Results tagged “running”

Last year I flirted with the idea of running a half marathon at the beginning of 2010. Unfortunately I got about as far as buying a rather excellent pair of running shoes and that was about it. I'm good like that. So back in February I finally decided to get off my bum and actually start getting up early and running before work. And you know what, to my amazement, I've stuck with it.

Now, I'm not a morning person. At all. So getting up ridiculously early was, well, ridiculous. But I persevered and eventually got used to it. For one thing, If you plan on running outside in Phoenix during the summer, your only option is to be outside before the sun comes up. And even then, at 5:00am it can be still in the 90s.

One thing that I've found helpful is the Nike+ iPhone sensor thingy. You need a Nike+ compatible pair of shoes.

And then you buy this little sensor thingymabob.

And you put it in the sole of your shoe.

When you fire up the Nike+ iPhone app it automagically senses the sensor in your shoe. While you're running it can give you all kinds of feedback on how far you've ran, your pace, your goal. It even talks to you in your headphones to give you some encouragement. The music volume lowers and a lady says "you're at the halfway point". Kinda cool.

When you're done killing yourself running, the same lady tells you how you did. If you've done a particularly good job, fastest mile or farthest run, a famous person (Lance Armstrong or Paula Radcliffe) will tell you how much you rock.

Then when you sync your phone with iTunes it sends the data to the Nike mothership and you can view your account to see all sorts of pretty graphs & schedules & goals & stuff. And I like that.

The overall goal here is to get in good enough shape for the beginning of next year and those half marathons. Could happen.