Who loves the Postman?

I DO!!

The goodies from Emirates Air arrived today (Monday Feb 28)! The umbrella is surprisingly cool, but the highlight is definitely the two iPod Shuffles!

I showed my pop how to set his up and reviewed playlist creation best practices – manual and “smart”.

I went through the same thing with mine and tested it out on a dog walk. So far mixed feelings about the “voice over” feature. I guess tech has to start somewhere and it can’t know the names of all my playlists, but having a computer say to me “playlist 1, playlist 2…” and so forth, was less than helpful. This is my first iPod that does not have a visual interface for data selection, and I imagine that this “voice control” is the first way that “works” that they came up with to help you have any navigation options at all. I will probably stick with one giant “running” playlist and leave it on shuffle.

Dog walk you say? I could not let that stand. I went for a dark and damp run about 9 pm. Sweats, light rain jacket, headband thingy and headlamp – and the new shuffle.

The thing is so tiny you forget it is there.  Once you get used to how to attach it to your clothes without mashing all the buttons, it is simple to use. Running hands-free was great and eliminated any unwanted cord movement problems as well. I really enjoyed this vs carrying my iPod classic. I got hit with a little Sabbath during my stretches, Pixies, back-to-back Ratt, RPG, and Nirvana for the cool-down.

I made it back into the neighborhood and a little further than yesterday. I did feel like i could easily make it to 2 miles+, but i was beginning to have some heat in my legs and i decided to hold back.  Hopefully this means that tomorrow i will feel as awesome as i felt today and be able to run again instead of being laid out from overreaching…

1.89 miles, pace 9’12”

Who Loves The Sandman? Me, me!

Lil’ Agnes (the new thermarest) is really super. I had some minor hesitation when i had to buy this instead of simply replacing Big Agnes. Yesterday before sleep-time i had a brief email chat with my dear bud (and personal AT through-hiker) Jake. Jake was excited that i was done with Big A and into the thermarest.  How much more of an endorsement do you need than a vote of confidence from someone who walks most of the AT every summer? How about a second commendation from a professional caver?! Rene gave thermarest the big thumbs up and praised its endurance.

I not only felt great stretched out on it for some pre-sleep reading, i had fantastic dreams and woke up refreshed and excited.

One more piece of the puzzle may be the addition of one of these bad boys. This product is so simple, but what an awesome idea!

If you have a sleeping pad, or other inflatable gear, watch this demo!