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Thanks, I've been running with a HRM for a while, changed the watch battery recently and a friend asked me to turn off the beeps (I didn't know I was beeping - I had to wait until I could get home and find out how to turn it off from the manual).
I'm not sure what the definition of my hearing loss is, it was put down to loud noises when i was younger (dad in RAF - lots of jets). I can't hear high pitched noises (ie HRM watch beeps) unless I really concentrate, low pitches I'm reasonably OK with. This is in both ears, but I persevere at work and don't get on with hearing aids (I must try again though), when out running with a group I probably miss about half of what is said and try to fill the gaps by guessing/lip reading.
I'm OK in the office as the group I work with are all blokes, womens voices and the softer sibilant sounds I have problems with, but after 30 years I'm getting better at filling the gaps (at least I think so - I just hope everyone else does). As with some of the others I think it's a confidence thing - I don't lack confidence in certain situations, but even after 30 years I still have difficulty admitting I need to use hearing aids.
Mellitus, good luck with the race, take the first bit slower than you need to and don't get carried along by the crowd and runners around you. That way you'll overtake other runners in the second half.
Where is the race, and is it hilly or flat? If it's hilly practice running downhill a bit quicker than you would normally. I'm useless on the uphills but I can overtake loads of people on the downhills. Lean forwards not backwards and try to keep up with your legs! There is a risk of falling though - so practice somewhere soft first!
Don't have a route map yet, but I think it should be much flater than I'm used to - my normal running area includes lots and lots of hills, but the run starts near the river so should be much flater
- thios should mean I'm quicker, hopefully!
Ran most of 40 minutes yesterday (as Ive just started training for the race) but only covered 2.5miles
- but I do think my pedometer is farily innacurate, so may well have run furthur. One reason I'm entering race is to get an accurate PB time for 5k - its a fun run, and im pretty sure I can finish in under an hour.
Hi Mellitus, I find a reasonable way round the pedometer is Gmap-pedometer.com. It will open up with a map of the US but under options you can choose UK (from memory optins is a clickable link near the top right).
They recently 'improved' it, and as long as you stay on roads you just need to double click on your start point, then single click to scroll the map, then double click for way points. If you're going off roads (ie beside a river) then you'll need to check the option for "drawing staright lines" and put in more waypoints.
Then once you've worked out your route you can find out the elevation, and save it as well. If you're doing a hilly training run of arond 2.5 miles in 40 minutes you should be capable of hitting 50 mins for the 5k.
How far away is the race, would it be worth doing a training run on the actual route, you can get an idea then for where to save your energy and where to push hard. There's a 10k near us that used to go along a wide open flat area for about a half a mile, then half a mile of just one person wide - I always went flat out across the open area knowing that the bottleneck in the lanes would slow everyone down so I could recover.
I'm jsut a beginner . . . . just wanna go and run - I will consider it an achievement if I don't have to stop to walk
.
Run slightly different route every time, and run in park so Gmap not that great for me - often run down a path, then back up, and it finds that difficult to measure
Really use the pedometer to compare run to run - presuming its errors are constant . . . .
Hi guys,
I use the web sight...Goodrunguide... to map and distance my runs. It is similar to Gmap but opens in the UK. Just pop in your post code and it zooms to your area. Click to start then just plot your route and mileage/kilometres.I record my runs on paper then refer back when I need to decide which run/distance I fancy doing. Currently I have 10 runs round my local area that are between 5 and 10 miles...I don't often run less than 5 miles per session.
Hi Gang
I am a little bit peed off today.
I went up to the hospital for some batteries and while I was there I asked at reception about a hearing test (I have mentioned on here it is ages since I last had one), as some/most of you seem to have them at regular intervals. Anyway, I was told that the hospital do not provide hearing tests on a regular basis, only if your hearing deteriorates (this means that you have to notice it before they will test to see if it has deteriorated).
I thought that the whole idea of these tests was to tell you if your hearing has changed, not you telling them, after all they have the equipment, we only have a perception.
I will go into see Rebecca the audiologist when I can and I am sure she will sort things out.
Hi EM
I don't know what the actual targets are but the NHS has set targets for audiology departments. Something like all new referrals have to be seen within 18 weeks, and retest within 2 years (or something like that).
If your audiologist isn't certain of what the targets are it may be worth contacting the PALs for your area
I've decided to wait another few weeks and get myself back into the system - I know our local audiology department is a good one but it's going into financial meltdown as well. My thinking is that if I wait untilthe start of a new financial year I may be able to get on the list quicker and maybe even get an upgraded model.
