Inside the Mind of Suz

I bet all of you thought I had, huh? I have not!

I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone that sometime “life happens”, and when it does, you simply adjust. That’s what I’ve ended up doing all winter and so far this spring.

I do still plan on creating a whole set, but it will probably feature different music. I know I put up a poll asking what y’all wanted to hear (Old school R&B/Hip-Hop won) and I intend to start with that. Thing is, aside from some of the chart toppers and my personal faves, I don’t think I have enough songs to get through more than a couple of podcasts. That’s mostly because I can’t find comprehensive lists of the R&B/Hip-Hop Top 25 for each week/month during the 90s like I probably could for the 2000s. (If any of you could direct me to a nice list, that would definitely help!)

I’m also not above reusing some songs that appeared in the c25k Podcast, because let’s be honest Bell Biv DeVoe, old Biggie, TLC, & Janet Jackson tracks, Tony Toni Tone, En Vogue, and Salt n’ Pepa belong in this set! Don’t worry, though. The recycled songs won’t all appear in the same playlist.

So, I am trying to work on Gateway to 8k a little bit each day. I’d give you a target release date, but I’d just end up disappointing y’all, when it came and passed without some podcasts lol!

“The tribe has spoken!”

Ok, the poll for desired Gateway to 8k podcast music has been open a while and I think I have enough data to get started on creating the series.

The majority, 43% of you, want to hear Old School Hip Hop and R&B. Can’t argue with that! I hope y’all are ready for some good tunes from the 90s! I’ve been downloading a lot of SWV, Total, Tony Toni Tone, Biggie, TLC, Janet Jackson, Color Me Badd, Bobby Brown and more! I’ve noticed that this era is what largely makes up my iTunes library, so the more the merrier!

After old school Hip Hop and R&B, you guys want to hear today’s Top 40 hits (23% of your votes). I must admit to not listening to much radio. I can’t stand commercials and I refuse to pay for satellite. However, I do keep up with the Billboard charts, so I know what songs are doing well in the marketplace and airwaves. Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” is the #1 song in the country, and I will definitely have that song on a playlist. Same for the Black Eyed Peas’ “Imma Be”. But y’all already knew there’d be a healthy dose of BEP. I’m a stan.

Coming in 3rd, with 25% of your votes was 80s, baby! There’s just so much to choose from! So, I’m sure I’ll have lots of fun with that as well. This should be a very fun training program for you runners!

So, I’m gonna get started! Now remember, I’m going to make a few weeks’ worth of podcasts before I debut them. I don’t want to have life happen and then force any of you to fall behind because I can’t keep up with making 1 podcast per week. I’ve got built-in “oh shi*t time”, just in case!

Well, you guys have talked me into it! I asked for feedback, and you guys have delivered! I now have all the info I need to resume my podcast-creation hobby!

I’ve decided to begin with the Gateway to 8k running plan, as outlined by DJ Steve Boy and will be starting from Week 1. I’ve decided that when the plan requires you to lower your BPM, I’m going to say something to the effect of “slow down your pace”, in the vocal cues. Then, based on however your fitness is, you can decide whether that means just to slow your run down a little (to a job) or walk. For most of the weeks, the slow BPM interval is only for a minute, so I don’t think a walk would throw you off too much.

So, that’s my plan! But I still need some feedback from y’all. I want to know what type of music to use for these. At the end of the day (don’t you hate when people say that?), I’m picking the songs, but I’m perfectly fine with y’all choosing the genre of the playlists. So, to help decide, I’ve created a little poll. Feel free to vote below! I’ll leave it open for a week or so, and use the results to decide which priority to make the g28k podcasts in.

And don’t even bother writing in Country or Rock, cuz it’s just not going to happen lol. You can write in artist-specific playlist ideas, though. After all, I did do a Britney Spears and Michael Jackson playlist and was thisclose to doing a Janet one.

Now, keep in mind that it’ll be a few weeks before the first week’s podcast gets posted. I want to give some time to vote in the poll, as well as some built in “lazy time” before I start sharing. What if I get distracted, fall behind, and y’all have already started the plan? Then I’m already messing up your training. I don’t want that to happen. So, I’ll probably already have a few weeks finished before I even start posting, so that doesn’t happen!

Also, I’ve received some emails, and a comment, about putting up a donation button on the blog. I’ve always enjoyed this process since I, too, use these podcasts. But, if you really want to, I’ve never been one to turn down donations! I thank you all for spreading the word about my running podcasts and giving me such valuable feedback.

