Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Podcasts Are Still a Bit of a Mystery. Or, Thing #21.

Honestly, I get the idea of podcasts. They sound pretty cool, truly. I just haven't yet found a use for them in my real life, I guess. Some of the blogs I enjoy reading post podcasts, but I haven't ever actually listened to one. When I'm in my car or at home, I'd prefer to be listening to music (or to have the Mets game on in the background). Here's another confession: I haven't even listened to most of the web challenge podcasts! (Ack! I know!)

But along came Thing #21 and I couldn't escape any longer. I use itunes for my music, but the idea of browsing itunes for a podcast didn't really appeal to me. Instead, I decided to go with the recommendation route. I've been reading a lot of interesting things (through some of my photography buddies, actually) about a Couch to 5k running program designed by coolrunning.com. I have been meaning to get back into exercising, and being that this program starts with the assumption that you're a couch potato, I figured it might actually work. And THEN I discovered that someone had created a Couch to 5k podcast. This guy Robert Ullrey created these podcasts to go along with the Couch to 5k program. With Couch to 5k, you're supposed to go through week by week and gradually increase how many seconds/minutes you're running at a time. I'm sort of lazy, and didn't really like the idea of timing myself. But! The podcast takes all of the thought out of it - Ullrey recorded himself telling you when to run and when to stop (with some crazy techno music thumping in the background). I tried it out last week, and while I wouldn't say I'm a total podcast convert, I do quite enjoy this particular podcast. As for the running, we'll see if that sticks.

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