Nike + iPod Review, My first 500+ miles.

It's been a long time and distance since July, but its been allot of fun.

November 11, 2006 10:49 AM from

Nike + iPod, My first 500+ miles.

After purchasing my Nike+iPod kit, shoes, and iPod, back in July, I was more then a bit concerned that I would not have the willpower to continue running and that my 500 dollar investment would end up on the the pile of un-accomplished goals I have in my closet. Well it has been almost exactly 5 months, 45 pounds, and 568 miles later, I can safely say I have gotten my moneys worth.

In those 500+ miles I have had many an adventure and learned many a lesson - some of them painful. If I talked about them all here this blog would be so long as to be unreadable so for this final Part of my Nike+ iPod review I am going to try and sum those lessons up in nice neat sections.

I have 116 runs listed, however I did lose 3 or 4 to technical difficulties in uploading and iPod bugs.

Part 1: Primary Mission Accomplished.

My main goal for this year was to run the Detroit Half Marathon. When I started running back in April my best hopes were just to be able to run the entire thing. In early June my wife and I ran a 5k, and I have to admit I walked about half of it, finishing in 39 minutes. At the time I was quite proud of myself, but I was beginning to lose hope for being able to run the Half Marathon, and my goal started to be "Just Finishing".

Then in July I got my Nike+ kit and this made all the difference to me; it gave me the numbers and the charts that made it possible for me to see improvement as it happened. Before I knew it I was addicted. About a month after I started using the Nike+ I ran a 5k in 25 minutes. I had reached my first breakthrough.

To be fair I also could not have improved this quickly without Runners World's, Smart Coach. Smart Coach gave me the workout schedule, allowing me to make my Nike+ numbers mean something.

I ran several races over the next 4 months, but mostly just trained. Not only did I finish the Half Marathon, I finished almost an hour ahead of my original plans. Coming in at 1:50:50, I managed to keep a average pace of 8:23.

You can see here that I still have some problems with accuracy, but they are within expected parameters. I have much better luck on fast runs. I ran a 5k a month earlier, with the same calibration settings, and the Nike+ was only 1 second off.

Part 2: Challanges One of the most enjoyable and most dangerous aspects of the Nike+ website are the Challenges. These can be based on just about anything that the Nike+ system records: mileage, speed, duration, and can include up to 50 people. You can issue a challenge based on just about anything you can think of. I have yet to do so. I did however find myself invited to one.
On October 1st, while I was trying to train for my first Half Marathon, I was invited to join a challenge to see who could run the most miles before Halloween. I joined in thinking that 100 miles a month was quite a bit, and I might make it into the top 10 (there were 47 people in the challenge). Unfortunately for me I have a bit of obsessive compulsiveness in me. And I could not stop matching whatever the leaders were doing. The good news was I lost my monthly 5lbs easily, the bad news is I came close to permanently damaging my knee, and washing myself out of the Half Marathon, which I had been training for for 5 months.
Even after that I found myself on my treadmill at 6pm Halloween night, wearing a knee brace, jogging off the 10 miles I needed to catch back up to #1. Lesson Learned: *never enter a mileage challenge when training for a race.*

Part 3: The Nike+ Online Community

The Nike+ Site may not be perfect, but they have some really cool things going for them. One of the neatest things they have going are Community Goals. These are like virtual fund-raising marathons. They give you the ability to put your miles to a good cause. I found myself quite drawn to this and in the month of October, joined in on two; "Run Together" and "Run like Lance". Thanks to the crazy miles I was putting in for the Race to Halloween I managed to make it onto the top ten contributors on both fund raisers.

There is also a "leader board" were you can keep track of your standings in the community. You can even see how you stand for the week, month, or ever. In several different categories. As it stands today I am still doing pretty well in the distance category, for my age group. But once again This is mostly due to the Race to Halloween. I will not be putting in those kind of miles again in the near future.

Nike pledges a dollar for each mile ran by participating runners.

#3 and #4 were also part of the Race to Halloween.

I don't know how long this will last, since I am not planning on doing more then 120 miles a month in the future.

Part 4: My Final Verdict

Nike+iPod system.

You might guess that my final review on the system is favorable. You would guess correctly. I ran into plenty of bugs, and annoyances. I think there is allot of room for improvement, namely in accuracy, and more options for the existing feedback. However, anything that can keep me running for 500 miles has got the magic where it counts. It hurts to give it less then a 10 out of 10, but in the end I will have to settle for an 8

Nike+iPod system: 8 out of 10.

Nike+ Website.

I have to admit, I would still like a stand-alone application that let me view and analyze my Nike+ data. The community building and the polish of the Nike+ website has won me over. They have continued to update it, adding more and more useful information. This month they have finally added forums, which was one of my last major gripes.

Nike+ Website. 8 out of 10 and rising.

For more on what I loved and did not love with the system check out my first two blogs on the subject. Here and Here.

October was my first 200+ mile month, it will most likely be my last for a few years.

It's been a long time and distance since July, but its been allot of fun. Next Stop: the 2007 LA Marathon.

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