I’d been putting it off for a while, but I had an excuse: I couldn’t find the folder where I kept all my running podcasts!

When I was forced to get a new computer, after my old one crapped out, I needed Spotmau Powersuite 2009 to recover my files. But then I couldn’t remember where I moved them to! Figures, right? I finally located them this weekend and gave the podcasts page a much needed update!

First of all, I finally fixed the Week 3 podcast, since it had one too many interval in it, much like Week 4′s before I fixed it earlier this fall. I updated the playlist for Week 4 as well. Then, I added the Michael Jackson Week 4 podcast to the page. It hadn’t been there yet, but it is now!

If there’s anything else, please let me know and I’ll try to get to it. I am still planning on longer podcasts. Please feel free to give your feedback to my most recent post on the matter.

If you are one of the thousands of peeps who have downloaded my podcasts, this post is for you. Specifically if you are in the group that has requested more podcasts of the longer distance variety. I stopped at 5k, but there are training plans for 8k and 10k and quite a few of you are fiending for podcasts to help in your training. I have said before that I would have no problem creating a new set, and looked for feedback, and never really got any.

So, if you are one of the visitors that is interested in this, I really need you read this entire post and comment below, so I can figure out how to do this for y’all.

About a year ago, I wrote about how after I got to Week 9, I just kept repeating it week after week. That meant I was just doing 30 minute runs, not increasing my workload, and thus, not challenging myself further. I actually did get some feedback in that post and was directed to Gateway to 8k and other similar training programs. So, that’s not the problem.

Thing is, I don’t know where to jump into any of those sets. Also, I don’t monitor BPM. All I deal with is run/walk intervals.

So take the Gateway to 8k program [LINK]. Week 1 looks like this:

5-min. warmup @ 132-137 BPM
7 min. @ 145 BPM
1 min. @ 137 BPM
7 min. @ 145 BPM
1 min. @ 137 BPM
7 min. @ 145 BPM
1 min. @ 137 BPM
7 min. @ 145 BPM
1 min. @ 137 BPM
5-min. cooldown @ 137-132 BPM

The whole BPM thing throws me a little. Is the lower number, 137, supposed to be a walking interval or just a little slower paced run? Also, doesn’t it seem that, after doing a full 30 minute run (Week 9 of c25k), that this run would be taking a step backwards? Should I start a little further into the program instead? These are the questions I ran into last year when I was asked to consider making more podcasts. I figured that since more people are commenting on the site, that now would be a great time to bring this up again.

(Likewise, the Freeway to 10k outline can be found here.)

If someone could chime in and “break it down” for me, that’d go a long way towards me figuring out how to hook everyone up! I know I’ve already said I would create a new set of podcasts, to train for the longer races, and I will. I just need a little direction! Please?

Here it is:

  Week 4 Podcast - Michael Jackson Mix #1 Redo (21.8 MiB, 3,359 hits)

I’d write more, but I’m on my way out the door to give it a test run. Let’s hope I did this one correctly!

ETA: The run was nice. Listening to some of my MJ faves (up-tempos only!) just made time fly! Here’s the playlist:

1. “Beat It”
2. “Smooth Criminal”
3. “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”
4. “In The Closet”
5. “Jam”
6. “Leave Me Alone”

So after it was revealed that I suck at life, I decided to edit the poorly made “Ghetto Week #4″ podcast and try it out.

And oh what a difference taking out that one interval makes! I almost wish I hadn’t been in as good shape as I was last year so I could have struggled a little through the Week 4 podcast and possibly figured out that I had made it incorrectly. Last year, I didn’t even blink. Week 4 was just another week. But it was soooo much more manageable without that extra interval! Imagine that!

Oh, and guess what? I did Week 3 wrong too! Great, huh? So, that’s two out of nine so far. Best believe there are more screw ups! I mean, it is me we’re talking about!

I see now how I misunderstood the little summaries Robert Ullrey gave. For example, the Week 4 description goes as follows:

We’ll start with a Brisk five-minute warmup walk. We will then have 2 repetitions of the following: jog for 3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds, then jog for 5 minutes, and recover with a 2 1/2 minute walk. Then we will repeat the intervals jogging and walking for a total of about 18 minutes. We’ll finish up with a 5 minute cool down.

