Oh Bluetooth headphones, where have you been all my life?!
Okay, so I really don’t have a problem with regular headphones. The cord used to bother me by getting in the way, since I run almost exclusively in tank tops which doesn’t provide enough material to weave the cord through and conceal. But at some point I got my hands on a nifty little plastic piece that the excess cord wrapped around and secured, making that a non-issue.
The REAL issue for me when running is wearing my phone (or as I used to – my ipod). When I ran with an iPod, I wore a small pouch that clipped onto my pants. The pouch closed with velcro, and I would run with the Nike+ attachment, forcing me to insert the iPod upside down in order to use it, leaving the velcro exposed to get caught on my very pricey lululemon running pants, and causing some minor damage to the fabric. NOT a happy camper.
When I switched to using my phone (built-in Nike+, streaming radio, GPS, etc… – what’s not to like?), I wore an arm band around my upper left arm. Not so bad – except the arm band always chafes my arm like mad, causing enough friction to make wearing sleeved shirts and doing lifting at the gym unpleasant after the fact (even with my trusted and adored Monistat Soothing Chafing Gel).
SO, I have been on the search for some wireless headphones to use with my phone, which I plan to wear in a zipper pouch around my waist (bonus: now I have a place to store my ID and anything else I might need to carry!). On a recent trip to Verizon I checked out a number of different Bluetooth headphone options, some designed with fitness in mind, some without. After reading the reviews for my top two choices (one over the ear, one in the ear, but neither with a weird plastic necklace attached to them), I settled on the Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 Wireless Earbuds + Charging Case.
The headphones come with three different earbud attachments to fit them to your ear canal and a nifty charging case that can quick-charge the headphones in 20 minutes to give an hour of listening time (a full regular charge offers up to 14.5 hours of listening time). They are also sweat-proof, feature a hibernation mode to preserve battery life (you can also turn them off) and the controls on them can be used to pause, play, navigate tracks, adjust volume, answer or decline calls.
I got to try them out today for Pat’s Run and after getting them settled in my ears correctly, I must say that I was impressed!
I went with the smallest earbud attachment, and they also have nifty little attachments called stabilizers which help keep them in your ears as you work out. The first few minutes out I had a tough time getting them to stay in, and I was ready to just call it. But once I got the stabilizers positioned correctly, it was easy peasy. I think that the stabilizers, combined with the wind and the small cable connecting the two earbuds hanging out behind my neck, were causing them to move around too much. I did end up tucking the small cable in behind my shirt (we’ll have to see how that works out with a tank top), and then it was smooth sailing.
The sound from these earbuds is pretty impressive. It’s loud (if you want it to be) and plenty bass-y where necessary.
All-in-all, I think it’s safe to say I won’t go back to regular headphones (at least not for running). It was nice to be able to reach up and control the music and volume rather than fuss with my phone to make adjustments. My arms didn’t chafe, I didn’t have to deal with a cord running down my arm or woven through my clothes. It was simplicity.
They retail for about $99.99. I was able to get them at a 25% discount through my job by purchasing them at Verizon (we get discounts for using the same carrier our company uses), but they can be found on Amazon here for $84.62 – a pretty good deal. They are also available for $65 without the charging case, but I think the case makes for a better deal. If you are a runner who runs with their cell phone for their music, I highly recommend them. Your running life will never be the same.
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