Run – Page 27 – Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Cycle, Cycle Too

Nike+iPod Review

So, the box showed up today about 11:30. I got home about 6, did supper, and headed to the track to calibrate the sensor and do my two miles for the day.

Initial feelings about the kit are extremely positive: The sensor is, indeed, tiny, and the whole thing does, indeed, “Just Works It” (TM) as soon as you plug it in. There is empirical data (Courtesy of my ranting and geek blog and an old and fine friend) that the simplest solution, velcroing the sensor to another pair of sneaks, works like a champ. I haven’t tried that yet, but figure I will in the near future.

I don’t think it’s going to be difficult at all to mod other shoes, especially for runners who wear orthotics. Just mold the sensor into the orthotics. I’ll buy a pair of Dr. Sholls insoles next month and do the deed with my Asics. The handy foam plug that comes out of the Nikes will make a great template to modify.

Actually, how’s this for a thought? Don’t they have special custom molded orthotics where you put a package into your sneaks, then stick in your foot and wear them for a couple of minutes while the wonder of plastics takes place and they mold to your foot? Why not put the Nike+ sensor beneath the insole before you step in?

The Air Zoom Moire + sneakers – well, I cannot decide if I like them or not. Physically, they’re great – lightweight, kind of a “sock” design similar to my beloved Asics Gel Cumulus VIIIs, but without anything stiff on the outside to rub if they’re laced on tight, which is how I like to run. Running on a track today, they felt absolutely great. I think they share a design philosophy with the much maligned* “Free” series. There wasn’t much to the soles other than cushion, and just enough of that. I could tell when I was transitioning from rubber track to concrete, and from concrete to gravel.

As much as I like the uppers and the midsole, I’m kind of worried about the actual rubber that meets the road. The Moire+ shoes are a completely flat bottom, with kind of a snowshoe thingy sticking off of the heel. For someone like me with a pretty decent stride, the extra pad off of the heel is an invitation to backslide to heel striking.

As a New England runner, the completely flat sole gives me willies, too. Completely flat means more surface area, which means less pressure per unit area on the sole, which means I start sliding on ice much, much sooner. Not a problem in July, but not the best of situations from December through March. Yet more incentive to hack the insole of the Asics.

The iPod part was as easy as you’d expect from Apple. Plug in the module, go to the Nike + iPod menu on the Main Menu, and click, click, click. Then start running.

There’s two calibrations for the sensor: Running and Walking. When I got to the track, I selected up the “Running” calibration, dialed it up to 400 meters, or a quarter mile for those of us who still swear by imperial measures, and wish we could get an actual imperial clock for use in Metric Football that tells us when the game is going to end, clicked to start the workout, and started running. Clicked when I finished running, and the iPod said that calibration was successful.

This morning’s text message was “Two Miles”, so after calibrating, I selected “Distance -> 2 Miles -> Shuffle Songs”, clicked start, and started running. There was an option to select a workout (purchase from the ITMS), or a playlist, or (my favorite) “Shuffle Songs”. The shuffle songs worked like a champ. It did seem to self-select more up-tempo songs, and ones I hadn’t given high star ratings too.

As I ran, I hit the middle button at each lap and got a time, speed, and distance report whispered into my ear by my own personal trainer. Great voice casting for the woman, haven’t tried the man. She sounded intelligent, fit, and encouraging. I need to ask the wife when she did the recording – it wasn’t “robotic” sounding at all, so h’m assuming it’s some sort of pre-recording.

The voice told me when I started the last mile, last half mile, last 400 m, 300 m, 200 m, 100 m, and completion. Pretty slick. The calibration seemed right on, maybe a little bit long, but isn’t that better than being short?

After the run, I did the walking calibration, which ended up being something like 20 yards short of 400 m. My guess is that it’s default is for “power walkers”, and I was just sort of ambling along to catch my breath.

Out of curiosity, I redid the running cal, and it ended up exactly the same as the first time I did it.

At home I plugged in the iPod, and got asked if I wanted to sync with nikeplus.com.

At the setup screen. Entered the info I’d been using with nikerunning.com, and clicked “enter”

The computer sucked the info out of the iPod, sent it off into the ether, and sent me to the nikeplus website. There, I set some prefs:

and up popped my run

Easy as advertised. It even synced with my nikerunning.com account, so all of that history is still useful.

I’m kind of unimpressed with the nikeplus.com website – not a whole lot of cool training tools there. More like running as a videogame, which is not bad as a general concept, just a concept to be marketed to folks only half a decade or so younger than me.

