I was planning on just running a steady 4 or 5 miles tonight, but an email I received this afternoon prompted me to change my mind. Apparently my Kara Goucher Endurance Workout review didn’t go unnoticed and the email invited me to try out and review another of the excellent NIKE+ Workouts – this one inspired by Swedish band The Hives’ smash hit The Black and White Album.
The Hives have been around quite a while and I already own their Tyrannosaurus Hives CD from a few years ago. I’d heard of their latest CD, but hadn’t got around to buying/downloading it. This would be the perfect opportunity to check out their new material.
Production duo, Expensive People, craft a completely new running adventure by pulling elements from The Hives’ 2007 hit The Black and White Album. Nike boastfully touts the 45 minute workout as “the ultimate runner’s companion” and I must say they could be spot on with their comments. The mix is a masterful one and I had a thoroughly enjoyable, but challenging, afternoon workout thanks to the iconic Swedish rock band.
So with iPod Shuffle at the ready, I set off in the 80+° heat and hoped the music would keep me going. The 45 minutes began with a steady warm-up (roughly 4 or 5 minutes if I remember correctly) before allowing me to find my stride and get into a good rhythm. The songs were fantastic and really put me in a good mood and I’m sure people in their cars wondered why I had a silly grin on my face as I trotted along to classics like “Tick Tick Boom”, “Try It Again” and “Won’t Be Long”. All to soon, however, the tempo dropped and the workout came to a close with a restorative cool-down. If it wasn’t so hot and I wasn’t so thirsty, I’m positive I would have done it all again!
I’m sure The Black and White Album isn’t for everyone. It’s a distinctly European sound and I’m sure people will comment on my musical taste, but it certainly got me running and I can’t wait to do the workout again. Actually, I loved the music so much, one of the first things I did after my post-run stretch and shower was log on to iTunes and purchase the album. Should keep me happy at work tomorrow….
Just for the record, I covered 6.28 miles in the 45 minutes and my splits were as follows:
7:43 7:18 7:07 7:00 6:53 6:51
As you can see I ran each mile slightly quicker than the previous one, despite not even glancing at my Garmin 305 during the workout. Now all I need to do is recover in time for Saturday’s Women’s Distance Festival 5k at Fort Story in Virginia Beach – a celebration of women’s running with a rare women-only 5K. The men-only 5k follows the completion of the women’s race at around 6:30pm. Last year I was coming back off a foot injury and ran a very disappointing race – 19:19 if I remember correctly. It was hot and humid and I just got slower and slower as the race developed. This year will be better, but I’ll have to wait 48 hours before I find out how much.
Details of tonight’s workout inspired by The Hives:
Hi I just got a Nike+ Sensor tonight and was looking for the Nike+ workouts mentioned in the manual when I landed on your page. I am so happy that the first one I read about was based on the Hives – I was pessimistically imagining that the workouts would be as bad as the music that gets played at my gym! I can’t wait to try it out tomorrow.