Icon to Icon Run, Sunday February 15

Techmog is a blog written by London tech developers, music producers and geeks who love putting electronics to the test. Techmog’s Peter Bailey used the Xperia Z3 and the SmartWatch 3 from Sony on the Icon to Icon Run.

Find out how he got on.

Why do you run? I was forced into it by an old girlfriend, but after seeing how quickly I could improve I soon got the running bug. I joined a running group, who made running even more fun by showing me parts of London I hadn’t seen before.

How do you train? On Tuesday I take a long, slow run. I keep an eye on my speed via my phone, which tells me how fast I’m going. On Thursday I do intervals at the track at Mile End. I use the humble stopwatch app to make sure I’m getting faster. And at the weekend I take a short run around Victoria park.

What’s your favourite kind of run? A casual run around Victoria Park, or when I find unexpected things around London. Once I discovered a band playing on top of a boat on Regent's Canal.

Any suggestions for how someone should train for this event? Always keep track of your speed and distance. Running too fast and giving up early is easy, and seeing your progress is amazing motivation.

How do you use your phone to help you train? I use a running app to record my runs. Using the phone’s stopwatch is also useful when doing intervals. But my most valuable app is Google Maps for times when I'm adventuring.