Last Wave

Alas, the summer days are dwindling as the days slowly get shorter. School has started for many already, and the first hints of yellow and red tints are appearing on trees. But before the summer ends, how about one last cry of “surf’s up!” and hit the beach before hitting the books? To that end, check this week’s wog, Surf Fit. Much more than just the Beach Boys, this wog is a set has all kinds of surf music maestros, including some boss instrumental rockers, the demonic Wipe Out, and hits from Jan and Dean, the Trashmen, and others. So catch the Wog Wave at Podwogging.com!

The Zen of Wogging

Podwogging.com now has an active Zen of Wogging section. It will contain material taken on from this blog: tips on tweaking your wog, rolling your own, using the right shoes and equipment, the proper way to wog, Path Dharma, etc. We start with the Zen of Beats Per Minute (8/2/08) and will include the following:

The Way of the Path

Running, jogging, and even walking are not easy on the body. Unlike swimming, gravity works against you. Coming down on hard surfaces like concrete exacts a toll on feet, knees, hips, and other joints. Stretching before and after workouts helps the body stay limber, but the surface you exercise on can also make a huge difference between feeling tired, creaky and sore, or vibrant and refreshed, after a workout.

If at all possible, choose a wogging path that has give to it. To my mind, the best possible path is a forest trail with at least two inches of pine needles under my feet; running on such a trail almost feels like flying. Unfortunately, unless you live near such a forest, such opportunities come few and far between.

But you can still seek to cushion the impact. Concrete is perhaps the hardest surface, which is unfortunate, since nearly all sidewalks are made of it. Asphalt is more forgiving, especially when hot weather has softened it. Of course streets can be dangerous, so if you wog in the street, make sure there’s not much traffic, and pay careful attention to cars. Jogging paths in parks are often asphalt, though if a dirt trail runs parallel to it I often like to use that instead.

Grass is softer still. The only problem with grass is that hidden holes and divots can play havoc with your ankles—gophers are a grass wogger’s bane. Gyms with springy floors are also pretty good, and many indoor tracks have a forgiving spongy surface. Whatever your path, look for a way to make your gravity your friend. You’ll be wogging for a lot longer time if you do.

Stone Roses make a long, lovely wog

This week’s wog is unique in that it is both a Single Album wog and a Wog-a-Thon. The Stone Roses’ eponymously-named album is a long one—over an hour—so I decided to make it into a Wog-a-Thon. If you like ringing, melodic rock and have never heard of the Stone Roses, you’re in for a treat. Check it out at Podwogging.com!

And a one, and a two, and...

New Weekly Wog: Starting with U2’s One and finishing with CCR’s Ninety-Nine and a Half, this week’s wog is one you can count on for a 47-minute vigorous workout. This one’s a mix of popsters from the 60s & 70s (Beatles, Crosby Stills & Nash, the Vogues, Creedence, Keith, Alan Parsons) and more recent fare (U2, Wallflowers, Echo & the Bunnymen, Guster, Bloc Party, School of Fish). It has two solid jogging chunks, one near the start and one near the end, and a nice relaxed middle. If you want to be in that Nümber, check it out at Podwogging.com!

No Time to Be a Xenophobe

Europop is the genre featured in this week’s Weekly Wog, a 36-minute Brisk workout. It’s Euroferocious! Featuring classics from across the Big Pond like the Caesar’s Jerk It Out (from an iPod commercial), Take On Me by A-Ha, and Darude’s techno/rave Sand Storm. And what would a Europop wog be without an ABBA hit? This one is also in iTunes’ Sport iMixes, so you can listen to samples and download the songs, or even the entire playlist. Check it all out at PODWOGGING.COM!

The Zen of Beats Per Minute

What is the sound of one beat wogging?

There’s a good reason why the BPM field in songs on iTunes is usually blank, even on songs you download: this is not an easy number to quantify. Saying that a song has a BPM of 120 doesn’t describe how the song’s rhythm varies. Is it rock steady from start to finish? Drum-machine precise? Does the song gradually speed up or slow down? Does it have a few brief interludes with different rhythms, or no rhythms at all?

My approach requires judgment on my part. If a song’s rhythm varies only slightly, I sample as much of the song as I can, and find an average BPM value. If the song has a short section with a different rhythm but the main rhythm otherwise predominates, I stick with the main rhythm. If there are a number of different distinct rhythms in several sections, I may average them, but indicate in the song’s comment field that the song is inconsistent, and give a low PC (Pace Consistency) rating; if the rhythms are too inconsistent or incompatible, the song gets a PC of 1 and never makes it into a woglist (BTW, don’t look for PC in iTunes—this is my own rating).

All this is why software that analyzes a song’s beat is often not enough to determine a song’s BPM. And why only Podwogging.com gives you artisan, hand-crafted BPMs for your wogging pleasure.