I came across Nike+ some time ago, but I never thought much of it until I read how Paul started using his pair of Nike’s. I then saw the Nike+ kit at a Nike factory store in Durban, but I still wasn’t completely sold. I (am) was a sprint athlete in high school and hated long and middle distance events, I thrived on the adrenaline rushes of 100m and 400m.
My sprint training programs had me spending a fair amount of time in the gym lift and pushing weights for strength. However, after high school I lost my knack for sprinting and my dream of making it to the 2008 Olympics due to injury and then later a new set of commitments. At the beginning of December I stopped going to gym and decided that in 2008 I will focus on the health and fitness of my body, rather than becoming muscle bound.
This shift lead me to buying a pair of Nike+ running shoes so that I could join the other bloggers who run as well. I spent most of my Saturday this past weekend shopping for the perfect Nike+ shoes. I found a black pair that was going for R1400, but I wasn’t prepared to pay that much. After almost giving into buying the black pair, my girlfriend spotted a pair at another store and I knew they were the pair I wanted. They cost me R900 and the iPod receiver was another R400. I ended up spending R200 less than what I budgeted for, bargain.
I was able to free some time this afternoon to take a quick run, of which 800m was just calibrating the sensor. I am a very competitive person and refuse to believe I am unfit, until proven. Well my Nike+ setup proved that I am well unfit. Unfortunately the low level map views for my suburb aren’t too great on Nike+ so I can’t plot accurate routes. Instead, I guessed a route and calculated it at 2km, it came to 1.9km exactly.
As you can see I started off fast, in my super athlete pace and slowly but surely ended up walking a long way back. The first major dip represents my chest starting to tell me that I am old and unfit, while the second major dip is my legs telling me that I am not a super athlete.
It’s going to take me some time to get the the level of fitness that I consider good enough. I am enjoying the Nike+ system thoroughly and I recommend that anyone who is serious about running or simply a beginner and wanting to start out, use this product. It’s like a portable treadmill, thank you Nike, and because I have to, thank you Apple.
