Tag Archives: running

3 months running (and counting)

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Back in mid May I futurized a 10Km run after 30 days of training; I was far from being credible but guys here I am, I reached (and broke) the 10Km limit yesterday in a one hour, partly under a smooth rain, evening run near home (10,42Km, 1:00:08; 5′ 45” per Km).

I had to move really far from home not to fall in temptation to stop and go back: since my body wanted to relax my mind was forced to choose different (physical) paths to keep me moving forward and more distant. I’m really impressed on how much the nikeplus system was strategic to achive this result: it provide me with music, statistics on the run (eh eh) about time, distance and speed.

I recently reprogrammed my training so to be based on time more than on distance so to force me to properly manage energy and speed: I used to run very fast – 4 mins per Kilometer – at the beginning, and slightly moving down to 6 mins per Kilometer at the end of the run), the result is that I’m increasing the distance ran in the same time (thus increasing the medium frequency).

I’m really starting to love running; it makes me feel better, healthier and more mentally relaxed. I burn stress and I can free my mind of every thought but the feeling of my body, the feet, the legs, the arms. Once finished I really feel nicely tired, satisfied. And it’s a nice discussion topic too (my morning breakfast barman is a runner too and each and every morning asks me about my latest achivements :-) ).

Nikeplus is genial: easy to install, easy to use, one button to fire it up. But guys: let our web site experience enhance with the next release and – please oh please – provide me with a solution to the lack of data pairing between iPod and iTunes after I substituted the shoe sensor. I can say i already tried with no effect this, this and this.

Rookie runner

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I’m used to 14 hours, multi-task multi-purpose working hours; my average working day starts at 6 and a half with the first mails and web check and usually ends after mid-night; but I’m a full-formed lazy boy for everything concerned with sport activities. Yes, it’s true that I love skiing, I play tennis, I swim and try to perform in other sports too… but these are not daily activities, nothing I can say I dare to to every day. The opposite is true!

But as my business/dinner lunches grows in number and in quality as my weight has re-started growing; I needed something that, without forcing me in a diet I would never have been able to maintain in the long distance, granted me a loose in fats and – hopefully but as a side effect – could also get myself fitter.

I started by evaluating the Nintendo Wii together with the Wii fit; but as the summer approaches it’s getting harder to perform fitness activities at home; I don’t have enough spare time to dedicate at least 7 hours of my week to go to the gym (and when I tried I never been able to reach the objectives I had due to my early abandon of it).

Speed graph on Nike+ siteBut then I’ve seen a commercial of the Nike+ Men VS Women challenge; basically Nike+ is a sensor, integrated in your left shoe to track speed and distance, wirelessy (via Bluetooth, I suppose) connected to your iPod (Nano or Touch, I own the second one) to organize, measure and maintain your running activity.

That was exactly what I was looking for:

  • It’s something geeky and innovative; something that reallly excites me;
  • It has a companion web site with cool functions and intuitive UIs;
  • It gives me the chance to share my results with friends and followers in a load of ways (email, Facebook, web, etc.);
  • It let you create your own challenges (personal or VS someone), running tracks (using Google maps), and objectives (calories lost, distance, speed, etc.).

I think these qualities are keeping me on track: I’m really enjoing running and I having the first results after just five days of activities: I started on Monday with a 20mins, 2.5 Km run and ended my Running Week on Saturday with a 25mins 4,7Km performance, nearly doubling my first effort!

Here belowOn the right column you’ll find a widget that connects to the Nike+ server and let me share with you my results; hopefully you’re going to see a 10Km run in the next 30 days!