Run soul girl, run.

On the 22 August 2011 I ran 3.27k in 22mins 18sec at a pace of 6’48” per kilometre.  How do I remember this momentous day?  Not from some dog eared notebook but from my shiny Nike+ gadget that sits on my iPhone and the 22 August was the first time I used it.  I am unashamed to say I love my Nike+ it has been a solid motivating tool that has helped me to keep focused on my running. For example today as I sit here writing I know that I have only another 28k to run to reach the goal of completing 249k and thereby conquering the second level on the programme, level orange.  I can track my runs, see my times and trace when in a session I speed up and conversely slow down.  I also love the way I get shout-outs from either Lance Armstrong or Paula Radcliffe congratulating me on running faster, longer, stronger.  If I keep this up I may turn into the Bionic Woman!

The Nike+ is not all perfect though.  Like all love affairs what started out in a giddy appreciation of the miracles it could perform is at the moment leaving me feeling somewhat deflated at its lack of accuracy.  I have a horrible and growing suspicion that it may be a good 1km out in its tracking.  I am making very different distances when I train in the park to when I run on various treadmills.  I am investigating.  I don’t expect the application to be perfect, but a 1k error is kind of a big thing.*

Aside from my Nike+ there are other things that motivate me to run.  There is of course my running buddy.  It is she after all who encouraged me to join her and another friend one evening after work to “just run around the park”.   She motivates me because she is a runner who is able to just run and run.  Long distance is clearly her thing and there have been many an evening when I have tailed off at lap 3 and she’s gone on to complete another, if not two more laps in that session.  Another motivation is music or podcasts.  I have noticed on a lot of running forums people sharing their music lists and great discussion is had about the merits of some tune over another.  I like music but it does require me to put together play lists and honestly I got out of the habit of producing mixed tapes sometime in the late 80s… I like listening to the spoken word and so for me a lot of times when running on my own, radio shows are what I press play to.  There is a pace to be found in listening to Radio 4’s Media Show that can’t quite be replicated by a blast of AC/DC.

Of course one of the best motivators is accomplishment.  Achieving the goals I set gives me a great sense of motivation.  “I did it.  I ran that extra kilometre I thought I couldn’t.”  Setting myself the goal of running my first race in under 1 hr 30min is what is keeping me going at the moment.  Ideally I want to run it in 1 hour 10 minutes and perhaps I will.

On Thursday  I ran 4.56k.  It was like running in a steam room.  Almost from the moment I took my first stride my body reacted as it does in the steam room, and let me tell you that effect didn't stop until I finally did 4.5k later.  I think I was also feeling tired from my epic 11k run on Monday (my longest distance to date - thank you Paula)

* After a few minutes searching on the web I have discovered the cause of my 1k margin of error.  I had not calibrated my darned gizmo.  I have calibrated and now I can run with a little more confidence that my distances are more or less accurate.