Thank you, Steve Jobs

94 Days to Paris.

There is an essential part of my exercise gear that I could not live or train without. Yes, I know that it would be pretty hard to run without a good pair of shoes, but the bushmen in the Kalahari seem to manage, so why couldn't I if I really had to? Shorts, tee-shirts, socks, yes all necessary, and I'm certainly not going to advocate running in the nude, but what I'm referring to is something truly essential, without which I am certain I could not do what I'm doing. My iPod.

I can not imagine having to spend an hour (or two, or in the case of the full marathon 4+) with only two things to listen to: my panting breath, and my inner dialogue. Now, I realize that for many runners, the time they spend hitting the pavement is their "quality thinking" time. It gives them an opportunity to reflect on the day to come, or the day that has just passed, or to wax philosophical about the meaning of life. Well, I say: Nuts to that. I do enough thinking during the day. Why would I want to listen to myself belly-ache about how sore my legs are, or how labored my breathing is, or how it would have been so much easier to just stay in the house, and why on earth am I doing what I'm doing, this is insane, you should just turn around and go back home right now!

No, I prefer to just plug in some good tunes, drown out the world (while, of course, keeping the volume at a safe level so I can hear the traffic around me) and let the music inspire and drive me. Listening to some up-tempo songs can't help but to get you going and keep your pace strong.

Now, back in the day, one could run with a Walkman or later on with a Discman, but they had one inherent flaw - they only lasted as long as the cassette or CD you had in the player. That was probably okay for a 5 or 10k run, but when you are trying to do a half or full marathon, you need something with more chutzpah, that will keep you going for several hours. Along came the iPod. With a massive capacity to hold countless hours of music, and with few moving parts to drain battery life, it was the perfect invention for the runner who doesn't want to have to listen to himself.

So, thank you Steve Jobs and all the other techie nerds at Apple for inventing the perfect piece of running apparel. I for one, would not be where I am today without my iPod Classic 80GB on which I have about 4,000 songs.

Training update: Did a 40 minute power walk at lunch (2+ miles). By the time I got home darkness was creeping in and it had gone down, in the last 2 hours, to -15c. So, seeing as how Hell had officially frozen over, and there was no way in that frozen hell that I would be running outdoors, I hauled ass to the gym. By the time I got there it was actually -17c. I must admit, thoughts of this blog are what motivated me to get my butt in gear, otherwise it would have been way too easy to use the cold as an excuse to just park my rear end on the couch and eat the homemade cookies my wife made today. 6.25 Miles (10k) on the treadmill. 56:38. 1108 Calories burned. Playlist: Metallica.