Today, while still feeling the effects of a mild cold I headed out for a run around Burnaby Lake. It was about 20ºC, so not nearly as warm as Sunday–to my relief. I walked to the lake, opted to run clockwise this time and was relatively confident I’d be able to complete a full loop this time.
What happened next was odd and has never happened in over 2000 km logged through Nike+ on two different iPod nanos. I’m familiar enough with my pace and the route that I know when to expect the different km to come up (running clockwise I can hit the 4K mark almost exactly if my pacing is just right). To aid even more, Metro Vancouver now has posts marking off each km and I started near the 10K sign, working backward from there.
I passed the 9K sign and no announcement. I figured my pace may be a little slower, what with the cold and all (even though I didn’t really feel slower). I pressed on and it was obvious I had gone well past 1 km, so I figured the iPod had glitched and not announced it. I waited for the 2K announcement. I passed the 8K sign and was nearing the 7K one when I decided to stop. The iPod informed me I had taken 14:43 to run 1.82 km at a pace of 8.06/km.
Which is silly. I can walk nearly that distance in the same amount of time. The calibration was obviously well out of whack for some reason. I tried to think of a cause but the only difference I came up with was running clockwise. I started a new run, spun 180 degrees and headed back the way I came.
I made an effort to pick up my pace and by the time I got back to my starting point the iPod reported my current pace with 5.68 km covered was 4:38. That seemed about right. But then it claimed my average pace was 5:44/km. That’s more reasonable but still silly, as there’s no way my average would be slower than my current pace at the 5K mark. It also claimed it took me 32:38 to run the distance. It had recently pegged me at 22:09 for 5 km so this was again way off.
The final result is I’m not posting either of these screwy runs to the Nike+ site. For Thursday’s run I’m tentatively planing on resetting the calibration on the iPod but also running with my other still-functional iPod, letting both of them track the run and then compare the two.
I just wish I knew what caused the calibration to go south this time. It seems very random (and by the end may have even corrected itself for however long).
For the run itself, my left foot was being a bit of a bother again. I’m mulling wrapping it a bit to see if that helps (pending having the doc check it as part of my annual physical). Other than that, my pace seemed fine, despite the claims of technology to the contrary, so considering the continued higher than normal temperature and effects of the cold, it went fairly decently.
