Later, I spent the night commiserating with running friends about my slowness and sudden inability to push my body up to speed. "You're biorhythms are just off today. You should sleep." Maria offered. "Are you dehydrated? Eating well?" asked my dad, a former athlete who seems to get a kick out of having a bookworm-turned-athlete daughter. Yes and yes. I was exhausted, but not to the point where I should push the usual amount and get such altered results.
What's wrong with me?
I even curled into bed and watched a running documentary, The Spirit of the Marathon, which follows runners (famous and ordinary) in their pursuit of the 2007 Chicago Marathon. It was beautiful and inspiring (and terrifying) to see so many different runners profiled, all chasing the same dream. I worry that, like them, I'll hit a wall in the middle miles or worse, that I'll become injured in training or mid-race and be unable to finish. Still, the documentary was just the thing I needed to push me through my lagging run and into today. There are 5 long months before the marathon. I'll be fine.
As long as I stop listening to my nike + ipod, I'll be fine. I mapped yesterday's run this morning on mapmyrun.com and it came up as 9.6 miles, not 8.14.
This means: 1) I was right on pace, running a 9:37 mile.
2) I need a new, RELIABLE pedometer. (Suggestions, please???)
3) Nike needs to go back to the drawing board and stop inducing failure-related heart palpitations in runners like me.
After your facebook comment I read a few reviews of the Nike Plus that described similar problems. A lot of runners found that the chip became less and less accurate as they began to run longer distances -- so you should look at this as a victory! Your Nike Plus can no longer keep up with you!
ReplyDeleteI don't know of any recommendations, unfortunately, but good luck finding something that works!
I use (and love) my Garmin Forerunner. It's fab
ReplyDeleteThanks Oscar! After the Nike + was off by 2.2 Miles today, I'm ready to trade it in for something more reliable--especially since I'm still at the point where I need a gadget to tell me how fast I'm going!
ReplyDeleteYeah I have had my Garmin 305 Forerunner for 18 months of heavy use and it has been faultless. I have found it very accurate and if you like charts and records and stuff it is fab to just plug it into your PC at the end of your run and watch in upload all your data onto something really visual.
ReplyDeleteI think most of us need pacing. When racing you need pacing to keep speed down at the beginning and when doing other sorts of training you need it for say intervals etc so I love my Garmin.
I have one with a HR strap and over the time I have had it I have got to know my heart rates so i can always see on my charts when I am a little off colour from my HR. Its a great gadget