IPod's for Dummies (or, " IPod for a Dummy - Me")

I have a good sense of rhythm, but a lousy sense of pace. This is a problem for me, because I am trying to become a better, stronger runner but I often seem clueless during my workouts.

The only pace I can keep consistently is the LSD pace, and that's only because it's keyed to something I do extremely well - talk. That is, I know I can jog for a pretty good distance without stopping (currently 1.83 miles - according to Google Pedometer - Satellite View) if I jog slowly enough that I can talk comfortably with my jogging companion. That's great for the weekly length builder, but not so good for those workouts where I want to build speed or strength.

I've tried running, biking and lifting to music and I like it, but it's pretty hit or miss (for once, no pun intended). I have good quality headphones with AM/FM radio built in, but they don't work in some places, like the Y under the Concourse, and you are never quite sure what song you will get, or if you will hit those unending commercial breaks. My older CD player allows me to select the music I want, but it's a little bulky, and I can't even imagine trying to carry it on a run. If I wanted to change the pace of my workout, I would either have to carry multiple CD's, or burn a "mix-tape" - and I just can't be bothered.

I have resisted the ubiquitous IPod's that my children (23 and 20) favor - they just seemed so high-tech. But, my desire to run better has brought me around. I have turned to John Bingham and Jeff Galloway to learn how to be a better runner, and I learned that Jeff has collaborated on run/walk music, and the music has built in warm-ups and alternate run/walk periods and cool downs - and that sounded very good to me. I went on line and found Jeff Galloway Run/Walk Music, and I thought I would try it. Then I discovered that everyone has gone high tech - I could buy a CD, but not only would it take longer to get here but it would also be more expensive than an MP3 file of the same music.

So I bought an IPod. It's not too fancy - it's a 2GB 2nd Generation Nano, and I bought it refurbished from the on-line Apple Store, for $79 plus tax, about $85 total. (Refurbished nano's like this are not available all the time, so if you want one and they aren't in stock, check back from time to time) IPod Shuffles are now available for just $39, but they don't let you choose what you hear - they just play whatever songs are stored on them randomly. I wanted to be able to select what music I listen to. The nano has the famous IPod Scroll Wheel, which lets me do that very easily.

I wanted something more secure than the ear buds that come with the IPod, so I swapped out the SONY Behind the Head Ear Phones I had been using with my CD player. They are light weight, and stay put, even during vigorous exercise. I paid about $15 for them at Circuit City.

Through the tutelage of my son, I quickly learned that the key to easily getting music onto my IPod is ITunes. You can download the software free and it really is very easy to use, at least it was after Jon demonstrated it for me and walked me through it a couple of times.

When I want to get music onto my IPod, I fire up ITunes on the desktop, and then I connect the IPod to the computer, using a cable (it comes with the IPod) that plugs into the bottom of the IPod on one end and into a USB on the other. One of these ports is handily located on the front of the CPU, a little ways below the disk drives. Once it's connected, though, you are not supposed to unplug either end until you click on an icon in ITunes to virtually "eject" it - I don't know what happens if you don't do that first.

With the IPod connected to the desktop and ITUnes, I get lots of choices. If there's anything in the ITunes library I like, I just click on it and drag it over to the IPod icon. If I have a CD, I just pop in into the disk drive. ITunes "sees" it and asks me if I want to import it. When I click ok, ITunes imports the songs into the library. I can watch the progress it is making, and it dings when it's done. Then I click on the music library, click the menu button in ITunes that lets me sort by date - this pops the songs I just imported to the top of the list. I highlight the songs I want, click on them and drag them into the IPod icon. Pretty easy.

I can also buy music on-line from the ITunes On-Line Store. I had to register the first time I went there, but after that you just search for what you want, download it and follow the same procedure outlined above. The really cool thing to me is that I can buy an entire album, or just one song. This is a wonderful feature if you are a fan of one-hit wonders, want one particular song, and could care less about anything else on the album.

You can also download MP3 files from Amazon. You will need to set up an account with Amazon if you don't already have one. The first time you want to buy music this way, you will have to download a small software application, but that's pretty easy, too. You can download an entire album - I found that the prices for albums on Amazon are cheaper than those on ITunes - or just a song or two, for $.99 - the same price on either site.

After one week, I now have 103 songs on my IPod, and have a little over 1Gb of memory left, a little over half of what I started with. I've downloaded a pretty eclectic bunch of songs and albums - two mix tapes Jon gave me for Xmas over the last two years to expand my musical horizons, some old favorites like Journey, (much to Jon's disgust!); and Billy Idol; and some new favorites like Amy Winehouse, Sara Bareilles, and Feist.

Jon also found an down loaded 45:33 original running music composed and recorded by LCD Soundsystem, commissioned by Nike.

Will training to music make me a stronger and faster runner? I don't know - I'll keep you posted.