Gone Shopping

I’ve had a Nike+ attachment for my Ipod for over a year now, and I’ve told a number of people about how I like it, so I figured it was time to write an actual review of it.

For those of you who don’t know, this kit is a pod that goes in your shoe, and a plugin piece that works with a Ipod Nano. Using the Ipod, you can track your time, distance and calories burned while running or walking.The shoe sensoe is designed to work with Nike shoes that have a special cut-out for it.

The Sportsband is the new version of this that is put out just by Nike. No Ipod is required. It has the same sensor, and a “watch” to wear that gives you the information.

For both of these, you can track your status online through Nike+.

Now, here’s what I have to say:

For the Ipod version, it works great. You can start your music, then start the Nike+Ipod function, and just go. When you reach milestones, Lance Armstrong or Paula Ratcliffe comes on and tells you your doing good. That’s just fun. Also, you don’t need to have anything playing to work it though. I don’t like to wear headphones when trail running, so I just use it without. (Safety Note: When I do wear them, I only use 1 earpiece, so I’m at least somewhat aware of whats going on around me.)

It uses ITunes to manage the syncing with the website, which isn’t a big deal. I didn’t particularly care for the calibration to get the distance set up correctly because you need to run on a route of a specific distance (like a track). Hence, I never calibrated mine. Over the course of a marathon, the distance was pretty dang close. For shorter distances (under 10 miles), I found it to be accurate within about 10%, which was good enough for me.

The plugin piece to the IPod is pretty easy to misplace. I forgot mine at home a number of times because it’s so small. But it weighs next to nothing, so the only thing you notice while wearing it is the extended length of the whole gizmo. (About an extra 1/2 inch.)

Battery life is good, my shoe sensor battery just died after 15 months, which has led me to buying a Sports Band.

Now, the Sports Band is a bit different. As I mentioned, it has the same sensor. However, it has a USB dongle attached to a watchband instead of using the Ipod. The dongle itself it very small, just big enough to an LCD screen and a button.

You have to install separate software for this, which is no big deal. However, there are things about it I don’t like:

• I don’t want a background service running on my computer all the time. I don’t have enough memory as it is. (No big deal, since it can be turned off..)
• Calibration is a lot easier than the other version. Any run of know length over a 1/4 mile will work.
• Whenever you plug it in, it automatically takes you to the Nike+ site. This is an annoyance, because I don’t always need to see my information right away. (There’s probably a way to turn this off too, but I haven’t seen it yet.)

The watchband is more comfortable than I thought it would be, and it’s not very wide so doesn’t affect wrist movement much. However, if you have large wrists, be sure to try it on before you buy it. I have mine on the last holes…fits but I don’t have space to get bigger wrists.  the dongle can probably be carried in a pocket easily enough, but I’d worry about losing it.

And, after using it 3 times, my only real complaint is that the LCD isn’t too shock absorbent. Well, I suppose it’s the same as any other watch, but it’s not good enough for me. I’ve always been hard on watched, even when I’m not being thrown around by cars.

Here’s an import piece for both versions: Nike, of course, would like you to buy Nike shoes. However, this is usable with any shoe. I stuck a piece of velcro on my sensor to prevent it from slipping, then just stuck it in the laces of my  shoe where it’s fairly tight. There are companies also selling special pouches to use too.  (Note: Feel free to buy Nike’s. They just don’t fit me too well.)

And my last bit is this:
I don’t particularly like the Nike+ site. All the flash is slow to load. I really like the online challenges, but they are too hard to search through because they aren’t organized well. Alternate sites exist, such as Runner+ that work a lot better in my opinion.

Enjoy, and look forward to seeing you out there.