Green with envy

I'm on the injury/illness/sickness bench, at least for the next few days. I've struggled but finally managed to spend a whole weekend of peace and sunshine without donning my kit, although trust me, it was tough.

I'm prone to chest infections, even with the merest hint of the common cold and, with a tendency to completely ignore it and go maternal martyr on the world, I find it really difficult to take to the sofa instead of just getting on and 'doing'.

Last week I 'Ran to Green'.  If you don't have a Nike+ thingamy whatsit in your shoe, then perhaps you don't know what this is?  I bought one because I thought I had to have the latest gadgetry to keep me going. 

I was only half-right.  The gadget itself doesn't keep me going, but the measuring and tracking does.  It roughly measures (having recently run a verified 5miles that computed as 5.75 on my widget, I know it's not perfect) how far and how fast I run, although it doesn't measure altitude, so it can't take into account the seemingly vast amount of 'up' I run, compared to the minimal amount of 'down'.

But, it works.  And I love it.  And having just 'Run to Green' (hitting 250km since logging in), I feel revived and with renewed vigour to keep going.  The next distance, Blue, is some 450 miles  I'd love to hope that I can actually make it by the end of the year, but in case there were any doubts, I have a new power tool in my arsenal. further along my digital pathway.

I've got an iPhone. It's a completely amazing piece of kit in its own right (less phone and more digital playground); I can synch my Nike+ sensor to it; I can play music as I run and, if I've worked it out properly, use a GPS tracking App that I downloaded which will accurately show me exactly how far I went, rather than the vague approximation.

So it's now so much less about how physically fit I am and more, how mentally adept I am at programming my iphone (or at least letting the kids teach me how to work it) and how much more fit I'm going to be, carrying all these electronic extras.

Now we just need someone to design running kit with iPhone sized pockets.....