Those of you who’ve been watching my Twitter feed or Facebook page over the past month know a secret: I’ve been running again! I finally managed to get going again after taking most of the summer off. (For those that don’t know, I did a lot of running last year.) I’ve been easing back into it gently. My speed’s taken a bit of a hit, but my fitness level is better than I expected. I had a vague idea that I might run the Sydney Half-Marathon again in May, but I scrapped that plan this week. I’d like to do another Half this year, but I don’t think mentally I’m quite prepared to do it again yet. Instead I’ve decided to focus on shorter distances right now. I registered last week for the Mother’s Day Classic, which is an 8K event that I ran last year. My previous time was 55 minutes, but this year I’d like to do it in 48 (which would equate to a 60 minute 10K time). The race is in 9 weeks, so I started my training plan this morning. So far so good!

Also, I’m using some new software to track my runs. I downloaded RunKeeper for my iPhone, which tracks your progress via GPS. It seems to be a lot more accurate than the Nike+. I was using the free ad-supported version before, but yesterday I upgraded to RunKeeper Pro. The Pro version just introduced audio feedback, so you can tap the screen to hear your current distance and pace. It’s not quite up to Nike+ standard yet (you can’t set a workout goal yet or challenge people on the site), but the developer seems to have a lot more planned. RunKeeper has a few distinct advantages too: you can use it while cycling, and you don’t need any special shoes (or a hack to hold an accelerometer). If you’d like to track walking/running/hiking/cycling and you’ve got an iPhone, you should definitely try it out.