Quick'n'Dirty Podcast: Health, Fitness and iPads

Running! Walking! Cycling! Sleeping! iPads! All of these things were discussed on last week's Quick'n'Dirty Podcast, which focused on a central theme: fitness. How does the iPad fit in? Well, it doesn't, but we did talk about it. And when I say "we", I mean me and guest co-host Kyle Flaherty, as regular co-host Aaron Strout was off doing his globetrotting thing for work. The show started with a look at ChallengeApp, a pretty cool site that helps create and track challenges among friends. While Kyle tells the story of how he used ChallengeApp as part of marathon training, we don't believe that challenges necessarily must be limited to fitness. Mario Kart challenge, anyone?

Another tool that Kyle has used for his fitness efforts has been MapMyRun, an application created by MapMyFitness. Company CEO, Robin Thurston, was kind enough to join us on the show to talk about how MapMyFitness came to be, and how people can use MapMyRun (or MapMyWalk or MapMyTri, etc.,). The tools can be used not only to map out routes, but to find fitness groups and buddies, and even provide tips and comments on different locations. Thurston, a former professional cyclist, created this company with the heart of a fitness enthusiast who wanted to bring something valuable not only to other existing fitness enthusiast, but encouragement and methods for those just getting off of the couch. For more about our very interesting discussion with Robin, please check out the replay.

In a segment having nothing to do with fitness, Kyle brought up his absolute obsession with getting his hands on an iPad. If you don't believe me that it's an obsession, please listen to the replay and hear his affection first-hand. While I, a BlackBerry loyalist, look at the iPad merely as a giant iPod Touch that wouldn't fit into all of my purses, Kyle sees this as an absolute game changer, at least for him. So much so that he has declared that he will get rid of his iPhone and trade it in for something that actually makes calls, and carry around and iPad instead.

Finally, we talked about our featured Twitterer of the week: Bill Brenner (@billbrenner70), senior editor of CSO Magazine and CSO Online. Bill is not only an impressive security writer and thought leader but he also writes an incredibly compelling personal blog called the OCD Diaries, a moving chronicle of the author's life with obsessive compulsive disorder. As I said in the podcast, this blog is relatable even for those who do not have OCD, and Bill brings his wide range of interests and expertise to his Twitter stream.

That's it for this week. Remember that these write-ups are just appetizers for the full course of the podcast so please listen to the replay for more. Aaron and I will be back together this week for a great show. It's our LAST SHOW. Scare you? OK, it's our last show at our 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET time slot, because on April 29 we are moving it to noon PT / 3 p.m ET and taking it to a 30-minute format. Join us!