Keep Those High Hopes

Not only did I complete my first outdoor run of the season this afternoon, I spent that run with my new Nike+iPod kit. Since running outside has never been my forte, I tried to aim high at 2 miles. The transition between track and outdoors has never been easy for me.

Until today.

I ran 4 miles today, weaving in and out of my neighborhood and the one across the street. It's imperative to my running style to remain distracted or occupied with something other than my running. Granted, I have plenty of work to do on my stride, but I'm taking what I can get. I think the new scenery and terrain really helped keep my mind off how long and far I had been running. In fact, I didn't even want to check my iPod for how long I ran. Once it began raining (I'm not that committed just yet), I headed home, confident I had completed at least two miles. As I stopped my iPod workout, the voice read back: distance: 4.06 miles.

It's a lot less like spring today than the past month (weather.com says it feels like 34 degrees), so I was also concerned about how to dress and breathe. The breathing was actually manageable. And the clothes were too: running tights, cropped exercise pants, a t-shirt, and my Old Navy fleece jacket — none of which were the most pleasant smelling things in my wash. So, I would like to look at better gear for cold-weather running. Things that breathe more, stink less.

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I didn't want to buy a pair of Nike shoes just to have a better relationship with my iPod (although I did consider it). So, I bought the sport kit and fashioned a "holding sock" for the Nike chip:

• I used a buddy-less sock from my drawer (made one last effort to find its match) and sewed a pouch to hold the chip. The tip of a glove finger would work well too.
• Then I sewed the pouch to the inside of the tongue on my right shoe.

Not only does it work perfectly with my iPod, I can't feel it at all when I'm running. I also imagine that I would feel it if it were to come lose or fall off. Plus, when the iPod loses a signal from the chip for two minutes, a voice from your iPod will notify you. So, just turn around and run for two minutes and scan the ground. A good sewing job, however, should prevent that from happening.

It wasn't much trouble, but I didn't go through all of it because I'm cheap. I like my Asics. I don't think I should be forced to change not only my shoes, but my shoe brand as well. While I understand partnerships and economic opportunity and marketing, I also understand shoe comfort and agony of using the wrong shoe.

One thing Nike+ offers on their Web site (aside from uploading your workouts), is goal setting. This is separate from my 30 miles for the month. While I am still working on building my distance, I really need to improve my speed. As you can see from the workout log at the top, I ran 4 miles in just under 9 minutes. And I would like to think I'm a little faster than that. So, through Nike+, I have set a goal for myself to run my next 5 workouts at 8:30 or less. Then I'll try to improve slowly from there.

And, yes: I would have run another half mile had I known how far I had gone.