Does anyone out there know when the models are changed? Is it like running kit/bikes and that they come out late in the year, or is it more as new technology comes up a new model is launched? Has anyone tried the ones like the Siemens Vibe, GN Resound Be? Would these be more suitable for running?
Morning guys,
EM...I get told off for not visiting the audio often enough. I only go when I have problems with my aid. I know my hearing is deteriorating but I just get on with things till I feel that I need to buck my self up and get a test. Last time I went for a test I visited my GP first and he contacted the audio dept. immediately and arranged a re-test. This worked quite well...I got an appointment quite quickly. I will probably do this again sometime in middle of next year to get reassessed.
WS...at the moment I've got a Spirit 3...this is doing what it says on the tin so I'm okay for now. I will see next year what up-grades are available and take things from there. My local audio dept. gives excellent support...the problem is the funding available at the time of visiting. I've really given up feeling that there will be an aid that enables the user to participate in active sports...I'm just going to carry on plodding without wearing my aid...in muted noise.
Did my first ever run yesterday . . . 5K in a santa suit in 35 minutes, so I'm very proud of myself!
Did notice that the tannoy system became unintelligable 10ft from speakers. Oh well. And the band playing didn't help.
Well done Mellitus, the first run is one you'll always remember. Now you have a target you'll have to start to knock a bit of time off (should be easier to knock time off without a santa suit).
Hi all,
Hope all is well and that everyone's running is coming along, well done mellitus on your first race!
I've had a few weeks out, my first race gave me an injury that's taken about 6 weeks to get over, just back on the training now with a cross country fixture as my first target in Jan.
Also, I've got a question about hearing aids - I've got a NHS spec one for my right ear which I wear occasionally (i.e not as often as I should). However I think my hearing is deteriating sadly, I think my left ear, which I used to rely on is also following down the path of the right ear. I'm noticing more problems day to day so I'm going to have to look at solutions in the New year. I'm booked in for another hearing test at the Audiology department a few months into the new year which will really tell if it's degrading, but I'm pretty sure it is. I've seen about the smaller form items you can get, the in ear/canal ones, does anyone have any advice they can offer, for instance I was told they're not available on the NHS, so where do I go to see about them?
Bit of a tricky one and I'll have to admit it's quite an big thing to get round emoitionally for me, but I can't spend the rest of my life going "huh", "eh" and "sorry, I didn't catch that".
Hi Le Gav - I know how you feel - it is a massive emotional thing. I had issues with the same.
I also had people at work who spoke to me one way the day before I had to wear my round the ear aid, and then spoke to me totally differently once I had it. All mouthing words/shouting. Maybe if they hadn't mumbled in the first place wouldn't have needed it. Ha ha ha. I also found it really difficult in front of new clients etc. I know that this is ridiculous as my mother and grandmother are profoundly deaf and I grew up with their great F U attitude to people who had an issue or were rude about their deafness. They always just asked people to speak clearly as they were deaf - not stupid.
For me it was confidence and vanity, and I am ashamed to say it really really freaked me out. Soooo, I went to a private clinic - I am in London, not sure where you are, but if you look up SiTec or any of the brands, they will point you to a distributer. Mine was on Harley Street at the London Otilogical Center (??). Best to go to a hearing center, not a salesman, as the testing will be free and they often offer free servicing twice a year for life thereafter.
Check your insurance to see if it covers an aid. Mine didn't and the whole thing was about a grand and in the end I had to go for round the ear, but I am sure you can get cheaper now, and mine is a bit bling.
Only thing to watch out for is that they don't sell to you - ie, they give you the best for you not the most expensive, and also that your hearing loss matches the model you want. The canal ones can have a lesser life, easier to lose and may not be as powerful - but they will explain it. Also, you don't need specific insurance for it, whap it on your household, but check with them first.
Other options are places like specsavers or boots - maybe try and see if they have any.
Most of all good luck - you are righ, you can't spend your time not hearing, but also please remember, whilst you may be self concious - no one else will care - other than curiosity. I have lost count of the times my hearing aid has made a tour of the pup with people singing songs to hear themselves. ha ha ha.
All the best in your tests.
Le Gav...I sure that digital in-the-ear aids are available on the NHS...they certainly are in Shropshire. My hearing loss is too severe for these to be of benefit to me so I have to make do with BTE aids. I spent years with long hair...totally out of fashion to avoid people seeing that I wore an aid. Now it just doesn't matter...if people want to take the p*** ...then fine by me...I just walk away and think b******ks to you too.