I think his use of the phrase “2 repetitions” and later “repeat the intervals” is what screwed me up. So, I took it as doing the 3 minute run & 90 second recovery intervals twice. Then do the 5 minute run. Then repeat the 3 and 5. If I had actually listened to his podcast, I wouldn’t have goofed, but I didn’t, so it’s my fault. But I wanted y’all to see why I made them like I did. If he had left off one of those key phrases I could have gotten it right. Nah, who am I foolin’? I probably would have screwed up anyway!

I am still working on the Michael Jackson themed Week 4 re-do because I am having a hard time narrowing down which songs to use. For just a 30 minute workout, I’m gonna have to be picky! But, for right now, I edited the old and incorrect one. There are still no vocal cues, though. Download:

  Week 4 Podcast - Hip Hop & R&B Mix #1 Redo (15.5 MiB, 3,701 hits)

I will redo Week 3 too. Since no one ever complains about dying during that one, I’ll probably delay that for a little while. Also, it takes a little longer to redo a podcast that has audio commands layered over them.

Stay tuned!

No, I really am. And apparently my tool-like actions reach all the way back to last year!

I have been leading all of my faithful Couch to 5k devotees astray without even knowing it! And I would have continued to do so were it not for helpful commenter Mel, who pointed out that I cued up the Week 4 podcast incorrectly!

As you’ll recall, that is the podcast I labeled as “ghetto”. I was in a super hurry when making it and appears that I did so by adding in an extra 3 minute run and 90 second walk interval. So, not only are there no vocal cues, but I’m making us all do more work than we’re supposed to do that week! AHHHHHH!

Look, I always knew I sucked a little, but this just takes it to another level. I’m so, so, so sorry! And to make it up to you, I’m going to make a proper Week 4 podcast, complete with cueing, this week. And to honor the great Michael Jackson, the entire podcast will be my fave MJ songs.

So, again, I apologize! Look for the new podcast in a couple of days! Feel free to use the comment section to e-stone me. I deserve it!

I am officially gearing up to begin making more running podcasts. I previously mentioned that I was going to continue from the Couch to 5k set on towards 10k training. That’s still my plan.

I looked at several different training programs — including CoolRunnings and PodRunner — and decided I will use PodRunner’s, but a slightly altered version. I don’t do the BPM thing at all and BPM is alllll over their breakdown page. (If you’re looking for a training set of podcasts like that, you won’t be able to find them here. Sorry.) I need to keep things simple, for my own sake, so all I can offer are vocals cues that tell you when to run and when to walk.

I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to put this together. The only way I can think of using “intervals” without really putting too much emphasis on BPM is just to give a vocal cue that says “slow your pace for 60 seconds” or something like that. I don’t really know how else that’d work. Or maybe I should just create podcasts where you run at a steady pace for the duration of the workout. That’s the way the final few runs for the Couch to 5k plan went. I know that really isn’t an option when you’re just starting to run, but it’s different once you’ve been at it for 9 weeks.

Basically, what I want to do is create a product that will not only be easy, but also extremely effective for everyone. I’m hoping to run a 10k this year, and I want to be prepared! I’m open to suggestions from site visitors, too! So if you have an opinion, please chime in!

A 5k to 10k podcast set.

Well, y’all have been working on me a great deal since I stopped making the initial round of c25k podcasts back in September. Quite a few have inquired about whether or not I’d be continuing training with the goal of completing a 10k race. I still don’t know if I will or not, because the running window of warm weather months may not allow it, but I will make some podcasts that build on the 5k and get you ready for a 10k.

msugrad_99 directed me to a website with breakdowns for 8k training. Upon snooping around the DJ Steve Boy website, I did find podrunner intervals for a 10k, so I think I’ll go with that.

I don’t think I should start at Week 1. I’m assuming that people downloading my podcasts will have already completed the plan up to a 5k race, and are just wanting to build on that base. So, I need to figure out which week to start at on. Suggestions?

Also, I know nothing about BPM. I didn’t even know what it was until I Googled it! I didn’t take it or anything else into account when doing the c25k podcasts. All I know is warmup, run, walk, cool down. So, that’s how I will approach the next set of podcasts. I gotta keep it simple yo!

Don’t expect to see anything right away, but I could have the first one ready in the next month or so. I’m already on the lookout for songs that I haven’t used yet. And don’t worry, I will be providing more 80s podcasts. They just don’t make music like they used to!