Saturday, April 7, 2012

BPM Music Run

So, I've been hearing from some friends about training to certain cadence with  Beats Per Minute, or BPM.


It seems that efficient runners tend to run with about a Cadence of 90, or 180 BPM.  Now this can be done throughout your walk/run cycle.  All you have to do adjust your stride to go faster.
  
I downloaded some interval podcasts from Podrunner.com.  I chose one from their interval sessions for 10K training.  The music I listened to had a range of 137 to 154 BPM.  Now my coaching session in Runkeeper was the one I used from a few days ago, so in no way, shape or form did it match up to the intervals that the music was set to.


So, whatever BPM music was playing at my intervals from Runkeeper, is what I did.  I actually ended up doing some walking at 154 BPM and some Jogging at 137 BPM.


Surprisingly, my pace times ended up a lot more even than what I usually turn in.  In my later segments, I still slowed down some, but not as wildly as I normally do.

Intervals Pace (min/mi)
5:00 (warmup) 17:30
1.00 mi (steady) 14:53
0.25 mi (slow) 17:52
1.00 mi (steady) 15:43
0.25 mi (slow) 17:56
1.00 mi (steady) 15:43
0.25 mi (slow) 16:34
1.00 mi (steady) 14:43
0.25 mi (slow) 15:29
5:00 (cooldown) 15:55
1:42 (extra) 18:21


I did my Overpass route for some hill action.  I went over the overpass a couple of times and then ran around the neighborhood twice also.  No rooster and no little doggie tonight.



Yes, I did a 5.69 run tonight!  I actually forgot to re-set the repeats on this coaching section in Runkeeper and I was concentrating so hard on keeping to the beats that I didn't even realize I was over 5 miles!

My Polar Heart Rate Monitor shows that I averaged a 152 BPM Heart Rate.  This is part of my disappointment with the Polar HRM that I have, it only reports an Average, so I cannot load it into Runkeeper to see the actual segments where I go High or Low HR.  

There were a few sections where I was really starting to huff and puff, luckily the Podcast music had slowdown breaks about every 4 minutes or so.  It usually worked out that once I was starting to get overworked, a slowdown segment would come up and I could cool back down and regain my breath.

Now, even though I had some heavy beats beating in my ear (I run with only one earbud in), I had this annoying song stuck in my head.

I would really like to kick whomever it was that sent me this song.  I shall now punish all of you with it now... yes, Baby Monkey!  You thought Small World got stuck in your head and drove you nuts, just listen to this once!



On the gadget front, I did end up getting my iPOD/iPHONE wireless transmitter and its working out great!  I'm catching up on some of my Disney Podcasts that I've not been listening to regularly (Sorry Paul, Tracey and Scott, Dudes and Cats!  :(  )

Both of my vehicle car radios have the ability to go a little below the US Standard 88 on the FM.  So this transmitter I have has a "hidden" feature to let it go into Japanese or European mode.  In Japanese mode I can set it to 87.9 and be fairly clean signal anywhere I go.  Overall I'm very happy with my purchase.

So I called in to Sirius/XM to cancel my subscription and they gave me a free 3 month extension.  They must be desperate to keep their subscriber numbers up, because this is the 2nd time they've given me a free extension.  I find that I really don't listen to it all that much anymore.  My favorite station (Fist Wave) has really gone down in quality since I first started listening to it.  The merger between Sirius and XM really turned good stations into mediocre ones.  The stations now heavily repeat the sames songs, in fact when I was on vacation and listening to it for many hours at a time while driving to Florida, I could ALMOST figure out the rotation order, as I'd hear the same songs just about 2-3 times A DAY!  Every once in a while, they'd throw a curve ball in there, but mostly the same stuff over and over again.  


Now, if anyone were to think they'd like to get me a nice Birthday present next month, I wouldn't be upset if a Garmin Forerunner 405CX or the Forerunner 405 showed up at my doorstep.  Nope, not upset one bit at all. (/end subliminal message)


I'm going to beat my head against the desk to see if I can get that song outta my head before I call it a night.  Speaking of which, I think I'll end this post now.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,
~Kipp

Lighter, Stronger & Faster for 2013!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon
January 7, 2012-  FINISHED 3:48:49

2 comments:

  1. Great job on the mileage and consistency. Very cool. It's good to try different things to see what works best for you.

    Ummm...I can say that song won't easily get stuck in my head as I just found it too odd :)...sorry it gets stuck in yours.

    Keep up the great work.

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    1. Thanks! I'm trying to set goals. I've been trying to figure out what pace I'd need to get in order to be ahead of the 2:45 crowd at the Half next January. Finally found some big split charts that I was able to figure out that I'd be needing to complete a 10K in 1:05 or better. I think it'll be a subject in the near future for one of my posts...

      Oh! That's what I thought when I first heard that song. Then... out of the blue, I've got the doggone thing repeating in my head... ARRRGH!

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