Showing posts with label Virtually Active. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virtually Active. Show all posts

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Saved again by Sudafed

The little red miracle
Tuesday's run (treadmill): 25 minutes
Wednesday's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

Hi, remember me? It's been a tough couple of days and I have not had the chance to post since Monday. I was in all day industry meetings over the past few days where I presented to various groups. I needed to prepare for those presentations on the train, so I wasn't able to write my posts.

Due to the rain, I was confined to the treadmill on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday morning, I used Virtually Active throughout the entire workout. The package I bought ($7.99) was of the Pacific Northwest and the video showed a combination of trail, mountain and city running. I liked certain things about it, but I wished I could raise the position of the iPad. The placement was lower than the view I would have during an actual run.

I'm not sure if the video had anything to do with it, but I felt dizziness throughout the morning and this turned into an intense headache by noon. I had just finished my talk when I realized that I probably had a sinus infection and needed to take Sudafed with pseudoephedrine. I caught the next train home, took my red pill and went to bed.

Pseudoephedrine is a bit of a miracle drug, at least it is for me. I felt good this morning but I had some residual dizziness and decided to forgo my run today. I think that was a good decision. I'm considering a lunchtime run in Central Park tomorrow and I'll see how I feel at the end of the day. With the rain behind us and sunny conditions ahead, I'm hoping I'll be up to it.

Friday, June 8, 2012

This thing conquers treadmill boredom

Hope there's no virtual bears in that tunnel
Today's run ( street): 2.5 miles

Yesterday afternoon, my friend KWL suggested that I download an app on my iPad called Virtually Active. It was a great recommendation and the answer to the question I've had since the day I took up running: How can you make the treadmill experience less boring? This app certainly has the potential to make my treadmill sessions much more entertaining.

The premise of Virtually Active is simple. You place your iPad on top of your treadmill's display and the application provides the experience of (virtually) running through mountains, woods, countrysides or cities. I had my kids try it last night and my wife tried it this morning on her run. I haven't yet tried it, but I will this weekend. If I like what I see with the 7 minute sample, I'll gladly pay the $7.99 price for one of the packs that offers six runs with durations between 10 and 60 minutes.

The weather was cool and dry this morning, so I did my run outdoors. I was surprised that I could see vapor when I breathed, because the reported temperature was close to 60°. It felt cool, but not cold. Certainly not that cold.  I enjoyed my run and thought I was making good time through my regular route.

I ended up covering the course in my usual time, despite a focus on speed for the last half mile. I must have started slower than I realized. I'm hoping to get out for a distance run tomorrow. The long run training I did for the half marathon was hard to do every Saturday,  but it did improve my overall performance. I need to get back in the groove - seven miles may a good target. Perhaps I'll also do a run in the Pacific Northwest, courtesy of Virtually Active.
 

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