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Nike + iPod: Be all that iCan be?
Running noticeably faster this time, I began to appreciate this interval method, holding steady until Alberto brought me back to the slower pace before the next rush. The third burst pushed me to 90% for two minutes which, Alberto noted, should be a pace which would make it difficult for me to carry on a conversation with a fellow runner. Incidentally, Alberto lets you know when you’re in the final thirty seconds of each burst.
Which, in the final burst, felt like forever as I punched it up to 100 percent to achieve a pace Alberto likened to that which finishes the race. Thirty seconds to go, and I pushed even harder, really flying, while noticing for the tenth time how the workout’s tracks — though unfamiliar — were perfectly matched to the cadence of our slow-to-start then increasingly speeded-up rapport.
Sixty seconds later, it was over, and Alberto congratulated me on a job well done — then reminded me we weren’t actually finished until I completed ten minutes of cool down, which he promised would help me recover for my next run than if I stopped cold (the way I normally do). When I finished and Alberto signed off, Lance Armstrong added his congrats on my longest run yet (half-true, because I’d run longer with a previous Nike + iPod module that I lost and had to replace with the current one).
Back home, I updated my stats via iTunes and nikeplus.com, eager to see how I scored. As I’d worried, my pace for the 4.71 mile run came in at a measly 9’ 34” per mile, as compared to my best ever, of 7’21” per mile.
Even so, thanks to Alberto, I was pleased for doing what real runners always do, but I always ignore: warming up, and cooling down. That I hit a pace of 8’31” in the final burst wasn’t so bad after all. Lesson learned? Concentrate less on higher numbers for the sake of higher numbers, and more on warming up, maintaining an increasingly quicker pace, and taking the time to cool down.
Indeed, the Nike + iPod combo and downloadable workouts are helping me be all I can be as an increasingly motivated runner. But is it all that it can be?
Not quite. Or not yet, anyway. Alberto’s voice was imperative in coaching me through the workout, but because it’s scripted, there’s no additional intelligence behind it to, for instance, chime in to tell me to speed it up if I’m dropping below my normal recovery pace, or guide me up or down to keep at the recommended 70 percent to 100 percent exertion goal for each successive sprint. Hopefully more powerful, future versions of the well-matched devices will make truly real-time monitoring and coaching possible.
It the $14.99 downloadable workout — not to mention the $29.99 price tag for the Nike + iPod kit, which does not include the nano — worth it for me, Mr. Seriously Unserious Runner?
Yes. Seriously.
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