General takeaway is that, for average runners, the system is indeed all that and a bag of chips. For folks like us RBFers, that is to say, obsessive/compulsive types, it offers not nearly enough customization (ie, how do I make it do intervals, how do I get my voice whispering in other people’s ears, how do I set up a business sending out customized, coached workouts via RSS feed…) But I love that you don’t have to do custom playlists (I was dreading that) for every workout, and that you can customize time/distance/speed. And, I love that it does sync with Nikerunning.com, which, even with all my love for Jeff and breakingthetape.com, is really, really useful.

* the griping about the “Free” shoes was warranted – barefoot is completely and totally, 100% different than running with padding on your feet. No question about it, and the marketing stunk because of that. Kind of like people who equate lap dances with real interaction with real women (not meaning to demean dancers by any means, but it’s like paying your friends.)**

** Speaking of that, guys, the checks for July are in the mail

technorati tags:running, run, nik, nike, nike+ipod, track, gadgets, ip, reviews

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Good runs

Catching up with David last Thursday was absolutely great. We did, by his reckoning, 6.8 miles from his folk’s house down to the Atlantic and back, with a climb back up to the neighborhood from the sea that just went on and on. Great run.

There’s something great about catching up with another RBF’er – an easy conversation, love of life, the road, etc. We gabbed about running since the last time we’d hit the road together (way back at New Haven, hard to believe). Jobs, projects, family, food… Good times, and the miles flew. Really didn’t want the run to be over.

Friday, the text message was “4 miles with 4×3 minutes Tempo followed by 3 minutes recovery.” Not really sure what that was, so I parked over at Jamestown, and started running. About a mile into the run, I figured that “tempo” ought to mean “Run as hard as physically possible for 3 minutes”, so, I waited until the current song had 3 minutes left, and picked up the pace until I couldn’t hold it, then backed off slightly. 3 minutes later, I dropped down to a jog to try to recover. Repeated again, and realized that I was in tremendous pain – sorry, discomfort. 5 minutes to recover. Did two more “tempos”, but only 2 minutes each time.

The run was exceptional, though – perfect weather, good swim afterwards.

Saturday the message was “Rest”, so I did – took on the poison ivy again (and got another rash) with some success. Took the boys for a ride in the kayak. Jake in the stern hatch worked like a champ. Nate in the front hatch – not so good. It was a little bit too tight for him with a life jacket on, so he rode back to the put-in in my lap. Which was not as bad as one might think.

Sunday, the text message didn’t come, so I ended up not running. The boy and I headed back up to the church after lunch to do some fairly strenuous yard work in preparation for getting a pre-school for 2 year olds state certified. Good stuff, then a little trip to the beach with the boys.

Hope everyone else is having as great a summer.

Two glorious miles

So, I’ve been taking advantage of Nike’s deal with Wiggle Wireless to deliver workouts via text-messaging. Every morning at 0500, in conjunction with the alarm on the phone going off to wake me up, I get a text message with the day’s workout.

The idea is that I’ll haul out of bed and go do the workout before i go to work.

The practice is that I hit snooze, and wake up about 6 to head into the office, then work through lunch so I can run on the way home.

Overall, the system has been working for me – no planning, just run or do not run. Lets me concentrate on trying not to eat.

Today, the message said “TWO MILES.” Great, I can do that in my sleep.

Stopped by Jamestown on the ride home. A massive fog bank was rolling in off the Atlantic. The run was good – 10 minutes out (~1.1 miles), 8 minutes back! and a little jog to get up to 20 minutes.

Then, another quick snorkel. Very different today – the water was rough and choppy, and the bottom was really stirred up. Impressive to be in the water, in a very protected cove, and to just feel the power of the sea. 200 yards.

Cool find

So, I’m checking out gmaps pedometer this lunchtime to figure out how I’m going to get my 5 for the day, and I catch a glimpse of this:

Hmmm… Never being one to turn down a chance to go check out something cool, I say “Sure!” Then, I realize that someone’s staring into my cube to figure out what I’m so excited about…

Parked over at Fort Wetherill State Park – man, I love that place. Started running – what a day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the sun beat down on my ears. iPod kept making me happy, legs felt good, and the trip out was fun.

Headed down Battery Drive, and found Conanicut Battery. Wandered around for a while, looked at the WWII era artillery battery observation posts lost in the woods. Pretty stinking cool.

Ran back to the car, and grabbed the snorkel and fins and swam for about 10 minutes. How cool is that? (Pretty chilly, actually, but it was fun to watch the fishies.)

