I've started running

I used to say that I would only run when chased, but my wife signed me up for a 5k race this year and it seems to have stuck. I've been running almost every day, and enjoying it.

Of course there is technology involved.

No smartwatch or fitness tracker bracelet at this point, but I'm tracking progress by running with my phone. My wife introduced me to Runkeeper, which I've been using for every fitness-related run and bike ride. The five-minute audio cues of pace, distance, and time are great. At the recommendation of my brother-in-law I've also starting trying Strava, and the routes feature for challenging others looks cool. If the audio cues are similar to Runkeeper, I may switch to that.

Speaking of audio cues, I've also been loving the Trekz Titanium bone conduction Bluetooth headset. They sound good, but also allow me to hear other things and avoid getting hit by traffic.

I've also realized is that listening to music helps me not to focus on my breathing. My current favorite playlist is Power Music Workout (Amazon Music).

And I now have three different types of running shoes with various levels of cushion. Before buying new shoes, I read up on minimalist running (and decided it was a good enough idea to buy an appropriate pair of shoes, New Balance Minimus). My wife also convinced me to buy some cushy shoes (Asics GEL-Cumulus) and some medium-feeling ones (Nike Flex Run). I even liked my old non-name-brand shoes, but they just suddenly seemed to wear out. It's unlikely that they had 400 km on them though.

Those paragraphs probably started to sound like product recommendations. These are not recommendations, just what I've started using. I'm certainly not getting paid for talking about my opinions, but maybe I should check that Amazon Affiliate thing that people talk about.