method of turning the sock inside out, sliding it over your arm and then folding the sock up over the phone. How to Make a Tube Sock into a Workout Armband
As you can see in the picture, this works very well for smaller phones.
For bigger phones, not so much.
You would have to have a pretty long tube sock to be able to use this method with a phone like mine which is a whopping 6 inches long. (You know what they say about the length of a guy's phone... Ok, they don't say anything) The 6 inch length means that in order to use this fold over method, you would need a tube sock of which the leg portion (everything ankle and up) is roughly 12 inches long. That length of sock would come up roughly to my knee. Although some women probably have tube socks that length, most guys do not. The leg portion of the tube socks that I have are roughly 6 inches long so when folded, it only covers up about half of my phone. This does not work well when you begin to run as the phone is not secure enough to stay in place and is constantly in danger of bouncing out of the sock. NOT GOOD!
For my larger phone, I've found that using the sock without folding does the trick and I couldn't be happier with the results.
Here is what I did:
1. Choose a tube sock that still retains nice tight elasticity at the upper leg portion of the sock:
2. Cut off the leg portion of the sock. This is everything from the ankle up:
3. Slide the sock onto your arm and all the way up to a few inches below your shoulder:
I wanted share a little life hack that a friend told me about a year or so ago which has worked out quite well for me. I was talking about needing to get one of those arm bands that people use for running, and a friend shared a link with me which showed how to make one out of a tube sock. Sure, you can buy an armband which works pretty nicely for the smaller phones like an iphone 5c etc. but finding one that works for a larger phone like the HTC One M8 that I have is a bit more difficult. It turns out that a tube sock fits the bill perfectly for me.
Now, most of the tutorials that you will find online, seem to be more suited to the smaller phones. They show a method of turning the sock inside out, sliding it over your arm and then folding the sock up over the phone. How to Make a Tube Sock into a Workout Armband
As you can see in the picture, this works very well for smaller phones.
For bigger phones, not so much.
You would have to have a pretty long tube sock to be able to use this method with a phone like mine which is a whopping 6 inches long. (You know what they say about the length of a guy's phone... Ok, they don't say anything) The 6 inch length means that in order to use this fold over method, you would need a tube sock of which the leg portion (everything ankle and up) is roughly 12 inches long. That length of sock would come up roughly to my knee. Although some women probably have tube socks that length, most guys do not. The leg portion of the tube socks that I have are roughly 6 inches long so when folded, it only covers up about half of my phone. This does not work well when you begin to run as the phone is not secure enough to stay in place and is constantly in danger of bouncing out of the sock. NOT GOOD!
For my larger phone, I've found that using the sock without folding does the trick and I couldn't be happier with the results.
Here is what I did:
1. Choose a tube sock that still retains nice tight elasticity at the upper leg portion of the sock:
2. Cut off the leg portion of the sock. This is everything from the ankle up:
3. Slide the sock onto your arm and all the way up to a few inches below your shoulder:
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