Nike + iPod and Also a New Route

I have a new route I can run from home. It's nice because it's a just under 1-mile loop, plus 2/3 of a mile there and back. Additionally, if I get bored, I can expand into the Atascadero Lake Park if I so choose since the outside edge of the loop butts up against the Lake Park itself.

In the following diagram, home is, inexplicably, I.

Tonight, I was scheduled to run 2 miles, but ran 2.46 miles instead. Weirdly specific number, isn't it? I come by it honestly, though. It's what Nike + iPod tells me.

You see, Nike + iPod is a sensor that goes into your Nike shoe — or on top of, in a little pouch if you run with Asics like me — that talks to a little dongle that goes into your iPod nano's dock connector.¹ When you're done with your run, your data is transferred to iTunes and to the NikePlus.com website which is a ridiculous mess. It's horrible. I doubt I will use it, opting instead to just refer to iTunes.

It's hard to read small. Click to see it bigger.

Anyway, I attached the sensor, attached the dongle, and went for a run to see how it went.

It was good. Both the route and Nike + iPod were good. Listening to my music was, as always, great, but having a sexy librarian talk to me in what was obviously intended to be — but didn't quite achieve — a neutral tone was lovely. She told me when I was half a mile in and when I'd reached the halfway point of my 3-mile goal.

We'll see how it goes on longer runs. If I'm running a long time and she keeps talking to me, it could get really distracting. But if she only talks to me a little, that's encouraging.

Also, the cardboard slip Nathan ships their pouch on said it's "virtually undetectable." True, it was only a 2-1/2 mile run, but even when I tried to detect it, I couldn't. I actually began to wonder if I'd put it on the right foot.

I feel like I'm getting into my stride — no pun intended — with running again. I've only done short runs up to this point, but that's ok. My body's still getting used to it, and I don't need to push any harder than I'm going. My body aches from butt to feet, but it's good. It's the sore of improvement, not of damage.

I'm feeling really optimistic and really healthy. It's good.




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1: No dongle required on an iPod Touch or iPhone. It also works with iPods Classic.