A Calibration gone awry…

So without my Nike+, tracking my miles is pretty much the hardest thing to do ever in my car. There are too many u-turns, neighborhood and park runs, it just ends up with me going in circles, and being a bad driver. Since getting my Nike+ last December for Christmas my life has changed, in a good way. The first one I have started randomly prematurely end runs which made me exchange my first one for a new one, which is the one I have now. Since getting the new one I have always told myself I will calibrate it to match my running speed and steps. I thought this simple task would help me be more precise about my workouts.

WRONG.

It began with my running friend and I going to a local track and jogging a 400 and walking a 400 to calibrate the Nike+. Hers now works perfectly, which is funny because hers was the one with problems before, and now mine is the one that is having difficulty. Normally when I run and press the center button the voice says somewhere between a 7 and 9 minute range, and I know that was pretty close to accurate. The day after our calibration I went out and went for a hard five mile run. I was running my little butt off, sweating, (which I know only happens when I run sub 8.) When I got about three miles out and pressed the center button. It said 2 miles and a pace of 11:40. I couldn’t believe it. I think I stopped and gasped. Not because I was tired but it was like my friend was lying to me. I was running at least 8 minute mile pace. I knew everything was internally messed up in my Nike+ because of the calibration. So I went to the Nikeplus.com site to figure out how to reset it. By the way, the Nikeplus.com site is a little weird, I don’t really know what is going on over there, or if I am just dumb, but I couldn’t figure much out from it. I tried to reset it, and to no avail it is still off by a good minute. This is frustrating, because I can run a seven minute mile and it will still tell me 9 minutes. I just want some encouragement here people!

I love, love, love this gadget and only want it to return to it’s normal wonderful truthful self. The other day I was running on the treadmill, which is annoying in itself, and the treadmill told me I ran 3.5 miles, while the plus was a good 1.8 miles off. I have read about the Nike+’s being a little bit different, but more than a mile?! Come on Nike! What happened to my little red and white baby?!

Other than that a very productive weekend. In three days I ran 25 miles, and even ran the Nike+ Human Race. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand the website (nikeplus.com again, not my fault and how to sign up and that it was actually a real race. I know, don’t ask, I’m already embarrassed enough, so I ran it by myself down at the beach. My first 3.5 miles were going really well, and I was running decently hard, then the turn around which always give me an extra boost. Unfortunately not this time, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for the wind in my face which slowed me down tremendously. As all the people lined Bolsa Chica beach, and I ran by they probably asked themselves why I was running so slow. Bummer, but still finished in an hour, and that was after running ten miles the day before.

PS. This Zella “Yang” jacket is on sale right now at Nordstrom (http://shop.nordstrom.com/). The fabric is ammmahzung and it keeps you warm at night. I have one just like it and I love it. They have it in a light turquoise too which I love, because it’s bright and will help cars see you, since cars are the enemy!

More this week, especially on some new great running finds

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