Lose 5 Pounds in 34 Minutes!

I haven't posted much lately, because the weather has been so crappy, as you can tell by my complexion in the picture.  We've all been waiting for this Global Warming to happen, but even Tipper is fed up with Al's prattlings anymore.

I'm now linked up with Nike+, since I love gadgets, and this one is as useful as they come. I haven't connected before now, because Nikes haven't fit me for a long time; all the ones I've tried in recent years were built for little guys with skinny feet; not the 215-pound runner.  Of course, I'm only 208 now, but that's fairly recent.

So we were on vacation and stopped by a store in Portland that had a pair of Nike+ AirMax shoes that Jen, my wife, has been raving about.  I've been switching from Brooks Beasts to Asics to UnderArmour, and at first they all feel fine. The Beasts last longer at my weight, but after a couple months of light to moderate use, they hurt your knees.

I have hopes that this one, very similar to the one held by the goofy fitness model (right), will hold up better. For the price, they better (don't ask).


Back to the review--I was running in a pair of UnderArmours I thought were great, but a week ago I went for a late-night run in which I jogged for 200 meters, then hit the gas for 50 meters for a total distance of about 2 miles. The next day, my knees hurt. Two days later, they still hurt, but I ran in my new Nikes anyway, and they felt okay.

Next day, no knee problems.  Ran again just now, and I feel fine.

I ran .98 mile to a track, and the Nike+ iTunes connection accurately measured the distance.  Then I ended that workout, and started another, in which I was just doing pushups, plyometrics, situps, and then some 100m sprints.  I ended that workout, and then ran the .98 mile home. On the way home, it clocked the exact same .98 miles as .86 miles, because it couldn't figure out what I was doing--I would walk at a normal pace for 40 meters, then sprint for 60 meters all the way home.

At a normal pace, the thing works great. Throw in some real-world training scenarios, it has problems. It's designed for racers and the average runner, though.  Maybe someday they'll configure it for athletes who do different stuff. I recommend it either way.