Running with Nike Plus

A very kind marathon runner gave me a Nike+ SportBand for my birthday to encourage me with my running progress. Ever since my 5k events last year, I’ve maintained the ability to jog 3 miles, but I haven’t pushed myself further. In fact, before today, I believe the longest runs I had done were the two 5k events. Even though I’m not actively training towards something now, I knew it was time to take it up a notch.

I do not run in Nike shoes, which is what the sensors that go with the Sportband are designed for. In order to use the sensor without a Nike+ enabled shoe, you have to find another way to attach the sensor to your shoe, preferably in a flat-laying position (NOT how the picture shows it). There are many pouches available, like this one or this one. I ended up getting the the Grantwood pouch because it was inexpensive and had good reviews. Unfortunately, it looks like it won’t make it to me for another few days, and in the meantime, I was eager to try out the Sportband.

There are a bunch of tutorials on how to attach your Nike+ sensor to your shoe online. Going for the easiest solution possible, I tried the “Quick Tape Method,” pictured above. While it did get the sensor to lay pretty flat, it did not end up working out well. Not only does tape make really annoying noises when you move, it also doesn’t stay on the shoe well. I got about half a block before the tape fell off.

For today’s run, I tried a lace-in approach similar to the one described here, and it held perfectly. I went for my first 4 mile run, which took me into Bridle Trails State Park, a wooded equestrian park close to my normal running route. It’s fun to see horses, and the trees made me feel far away from the city. It’s not the best place to run during the winter because the rain makes the trails muddy, but once summer comes, I’m sure I’ll be spending more time in there.

It’s really easy to upload running data to the Nike site, which also provides you with cool visualizations of your running habits, social features, and challenges to keep you motivated. I was a little frustrated at first by the speed and a few bugs on the site, but I will admit that the designers did a great job making it look cool. If you’re hooked on Farmville, there’s Nike+ Active, where you use “fuel points” from your activities to conquer the world. You don’t even need the Sportband to use these features if you have a compatible iPod or iPhone and the Nike+ sensor.

As you can see from my screenshot, the run data isn’t accurate. Since the technology doesn’t use GPS (and since I’m not using it in the intended way), there’s potential for inaccuracy. Supposedly once it’s calibrated against a real run, the accuracy improves. We’ll see how it goes on the next run!

~N

2010 Nike Women's Marathon

Today was race day, and my performance for my first 26.2 mi. marathon was less than stellar. I made several mistakes that I suspected would come back and haunt me. 1) Didn't do enough hill training--in the South Bay, there's few areas to find good hills to train on 2) Didn't account for the unpredictable San Francisco weather 3) Didn't practice my running on cement, but instead did mostly soft trail running.

The challenges that I found out while running was that there were 5 massively steep hills, it started raining 1/3rd of the way through the race, most of the race was on cement and had urban objects like metal manholes, gratings that were easy to stumble/slip on, and the event was massively, massively crowded.

The Nike Women's Marathon wasn't as well organized as the Silicon Valley Marathon (where I ran the half)--we didn't start at 7:00 am, though there was about 20k women there, people weren't really lined up in their right pacing corrals, and the participants were required to pay for a bus back to Union Square (SVM did that for free). Also, though there were some entertaining events such as parkour, Japanese drumming, and random bands playing--I found the blasting speakers at every milestone mark obnoxious since it was too loud. Also, many parts of the marathon were a bit overly-commercialized--including the Expotique. Don't ask about my finishing time--it was pretty crappy due to twisting my ankle from slipping in the rain halfway through and hobbling/running to the 26.2 mi. marathon finish. I'll do better next time.


I did really like the design of the 2010 Tiffany's sterling silver necklace though. The prior year versions weren't very stylish, imho. But despite the corny phrase on the bar, it's elegant enough to go with many tops.

Couch to 5k

Another run post, this one from the opposite end of the spectrum… :)

I have never been a runner. Before this summer, I don’t know if I had ever run distances more than one mile. Running is what I would do to myself at the gym if I didn’t have time to spend 25 minutes on the elliptical and wanted a torturous way of burning calories in a compressed time. But I’d either do intervals or run for 8 minutes and then walk incline. Distance, pace, and calories burned was discouraging to me – it seemed really wimpy to run only one mile, burn 100 calories, and feel as exhausted as I did.

I suspect a lot of women out there can relate to my experience. Running, despite the simplicity of the act (a kid can do it with no training!), can be one of the most daunting sports to get into. The high-impact cardio aspect of it is tough for people not in great shape, and it seems like there’s a huge gap between the starting point and the “runners,” who casually run distances that have numbers that are really scary to me.

Enter Couch to 5k. I’d been thinking about this program for awhile, and when I saw a temporary online deal for Running Evolution’s 6 week class, I went for it. There is no magic in the training process, but it really helped to have a group of people to run with and Beth, an awesome running coach, full of warmth and encouragement. We had weekly class where we gradually increased our distance, and she also gave us “homework,” things like “jog 5 minutes / walk 1 minute for 30 minutes.”

