stephanieNY

I hadn't realized, but my running shoes that I've been wearing are about four years old. I haven't been running for four years straight, but these ones are the same ones I wore when I was a runner back then, and the ones I was wearing when I got that darn stress fracture in my ankle. So, since I passed that five-run mark with my Nike+ and am now hooked, I figured I should invest in some new kicks. I'm staying brand-loyal to Brooks.

Here they are, I love them. Those're my sad old ones in the far background. Peace.

Since the beginning of the summer, I've made some really lame attempts at running again. But yesterday, I purchased the Nike+. I know it's old news, but I'm just letting it into my life now. I put this tiny chip into my shoe and it reads how long my foot is on the ground, which happens to be inversely proportional to how fast I'm running. A voice through my iPod keeps me informed about my pace and how far I have left to run. Then I get to track all of my runs on Nike's website. I read a really good article in WIRED magazine about it and thought it might be what I need in order to make this running thing happen. The article credits the Hawthorne effect, which maintains that your productivity increases if you know you are being watched. When Nike+ is tracking your runs, you are watching yourself, and are therefore more likely to try harder and do better. Makes sense.

Another interesting tidbit in the article:
"Nike has discovered that there's a magic number for a Nike+ user: five. If someone uploads only a couple of runs to the site, they might just be trying it out. But once they hit five runs, they're massively more likely to keep running and uploading data. At five runs, they've gotten hooked on what their data tells them about themselves."
I've tracked 0 runs so far. By this time next week, I will hopefully be hooked after five.

Here's the little guy in my hand and, for scale, next to a wasabi pea.