Nike+ Running Auto-Pause Feature

Last week, I was pretty swamped. Though despite all of that, I've been going to yoga every day, which I'm really proud of! I knew I needed to run another 2 miles to fulfill my 2014 resolution of running at least 3 miles a week, but I kept putting it off (shocker). To make matters worse, on Thursday during Yoga Sculpt, I tweaked my back doing squat presses. :( Plus it kept raining on and off all week! I wasn't sure when I was going to do it, but when it was Saturday and I still hadn't run, I knew I needed to do it that day, or break my resolution.

The small window of time when it wasn't raining

On Saturday morning, it was clear. By the time I got out of yoga, it was pouring rain. Then I went to Safeway to pick up some things, and by the time I left it was bright and sunny. I knew it- this was the 20 minute window when I could run. Plus, I need to try out Nike+ Running App's new Auto-Pause feature!

Nike+ Running App Auto-Pause Feature

Auto-Pause is a feature that can be turned on or off in the Nike+ Running App's settings, and as soon as I saw the update, I made sure it was on. From last week's pause-filled run with Chelsey, I was eager to not have to deal with pressing pause and un-pause whenever I hit a stoplight, especially if I wasn't using headphones, like I was last week when I talked with Chelsey the whole time.

I was interested to see how quick the app would be to catch on to whether or not I was running or stopped, and through the 14+ lights I had to wait for during this run, I figured this:

• There is a 3-5 Second delay for the app to pause the workout when you stop moving
• There is a 11-13 Step Delay for the app to start the workout again when you start running again (meaning, it depends entirely on your pace, but for mine, my left foot hit the ground 6-7 times before the app un-paused itself)

At first, I found this really annoying. For example, at the very beginning of my route, there isn't a big stretch of road to run on before there's a stop light. At the corner of an intersection that I'm trying to turn onto, for example, the street isn't wide enough for me to run 11-13 steps before I have to stop again. For those moments, it was annoying because I would be halfway through the intersection before it would start, and then I would get to where I had to wait again and it would take another 3-5 seconds before the app would pause. 

Waiting at an intersection, I snapped a picture of beautiful cherry blossoms!

I felt like this was giving me false results, because the app tracked me as waiting at the corner, and then suddenly in the next second (from what the app could tell), I would be in the middle of the intersection. So, my pace was kind of all over the place for this run. It gave me a GREAT pace, but I'm just not sure how accurate it was.

Looking at the app, it seemed that every time I was in a consistent running speed, I was running around a 8'30" mile pace, which even for me is pretty fast considering I hadn't really run in 5 days... so I'm not really sure?

Oh well. It was nice to not have to press pause every time I had to stop at an intersection! I would definitely recommend this feature, but with a grain of salt concerning your overall pace.