The least favorite part of my workout routine is running. I used to be a good runner back in my handball days, but when I went to college I neglected long-distance running in favor of more training for strength and speed. My aerobic fitness dropped to what I though was an acceptable level until I was jerked back into reality by way of getting my ass kicked by a certain 56-year old runner in a short run in Alexandria back in March 2006. Anyway, that’s another story altogether (that will not be told- by me anyway- in the interest of keeping such embarrassment under wraps).

Back to the point of this post; I try to spice up my morning runs a bit by listening to some of my favorite music, as is the case with many runners. A few years ago, I used to run with a CD player, the iRiver imp-450. It was an expensive but excellent CD player: it played audio CDs as well as mp3, had a decent FM tuner, was one of the the slimmest and lightest CD players on the market, and it reasonably sturdy. It lasted through a backpacking trip to Europe, a good number of recruitment trips and being carried daily in my backpack from home to work to classes and back. More importantly, it didn’t skip while I was running. Albeit being close to the perfect portable CD player (at the time), it wasn’t ideal for running. No matter how thin or light they are, CD players are just no good for frequent running.

The IMP-450 still works perfectly. Alas, I have disloyally abandoned it in the gadget cemetery corner of my room since I bought me a shiny new iPod video (hasn’t everybody?!). I love the iPod (doesn’t everybody?!); its 80 GB of storage is three times as large as my whole music collection, it pulls double duty as a portable hard drive, I rip my new DVDs to it for watching them on hotel room TV sets when I am on the go, I no longer have to rip a new CD everytime I want to listen to new music in my car (wait, I sold my car three months ago, oh well). But the hard-drive based iPod has one little problem when it comes to running: it has a hard-drive. Remember what your mom told you about hard-drives and violent movement? That’s right, they’re not comfortable bedfellows.

“Wait a minute, Hani…” You might exclaim with understandable skepticism “If hard-drive based iPods don’t do well with running, how come there are all those iPod armbands on the market made for precisely that purpose?!”

That’s becuase they all want to take your hard-earned cash of course, Grasshopper!

The fact is that hard-drive based players, no matter how small they are or how the marketeers want you to believe, are simply not designed for any kind of violent activity. Want to run and simaltanosuly listen to music, get a flash-based player like the iPod nano. Flash-based players have no moving parts, and thus are happy to keep swinging as long as you are or until they run out of battery. That said, you actually can run with a hard-drive based iPod (or so I convinced myself becuase I am not about to drop more money on another portable music player for the luxury of workout music). If you can minimize the vertical movement of the unit by keeping it as stable as possible. Armbands are, by defenition, meant to be worn on upper or lower arms. I beg to differ. Armbands for iPods (or similar DAPs) should actually be “handbands”.

I wear my 80 GB iPod video the way I used to hold my old skool CD player: by strapping it to my hand. This not only stabilizes the iPod, but it also transforms the movement from a vertical to a semi-horizontal mode, potentially minimizing the destructive effects of running on the internals of your shiny- and expensive- iPod. I have a Griffin Tempo armband, but this should work with any similar product (they are all essentially an expensive piece of neoprene sewn together to hold an iPod). You basically shorten the band by tying a rubber band or a string around it so that it snugly hugs your hand as you run. See the picture below.

Disclaimer: Follow the above advise AYOR (at your own risk). If your iPod dies please don’t send me hate mail. And remember, Steve Jobs wants you to buy a new iPod every year, anyway.