My Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon Race Recap
Can’t view the video above? View it on my YouTube Channel.
9/27/10
9/21/10
And this is why I broke up with Lance
After Niffer’s review of the Nike+ GPS app, I thought I’d give it a whirl.
I had quite the public break up with Lance and the Nike+ before because of its ridiculous inaccuracies but given all of the new bells and whistles and the fact that I don’t have to buy a new sensor every year, this could be something I could learn to love tolerate, especially for those cold, miserable days training for the marathon come January where running outside just isn’t an option and I will begrudgingly choose to haul my ass onto a treadmill where Bert the Garmin doesn’t work (no footpod).
So this morning, with 10k on the schedule, I set out with no real plan but to try to get in that distance with both Bert and Lance and hope that the two got along with minimal squabbling.
Sadly, it was my stomach and body didn’t agree about half way through, which was when I started to notice how far apart the two gizmos were in terms of distance. The Garmin was showing just over 4k around 24 minutes where Nike+ was showing already 5k. Now, anyone who knows me will know that that is NOT my regular pace. I may have a running buddy who jokingly calls me speed bunny, but I ain’t! Although I had picked a route with no lights for the first five kilometres and could have achieved something toward 26 minutes for a 5k if I was feeling SUPERFANTASTIC, I was NOT.
BAD, Nike+. BAD!
Score one for Bert.
In the end, when all was said and done and I was safely back at the house of mouse, it was just a smidge over a kilometre off. Same as when I had the sensor attached to my shoe. So what has improved so much? Well, I guess I don’t have to buy fancy pants accessories and have a tacky thing attached to my shoe. Well, that’s actually pretty good in my books. But do I always have to run with the big, bulky thing in my hand for this thing to register distance? That may pose an issue…
Now it had me wondering if I had taken the time to calibrate the stupid iPod Touch properly and maybe if I wasn’t prone to crazy jazz hands, perschmaps my run distance would be much more accurate. But for a $1.99 app, who am I to care?
Lance came on at the end and congratulated me. And then he did again. And again. And again. That little feature is awesome.
I totally wore that hunk of man out.
And then I took a cold shower.
Uh huh.
We may be broken up, but I can still toy around with him every now and again, right?
9/17/10
What's a Mouse to do?
This week we were given these to work with!
MUCH BETTER! A pear also snuck on board but I dealt with it handily.
Now, if you were given the above veggies, minus one pepper that made it into today's lunch, what fabulous things would YOU come up with?
Hit me with your best shot!
9/13/10
Shout Outs from the Sidelines
With all of the running, training and racing I’ve been doing, it’s nice to take a break every now and again. Although this weekend saw our half marathon clinic run its last long run of 20km with lots of extra people out for a tune-up run hosted by a local running series, it also saw a few of our clinic members running a half marathon on the Toronto Island.
So instead of lacing up my shoes and toeing the start 
line, I took out my sharpie, grabbed a bristol board, made two signs to take with me plus my thundersticks, hopped on a ferry and cheered on my fellow coach and our participants who were running the 13 mile event.
I have to say, it was sooo much fun! As a pathetic jogger runner, it’s so rare that we get to have REAL crowd support out to cheer us on THROUGHOUT a race, especially a half marathon. We’re out there for a good one and a half to two and a half hours, more than most of our loved ones can handle. Plus, they can start at the ass crack of dawn creating surly and unlovable creatures where our beloved family and friends stood. I’m not saying they can’t appreciate it – no, no – but I get the brand of crazy.
So I was that brand of crazy for a good hour.
I positioned myself at a point where I saw them cross back and forth about three times and cheered on every runner that blew on by me, whether I knew them or not. I clapped those stupid sticks together, hooted, squealed and annoyed every spectator sitting next to me. I waved my two signs (one personalized for Sam, as you can see) and got waves, smiles, thumbs ups and thank yous. I shouted way to go, good job, looking good, awesome work, but never you’re almost there, don’t give up, just a few more km and the other things I HATE hearing on the course.
And I may have checked the time on my blackberry and tweeted a few times, as was captured above, because I was so proud of the ladies running AND I wanted to check if they were on pace for personal bests.
Which they were. And I was amazed. And even teary eyed.
Yes. Me. I do not always have a heart of stone, you know. I’m actually a big softy, again demonstrated by the picture above with the rolls (I KID, people. I know I’m leaning over. It’s all good!!!!).