Life is too short to dwell on these creeps...your family and friends are the ones that matter...your enjoyment of family jokes etc far out weighs the down side of wearing an aid.
Catchee...I used to pay for private aids...it is nice if you can afford it but I personally don't feel that the service offered by private clinics is any better than the NHS...you may have to wait a lot longer but once you are provided with an aid the back up service is excellent...it is in Shropshire anyway.
Mellitus...great to see you persevering...good race result....very well done.
Guys...have a great Christmas and New Year...be safe in your running.
Hi - thanks for that - sound advice. I am with The People's Republic of Tower Hamlets - so my wait for an aid was really really long and all the scans and tests had to be redone. On the NHS now thankfully for bank balance - and they are very good too, if a little overstreched. Poor souls.
Have a great Christmas and NY. I have rather ambitiously opted to do a 15 mile race/walk/amble/jog in Jan (just before the stapendectomy in the 9th of Feb), so hopefully that will keep me away from the sweets and pies and out on the streets grafting - Have a great time all, and see you in the NY.
Happy running all x
You're right, they're the things that worry me - I run a business and I often have to go out to meet new clients and also just doing sales work, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about the perception of me. But equally it looks terrible if their first contact with me is someone who asks them to repeat every other sentance, ergo catch 22. I don't know what age you first went through this but I'm 31 at the moment and go out a lot and do a lot of socialising so the vanity and confidence thing does ring true as well.
So you think it may be covered on household insurance? I'd be surprised but obviously I'll have a look to see if there's any cover there.
Cheers for the kinds words guys, will let you know how things progress.
Gav
I am 33 now, and was 27 when it got so bad that I had to accept hearing aids are the only way forward. I felt (and sometimes do feel) exactly the same. I work in private equity and M&A markets, in a cut throat world, and I was really freaked out. Being a lady, I can try and cover up with my hair. I also found it very, very sad when I got my first hearing aid check and I was the youngest there by about 30 years. I also worry about the future and kids and things and being able to do my job.
A funny story for you. I went to do a really important deal presentation at the top floor, super plush offices of an investment bank to some lawyers, bankers etc. I had to stand at one end of a MASSIVE table. It was a little lecturn with a microphone. Anyway, I stood up, next to the microphone and the thing started to pick up my hearing aid and make a bipping noise. The little guy in charge of audio was MORTIFIED and kept fussing. I didn't point out it was my hearing aid, but had to step away and shout my presentation whilst this guy fussed and freaked out, absolutely bemused at what the problem was. I was really killing myself laughing inside. I didn't tell them - that is my choice when to or not!
To be honest - no one (apart from my immediate colleagues who can be insensitive and horrid - but don't really mean to be) has ever said anything - if they do, just style it out. (I often say that when I have it in, it gives me the competitive advantage in that I can hear a gnat fart in Boliva and conversations on the other side of the globe. I also say it has a bullshit filter which is why I sometimes don't pick certain colleagues up.) My boss has never referenced it other to give me time out to see the Dr - or held me back, and I am sure most clients don't notice or care as long as I can do an exceptional job.
It is a worry, and continues to bug me, but, as you say - imagine if you couldn't hear a crucial conversation, or key factor to an outcome because you didn't have it in.
Anyway - good luck - don't worry, there are plenty of us young and old out there - in the pubs, at concerts, in the gym, running, giggling with mates, in the boardroom. Just don't let it hold you back - if anything, it makes you more interesting as a person.
x
oh - my household is with Halifax and it was in there under the aggregate amount of cover.
Still haven't managed to get out running - but have booked in with local NHS Audiology Dept for a test. I contacted a friend who works in Dept and said what I needed (the impossible!) and he managed to get one of the two heads of the service to book me in - apparently they only deal with the really tricky patients. I'm not sure whether it's a good sign or a bad sign.
But checking back I tried digital aids in 2002/03 and took them back after 4 re-visits for tweaking - at the time the benefits didn't outweigh the (emotional) disadvantages. In the last 5 years I'm sure the digital aids will have improved so I'm trying again, I'll keep you all posted - the appointment is in early March.
Maybe I should give up being lazy for lent and do a few runs as well......
Just thought I would drop in again. Finally.......got to see someone today, a hearing therapist. Very nice, wants me to restart my balance exercises, organising a new pure tone audiometry and a background speech test thing plus has recommended that I go to lipreading classes and given a few details. Also has given me a load of stuff which I haven't read yet about tinnitus (which switched on permanently about August last year)
OK, the adult education school said that I may not be able to get in to lipreading classes till September, but it's a start.
