Got some fancy new kicks!

I finally got to the store to buy myself some new shoes on Monday. I was all excited to use them on Tuesday but found that they hurt my feet. I think its because my foot is no longer a 7 1/2 in sneakers. So I went back to Kohl's and returned them for an 8. Hopefully they will be much better on my feet then the 7 1/2's.

Although these are not the cutest shoes in the bunch, they are special. I am a sucker for gimmicks and things that promise to improve my life. These shoes are the new Nike+ shoes. What are those you ask? Well let me explain how fancy my new shoes really are!

When I went to Kohl's to first buy shoes on Sunday, I saw this next to the sneakers. Being a new interesting looking product, I picked it up. It said that it would track how many miles you walk/ran right from your shoe to your ipod. Sounds like it could be really helpful for me! So for $30 I bought it thinking I can put it in any shoe that I own. WRONG!

When I got home and read the directions, it said you needed to purchase special Nike Shoes AKA Nike+ shoes. These shoes had a special little chamber for the chip to go into so that it can properly count your steps and track your miles. So I went online and say a few Nike+ shoes that I really liked and headed back to Kohl's. When I was there I only saw one type of Nike+ shoes. I knew that they sold these at Sports Authority, but at Kohl's they were on sale. So for $70 I bought myself a pair of shoes that I normally would never even try on. I am more a black/pink or blue/white shoe kind of girl. NEVER would I chose yellow/silver. But the shoes are actually growing on me....slowly.

The instructions say that you need to lift the inside of the shoe foot pad thing. When I lifted it up there was a little chamber for the chip. When you first get them, there is a little foam pad in the chamber. Take these out but don't throw it away. The instructions say that you should only use your Nike foot chip when you want to track your walk/run or the battle will run out. If the battery runs out you can not replace it either. That's how they get you to buy more.

The next piece just plugs right into your ipod. There was no need to download anything. When I went to the menu screen on my ipod, a new option was added called "Nike+" When you want to start tracking your walk/run your click on that option and just chose what kind of workout you want. You can program your ipod to tell you when you reached a certain number of miles, calories or you just want to track everything. You can enter your weight for a more accurate reading of your calories.
I chose the basic workout which just keeps track of your pace, miles, time and calories. I walked around my apartment and saw that it did pick up my steps. It will let you play your music while running this too. This will be a great tool to have when I start jogging outside and need to track my jogging without having a treadmill to do that for me. Plus this will let me know just about the time when I should get new sneakers. I read that you should replace your running sneakers between 350-550 miles depending on how hard you use them and your body weight. So I plan to change mine at 450.

When you are done with your walk/jog all you need to do is plug you ipod into the computer. itunes will have an option for you to track your Nike+. Click on that and it will bring you to a website which will keep track of your walk/run.
One of my favorite parts of the website tracker, is that there is a little journal section. It lets you chose how that run made you feel, the weather, and where you ran. Plus you can add little notes. Since I have this blog I probably won't use this too much, since I journal my feelings there. But for anyone who doesn't keep a blog, this is a great tool! It is always fun to go back a few weeks and see how you struggled at things that come so easily to you today.
My second favorite thing on the Nike+ tracker website is that they have a training section. Since I am using the Couch to 5k program already, I don't need the 5k one. But I would have loved to use the first one "Walk to Run" and I am planning to use the 10k once I graduate from my 5k training.

On Tuesday when I used these shoes, my feet where killing me. I am going to give them a second chance on Thursdays because I did get them a size smaller then I should have. Now that I have the proper size sneaker for me, I am hoping that my run will be alot better. I will give a better review of them on Thursday!