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| courtesy of Apple.com |
One of my goals for 2011 is to increase the number of days out of the week that I run. I hope to run five days a week. In order to track my mileage (since I run indoors in the Winter), I purchased a Nike+ sensor that tracks my speed and distance and sends this info to my iPhone (also works with some iPods).
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| Screenshot of my Nike Running web page |
While my intention was really just to have a relatively accurate way to track my mileage indoors (which this does pretty well), I have been pleasantly surprised by the rich web experience on Nike Running's website. Not only does the website track my speed and distance, it provides detailed graphs of my speed throughout the run (which allows me to pinpoint what points in a when I get fatigued, etc), allows me to add additional information (weather, road conditions, etc) about particular runs, and even allows you to create an avatar called a Mini (think Mii for Nintendo Wii) that acts as a virtual cheerleader.
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| My Nike Mini |
There are other features of the Nike Running website I am not yet using. There are different training programs (virtual coaches) and a social media component to the site that I have yet to try. I am using a training program independent of Nike and don't have many friends that are also using the Nike+ system.
I would highly recommend this system to anyone looking to get more serious about tracking their runs. I am, by no means, a fast or competitive runner, but this site helps me stay motivated and accountable—especially on the Winter mornings that I don't feel like running at all.
Sometimes I think it's funny that while running is viewed as a sport where the only thing to you need is the open road and a pair of shoes (and sometimes you don't even need shoes!), that I am connecting a sensor in my shoe to my iPhone, which is also connected to a pair of bluetooth headphones playing a customized running playlist. And when the run is over my iPhone uploads all of the data to Nike's server, where all of the data is tabulated and analyzed while a mini, digital version of myself cheers the real me on.
Fitness in 2011, isn't it great?
Very interesting! As someone who has done a lot of running when I was younger, this really is amazing! I'm going to forward this to my older brother who lives in Connecticut. He just turned 65 early this month, but still runs about 4.5 miles per day. He loves gadgets and might already know about this. But then again, he might not.
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