Chris Curtis Web Site

Wednesday 28 July 2004

Muvo

Filed under: Personal,Software and Web — Chris Curtis @ 21:45

I have bought a Creative (Nomad) Muvo NX – 128Mb. It is small, about the size of a cigarette lighter, plugs into the computer so you can put music on it then it plays it back through headphones. It even comes with an armbamd holder so I can wear it while working out or running. It works extremely well for these purposes – no weight to notice and on the arm means that I do not get tangled up in the earphone leads.

It is very easy to use, the sound quality is excellent and I get about ten hours out of a rechargeable AAA battery. I can fit 2 CDs worth of music plus a few extra tracks and could manage more if I did not mind losing a little quality. All I want now is the nice people at creative and audible to get the firmware right so I can listen to audiobooks on it too.

I have some Sony “comfort” earphones, except they are not – they sound brilliant but make my ear canals sore. They do cut the ghastly noise of loud pop music out at the gym, much better than the “over ear” ones I was using, but they are certainly not comfortable.

Getting better

Filed under: Orienteering and Running,Personal — Chris Curtis @ 12:53

Fitness and some injuries have been a problem for weeks now, so with the summer holidays here, it was time to embark on a serious training schedule. Doing this while still suffering some stiffness and pain in the lower legs is quite a challenge.

Thankfully, the local gym has some good “non-impact” aerobic machines, like eliptical trainers and steppers so I am now trying to go every day (most days so far!) and do at least 40 minutes aerobic at around 150 bpm heart-rate (officially 95% of my age-related heart-rate, but I know my max is around 180 so more like 80-85%). The non-impact stuff feels great – it works better than anything to relieve the stiffness. I am aiming to reintroduce running very carefully. Yesterday I did 5 minutes on the treadmill – 3 of which were running. This was fine – no noticeable effects, though starting to run I felt like I was rusted up or something – nothing at all moved smoothly. By the end I was running freely. The plan is very slight increases until I am running well on the treadmill, then begin some gentle work on grass. Hopefully, I will be running smoothly by September.

To complete the workout, I am doing some general strength and some very specific leg and especially hip work that does seem to make a difference already.

I am also aiming to work on “recovery” as well as stamina. Orienteering requires fairly short bursts of speed and short stops so I am using more “random” profiles on the machines – do the kind of training most like the event you want to do. With stiffness problems I am also doing lots of flexibility work – this is already paying off.

I guess I have to accept that at 46, I am simply not as bendy as I used to be, and will have to work at it.

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