With the recent arrival of Apple and Nike's co-branded Nike+iPod campaign, excitement built up in the iPod community about what kind of functionality it would bring. While some saw it as nothing more than an excuse to sell more iPods and more Nike shoes and clothes, the announcement of Nike+iPod Sport Kit really got me excited. With an iPod Nano and the Sport Kit you'd effectively have a virtual running coach and personal motivator to push you to finish your workouts faster than before. This article represents my intial impressions of the Nike+iPod Sport Kit and Nike's Nikeplus.com website which provides a graphical representation of your workout data.

In the beginning...
So I recently started running because I'm a bit of a masochist. I guess I should preface that by saying I'm "in shape" in that I've exercised off and on since college, and since I live in San Diego I need to be able to take my shirt off at the beach without feeling too much shame. That being said, I've never enjoyed running. I actually was a decent runner in high school, and finished a sub-6 minute mile once (5m 59s!). But I only ran because I had to in PE, so once I didn't need to run anymore, I stopped. When I tried to pick it up again in college it was a miserable experience. You know how some people can just throw on some Vans slip-ons and run a mile? Yeah, I found out the hard way that wasn't one of those people. I did actually try and run in cross trainers, but I got shin splints and my lower back hurt and I wasn't enjoying myself like I did when I was lifting weights, so I quickly lost desire.

Fast-forward to about a month ago. It's San Diego, it's nice outside, I see people running, I'm sick of working out with the ladies on the elliptical trainer and running in place on the treadmill staring back at my sweaty self in the mirror. "Dammit," I say, "I'm gonna go running." So I lace up my cross trainers figuring my many hours of little- or no-impact exercise had to have paid dividends and my lower body should be ready. Not so much. After about a mile my lower back was tightening up and my shins were so tender I didn't want to breath on them. Not to be defeated I decided to suck it up and venture some place I'd never been: the running shoe store.

What's so weird about the running shoe store, you ask. Well mainly it was the image of those old sweaty guys wearing shorts that are shorter than most guys should be wearing. Hey grandpa, if the tanline from your Speedos is showing maybe you should look for something with a little more material next time! Here's a hint, if your orange running shorts and white tanktop make you look like a Hooters girl... you get the idea.

So I went to Road Runner Sports and had the shoe techs check me out. I'd just come from work so I had on dress pants and work socks. You know work socks, the colored ones with goofy little designs that you like but probably don't want anyone else to see. That wasn't awkward. It went a little something like this:
RR Guy: "Take off your shoes for me."
Me: "OK."
RR Guy: "Wow. Hmmm. OK, pull your pant legs up and walk over there." (he points half-way across the store)
As I'm walking shoeless across the entire display of running shoes, he shouts "Lift your pants higher!"
Me: *sigh* "OK."
RR Guy: "You need motion control shoes."
Me: "What?"
RR Guy: "Your feet are flat. You probably get shin splints and have lower back pain, right?"
Me: "How did you..."
RR Guy: (rolls his eyes) "Hold on, I'll get some shoes for you to try."

So after he brings me out some Brooks that look like my 77-year old grandfather would pick out at Marshalls, and some running shoes that are so hideous I think even the blind could sense their colors clashing (what is it about running makes shoe manufacturers think "the uglier the better"?), RR Guy brings me out a pair of Mizuno Wave Alchemy 6s. They look pretty much like a regular shoe and RR Guy says they'll help so I buy them.

I was skeptical when I first bought them, but I wanted to run so I took them home and tried them out. And you know what, the very first day my shins hurt a lot less, and my lower back barely hurt at all. So if you want to try running and you've had the same problems I have, go to a running shoe store and they should be able to help you. It was well worth the humiliation of parading around in my goofy socks.


"I just felt like run-ning..."
So after I got used to running, got a pair of decent Under Armour running shorts, some Nike compression tights to keep my junk in place, and one of those sweat-wicking shirts I found on the cheap at Target, I actually felt like a more competent runner than I ever really had.

And to make sure I stuck to my running program I gave myself a little motivation. I signed up for my first 5k, the America's Finest City 5K at Balboa Park here in San Diego. I bought a digital watch with a chronograph to time myself, created a Google Spreadsheet of my times running various differences including one a little shorter than a 5K (about 2.75 miles), a little longer than a 5K (about 3.6 miles), and right around the 5K distance (around 3.15 miles), and everything was good. But something was missing: music. For as long as I've worked out, I've had music to motivate me. Whether it's my CD walkman back in college, my 4G iPod now, or the crappy 80s music my gym plays when I forget my iPod, I've always had music to make the experience more enjoyable. And since running with a hard drive-based music player is generally considered a no-no because it can cause undo wear-and-tear on the moving parts, and I've had a personal experience with my iPod's skip protection running out, I wanted a new flash-based music player to get things going.

Right when I was about to settle on a cheaper player like a SanDisk Sansa or Creative Zen Micro, I heard the news about the Nike+iPod cross promotion that Apple and Nike cooked up, and the cool little gadget called the Nike+iPod Sport Kit that was designed to work with runners to measure things like distance, time, and pace on the fly, I knew I wanted it. So I waited until I had verification that it would work in my new Mizuno's and not have to be in a Nike shoe, and that came thanks to the brave soul at Podophile. So I bought a used iPod Nano off eBay (you can read about that experience as well as how to be a bargain-hunting eBay sniper in an upcoming article), bought the Nike+iPod Sport Kit from the Apple Store in my local mall, and set to work.


