cdShuffle

Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.

For those of you not hip to competitive running jargon (or maybe even for those of you who are…), this post’s title refers to one’s PR or Personal Record. When you run a race, or even in practice, you’re generally always against the clock, aiming for a new record. I recorded a new record today. It wasn’t really a lifetime record, because I used to be a lot faster when I was in high school, but it was a recent memory PR: 15:57 for 2 miles…not bad says I. Sub 8 minute splits is good news. Now I only have to work on that patience. 😉

This great time can probably be attributed to a few different things. There were two confounding variables in my run today: I used a different (older) treadmill, which may not measure correctly, and the fact that I used my *brand new* iPod Shuffle! I’d like to think the Shuffle helped me take my mind off the everyday aches and pains and tiredness, so I’ll stick to that story.

I bought myself the shuffle a few days ago, but didn’t open it until today. Three weeks ago I told myself that if I had good runs 4 days a week up until February 5th, then I’d buy myself an iPod of some kind. When I checked the Apple store at school the other day, I had to buy myself the shuffle, even though it was still two workouts prior to my goal, because I was afraid that when I finally hit my goal the store would be sold out. That would have been horrible…to have to wait a few more weeks. I did hold out on opening the new toy, though, which was good of me. Nice job, Josh.

As you can see in the picture above, the iPod shuffle is many times smaller than my old CD player, and it holds literally 20 times as many songs at one time. Technology is simply amazing. The iPod is also skip free, which is the main reason I bought it…so I can take it running without missing a beat. The thing I will miss about my CD player is the fact that it plays the radio. There’s nothing like listening to NPR in the afternoon, and now when I do it I’ll have to be either in the car or at a computer. In any case, the Shuffle is a beautiful little machine, and hopefully will help as I continue to run! (By the way…the construction of “Josh’s RunTracker” software will commence at some point today. Perhaps I’ll have a beta version up tonight…but don’t hold your breath.)