It looks like Apple’s iTunes store wasn’t the only site to buckle under the pressure of increased holiday traffic. Nike’s Nikeplus.com, the site where Nike+iPod Sport Kit users upload their running data and track their progress, has been hit with slowdowns and service outages for the past couple of days. I didn’t write about it when I first noticed the issues, because every website bogs down from time to time, but now it’s clear that something more serious going on here.

A message was finally posted by Nike on the Nikeplus forums acknowledging the problem:

Due to increased traffic (we’re happy to see you are taking your New Year’s resolutions seriously!), we needed to temporarily shut down certain areas of the nikeplus site in order to make some changes and stabilize the platform for you. The site messages what areas are impacted. We apologize for the inconvenience but can assure you that your workout data is safe. So go for a run and revisit us shortly!

The problems are affecting just about every aspect of the site that requires personal running data, including uploading the data from you iPod nano and checking the status of your challenges and goals. The Nike+iPod widgets’ ability to display accurate data has also been affected.

This is a serious problem for Nike, and there’s really no excuse for it. Their website has been up and running since July, giving them plenty of time to work out the bugs and prepare for the server load of the post-holiday season. This will certainly impact future sales of the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, at least in the short term. With so many brand-new users getting such a bad Nike+iPod experience right out of the gate, there’s bound to be some bad word-of-mouth floating around.

Cross your fingers that Nike can work out these problems soon, without losing any of our precious running data.

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