New Toy

With all my walking and some running lately I decided that I wanted to keep track of distances and times. What better way to do that than with the Nike+ipod set. I picked it up today at a store called Runner's Corner for $38. This is what I got (along with a manual and Apple's typically sweet packaging):

The oval portion goes in the sole of a Nike+ shoe, or in my case velcroed and under the laces of my current pair of Nike runners. It's not going anywhere with the way I have it:


That's the transmitter which has an accelerometer in it. The small rectangular part is the receiver and attaches to my iPod Nano. It's the same size as the end portion of the USB cable that I use to connect to my computer.

So first thing I had to do was update my version of iTunes and the firmware for my nano (from 1.0 to 1.3 for those curious). With that I had a new option in my nano's menu: Nike+ipod. With an easy calibration (1/4 mile walk on the treadmill) everything was set.

Voice prompts aid you on your workouts and you can set your works based on time, distance, speed or calories burned. All this information is uploaded to the nike+ website where you can track your results as well as set goals and make challenges to other people.

Here's a graph of my first "official" walk using Nike+ (click to make it larger):


I'll keep you updated as I use it more. My first impressions are good and I can see this being a useful tool in my quest for fitness and health.