HOORAY!!!
Hi guys...how you doin'...long time no post.
Wrinkly...I didn't have a problem changing over to digi aids. Much better IMHO. Sounds a bit ominous for you...a special case...oh dear...they may decide to lock you up and throw away the key for the greater good of society
. Persevere with the aids...I'm sure things will improve and eventually you will ask yourself what all the fuss was about. It took me years to come to terms with wearing an aid...now it is essentail to me...except when I'm out running.
Dustboy...I never attended lipreading classes but I suppose over the years I've learnt to watch people's lips and I must have picked up a little that way. I remember visiting an audiologist once and she commented that she thought I did quite well with the lipreading. Give it a try...I'm sure it will be helpful long term.
I'm still out plodding...I missed a few sessions early February when the snow and frost was with us but the rest seems to have done me some good...done a couple of really good 10k recently...the best times I've turned in for over a year.
Hi all,
it's been quiet for a while on this thread.
Running going well, taken up mountain biking as well. Found a helmet that doesn't interfere with my aids, plus you gop along fast enough to cool you down etc so I can actually keep my aids in biking. Start travelling too fast and all they pick is the wind lol
You never know I may do a duothon one of these days.
Work is a nightmare at the moment, who wants to work in banking in the city
Hated by everyone.
Running is the only thing keeping me sane.
Hi becky boo,
the threads certainly bee quiet...I thought it had died completely.
Good to hear you are still running...
...no pun intended
.
I like to be out and about on my bike...true about the aids but it is fraught with danger especially mountain biking. I still feel that I get so much more from running so it is unlikely that I will give up and go full time biking. I've been walking to work the last few weeks rather than biking in and I'm really enjoying being on foot. It is only a couple of miles+ but I walk quite briskly and feel that it is helping my running too. I've done a couple of really good 10K times over the last couple of weeks... or perhaps it just my imagination.
I don't think you guys in the banking industry are hated as such...maybe the very top guys but most of you are just doing your jobs as best you can...like the rest of us. Good luck with the future in banking...there is still a bumpy ride ahead for you for a while to come yet.
Ditto the running...at times I think this is all that keeps our sanity.
I'm still around, too - had an eventfull time of it recently, as had an appendicectomy 4 wks ago!
Docs told me I could " jog but not run"
when I felt able - started runing 2wks ago or so, gradually increasing it since then, and crosstraining on reclining bike in the gym.
Have signed up for 10k in second weekend in May - so I have 11 weeks to train . . . . I can do 10k, but partially walking, at around 1hr 20 at the mo. Last parkrun 5K was 35 minutes - the day before I was first admitted with appendicitis, and I walked a lot of it as I felt generally lousy . . . .
Hi mellitus,
you seem to have been in the wars. Good to hear you are on the mend. Take your time on your return. You have enough time before your 10K to recover your fitness. Nice and slow is the formula for you now...too quick and you risk injury. I'm not sure what a reclining bike is but it sounds a bit like lazing during exercise
It is not surprising that you felt lousy on that last run...a simple cold would stop most of us and you had appendicitis...must have been agony for you.
Good luck with your preparation and the race.
Mellitus
OMG, you don't have much luck do you? 5k in 35mins is fantastic for you given how much you had improved. You will get there again and better.
Regarding mountain biking, I have idetified a whole load of off road trails, not so dangerous then not hearing the traffic. Hence a mountain bike rather than a road bike.
becky...off road trails are much better than the mountain stuff. Down side is being aware of people walking with dogs etc. Good stuff though if you can cycle the tracks when it is quiet and you can get up a head of steam. All good cross training and offsets the days when you may not just feel like running. Is your OH into biking too?
How are your chicks doing? ...plenty of fresh eggs I hope.
bizarre - no eggs since November, they have all gone on strike! Looks like one or two of then will start laying again, especially now the days are getting longer.
I have found the extra strenghth in my legs from cycling is already helping the running. Feel stronger. ARunning will always come first but it's nice to have an alternative to do on the nights I'm not running. As well as a treadmill, I've a turbo trainer for the bike to practice indoors.
turbos are okay but like dreadmills they can be boring...much better to be out on the trails. The days are drawing out now thankfully. I went out last evening for a run...left home at 1645...and it was still light when I got home a hour later.
Perhaps the chicks are feeling the credit crunch...feeding off your stress.