Inside Fellsman’s head!

When overheard by my wife she commented “well they’ve got your number haven’t they”!

Review; Sony Walkman W Series MP3 Player

If you have ever seen a photo of me chances are I have earbuds stuck in my ears, I would like to think I am an audiophile but the truth is that I like to have a solid bass and no hiss! Yeah it’s not the safest thing to do but…well 2-3 hours doing anything needs some musical accompaniment. Up until a couple of years ago I was happy with the out-of-the-box Apple earbuds, then I discovered Sony Mdr-Ed12Lp, not the catchiest of names but these babies pack a punch and you can pick them up online for around $10, but there downside is that are susceptible to water, sweat, Cytomax; yeah I dropped an ear bud into an open handheld once! So when Sony hit me up to review there latest reincarnation of the Walkman I was in!

Now the truth is I am a bit late to the party on reviewing these; there are some actually pretty thorough reviews posted by other blogging buddies of mine including,

Frayed Laces; “Perhaps I just have abnormal ears”

ChicRunner; “I love this little guy”

Gretchen; “an excellent player for the gym or other low-impact sports”

Aron; “I would definitely recommend this”

So I am going to spare you the basics about the features, suffice to say it goes forwards and backwards. There are some nice touches that have not been mentioned in other reviews:

• It is iTunes compatible just drop and drag your music easy peasy, you can create playlists through new folders and then scroll through from the earset
• It comes with three sizes of earbuds so you can get a good fit; they’re really easy to change and you can mix and match to get the best fit possible
• The sound quality is really good, way better than the Apple buds and as good as my beloved Mdrs, deep rich bass and clear top notes
• The magnetic touch turns them off so as long as you close them you can save the battery, they also charge up really quickly approx 80% in 5 minutes from flat
• No cords, needless to say this is a total bonus
• Water…well sweat proof, yeah it’s getting pretty toasty on my lunchtime runs, today hit 98f

Of course there are a couple of downsides:

• Changing tracks on the fly is a bit tricky, you get used to it but it is a bit tricky!
• The fit, this is one size fits all, kinda, the loop that wraps round you head is one size and ergo if you’re an XL or XS cranium you could have issues…I am erring on the XL side
• One thing missing for those that run with a cell phone, these would be great if they were blue tooth compatible
• The earbuds, well here’s the kicker they rubbed the inside of my ear and for me that’s the deal breaker

Now just because they do not work for me does not mean they won’t work for you and thanks to Sony I have two pairs to give away to two lucky readers…and listeners I suppose!

So by now you know the form right:

Show some Facebook love will get you an entry.

Post about it on your blog will get you another.

Tweet “I just entered the @quadrathon win a @SonyElectronics W Series Walkman competition you can too http://tinyurl.com/4352l6h” and you can have three.

Finally let me know how many you entries you need by leaving a comment on this post for your fourth and I will draw a winner on Friday! Otherwise you can have a rummage in the garage for your old cassette player!

Hot ‘n’ Hilly!

Twelve hilly miles, the midday heat and nearly not enough water, that about sums it up! The planned run was changed due to a friend almost deciding to have a baby so to the local trail head we headed, yes we, if you follow me on Daily Mile you may have detected a bit of “we” not “I”, thanks to the Interwebs I have a running partner; Becca, and so for the last two weeks we have been running twice a week early in the morning and this weekend we ventured onto the trails again. Somewhat of a change of elevation and weather from last weekend, not a cloud in the sky and not a lot of level ground. So we set off up the Los Robles Trail.

Yeah there is a bit of climbing!

This is one of those runs where you are always in touch with civilization, for the first 3 miles you have a good view of the 101 Freeway and even when you drop down the backside there are houses scattered about, although you do get a good view of the next range which is a wee bit bigger

Boney Mountain

And on a clear day you can see the Ocean too

Of course as you can tell from the profile this is an out and back and what goes down has to come up! Ouch is really all could say, well actually it was a little stronger but you know what I mean!

Ouch is really all I could say, well actually it was a little stronger!

And so with nearly two and half hours on the clock we were back at the car with cold water and coconut juice waiting for us! Needless to say it’s a joy to be back on the trails and having someone to share them with and show them to makes it even more fun…and so slowly but surely my base and weekly mileage is slowly coming back and I can now refocus on my efforts on racing goals and longer distances…but another month of base building comes first and that’s just gonna be a month of fun early mornings and trail weekends!

PS the winner from last weeks giveaway a CamelBak Groove is Jason, email me your mailing address Jason and it’ll be on it’s way. Stay tuned for this weeks giveaway…not one but two Sony W Series Walkmans!