A Mini Training Update & Nike+ Run Club App Review

When I started running in September, my plan was to aim for the London Marathon in May 2020. If you’re familiar with marathons, you’ll know this is probably one of the most popular races in the world, and as such, it’s not the easiest to get an entry to. This year, there were over 200,000 entries, from just about every corner of the globe.

And as you may have guessed, I was not one of the lucky few to get chosen this year. But I’ll keep trying until I get it. Since London is out, we can skip the race, right?

Nope. We’re just going to move it over a few countries to the east. We’ve now turned our sights on Istanbul, for their half marathon, with hopes that maybe Chara can convince them to relinquish a few more spots in the race (it does say to contact them after closing date if you want to run). 

In any case, whether it’s San Diego, Florida (I hope not, if it’s any later than February), or somewhere outside of the USA, we have to keep running. 

With that being said, here’s an update two months into my running regime (as prescribed by Nike+):

(take note of the ‘needs action’ - to be discussed below)

(take note of the ‘needs action’ - to be discussed below)

I have to say, I’m a little skeptical that I’m ever going to be ready to run farther than a 3k at this speed. Why? Because on week 10 of my training it me run four and a half miles in a week (not a day, a week). Seems a little low, if you ask me. I don’t feel like I’m getting much fitter over the distances, but I am definitely getting into the habit more. Everything else aside, the climate and hills that we’re surrounded by in Southern California definitely make for a more enjoyable and effective training regime than in Miami. 

I’ve been using Nike+ for the previous two months, and for close to 3,000 miles in general. I used it consecutively for a number of years and then was unceremoniously signed out of the app one afternoon while I was still living in Madrid. At the time, the recovery contact number associated with the account was my American phone number, so I wasn’t able to get things back. In hindsight, I probably could have tried a little harder, but it did give me a chance to try Map My Run (meh). 

No matter how it occurred, I believe it’s fair to say that I’ve covered enough ground with the Nike+ app to give it a review. 

Here are my top 3 thoughts on the Nike+ running app:

  1. The interface while running is great. Big numbers, bright colors, and a pretty decent auto-stop if you pause while running. But the voice is TERRIBLE. Yes, you can turn them all off except for the forced-guided runs, like the ‘benchmark run’. Nike, if you somehow end up reading this, please enable an option to switch it off here too!.

  2. The aforementioned ‘needs action’ box. How many runs are there changes every time I use the app. And to make it even more useful, when I do assign the runs it either:

    1. Duplicates them 

    2. Doesn’t actually assign them - showing entire weeks of gaps in the trainer overall

  3. I love how well it shows the routes data it gives you from each run. It can definitely help you to better understand your runs if you give it the chance. I also really enjoy being able to look back at my fitter days in Spain to get inspired that I can, in fact get half marathon fit again. 

Training itself is not going too badly, but I’ve not hit the point where I’ve started to enjoy it again yet. I think it’ll take even a few more months and maybe a change of scenery to get more into it. Or a better understanding of the streets where I am. There are also a number of parks in the area, so from that perspective, there’s really no reason not to go exploring either. 

So for any reader out there who is also struggling to find their love for running, keep at it. It’s just around the corner, somewhere. :)