05.24.13
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App Review: Nike+

You’ll notice a lot of screenshots from Nike+ on here (although usually from the website and not the app). It’s just so…colorful. That is honestly my favorite thing about it.

Your profile lists all your PRs and trophies you have received. I love receiving trophies. Getting a 5x a week trophy keeps me motivated to, well, run five days a week. Although sometimes it’s a little buggy and doesn’t award you a trophy when you should have gotten one. This makes me sad.
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You can find your friends on Facebook and Twitter and then compete with them to see who logs the most miles or runs the most times in a given week or month. My favorite type of competition is with myself, but it is fun to see myself on the top of the leaderboard.

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You can choose to just go for a run or set up a specific goal, such as an amount of time or a distance. The app will give you your estimated time for a distance and label what your current PRs are.
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Once you are done with a run, you can choose how good you felt running, what type of surface you ran on, and which shoes you were wearing (so you can track when it’s getting close to retire a pair). The app also color codes your map showing you where you were slow (red) and where you were fast (green).

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It also has handy graphs that show the distances you’ve run over time.

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So what do I dislike about the app? While I don’t have many complaints about the app itself (other than the iPhone GPS isn’t always 100% accurate, but this is not app specific), I do have a few about their website. There’s no easy way to import or export run data files, although it is possible through third parties. I use Nike+ as a backup to my Garmin, so if my watch dies while out on a run, I like to be able to export my data from Nike+ to upload to the Garmin site so that it always has a complete record of my running history. I do wish the app showed my elevation and a graph of my running pace (both of these are available on the website; however, I think they do too much smoothing on their pace graph).

App Grade: A-

05.23.13
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Warming Up and Cooling Down for Runners

Note: There are two videos below that may autoplay simultaneously, and I can’t control it. Sorry!

Warming up before running and cooling down after is very important to help prevent injury and to let you perform to the best of your ability.

Warming Up and Cooling Down for Runners

The goal of your warm up is to get oxygen flowing to the muscles you are about to use in order to wake them up. It should involve a less intense version of what you will be doing, so walking or gentle jogging. Couch to 5k/10k suggests a five minute walk, but I usually jog part of this, as walking doesn’t really warm me up very well, and I start my run sluggish. My ideal warm up is a five minute light jog, followed by a five minute walk, and then dynamic stretching. Supposedly static stretching in your warm up can actually slow you down, so save those for after your run. To dynamically stretch, I usually alternate 5-10 high knees with 5-10 butt kicks. And maybe throw some walking lunges in there too if I’m not feeling too self-conscious (i.e., if no one is around).

To cool down, slow to a light jog or walk for about five minutes after you finish. You don’t want to stop suddenly (I’ve learned the hard way how that can make you dizzy). Allow your breathing and heart rate to return to normal, and then do static stretching.

For static stretches, I mainly focus on the areas that get the tightest while running and those that are sore in the days afterwards, which are usually my calves and glutes and occasionally my hamstrings.

What stretches and exercises are your favorites to help you warm up or cool down after a run?

05.21.13
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Week of 5/13/13 – 5/19/13

I tried to take it fairly easy this week, since Saturday was a race day.

week of 5/13/13 to 5/19/13

I was pretty sore from the previous day’s fartlek session on Monday, but I headed out to attempt to complete day 3 of week 6 of Couch to 10k. According to the description on the app, this meant I was going to have to run for 20 minutes with no walk breaks (*gulp*). I’ve done this once before on day 3 of week 5, but considering week 7 consists all of 25 minute runs, this time it meant something. My legs weren’t feeling great starting out, and I wasn’t really into it. I chugged through the first half mile kind of grumbling to myself. But after mile one, I started to feel really good. I thought to myself, “I wonder if I could actually go a little longer than 20 minutes. Maybe I could finish the whole second mile.” As it turned out, I could. And I had to, because the day’s description had lied, and I was actually meant to run 22 minutes. So I did 2 miles in about 22:25, a personal best, and almost a full minute off my 2 mile PR time from the day before. Now if I could keep up that time for the 5k on Saturday, I could blow my PR out of the water!

