5 Miles Around Fresh Pond in 40:26

Finally the cooler weather is here. After two straight days of 95+ degree weather, it is only supposed to top the high 70's today. I took advantage of the cooler morning and drove over to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, MA for 2 and 1/4 laps around the 2.25 mile course. I again used the Nike Ipod Sports kit and started up my playlist. I stretched at the .6 mile mark for a bit, then started back up and finished the first lap in the high 20 minute timeframe I think. I'll have to check tonight when I upload my run to nikeplus.com. The great thing about the sports kit is the voiceover lets you know when you pass each mile marker, and then with 400 meters left she lets you know 400, 300, 200, 100 meters left. This enabled me to kick the last quarter mile in really hard even though I was hurting. This was definitely a tough workout given that I am a few pounds over my ideal running weight. Sure I've been lifting and adding muscle, which supposedly weighs more than fat, but I still think I should be at 173-175 and leaner. Ah well, I'll get there.

I finished the 5.01 mile run in 40:26 for an avg. pace of 8:03/mile and burned 675 calories.

Weight = 179

Early Morning Shoulder Workout

Trying to beat the heat and the commute, I hit the gym again this morning from 7-8am for an intensive shoulder workout. After stretching out I did standing dumbell lifts (25-20-15-10), sitting overhead dumbell raises (45-40-35), standing shrugs (60-55-50), machine overhead lift (100-90-80), and standing plate raises (35-25-10). I hit 15-12-10 for reps on all sets except the 35 plate raises (I was hurtin!).

Weight = 179

2 (93 degree) Miles in 16:19

Adam and I hit the streets for 2 miles in the blazing evening heat. The temperature at the time of our run tonight was still 93 degrees. There was no relief, but we still wanted to get in a quick jog. We ran along the piers of the North End, stuck to the water, and ran down to South Boston. We circled back after the Federal Court House parking lot and stopped at exactly 2.0 miles because Adam was having calf problems. We finished the run in 16:19 at an avg. pace of 8:07/mi, buring 270 calories.

Back to Business

Although I had been running and lifting throughout April, May, and June, I fell asleep at the wheel in terms of tracking my workouts. The new purchase of the Ipod Sports Kit will hopefully kickstart a better routine.

This morning I hit the gym from 7am-8am and lifted biceps and triceps pretty heavy. I did standing hammer dumbbell curls (40-35-30), standing curls w/ curlbar (70,60,50), tricep pushdown machine (110-100-90), standing curls w/ long bar (80-70-65), tricep bar pull down (100-90-80), tricep rope pull down (80-70-60). I hit 15-12-10 for reps on each exercise, then finished with 12 ozs of some nasty whey protein mix.

Yum.

Weight = 179

First Runs with Nike Plus + Itunes

Today was my first run with Nike + iPod Sport Kit and I think it was amazing! The product is incredible. With a pair of Nike Plus running shoes, you can take out the sole, place the Nike + Ipod transmitter (maybe the size of a quarter) into your shoe. After putting the sole back in, and putting on the shoes, you only need to plug in the receiver to the Ipod, turn on your ipod and run! After each run, you simply press "end workout" on your ipod, and the clock, music, and pedometer stop, and a voice-over tells you your time, mileage, and pace. It is a tremendous idea. Additionally, I have my free account set up on nikeplus.com, so after each workout, I simply plug my ipod back into my computer and the ipod submits my run information to nikeplus.com so that I can track it all online.

To the right is the screenshot of my nikeplus.com account detailing my run today. The first small chart is my test, the middle is my main run (3.35 miles) and the 3rd is my cooldown (.96 miles).

So, today I ran a total of 4.34 miles in 36:38 sweltering heat (91 degrees) with a pace of 8:26 per miile.

My only complaint about the product so far is that you cannot link guests to view my running page on nikeplus.com. Also the "community" section is very limited in its usability. Hopefully these 2 items will be addressed in the near future. But, all things considered an awesome product!