Random Running Questions

I use Hoka Speedgoat 4's & 5's for most of the trails here in Ireland, more technical stuff (very wet, technical ascents/descents I have the X-Talon Ultra 260. The latter are hard and firm, not great on roads (obviously), but fit well and feel very trustworthy. I tried Salomon Speedcross 4's, hated them, too narrow and tight fitting. Found I rolled a lot on them.

I love the Speedgoats; as sav1 said there's a bit of difference between 4's and 5's. But I ran about a 90 to 100km with each in the Kerry Way Ultra and loved them both. 4's feel softer, more cushioned, not as good as 5's on muddy tracks but ideal for dry trails

I don't think so. Went to Spain last month with Maurten gels, drink mix and hydration tabs and no issue with it being in my carry on bag with Ryanair.

There are no issues whatsoever with any tablets or powders (of the sporting kind). Strictly speaking the gels should be in your bag for liquids and count towards your allowance.

I'm looking for an Android Interval Timer app that I can use in a C25k class does the following :

- Allows me to play a Spotify play list

- lower the volume of the music and plays some kind of noise when it's time to switch to walk/run etc

- resumes the Spotify play list

There is such an app for the iPhone which I think is called HIIT although it allows use of Apple Music rather than Spotify.

Would anyone have a suggestion?

The Munster Running blog has a decent enough calendar of events in Munster and some surrounding counties. It's not perfect by any means, but comes in handy sometimes - https://munsterrunning.blogspot.com/p/calendar.html

Not sure if there is an equivalent for the entire country, or Dublin/Leinster.

Lindie's is probably the best around

Lindie Naughton's list is by far the most comprehensive. That runningcalendar.ie one doesn't have Trim or Bohermeen, two of the biggest races of the year.

I find that keeping an eye on the upcoming events on myrunresults.com and popupraces.ie covers 90% of the road stuff. But then you have BHAA, IMRA, track meets etc. that only get listed together on Lindies blog.

I work in one of the hottest/sunniest places in the world and don’t think the solar does a thing on my Fenix 7

To answer your question, bought bone conducting headphones and they were a game changer. Much safer running around cars with them on

Quick one, has anyone heard of or used https://www.misterrunning.com/ before?

I suspect this wont be much use to you now, but I did a couch to 5k last year using an app called "Just Run" and it doesn't integrate with spotify inside the app or anything, but it does interrupt spotify to let you know the intervals. I'll be honest, I don't remember if it pauses the music or lowers the volume, but you can definitely hear the interval change anyways. I basically exclusively run while listening to music on spotify and this app worked well for me.

Best of luck with the running!

Just as a heads up, if you put on the "Audio Announcements" on Strava, it will do the same thing. Even though I ran this morning, I actually can't remember if it pauses it either :D

Thanks @witnessmenow

In the end I went old school and just used a whistle and manual timer while letting the music play away on the amp. The Interval Timer - HIIT Training app by Polycents on google play would probably have worked. While it doesn't lower the sound on Spotify the buzzers can be heard enough over it.

I bought a little device called a boot buddy for cleaning the kids boots after hurling etc. Have used it on some of my runners also and it works great.

I normally use baby wipes to get the worst of it off.

I've used dishwater tablets and hot water for the kids trainers but not sure if I'd be comfortable submerging expensive super shoes in that mix tbh...maybe using a cloth with that might do the trick?

All interesting, if you get them up and running drop a link to your git, I do a bit of tinkering too, have a good few pi(3,4 zeros) and esp32s lying around. With the weighing scales project above I would be inclined to use an ESP32 and transfer data using MQTT to a Django app on the same raspberry as the broker. Although if you have a smart scale you could link it to a Django app on a Pi without IoT devices.

Plenty of weather api's you could use with a bit of script to trigger messages :-) Use chat GPT or copilot to write it, saves hours

Oh cool! Yeah I mainly work with esp32 stuff, I got tweeting directly from an esp32 working last year and a good while ago I had played around with an esp32 talking ble to my scales so it's just a matter of squishing those projects together! Will post back here when I get it up and running

Haha, must get used to our chat bot based overlord doing my work for me!

Yeah I like that idea! Thanks