So here’s the deal. I’m poor. Now, that’s a very relative term, I know. And a word which (depending on who you ask) has very different meanings. So I’m going on the definition based on the most two recent financial books I’ve read which use net worth as an indicator of wealth rather than income. And right now, my net worth is broke a** po’. Thank you college student loans. So, why do I share all this? Simply to say that I find great joy in finding things that are FREE!  Or even things that are FREE* (*with advertising).

Enough buildup already…my new favorite running tool is the PODRUNNER podcast.  I’m sure this is old news to most people, but I’m a rookie. I’m also not a huge fan of running with music. Well, I am, but I find it gets in the way more than helps. Not to mention that running is a great time to get some quality prayer time in. HOWEVER…my inner self-pacing mechanism has never quite worked properly. Or at all. If I run 3 miles, my splits are usually 8:12, 9:36, 11:07, or something spectacular like that. The first time I used the podrunner podcast I used the 151 BPM track. And the results? Ten minute miles EXACTLY. Oh yes.

So the next time, I upped the ante to the 155 track and hit 9:00 miles almost exactly. I’m digging this. Now don’t get me wrong, you can still cheat. You can still take smaller steps or bigger steps. For instance, using the 155 podcast I went 3.64 feet per step versus 3.38 with the 151 podcast. (Yes, I used excel to figure all this out because I’m a super geek). Now I could have just run a bit up tempo because the beginning beat had a spanish vibe that I was digging. Maybe it’s that I had just watched the bachelorette where they were in Spain and was just in the La España spirit.  (uh, that is to say that my wife was watching la bacheloretté, and I just happened to walk through at a couple of parts).

Anywho, for those of us to po’ for a fancy garminator or an ironman(ator?), a free podcast will have to do.

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