Mouth’s writing checks the body can’t cash

So – Drill this weekend. My marathon buddy Mac (by marathon buddy, I mean another marathoner in the unit, not someone with whom I’ve run marathons) was down from his lab deep in the bowels of Harvard, and Saturday afternoon was the command picinic. So, after muster, I said “Hey, why don’t we go do two laps of the base perimeter – I need to do 7 for the day!”

“Sure, fine, whatever” says Mac.

We head out – the first bit isn’t bad, but as we were finishing up the first lap – well, I dunno. Something just wasn’t clicking. There was no pain, I wasn’t particularly physically tired, the weather was beautiful if a tiny, tiny bit on the warm side…

But, for whatever reason, I just knew that there wasn’t another lap in me. So, I called it quits.

And that was a good feeling. One of the nice things about not having the Marathon Monkey on my back this year is knowing that I can listen to my body and mind, and on days when I just don’t have the miles in my legs, well – I just don’t have the miles in my legs!

Conversely, and looking back over the last couple of months it’s happened more often than not, when I do have the miles in my legs, I feel free to let them rip.

So, even with a dissappointing run on Saturday, I’m pretty thrilled about the whole deal. Mac was understanding – he was up over 30 miles for the week, and was pretty much running for the company. He also, at least a couple of times, mentioned how he didn’t know how folks with wives and kids (he’s still single) fit in time to train for marathons.

So, I’m feeling good about the legs.

What I’m not feeling good about is the belly – it’s been over a week since I’ve seen the light side of 170 lbs. So, I’m going back to tracking food today, which seems to be the only real way I can get myself to eat well.

So, Arrivederci, amici!

Them’s got ears but can’t hear,

Them’s got eyes but can’t see.
Turn your eyes to the Lord of the Skies,
and take this airline plane.
It’ll take you home again

So, I was all ready to get broken up about not having run since Monday, when suddenly the evening opened up – we got back from taking Missy’s mom downtown for ice cream and watching the river roll out to sea, it was 8, and there was just enough sunlight to roll out 5 miles or so before bed.

Wow.

Weather – perfect. Shuffle kicked out a Wilco tune about a mile into the run, and I remembered why they’re the best band to come out of the post ’80s. Shifted the iPod over to do songs just from them, and the miles flew by. Life is good. Nothing like a big bass drum and a slide guitar to make your heels kick up, the heart rate peg, and give you reason to run until the sound of your heart resembles the sound of the drum.

Finally caught up on blogs – What a summer y’all are having. Now to bottle up this energy for the winter.

I’m completely behind on my consumption of Tour de France coverage, largely due to not having OLN in the house this year. Also, I’m still caught up in the World cup fever – Can’t wait for “DOMINGO, DOMINGO, DOMINGO!”. We’ve been watching the Univision coverage of the games (Don’t have ESPN either), and that’s been absolutely the best choice ever. My wife was fluent in Spanish at one point, and I’ve had 3 semesters in college (with a solid C average, thankyouverramuch), so it’s not just watching it with the sound off. I’ve been getting a team roster before watching a game, which gives me an edge on translation, since I can cue on the names.

And, let’s face it – even without speaking the language, sports commentary is pretty easy to follow once you figure out the players’ names. ‘Tain’t rocket science.

But back to the Tour – I’m excited to see Tommy Boonen and Thor Hushvold swapping the jersey in the first week, thrilled to see how Johan Bruyneel is, indeed, a tactical mastermind, and kind of excited to see a race that’s active from Day One, without waiting until the mountains to crank up.

But here’s what I’d like to make the Tour easier for me to follow:
1. A podcast of the same quality as Guardian Unlimited’s World Cup coverage.
2. Video coverage that’s (easily) accessable on a Mac or Linux box.
3. OLN at the house (which would mean we had the will to subscribe to basic cable, which we don’t, which is, overall a good thing)
4. A new MacBook with the chops to handle video podcasts in iTunes (plus Windows via Parallels)
5. A Fullbright Fellowship to take the family to Europe to study the UCI pro tour (Hey, if we’re dreaming)

The MacBook will probably happen this fall – I’ve been saving my pennies despite us putting a new roof on the house, and planning to get me a new car (complete with a useable back seat for the kids and 25% better mileage than my venerable Subaru in the summer.

