Yesterday I went for a run with my new Nike shoes, with iPod sports sensor in place, and iphone strapped to my arm with an appropriate iphone compatible band. It was a quite painful experience.

In China I became accustomed to exercising in the manner of walking to the gym, getting changed, running with my headphones in, on a treadmill, warming down, showering, getting changed and going home. This became my routine for most afternoons I had off from work. I slowly jogged at 6.5-7 Km/hr for 45 minutes, and was responsible for most of my recent weight loss.

However when I went out yesterday, I found that jogging on real roads (or pavements), when it can go up and down in a way that isn’t even, wearing new shoes that are meant to be supportive of my way of running (gait and foot type) and with the rain threatening -> turned out to be a really less pleasant experience. I find myself sitting now with quite sore rubbery legs, which I admit might be more to do with the fact that I haven’t been doing said routine for the vast majority of the last 2.5 months rather than the changed circumstances.

The new shoes felt like they were giving me cramps, though the shop assistant said they were perfect, and the iphone worked the way it should, except that I couldn’t hear the traffic, which while pleasant enough when walking on pavements was a disadvantage when walking along the lanes to down to the local beach (as pictured above -> taken on my trip home last August with Miao and not on this trip with my iPhone camera).

On this occassion, although I completed my objectives -> i.e. to start running again and to test out the new kit, I was really very discouraged by how painful it all seemed. Here’s to improving physical condition and less painful trips in the future.