Touchscreen Notebook

Good for:  Coolness factor, surprisingly convenient option of "touching the screen" to do what you want

Not so good for:  Older techno-phobes, Windows 8 annoying interface

Things have been a bit quiet on my side for the last week and a bit.  Reason being, I was first getting ready for and am now on, a flying visit to Malaysia! Being a true Malaysian who lives abroad, I have 2 interesting items on my agenda:  Eating and shopping.  :P  

I'll save eating for another post, but today I went shopping with my family. 

First I was dazzled by the colours clothes in F.O.S., and eventually I bought a touchscreen notebook.  I am not keen on Apple products, and do not own or use any computers other than my work machine, and my mini laptop at home.  So this is my primary means of storing data, tracking training and social-media-ing.  My criteria of selection was coolness, small(and light)ness and ability to transfer and process training data and pictures.

I first looked at a tablet with a keyboard option, but was told that whilst it appeared to be equivalent to a laptop, a tablet is not capable of supporting special software that I use regularly such as Adobe Acrobat, Garmin Training Centre, and Suunto Movescount. It was "USB capable" but only had one USB port.  And it did not have an SD card reader.  Good to know.  That just rendered it incapable of fulfilling 60% of my requirements.  So it was back to a more traditional laptop option in the end.  But with a touchscreen, hah!  It had to be cool in some way, right?!?

Examining the soles of your running shoes

Good for:  Getting an idea about your running style and what shoes suit you best
Not so good for:  Muddy shoes indoors :)

I remember a time when I bought the cheapest trainer on offer in the sports' shop when I was a student in the UK.  I ended up running in weird shoes, the weirdest being an indoor tennis shoe, although I did not know it at the time.  Then I started buying "real" running shoes from a running shop in Aberdeen.  The recommended shoe at the time were "stability shoes", something I wore for many years after.

That is, until I noticed the sole of my shoes last year.  The picture above shows my current running shoe.  As you can see, it is unevenly worn, with the inner, bottom part of the soles practically brand new.  I am a mid- to fore-foot striker.  Even more interestingly, it was a natural running shoe (bought from my friendly local shoe shop) which I would now not trade in for any of the padded stuff you get on the market today.

But you can learn a lot by looking at the last pair of shoes you have been running in.  Bring them to your local shop and they will be able to give you some good advice.  :)

Suunto Ambit2 S

Good for:  A "normal" looking watch with geeky functionalities, a very small wrist, compatibility with gym equipment (e.g. iQniter used for spinning at Varde Fysioterapi & Traeningscenter)

Not so good for:  Configuration on the go, compatibility with Training Peaks

Ok so the picture is a bit weird.  I have tried to illustrate just how small my wrist is by comparing it to a can of tomatoes.  :P

But that said, I recently (albeit a few months ago) decided to venture off the path of Garmin (Forerunner 910X being my last purchase) after 7 years, to try something new.  I had experienced a lot of hardware problems with my Forerunners in the past, so I bought myself a fancy Suunto Ambit2 S.  First impressions:  It looks cool!

But turns out that it is not as easy as the Forerunner (maybe I am just opposed to change), and everything has to be pre-configured from their proprietary website, Movescount.  This means you cannot suddenly decide you want to add "Auto Pause" to the watch whilst you are out running and stopped at a traffic light.

All in all it was good to try something else.  Even if to convince myself that it was worth dealing with the hardware problems of the Garmin Forerunners.  But this white watch looks better and weighs less on my little wrist.  :)