High-tech Running

It's been a really long time since I've posted a blog! My running life hasn't been that exciting lately, given that it's summer and I'm not training seriously for anything yet. I've been doing mostly easy runs, with speed work once per week. We were blessed with an actual spring here in the DC Metro area, so it didn't get consistently warm and humid until around mid-June.

I wanted to share my adventures in getting a new GPS watch! Last year, I wrote a post about what I don't want in a GPS watch. Emphasis on the "don't". GPS running watches are trying to be everything to everyone nowadays, and I really only need the basics.

Garmin Forerunner 45
Last month, Garmin launched their new line of the Forerunner series. I was really excited because it

Garmin Forerunner 45s

seemed like the Forerunner 45 had all the basic features I wanted, plus the ability to customize workouts, without all the extra fancy stuff. And at only $200, the price was right. They even offered an "S" model for smaller wrists, like mine.

My touch screen Garmin 630 was okay, and got the job done. But it annoyed me constantly, wanting to sync my contacts playing the music that was on my phone whenever I accidentally hit the wrong button. It also would re-start when I put it on the charger, and then turn back on with the wrong time of day. Finally, on pre-programmed workouts, the beeps were not loud enough to hear. So I couldn't tell when the intervals started and stopped, which is kind of the whole point of pre-programming the workouts.

I purchased the Garmin Forerunner 45s thinking it would be a less annoying watch, and I also like that it had a heart rate sensor. I haven't worn a heart rate monitor in over 5 years, and I thought it would be cool to analyze that data post run, but not show it during the run.

What I loved:

• The optical heart rate monitor seemed accurate
• The fit was sleek and more streamlined than my 630
• I could turn off all the features for notifications, etc. during my runs
• It was not a touch screen

What I didn't love:

Garmin Forerunner 45s

• There was no auto-scroll feature, so if I wanted to switch data screens while running, I would have to do so by pressing a button.
• The battery life seemed shorter than that of my 630
• The "lap pace" was rounded to the nearest 5 seconds, so I couldn't get as precise of a reading on my pace as I wanted.

I didn't even realize the lap pace was rounding until I went on a long run and the pace kept jumping from 8:25 to 8:30 and nothing in between. And then I saw some 8:20's and 8:15's. But it was always a multiple of 5. That was a deal breaker for me.

I returned the watch, and since it was a brand-new model, they let me exchange it for the Forerunner 245, which is the next level up. Of course that was a $300 watch, but now I was hooked on the heart rate data and the sleek fit, and didn't want to go back to my old touch screen.

Garmin Forerunner 245

This watch solved all of the problems I had with the 45. It has an auto-scroll feature for the data screens, a long battery life, and it does not round the lap pace! I also love that I can customize activity profiles. The 45 offered this, but you couldn't name the profile. I created a "track" profile on my 245 that shows lap time rather than lap pace so I can pace my track workouts by elapsed time. 

It also has a heart rate monitor, which allows it to provide all the cool stats for VO2 max, the race time predictor, and effort level. The heart rate monitor seems accurate, but I don't necessarily think the other stats are; they are just fun to look at.

While I liked the idea of getting a very basic Garmin, the Forerunner 45s was missing a few key items, which forced me into getting the 245. Overall, it does seem like the 245 is a superior device and I'm happy with it. 

Aftershokz Trekz Air

Onto another high-tech topic: running with music. I used to run with music all time when I was a treadmill runner. For long runs outside before I met my husband, I used an iPod shuffle. I even raced with music until around 2010. The reasons I stopped running and racing with music are:

• I started running with Greg, and I couldn't hear him with music playing
• I started running outside more, in neighborhood streets, so I needed to hear the cars
• My iPod Shuffle died, and they don't make them anymore
• Headphones are so bulky and I didn't like having that long wire
• I learned to focus on my running and my thoughts instead of the music

A few years ago, I noticed that you could now get headphones that were wireless (connected to your

Aftershokz Trekz Air

device via bluetooth) and that didn't sit in your ears so you could hear your surroundings. This appealed to me, but by that point, I was so used to running without music that I didn't get them.

But last month, I figured it would be cool to try them. Especially since I have an Apple Watch that holds music, so I wouldn't need to carry a phone or other device. In case you're wondering why I have an Apple Watch, I use it mainly as a safety device. If I'm running alone, I can make a phone call or get an Uber if something were to happen. Also, if I wake up before Greg and I'm out the door running before him, he calls me on the watch to find out where I am so he can meet me for the rest of my run.

Anyway, I reached out to Aftershokz to see if they would give me a pair of the Trekz Air in exchange for a review on Instagram, and they agreed.