The other thing that is giving me somewhat waning interest in the tour has been my lack of time on the road bike this year. Largely, that’s by choice – I am committed to becoming a runner first and foremost this summer, and a large part of that is getting my weight under control. Step by step. I can’t say I’ve missed the bike as much as I thought I would when I decided to skip the Tri season, but large part of that is just due to prioritizing work and family over recreation, but not wanting to completely fall off the rec wagon.

So – Pshew! It’s a great time to be a runner. The song’s Wilco, obviously, from Kicking Television among other albums. Check it out.

Ring a ding!

As in let freedom…

Hey, hello, and Howdy! Life has been good at the Jankowski ranch up here in the wilds of Eastern Connecticut! So good, in fact, that I’ve been neglecting the blog, and, more importantly, the blogs of all of you. I’d like to blame work, but let’s not kid ourselves – the real fault lies with the absolutely, completely beautiful weather we’ve been having. I’m pecking out this little missive sitting on the deck waiting for Missy’s world-famous banana muffins to come out of the oven, having gotten up “early” (“early” being defined as “before the rest of the house, but clearly not before 0600”, as opposed to “at the crack of dawn”, which, as we all know, is defined as “so gawdaful late at night that the clock is confused and showing afternoon hours”) to take the newly re-finished kayak for a spin on the Mystic River.

Just a tip – as cool as the wooden kayaks look, I’m kind of wishing I’d sprung for a decent rotomolded one. Sure, it wouldn’t look as cool, and they’ve got issues of their own, but the cold hard fact of the matter is that for the plastic ‘yaks, maintenance consists of giving them a vigorous hosing out every couple of weeks, instead of mucking about with varnish and epoxy, and winding up on a rock isn’t excruciating for the whole rest of the paddle while you try to decide if you just scraped the varnish or if you actually broke some fiberglass (the thought that you’ve actually pierced the wood just doesn’t occur, as that requires MAJOR surgery to fix).

But that aside, it was great to have the boat back out on the water. I’d forgotten exactly how swift this one feels – within a couple of paddle strokes I was up at hull speed, which, for a 17’ boat isn’t anything to sneeze at. Did about 4 miles on the water – glass smooth, watching the cyclists and runners coming down River Road, which was a nice change in Point of View.

Oh, speaking of that – Sunday? While Nate took his nap, Jake and I headed down to River Road. I convinced him that he could ride his bike while I ran. He had doubts when I said that we were going to go at least 5 miles (it’s really, really flat), so I said “Hey, Jake – if you can make it for 20 minutes out, we’ll turn around and head back”. OK, says he. So, we go, and at 20 minutes, he begs to keep going until we get downtown. Rock on.

Happy Father’s Day and Summer’s here

Yesterday – wow.

My mom’s in town (dad’s tied up on business). Jake and I headed off to church a little early to take care of some admin on the Fair Trade coffee mission that Missy and I run, and Missy, mom and Nate followed about a half hour later in the other car. It didn’t make sense to drag two cars around for lunch, so Jake and I planned to take the bike and third wheel back to the church while Nate napped that afternoon.

So, we did. There was a little kerfuffle about a half mile from the house when Jake’s pedal fell off – hadn’t torqued it in, mostly out of habit and experience with well-made bike stuff. The third wheel’s a cheap one from Target. Works like a champ, but weighs in somewhere upwards of maximum ratings for automobile freight. The pedal’s in there good. I dragged him with the mountain bike, with knobbies still attached, so, given our combined weight and rolling resistance, we weren’t about to set any land-speed records.

This was the first time we’d attempted a ride of any real distance without him in the trailer. He did swimmingly. There was absolutely NO complaining about “Are we there yet?” and only a modicum of worry while going down hills. We stopped at Spicer Park – surprised that there were no rowers out – for a couple of drinks of gatorade, and I got a “Come on, daddy, we’re wasting time that we could be riding…” The kid could turn out to be a killer. Though he did get distracted on the way back to the parking lot by some ants and shiny rocks.

The drag up Long Hill past the high school and police station was as tough as I’d expected; however, I swear I could feel the kid pushing. Absolutely awesome. We made the car and about 12 miles in around an hour, give or take. Even though it was the hottest day yet this year, there was no whining by the boy, and he looked fresh when we got off. What a trooper.

When we pulled up to the house, the wife was putting out the Slip’n’Slide in the front yard. They’ve gone high-tech with these things: Not only are they slippery now, but they come with integral “splash pools” and inflateable bumpers at the end. I finished mowing the back yard, and joined the boys sitting in the splash pool. Then the wife actually let me cook for once – kabobs on the grill, followed by a wild blueberry cobbler (frozen berries, but if you’re cooking them, what’s the difference?)