It was honestly an amazing morning.
I may have to give up this running gig and become an athletic supporter permanently 
9/9/10
Because I love shiny new toys and Niffer–A review of the new Nike+ App
The following was written by Niffer, a superfox, super fantastic runner and awesome friend of mine. Know her. Love her. Envy her. She has hot legs and killer hair. She runs fast, too. She uses Nike+ to track her runs and is having an affair with *MY* Lance Armstrong. Here’s her take on the newest app from Nike+ for the iPhone/iPod touch.
I’m a long time fan of the Nike+ and it’s been my faithful running partner since it first debuted in 2006. Since then, I’ve used it to log over 2100 kilometers of runs. The ability for me to track my runs and graph my progress has kept me motivated for four years. And just as I was feeling like I’d finally out grown my old running pal, a new version has come out to keep me interested.
Nike+ has released a new version of the app for for iPhone and iPod Touch. For $1.99, you get some really interesting functionality that wasn’t available on previous versions. Here’s the down low:
Some Things Stay the Same
The basic premise is still the same as previous versions of the application: before you start you choose a run based on time, distance, or “basic” (running with no particular goal). However, now you can also choose to challenge yourself by taking on your last run (more on that in a minute). You can still choose a power song, the voice for spoken feedback, and your units of measure. The home screen of the app also displays your total mileage run to date as well as a breakdown of the number of runs, average pace, total run duration, and total calories burned. The biggest difference is that it no longer uses the foot pod to transmit your run data to the device. This is all done now via GPS and accelerometer.
GPS Capability
The iPhone GPS not only works with the accelerometer to track your pace, but it also maps your route as you run. When your run is complete, you can see your route with mileage markers or with your pace highlighted so you can see where you tend to slow down (or speed up). The downside is that the GPS capability doesn’t work with the iPod Touch.
Challenge Yourself
The “Challenge Me” function allows you to aim to go longer, farther or faster than your last run. You can also “Beat a Record” – which pits you against your best times/distances.
Automatic Upload to the Nike+ Site
In this version of the app, there’s no longer a need to sync your run using iTunes, it has the capability to automatically upload data to the site – or you can chose to do it manually through the app. You can tag your run data (how you felt, the weather, notes, etc) and it sends it right to the site. I love this. No more fumbling with finding a computer and hooking up to iTunes. This also means that I can sync with the Daily Mile website without ever opening the Nike+ site.
You can hear Lance over and over again
What can I say? The little things make me happy. I like to hear Lance Armstrong tell me how awesome my run was. Or get a verbal high five from Joan Benoit Samuelson. With previous versions of the Nike+, the congratulatory message was fleeting. You heard it and then it was gone. Your friends had to trust you when you told them that Paula Radcliffe told you that you just beat your personal best for the 5k. With the new app, it saves the message with each run, allowing you to replay it over and over and over again. And again. One more time…
Some Iffy Things…
The new version of the app allows you to use it on a treadmill by using the accelerometer to track your pace and distance. I tried this and then compared the Nike+ distance with what was recorded on the treadmill, and the difference between the two was fairly wide. It’s hard to say how much of that was inaccuracy on the part of the treadmill or the device. Jury is still out. My gut tells me it might be the treadmill because it doesn’t factor incline into the distance calculation. Another downfall to this is the fact that you must have the device on your body during your workout. I had forgotten to bring my armband, so I held it in my hand for a while. For some reason this caused the spoken feedback to repeat every couple of seconds until I got annoyed and finally stuffed it into my sports bra. Everything was fine after that!
Another minor annoyance is that you can set the voice feed back by distance or by time, but it doesn’t count down your last 500 metres like previous versions did. I liked that countdown. It was nice to know how close you were to the finish - or in my case, how much longer I had to suffer.
The Last Word
I was really jonesing for a new device and this will keep me busy for a while. It’s still not as technical as a Garmin, but it does provide me with more functionality than previous versions of the application. If you want to see how this new app compares to other iPhone running apps, there’s a side by side comparison here.
9/8/10
9/3/10
When Life Gives You...
Fruit, and you don't like to eat it...
What the heck do you do with it?!
Suggestions?
And is it supposed to have brown spots on it?
Help a mouse out.
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