One Bud Flatlines

Just over a week ago, on runs leading up to a rare business trip, one of my Galaxy Buds+ earbuds starts refusing a charge, the left earbud.  I did all sorts of things to try and get it working again, from cleaning it, to resetting it...jiggling it in its case trying to trigger the green charging light...but nothing works.

I decide to pack both my failing Buds+ and my new Buds Pro.

The funny thing is that I have not been willing to run with my newer buds...partly due to how much more expensive they are (though mine was included in the price of my S24 Ultra), but mostly because of how much I have liked my Buds+.  Yes, I am the same guy who bitched and moaned when Samsung dropped the headphone jack from the Galaxy series of phones, but my Buds+ have outlasted any of the wired headsets that shipped with my phones over the years, likely reduced the wear and tear on my SPIbelts (since nothing needs to protrude from the0 zipper pouch), and I no longer worry about tugging on a wire pinched to my chest shirt (lost many clips).  

I really appreciate the Bud Pro's active noise cancelling...works well to filter out the portable AC in my home office when I need to join an online meeting during a hot day, to listen to alternate content when my wife is watching a show I'm not interested in...and I loved using them during my recent five hour flights.  I do not plan to use the noise cancelling while running (too dangerous...I don't even hear my foot falls), but I fully expect they will last longer (a Bud+ dying during a run had been a pretty rare thing until now).

For this morning's run, though, I somehow tricked one of my dying Bud+ to give me one more run.  It came back to life with what appeared to be a 100% charge, but I decided to run with it while it was actively connected with my phone.  Much to my surprise, it lasted the entire 8 mile run...but it didn't look like it would.  15 minutes into my run, it had already dropped to 32%.  30 minutes later, it was down to 28%.  An hour into my run, a really strange thing happened...the charge went up to 33%!  But that was a short-lived gain as the watch dropped back to 27% over the next half hour.  When I finally got home, the bud's charge was -1% (yes, below zero), but it was still playing audio. I returned it to its case at 10:40am on August 18, 2024.

That would be the last time I ever heard audio from the left earbud.  It would never accept another charge.  Even worse, the bud would rapidly drain the case's battery (it was so bad, that I thought the case was failing).  But the right bud continues to hold a charge and, with only the right bud in the case, the case still provides a week worth of charging before it needs to be plugged in.

I continue to run with a single bud and will continue to do so until it dies.  And then I will consider running with my Buds Pro.

ASICS Sizing Confusion 2022

When my wife ordered my first pair of ASICS GEL Kayano 26s in 2020, she ordered my usual size 11 shoe...and I didn't discover the size was off until I tried using them at the beginning of 2021.  What added to my confusion is that most of the industry considers U.S. size 11 the equivalent of a 29cm shoe, but ASICS lists their size 11 as 28.5cm.

So she ordered me another pair of Kayano 26, this time in size 11.5.  We just had to get used to the idea my feet would likely need ASICS shoes a half size bigger than what I usually wear.

Three pairs of Kayano 26s and two pairs of 27s later, my wife confronted more sizing confusion when she tried ordering my next pair from ASICS website.  The size guide link next to the Kayano 27s now suggests size 11 is now the equivalent of 29cm, but the Men's size guide elsewhere on the same website still shows size 11 being equal to 28.5cm.  Which is it?  My current pair of 27s are size 11.5, with 29cm printed as the size equivalent on the tongue.  I could see ASICS changing the size alignment on a new generation of shoe (like I discovered the hard way when I attempted to transition from 25 to 26 wearing the same size), but it would be most unusual to offer the same model in different sizes, don't you think?

Meanwhile, I still have that first pair of Kayano 26s...only used for a single six mile run.

Garmin Fenix 5

Over the years, I am not sure I have sufficiently expressed the significant role Garmin's GPS watches have played in my post high school return to running.  It's not just about recording all of the interesting places I have run...though that novelty persists to the point where I won't run or hike unless I am using my watch.  It's not just about being able to observe time, distance, and pace in real-time, though it is definitely a huge advantage over how I trained in my early years.  The real advantage comes from all of the data I have collected from my running activities.  For me, running is personal...so I really don't care how my times compare to others.  But what I do care about is how my pace compares to runs I have done before...as it provides clear evidence that my training is paying off.  It also informs my decisions about how much effort I should put into my training and what goals are realistic.  And, when I race, I use this data to set a realistic pace target.

One thing that has changed since I resumed running is that we all now carry GPS-enabled smartphones on our activities.  At first, one might think this diminishes the need for weighing down our wrists.  Last year, my Garmin Fenix 2 died.  It would not take a charge.  Rather than spring for a new watch, I decided to see how long I could get by with just a phone and Strava, an app I had long been using with my Garmin data as I liked its social aspects, challenges, and how it breaks routes into segments and awards achievements.  At first, I didn't mind that I couldn't observe my time on my wrist.  I would sometimes not pay attention to the audio pace updates though...so I was clearly not aware of my moment-to-moment pace...but this didn't really matter until I decided to register for races.  And I definitely wouldn't want to run a race without being able to observe my pace on my terms.

So that pretty much forced me to upgrade to another Garmin watch.  Part of my hesitation to do so was my experience with the Fenix 2.  It was much more expensive than my previous Garmin Forerunners, but lasted a fraction of the lifespan.  The only thing I really liked about the Fenix 2 was its improved form factor over my previous Garmin Forerunners.  I was never happy with its battery life.  I didn't like synchronizing the watch with a phone app over Bluetooth...it often failed.  Connecting my previous watches via USB to the computer was infinitely more reliable.

I heard good things about the battery life of Fenix 5, so I took advantage of a sweet deal and picked one up with plenty of time to familiarize myself with it before my first race.  What a difference a few years makes!  Everything about this watch is improved over all Garmin watches I have owned before.  It's truly the first watch I don't have to charge more than once a week.  It is the first Garmin watch that  I feel comfortable wearing as a normal watch for this very reason, not just because of its significantly reduced size.  In a few years, these watches will dimensionally be no different than non-GPS watches.  And this Garmin is almost a smartwatch, being able to display notifications from my phone (leaving the watch connected does drain its battery though).  It syncs with the phone app very reliably...to the point where I now share my data as soon as I finish my runs.

And one of my favorite things? I no longer need to wear something else to record my heart rate.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of what this watch can do.  I have uploaded custom routes, but not nearly to the degree I had though I would.  I took advantage of the distance target during last month's marathon, though I still paid more attention to my time and real-time pace.  I don't really pay attention to steps, but it is amusing to see that this watch keeps tabs on that data when I'm not running. Actually, this is the first watch I have worn when I'm not running in decades!