Today: Determined not to let the week get half done before I start running, I laced’em up at lunch, and decided to see how the old rash would feel. Turns out, running actually made the residual itch bearable this afternoon. 5.2 miles, over 47 minutes. So, not so speedy, but it was 80 and 70% humidity – the hottest I’ve run since, like, September. But, I was running again. Good stuff. The wife ordered me a Frazz t-shirt from comics.com for Father’s Day, and I broke it in. Think Mallett might approve. Next step is to get it showing up randomly in RBF pictures…

Scale was down to 168 again. Still no net loss since like January, but who’s complaining? It’s summer, the race monkey is off my back (which means I’m itching to line up again), and I can focus on slaying my own demons.

Edit: Completely slipped my mind – before supper, we realized that the cobbler for dessert was going to be way, way too healthy – granola, next to no sugar, etc. So, we started jonesing for some vanilla ice cream to wash it down. And rather than burning dinos and going to the real grocery, I threw the baby in the jump seat of the wife’s bike and shimmied on down to the gas station/convinience store down the road. Sure, we paid an extra buck for the half-gallon of delicious vanilla bean ice cream, but we saved 8 miles in the car, and I got to hear my youngest yelling “Pedal faster daddy” while pounding my back.

I broke my mother’s heart

A couple of years ago, my mom sent up a kid’s book for Jake. It was about a mother who, every night, would sneak into her son’s room while the boy was sleeping and give him a kiss. Which is all well and good, except this book showed the mother

1. Actually belly-crawling along the floor, hiding in curtains, and that type of thing; and
2. Continuing to do this even after her son was grown and moved out of the house.

I told Mom I found the book actually kind of creepy.

She said it was probably her favorite kids’ book ever.

I’m a terrible son.

Anyway, I bring this up ’cause tonight caught me creeping into the boys’ rooms about midnight and kissing both of them on the head while they slept. Though I think I was secretly hoping they’d wake up. I’ve been down FedLand way – Maryland and VA, with a side trip to DC for breakfast one morning. Great trip. Good professionally, and enjoyable. Hit it off with my boss and our sponsors.

Running’s been pretty good – made 5+ on Saturday, 6-ish on Monday, and 5-ish on Tuesday. We were staying up by BWI, and there’s a great trail around the airport. Wish I’d taken pictures – if you’ve flown into Baltimore/Washington Int’l, you’ll recall that the airport is up on kind of a plateau. The view kind of goes on over the rolling hills of the Pax River valley, and the sunsets were nothing short of spectacular. Plus, the Maryland Highway department isn’t mowing, likely to save gas, and the wildflowers were everywhere.

Hope everyone’s having a great week. Two more t-ball games…

best.run.ever resumes

Made it out of work at a reasonable hour Friday afternoon, and stopped on Jamestown for a run on the way home. I almost didn’t run – thought seriously about just taking a quick half-hour nap before driving home. It had been rainy all afternoon, I was tired, blah, blah, blah.

So, I made a deal with myself. Just an out-and-back; 15 minutes out, 15 minutes back. So I’d still have a couple of minutes to shut my eyes and listen to NPR if I really wanted to.

Sure, self. You’ve got a deal.

Grumble, grumble. Left the iPod in the car in case it started pouring again. Started the timer on the HRM, and ran. Kept the heart rate about 140 on the way out.

At about 14 minutes, I say to myself “Hey, why not go to 16 minutes, and try to make up the difference on the way home?” So, I blow on through 15 minutes, and keep running.

At 16 minutes, I say “Hey, why not go to 5 miles, or thereabouts?”. “Sure,” I say. Crunch a couple of numbers and decide that 22 minutes, give or take, should put me where I want to be.

At 22 minutes, I turned around, and kicked up the pace for the run back to the car. Decided just to go for the complete and total blow-out; rack the heart rate up to max, and just RUN.

Wow. felt good to feel fast.

18.5 minutes later, back at the car. There was a tragic bit where I’d looked at a nice, flat spot of the shoulder to get a little running on dirt instead of ashpaht in, only to realize, tragically, that the solid-looking dirt was really the deep, squishy mud. So, my shiny new Asics are now muddy. But, that’s the worst thing that’s befallen me running all year, so no harm done. I did a lap of the soccer field to cool down, then drove home.

This morning, I plugged it into GmapsPedometer, and was shocked, SHOCKED! to find that the total for the run was just over five miles, meaning that even on the out I was down to sub 8’s. And the way back was even better.