Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Today was a Good Day

I finally got to put my shiny new Nike+ gadgets to work today, and boy were they worth the purchase. The weather was absolutely glorious so I decided to drive down to the parkway trail in Old Town for my Tuesday three-miler. Running along the Potomac is probably my favorite workout of all, and now that the weather is nice it makes it that much more enjoyable! I am anxiously awaiting on the trees and flowers to bloom. I saw a few green buds poking out through the mulch, so we're not far away now from bloom time.

 Using the Nike+ was super simple. I set the distance I wanted to run, selected the music I wanted to listen to, and voila, I was ready to run. At any point I could press the center button on my iPod to get a read out of my distance remaining, pace, and time elapsed through my earbuds. The program automatically updates you at the halfway point, as well as from 400m left until the finish. Another awesome feature is the "power song." You can preset a song that really motivates you that will play when you hold down the center button. Today mine was Justice - Genesis (obsessed with this song!) and I played it with 400m to go.

Getting immediate feedback was really helpful, and encouraged me to pick up the pace when I began to slack. It took my a few tries to find which button to press to get a update of my stats, but once I figured that out it was smooth running. After such a long fitness hiatus, I am tarting to reach a pace I am happy with. Hopefully I will speed up a but more before the 10k race, but until then every little improvement is exciting. I hope I can do this run in under 30min next week. With my Nike+, I'll be able to find the motivation!

What is the best motivator for your workouts?

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