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100KM in June

July 3, 2010  |  Active  |  , , , , ,  |  Comments

After finishing my first 5K race on May 2nd, I wasn’t so diligent about finding the time to keep my running up.  In May, I ran less than half of the distance that I covered in April.

I was pretty disappointed in myself for not finding the time or having the same focus as I committed to running in April, so I set a goal for myself to run 100KM in the month of June.

Running 100K in a month would mean that naturally, I would have to increase my distance for every run.  Previous to the month of June, the longest distance that I ran was 5.75KM.

The first Run, I aimed for a goal of 6K, then pushed it to 8K.  On June 30th, I was able to complete a 12K run!!

It’s interesting because I look back on how I felt when I started the Couch to 5K program, struggling to complete 60 seconds of running.  5K seemed like such a long distance, 10K seemed impossible.  The day that I completed the 12K run to reach the mark of 102Km in June, I felt such a huge sense of accomplishment.

Moving forward, I have signed up for the 2010 Detroit Half Marathon (21K) in October.  It is a lofty goal, but I have 3 months to train for it.

Couch to 5K complete.

Couch to 5K complete.

May 5, 2010  |  Active  |  , , , ,  |  Comments

IMG_9556

I’ve done it!  10 weeks ago, I started my Couch 2 5K running plan again after taking 4 months off.  In 2010 I made a real commitment to the plan and really stuck to it.  I am very pleased with the results.  In the month of April alone, I really upped my game and ran 68Kms.

Looking back starting at week 1, I remember running for 60 seconds thinking that there was no way I could do this.  On Sunday, I ran my first 5K race in under 30 minutes.

Here are my C25K stats:

Weight Lost: 12lbs
Time Run: 14H14M

This past Sunday, I ran in the Forest City Road Race for my first race ever.  My goal was to run 5K in 30 minutes.  In the end I ended up with a time of 28:36 and came in 123rd of 500 runners.  Never in my life would I think that I would be running 5K or participate in a run for any cause.

I’d like to thank all of those who sponsored me for the race, your donations were very much appreciated by the Thames Valley Children’s Centre.

Photo by Jason Fredin

So, whats next?  Tomorrow,  I will be starting a “Freeway to 10K” program.  I plan on running a 10K race by the end of summer, and my big plan is to run in the New York City Marathon in November 2011.  That gives me 16 months to train for a 40K marathon.  It is a huge goal I know, but 8 weeks ago, running 30 minutes straight seemed impossible to me.

Customer Support 101.

Customer Support 101.

April 8, 2010  |  Active  |  , , ,  |  Comments

Very often as a consumer, we tend to get ignored by the manufacturer.  How many times have we purchased something only to have it break or malfunction past the warranty date or the 30 day return policy.

When I started my Couch to 5K program (post here) I “hacked” my Nike+ sensor to fit my Adidas shoes.

By the second week, I purchased a proper pair of Nike+ shoes so the sensor was used how it should be and more accurate.

During my Couch 25K training, I have been using both Nike+ and RunKeeper Pro.  Both essentially do the same thing, but offer different types of analytics.  There are features that I like in both, and so when I run, I have both apps running.  It has served me well because there has been instances where one of the apps has failed and the other one kept going for me.

During my run in February during -7 degree weather my Nike+ sensor stopped working.  Not a huge deal becuase I have been using RunKeeper Pro on my iPhone to track distance, pace etc.  I wasn’t pleased but was taken care of.

2 weeks after that, during my run in nicer weather, my Nike+ sensor stopped tracking during the run.  I figured that the battery was dead as it was very intermittent.  After looking at pricing a replacement out at the cost of $34 Canadian, I posted this tweet:

I drew a line in the sand, and chose my loyalty to RunKeeper.  I wasn’t going to pay for a product that guaranteed 1000 active hours and only gave me 14.    The person running the Nike+ twitter account obviously saw my tweet and posted this:

I gave them the details, and received this Direct Message:

Today, the replacement sensor arrived in the mail in an envelope with “Happy Running” written on it.

My hats off the Nike+ for using Twitter to deliver customer satisfaction.  I was ready to drop using the product and go 100% over to RunKeeper. Not because of the money, but the fact that I would be replacing sensors every 3 months.

Word of mouth is such an important way to market your product, if you have a great experience you may tell a few friends, if you have a bad experience, you will go out of your way to tell everybody you know.  If  a manufacturer goes above and beyond, it should be shared with anybody willing to listen.

Thanks Nike+, I’ll be using my new sensor on my run tomorrow and at my first 5K in May.

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