The #1 lesson I learned from this class, the thing that really took me from “I can barely run a mile” to “I can run 3 miles” was this: Start off slow. It sounds stupid and simple, right? But I just didn’t get it before. I was going for 6-6.5 mph on the treadmill, and I thought going slow was 5 mph or so. No, turns out slow is more like 4 mph – conversational speed for a beginner. At this pace, a mile felt so much easier, and greater distances became achievable. Besides, you burn about the same number of calories for the distance whether you go slow or fast, as long as you’re at least jogging. Note that I’m 5’4, and if you’re shorter or taller, your comfortable pace will be different.

By the end of the class, I could wake up and jog 3 miles, no problem. I will confess to not having taking my training incredibly seriously (outside of class, I’d run once or twice a week), but the other exercise I do – gym, yoga, hiking, skiing – all helped. But there was one thing missing… an actual 5k. I found out about the IronGirl 5k/10k race, and it sounded perfect:

• The course was around Green Lake in Seattle, so all flat.
• Entry fee was a mere $25 for the 5k, no need to bug all my friends to do fundraisers for diseases.
• All girls! So the event shirt was a cute technical tee sized for women! (Unfortunately, the bathroom line was also what you’d expect it to be at an event of 3000-ish women)
• You get a stuffed Alfac duck. And everyone who finishes (run or walk) gets a medal.

Waking up at 5:30am sucks, but the race was a lot of fun. There was an expo of sponsors giving away free goodies (many pictured above, cat not included), including Luna Bars, a peppermint foot soak, and hair rubber bands. My goals for the race were 1) not to walk at all and 2) to finish with a pace of 12 min/mile. So I lined up with the 12 minute girls, and it ended up being too slow. I had to pass a bunch of people to get to people going as fast as I wanted to go. The race did feel like hard work. Around the 2nd mile marker, I started to feel a little tired, and I slowed my pace for a little while. Well, the hard work paid off in the end. I was really excited to see the clock at 35 minutes as I crossed the finish line, but I knew my actual time was even lower because it took awhile to get everyone through the start line.

Chip time: 33:40
Pace: 10:52 min/mile

So much better than I was hoping for! And Beth was at the finish line, cheering for all of the Couch to 5k students who were running at the event!

10 minute mile, you are in my future. And a 10k… and more? We’ll see!

YOU can do this, too. Even if you don’t have a class available, there are many resources:

• One of many Couch to 5k training programs @ CoolRunning
• Lots of music podcasts out there specifically for Couch to 5k programs, like this, this, this, or make your own.
• I use WalkJogRun to map neighborhood running routes so I can 1) run from my driveway, 2) know how far I’m running without a GPS, and 3) see the elevation profile ahead of time to avoid huge hills. There are several other sites like this, and you can find other people’s routes, too.
• School tracks are a great place to run. Many of them around here give runners keys for a small one-time fee, but at the one I use, the gate is usually unlocked.

Happy running!

~N

Training for a Marathon

Last fall, I ran a half-marathon for the Silicon Valley Marathon on a due to that being one of my life goals. I wanted to run both a half-marathon and full marathon by...a certain age. This year, I've been training more seriously for a full marathon--the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco in mid-October. The differences involved in the training is clearly drastic. Unlikely, too, is the chance that I'd be able to cram jogging 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards) in about a month, like I did with the half-marathon without injury, with a full marathon.

These past 2.5 months, I've been either waking up very early (5:30 am ~ 7:00 am) to squeeze in a minimum 1 hr run before work--at least 3x per week; or if I overslept, push the run to in the evening after work. Whereas for the last race, I could run in the local community college/high school track or in the gym--I cannot do the same for a full marathon except for warming up. Annoyingly, I found out most gym tread mills have a maximum time limit of 1 hour for a training program (and technically I was only allowed to hog the same tread mill for 3o min. max). And with a track, it was easy for me to lose count of how many laps I ran around it. It reached a point where I've found measuring myself by time versus distance is a better gauge of my ability. So lately, I've been pushing my training onto running trails.

Here were some of the main tips that I learned in my training:

• Wearing the proper-fitting clothing and shoes (get your stride/pronation measured by professionals in a specialized running store) really does matter. Runners should get a half size larger shoe for running shoes due to the feet needing space for movement. I was starting to get blisters on my toes in my simple trainer Rykä shoes due to my feet variously hitting the front of the shoe when I ran more than 7 miles. I picked up Nike Zoom Structure Triax+13 Breathe that provided good stability and padding for my feet type.
• Wear sunblock or a cap when outside (self-explanatory).
• Control breathing to slow, deep breathing--panting only wears out the runner faster
• Take glucosamine chondroitin if having joint issues.
• Transfer weight evenly in feet when running; no landing on heel or ball of foot.
• Keep the body and arms relaxed, any unnecessary tensing of muscles uses energy inefficiently
• Drink a moderate amount of water before running

I found The Los Gatos Creek Trail was part of the 2009 Silicon Valley Marathon course and provides nice, gradual inclines to train with for the more tricky hills in SF. I suppose if I was more of an intense runner, I should pick up a GPS watch to track my pace--but I figure for now, I'm going to keep to the core basics.