I have small ears and earbuds always fall out, even when I am not moving. These headphones fit really well, though, because they didn't go inside the ear. They didn't move around a lot while I was running, and the sound quality was great. I was able to hear the music AND my surroundings which was a huge bonus. And no extra wires!

I have to admit I do really love running with music. I've decided to limit it to easy runs only so that I am not "addicted" to them for hard runs or long runs. And at that, I don't wear them on all easy runs. I view running with music as a treat, which I get 2-3 times per week.

The Garmin Forerunner 245 has a "music" version which stores music. This would eliminate the need for the Apple Watch. However, I did not get that version because I don't want to control my music from my Garmin. My Garmin is for tracking my run displaying run stats. I don't want to look down and see the name of the song or even have that as an option. My Apple Watch works just great, and I don't mind "double wristing" it, with the Garmin on one wrist and the Apple Watch on the other.

So, now I am all set with my new Garmin, my Aftershokz headphones, and my Apple Watch! It's important to me that all this high-tech stuff doesn't weigh me down and I refuse to run with my phone. I'm excited to have heart rate data again and I am interested to see how that data changes over time as I build fitness in the fall.

What headphones and GPS watch do you use? Comment below!

Music Organization Issues

Having mono and not being able to run or do much of anything else has given me the opportunity to address my iTunes Music Library issues. I've been meaning to tackle this project for a long time now, but I've never had the time. Just this weekend, I've spent over five hours doing this. Not to mention time spent in previous weekends.

The problem: I had a computer virus back in 2009, which caused me to lose a large chunk of my songs. Many were backed up to "the cloud" but many were not. The problem was identifying which ones were lost, if I had them backed up on data CD's anywhere (I used to play MP3 CD's in my car), or if I would need to re-download them. I have an iPod with most of the songs on it, but I have never been able to figure out how to transfer songs from an iPod back to a computer. So the process is going through the iPod, song by song, to see which ones are not on the computer.

To complicate matters, I got a new computer back in May and not all songs made the transfer. It took me several tries to get what I thought was all of them, but now I am noticing I am missing some songs that were on that old computer. It sounds straightforward-- just copy everything over. But for some reason, it just was not that easy. Part of the problem was that my music was stored all over the place, not just in "my music". I've been using my computer to store music since 1999, before iTunes and before computers were really setup that way. So stuff is scattered.

Another problem: I would really like my iTunes library to have the correct album and year for each song. The year is very important because songs represent eras in my life. I organize my physical CD collection by date, so it's like a timeline of my life. Related to this, I would like accurate play count data. The 2009 virus wiped out everything, so I had to start from scratch. But then for awhile I couldn't properly sync my iPods because they had pre-virus music on them, so no play counts were being recorded. Accurate play count data is important because it tells me how obsessed I was with each song. Unfortunately, the data has just started to become accurate this year as I begin to address these issues.

My time on this music project has been spent:

• Going to Wikipedia to verify album title and release date
• Entering that data into iTunes
• Uploading songs from regular CD's and MP3 CD's 
• Managing duplicates
• Going through the iPod to see which songs are missing from the computer
• Going to Amazon.com to purchase songs that are missing (and I have made the mistake twice of buying songs and then finding them just minutes later! Very frustrating.)
• My music library is too large for my 16G Nano, and they don't make them larger, so figuring out what songs I want on the Nano.

Throughout this process I have run into so many iTunes problems like "you aren't authorized on this computer" for stuff I bought through iTunes years ago. I followed the directions on how to fix, and it didn't work. So I still have about 20 songs I can't play, even though I bought them. This is why I have been buying from Amazon.com for the past few years. Plus, it's less expensive.

My Favorite Songs

I'm going to guess that a lot of people have similar problems as their libraries have expanded, they have upgraded computers, they have moved from CD's to strictly digital, etc. I inspired Greg to get his library organized, and he's just in the early stages now. It's very addictive, especially if you are a perfectionist. Greg has been avoiding this for awhile, just listening to Pandora primarily and not downloading new music. But now he is realizing all the music he doesn't have that he wants to have.

As frustrating as this may sound, it's a fun project! I am really enjoying listening to everything, analyzing my music taste and trying to get as many stats on my music preference as possible. I'm not done yet, and I still have a list of about 20+ songs to download. But for now, here are the stats: 2,832 songs for 15.32 Gigs, or 8 Days worth of music. This does not include any of my Broadway collection, because I find I need to be in a particular mood for that, and I don't want those songs appearing in shuffle. Those are all on CDs still.

