I Just Did a 5K!

Okay, so it was on my treadmill, and it took me a little over an hour, and I mostly walked, but I did it!!!  I’m so proud of me.

When I bought my new shoes on Saturday, I decided that if I was going to spend that much on shoes, then I might as well go all out and really get something useful.  So I broke down and got the Nike+ Sportband.  It’s like a wristwatch that connects to a sensor in your shoe and tracks your distance, speed, time, and calories burned.

The cool thing about it is that you just pop the face off (the black part with the time in the pic above) and plug it into your USB port on your computer.  That’s how it charges, too.  They also have kits where you can use your iPod or iPhone, but since I’m all anti-iAnything, I went for the Sportband.

I still need to calibrate it for my own pace and stride length, but it sounds like the best way to do that is to map out a mile outside (where you know for sure that it IS a mile) and do a test walk/run.  I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.  So when my Sportband said that I had done 3.1 miles, my treadmill said that I had only done 2.8 or something like that.  Not that I particularly trust the treadmill, either.

But I wasn’t taking any chances.  When I was done, my Sportband said that I had done 3.62 miles and my treadmill said that I had done 3.23 miles.

It’s really easy to upload your runs to your computer.  I mentioned that you just plug the face into the USB port on your computer.  Well, as soon as you do that, it launches the program and throws you into the Nike Running website where it uploads all of your runs (you can store more than one run on the band and it keeps them separate).  I say run, but I’m obviously using it for walking and you can see it works fine for that.  The little dips up on the graph above are where I actually jogged a bit.  ME!  Jogged!!

So I’m immensely proud of myself.  And actually it was watching Biggest Loser last night that did it.  When I saw that woman in the gray shirt finish the 5K, I was like I know I can do it.  She had me about in tears – especially when she said that she can’t even walk around Wal-Mart without getting one of those motorized carts.  But she finished it!  I don’t know her, and have never met her, but I’m so proud of her!

So here is me afterward in all my sweaty, scary glory.  Notice the signs on the wall above my head.

Of course, this doesn’t mean I plan on doing it again anytime soon. 

PS:  ***NOTE:  I paid for and purchased both my Nike Air Structure Zoom Triax+ shoes (talk about a mouthful) and the Nike+ Sportband out of my own pocket.  If you want more info or to see a video explaining how it works, click here.

PPS:  My feet appear to be doing okay so far.  They were sore yesterday and were a bit sore when I first started tonight, but they’re doing okay now.  Hopefully they will keep getting used to these new shoes.

Happy Thursday!  8 DAYS UNTIL DC!!