I went for a run today. That's the synopsis!

History
There is no history. I'm a lazy runner. I'm a frequent soccer player (about 4-5 times a week) playing outdoors twice and indoors 3 times a week. If there is a ball to chase I can seem to run a lot longer, but running for runnings sake has been really difficult for me.

Nike+
So nike and apple released this really neat iPod kit / plugin to track running stats. Not for the serious runner, but a good utility for amateurs. I bought the nike+ shoes, iPod and running kit for xmas for my girlfriend. (actually I won the iPod at Brand Wars) It was off the hook and my girlfriend really enjoyed it. Watching her motivation, I bought myself the same kit. (She bought me nike shox for xmas, we were both so healthy back then =P) I got a refurbed nano, nike+ kit, shocks+hacks (more pictures of the hax), some lululemon running gear, and was on my way!

And Failure
That was about a year ago, I ran about 5 times and excused myself from running citing stress from school and work. I also didn't play soccer much, put on about 30lbs and well, wasted a couple hundred dollars.

Change of Fate... I hope
So this late august / early september, I made it a goal of mine to shed the pounds. I've shed 25lbs just from playing a rigorous soccer schedule. I'm 5lbs away from my 165 ideal weight. The belly is gone, but I have a fair bit of flub in my stomach region. (IE: you can see the abs behind my flabb) I'm not very toned so I'm going to start running more to bring my body fat% down. This is my pre-xmas / new years goal. I'm also going to slowly phase in weight training, and get my old jacked 19 year old body back!

Motivation
Motivation is the biggest iff factor for me. It was last year, and I wasn't motivated. Even after spending the hundreds on my running gear, I still didn't make use of it often enough. What's different this year? Well I'm a full time student (which, as you would expect, leaves me with a lot more flex time than when I was employed) and I'm broke too! My most recent investment, the marware relay (which is sweet, did I mention it was sweet!), has been enough of a motivation to get me running moreso than the last time around. I also got some of the good nike+ tunes off the iTunes store, and that helped me keep pace on my runs. But what else could possibly motivate me to keep up my running?

My running!
I think what'll keep me motivated is to keep running. (sounds weird I know... let me explain) I haven't ran in a year. I've played a lot of soccer, but not so much running. But tonight, my first run in about a year... was among my best runs using the nike+ system. The soccer, weight loss and better diet has made me a better runner! Not much of a surprise, but I have athletic goals and more urgency to get in better shape then I did before. I think this time, I'll stick to my goals.

Final thoughts
Wish me luck... I'm going to be jacked by Web Directions North. (I know, how geeky!) Check out the flickr photo!

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewkumar/1962357206/][img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2400/1962357206_ee65d97581.jpg[/img][/url]