And Then Lance Armstrong Congratulated Me

My birthday was on Tuesday, and of course Todd spoiled me absolutely rotten. I've been needing some new running shoes, and he got me a sizeable gift certificate to The Sports Authority. But then he also bought me something really really cool. Have you guys heard of the Nike+ system? It's a transmitter that you place inside your shoe, and it tracks your workout--distance, pace, etc. and transmits that to an iPod. Then as you're working out you can see on the iPod screen all your pedometer data, and every so often it will tell you either how far you've gone, or how long you've been at it.

I have an iPod Shuffle and the Nike+ only works with the iPod Nano. I said to Todd that I can't use this thing because I don't have the right iPod. He said "Yes you do. I ordered one, it just hasn't come yet." So, the night of my birthday I also got a brand new, green and shiny iPod Nano.

This morning I took the Nike+ and iPod to the gym for a spin on the treadmills. (Man, I had forgotten what great running music Metallica is. "Enter night.... Exit light....") I ran for 46 minutes, and then the little Nike+ voice told me that my workout was done. Then Lance Armstrong got on to congratulate me on my longest workout yet. Lance Fricken Armstrong. How cool is that?

:::

This morning as I was rocking out to Metallica, listening to the voice tell me every 5 minutes how much time I've been running, and hoping that I won't disappoint Mr. Armstrong I was watching CNN on the treadmill's TV. I was reading the closed captions, and chuckling to myself at the weird mistakes that closed captioning makes sometimes when it's trying to keep up with the news anchors talking. This morning during a segment on the Presidential Primaries the captions told me that predictions for the nation's economy were dependent on "Q4 tea leaves readings." So, that's how they decide when to lower or raise the interest rates! Reading tea leaves! Brilliant!