As a side project, I wanted to identify my all time favorite songs. Ever. This is tricky because songs I was obsessed with a long time ago aren't ones I am as in love with now. But I loved them so much then, I feel like they should be on the list. So, I made a playlist of all the songs that I really, really liked. I went through all 2,832 songs and pulled out each one. This list is 168 songs or 1 Gig. So about 6% of my songs are ones that  made the "all time favorites" list.

Within this list, I pulled out a few that are the timeless best songs ever. Songs that every time I hear them, I just want to play them over and over and marvel at how good they are. There are 35 songs that fall into this category. The top 1%. I used the rating feature to rate them 5 stars. Everything else on the list got 4 stars. Eventually I will go through the rest of the library and assign 3, 2, and 1 star songs. I do like most everything I have, so a rating of 2 or 3 isn't bad. It's just that the song isn't as amazing as the 4's or the 5's.

And then. . . I tried to infer my favorite all-time albums. That's a hard one because some albums have songs with lots of 4's, but no 5's. And some albums have two 5's, but no 4's. Hmmmm. Same problem with favorite artists. Take the Counting Crows, for example. They have 3 songs that I rated in that top 1%. But they don't have many others that I really like. Same with Coldplay. Neither of these bands have come out with anything good lately, so I certainly wouldn't call them my favorite bands.

I really wish iTunes would let you download to Excel for a thorough music analysis.

Most of the 35 songs are slow. Although I enjoy a mix of upbeat/fast and slow/ballad songs but I think that it's difficult for a fast/upbeat song to really tug at the heartstrings. And when I love a song, it's because it tugs at the heart strings. This list is NOT a good "sample" of my library. Most of the library is modern/alternative rock. I might go into serious depression if this was my whole library.

Without Further Ado, here are my top 35 songs:

Date	Artist	Title	Album
1993	Counting Crows	Perfect Blue Buildings	August & Everything After
1993	Counting Crows	Omaha	August & Everything After
1993	Duran Duran	Ordinary World	Duran Duran
1993	Duran Duran	Come Undone	Duran Duran
1994	Lauren Christy	Vanessa's Father	Lauren Christy
1994	Stone Temple Pilots	Interstate Love Song	Purple
1994	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Something's Always Wrong	Dulcinea
1995	Collective Soul	The World I Know	Collective Soul
1996	Counting Crows	A Long December	Recovering The Satellites
1997	Live	Gas Head Goes West	Secret Samhadi
1997	Live	Lakini's Juice	Secret Samhadi
1998	Tori Amos	Jackie's Strength	From The Choirgirl Hotel
1999	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Californication	Californication
2000	Coldplay	Spies	Parachutes
2000	Lifehouse	Breathing	No Name Face
2001	Live	Overcome	V
2001	Puddle of Mudd	Blurry	Come Clean
2001	Tantric	Mourning	Tantric
2002	David Gray	The Other Side	A New Day at Midnight
2002	Dishwalla	Somewhere In the Middle	Opaline
2002	Jason Mraz	The Boy's Gone	Waiting for My Rocket to Come
2002	Red Hot Chili Peppers	By The Way	By The Way
2002	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Midnight	By The Way
2002	Tori Amos	Sorta Fairytale	Scarlet's Walk
2003	Muse	Hysteria	Absolution
2003	Tori Amos	Angels	Tales of a Librarian
2004	Five For Fighting	NYC Weather Report	The Battle for Everything
2004	Five For Fighting	Devil in the Wishing Well	The Battle for Everything
2004	Keane	Bedshaped	Hopes and Fears
2005	David Gray	Nos Da Cariad	Life In Slow Motion
2005	Jason Mraz	Plane	Mr. A-Z
2007	Fall Out Boy	Fame < Infamy	Infinity On a High
2007	Foo Fighters	The Pretender	Echoes, Silence, Patience
2007	Jimmy Eat World	Dizzy	Chase This Light
2011	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Even You, Brutus?	I'm With You

One problem with this list is that some of these songs are actually the same. For example, the two Duran Duran songs off of the same album sound a lot alike. I can't decide which I like better. It's kind of like saying "I like Duran Duran's sound on these songs" versus two totally different songs. The same is true of the Five For Fighting songs. Those two are very similar, but it's impossible to pick which one I prefer. So they both make the list. On the other hand, the Red Hot Chili Peppers songs and the Tori Amos songs are different from each other.

Anyway, I'm almost done with this project, but still very annoyed at the amount of music that disappeared that I have to purchase again. It's been extremely time consuming, but since I haven't been able to do much else with my mono, it's been a good thing.

The mono seems to be slowly getting better. I'm going to work, but minimizing anything else away from the house. I'm basically just slow and weak. I don't walk as fast as the average person and my head feels dizzy sometimes. But it is getting better. I just need to continue to be patient.