Nike+
After losing my dear last gen ipod shuffle in the plane, I “had” to buy another ipod. I decided to get a nano, and on a whim got the nike+ sensor since I decided to start running again. In theory you should buy special nike sneakers that have a place in the sole to put the sensor in.
Since I usually don’t have $100 lying around, I spent $30 on a new balance I found on sale, and got this totally geeky thing that includes a velcro pouch you that you can put in your shoe laces.
So, there I went, first at the treadmill in the gym. After some calibration, and tying the shoes a little tighter, every thing was fine. Very precise instrument, for the price. One I get back to Rochester in the weekend, I decide to run out for that nice run on the snow (no gym membership there) and, to my surprise, the sensor stops working… After some experimentation, I am pretty sure the thing doesn’t like the cold. (Who can blame it, really?) With the actual nike sneakers it wouldn’t be much of a problem, since it should be fairly warm inside your shoes… then again, $100 for a pair of shoes…
This pretty much made it impossible for me to complete my goal set at the Nike+ website, 60 miles in a month. I didn’t actually run 60 miles, more like 45, but only 6 runs were recorded, as displayed in this incredibly junky chart:
Which brings us to my second point in this post. I am not a fan of bar charts in general, but this one takes the cake. Note how the bars start at -1 !!! Amazing, you don’t even start and you have already ran a mile… take that as a moral booster!
In any case, it does allow one to pull the data and display it in all its (text) glory in the sidebar that you should be able to see in the right. I used the wordpress plugin Nike+ stats, in case you are wondering.