Calibrate Your Nike +

Do you own the Nike + for your iPod Nano? I have it and I love it. I really do. It's a great way to know how far you've gone, how many calories you are burning and what your average per mile pace is. It's also pretty darn cool to see all your runs in graph form on the Nike + site. However, if you do use the system, do yourself a favor and calibrate that sucker! "They", meaning the Nike Gods, advise you to head to your nearest track and walk, then run a set distance for calibration. I never did that and just always took the number with a grain of salt. Surly it couldn't be to far off, could it? Well, this weekend, I learned just how far off it actually is. I ran in an 8K on Sunday and before the race began, I set the distance on my iPod at 5 miles assuming that it wouldn't be right on with 4.9. At the end of those 4.9 miles, my iPod was thrilled to tell me that I had just completed 5.43 miles, ".43 miles past your goal!" So that thing has been a half mile off all this time?! Honestly, this isn't that big of a deal if I have a long run, but on those days when it's all I can do to log 3 miles, I'm kind of devastated to know that I didn't even make it that far! So, do yourself a favor and get up to a track and calibrate, calibrate, calibrate!