Wednesday was a different story. It was a hot day and as soon as I started running, I knew it wasn’t going to be a repeat of Monday. My muscles ached and felt terribly stiff. I suffered through the first mile, walking quite a bit. The second mile was better, but I decided to go home, stretch, and rest my legs before the race on Saturday.

I took Thursday and Friday off from running to make sure I was fully rested for race day. I detailed the Law Enforcement Memorial 5k yesterday, but if you didn’t read it, I will sum up by saying I broke all the records.

Sunday, I went for an “easy” two mile run, completing week 7, day 1 of Couch to 10k. I had spent the previous night at my friend Amanda’s house, which is between Smyrna and Murfreesboro, so I went to the Smyrna greenway for this run. It was fairly flat, which was nice, but it was so HUMID. I actually found a gnat that had drowned in the sweat on the back of my neck after my run was finished. I guess I’m going to have to get used to the humidity though; summer hasn’t even officially started yet, and I’m due to run a 10k on July 4th!

05.20.13
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Race Report: Law Enforcement Memorial 5k – May 18, 2013

Wow, what a race!

NIC team at the Law Enforcement Memorial 5k

Photo by Michael Reyes.

I woke up on race day around 6 am and got ready. I popped a couple ibuprofin before heading out, just to ensure that my still slightly sore ankle wouldn’t bother me.

I arrived just before 7 am. I picked up my bib number and goodie bag, then did a brief warm up jogging to my car and back a couple times before some dynamic stretching. I had decided to wear my new running skirt and tank, and I was glad for this decision. I’ve decided I adore running skirts, since they don’t ride up like shorts do. Plus it has two convenient hidden pockets for things like car keys; none of my shorts have pockets at all. I also decided to use my new Amphipod as my phone holder, instead of my armband. I’ll talk more about that thing in the future.

Amanda and I at the Law Enforcement Memorial 5k

I had planned in my head that I wanted to try to run it in 35 minutes. I was thinking of aiming for a 12:00 first mile, 11:30 for the second, and 11:00 for the final.

The race started around 10 after 8. Amanda was pushing her son in the jogging stroller, so I knew I was going to eventually take off and leave her, but we ran together for the first tenth of a mile or so. I was trying to pace myself, but she was running ahead of me, so I started out faster than I had planned, around 11 min/mile pace. And then I just kept that pace somehow.

The first mile I ran in 10:57. I was pretty amazed by this. I took a slight walk break at the first water station to gulp down some fluid and then kept on running. At the start of the second mile, you loop back so you are passing everyone still on the first mile. As I passed people I knew, we all cheered each other on. After that, I was on my own. A hill loomed toward the end of the second mile, and I ended up walking a bit of it to the second water station. Here, I took a few sips and then dumped the rest on my very sweaty (it was cloudy but HUMID) head before starting to run again. I clocked in the second mile at 10:13.

The final mile(ish) was pretty hilly and I found myself walking up a few hills. It didn’t bother me, since I was way ahead of my goal time. I sprinted across the finish line with an official time of 30:03.

Law Enforcement Memorial 5k

Above you can see my overall pacing (and notice where my short walk breaks were). Below is a graph of my quarter mile splits, where you can see where I wore myself out a bit before the start of the second mile.

Quarter Mile Splits

Now, according to my Garmin data, the course was slightly short of a 5k. It was around 2.85 miles. Still, even if there was another quarter mile to go, I would have easily beaten my 35 minute goal time and my previous PR of 36:47. I was still so energetic at the end of the race that I felt I could have run another 5k, ha. I guess it was all the adrenaline?

Deb and I at the Law Enforcement Memorial 5k

Photo by Michael Reyes.

I broke a lot of my personal bests. I beat my previous 1k best by four seconds, coming in at 6:12. I also (crazily) beat my one mile time at 10:09. And I scored my best two mile time with 20:47.

Overall, it was a pretty amazing day, and I am so proud of myself for what I have been able to accomplish so far!

Shoes: Skechers GoRun 2