Nike+iPod Sport Kit Review

See you think from the commercials that you just load up your Nano with songs to keep you motivated while running, plug the adapter into your Nano, and drop the receiver in your shoe, and you're off to the races. Not so, but to get it going is no big deal. To get the Nike+iPod Sport Kit working on my new (used) iPod Nano I had to: 1) Update iTunes to 6.0.5. No big deal there, that's what broadband is for. Less than 10 minutes to download and install. 2) Update my iPod Nano with the iPod Updater that came out on June 28th. Not really a problem; go to Apple's iPod website, download the updater, install it and let it update the Nano. 3) Connect the adapter to the unit and figure out how to use it. Again, pretty simple. The navigation is intuitive, you set a "power song" to keep you motivated, pick a time or distance or custom setting, and start running.

My problem of not having a cool little slot under the insole like the Nike+ shoes do caused me a little stress. I'd seen Podophile's solution (wrapping it in his laces and securing it with velcro), and read about some other crazy folks who were just going to cut into the shoe's cushioning to dig out a place for it. I didn't have any velcro handy and I wasn't about to butcher my news shoes, so I figured I'd just tuck it in my laces and glance down every 10 strides or so to make sure I hadn't lost it. After trying it up by the knot I came to the realization that the base of the tongue was probably the best place, and the picture should illustrate why.

As you may or may not be able to see, the loop at the bottom that the laces are fed through acts as a catch for the receiver. It simply can't slip out through the bottom of the laces because of that loop. The picture isn't actually as secure as I have it when I running, it's pushed down a little farther, but is just an example. I've run about 10 miles on three separate occasions using the receiver, and I have yet to have a problem. It's definitely something to look into if you're like me and don't want to slice and dice your running shoes. If you want to more securely attach the receiver to your shoe, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND following Podophile's detailed 'shoe hack' that he lists on his page. I haven't had problems with the placement of the receiver and I've already made a habit of a quick glance down to make sure it's still secured in my laces every 20-30 strides or so. This may work for you, it may not. You can calibrate the Sport Kit for greater accuracy if you want, but the instruction manual says you don't really need to. I went ahead and ran a route I already knew the distance to thanks to GMap Pedometer just to compare. The difference by the end of the course was that the Sport Kit told me I completed my 5K distance at a point about 100 meters (about 1/16th of a mile) shorter than what GMap Pedometer told me. And to be honest I have no idea how accurate that website is. Today I ran the long route around Fiesta island, which is 4.4 miles including the causeway. I started it right at the causeway and with under half a mile left to finish the route the female voice came over my headphones and told me I'd completed my 4 miles I'd set it to. That's accurate enough for me! Podophile also did a follow-up article on the accuracy of the Sport Kit.

To say that I'm pleased with this thing is an understatement. It's a great idea, I love it, and it is definitely motivating me to run more! Depending on what you're running (meters or miles), a voice will chime in giving you updates along the way. When I ran my 5K distance, it announced every kilometer completed. When I ran my 4 miles, it announced every mile. And to motivate you at the finish of each route the voice chimes in during the final 400 meters, 300, 200 and 100 meters, and then announces you've completed your route. I find myself sprinting the last 100-200 meters trying to finish strong to please the soothing voice coming into my ears. Once you've finished your route and stopped the workout (IMPORTANT: the Sport Kit collects info until you manually end the workout, meaning if you slow your pace dramatically without ending the workout, your results will be skewed!), the voice tells you how far you ran, how long it took you to run, what your average pace over that time was, and even how many calories you burned.

The real fun begins though, once you upload the data to the nikeplus.com website.

NikePlus.com
Creating an ID with Nikeplus.com was simple. I didn't have to enter some serial number on the bottom of a Nike shoe or anything, just give Nike the basic information, create a username and password, and you're on your way.

Synching the data from your workout really couldn't be easier. You plug your Nano into your computer, iTunes opens up, and it asks you if you'd like to connect to Nikeplus.com to synch your data with the server. You supply your username and password the first time, tell it to save the login information for future synchs, and away your data goes.

The Nikeplus.com website gives you a great Flash-based visual representation of your run graphed as a function of distance (x-axis) vs pace (y-axis) with mile markers as points plotted along the way. If you mouse-over those points, it tells you what distance it represents on the graph, as well as your pace from the previous point, meaning if I mouse-over the third point in my 5K workout, it tells me that it's the 3rd milage point and my pace for the mile from point 2 to point 3 was 9m:52s. Very cool stuff!

The Nikeplus.com site also compares all your runs side-by-side, allows you to set goals for yourself, and allows you challenge and accept challenges from other runners. The goals area still seems a little incomplete to me. You choose one of four options, whether you want to run: more often, a distance, to burn calories, or faster. The goals aren't very customizable though; Nike has provided you with a limited number of choices for the timeframe you can achieve the goal in. For instance, if you choose to run distance you can only select 4, 8, 12 or 16 weeks. At first I misinterpreted this section as "I want to be able to run a certain distance by the end of 4 weeks" instead of "I want to run a total distance by the end of 4 weeks." I ended up setting 4 miles for myself, and subsequently was given a goal of running 4 total miles over a 4 week span, not exactly a lofty goal and one that I accomplished.

The Challenge section is a neat idea also. Other runners from around the world have the ability to challenge you to "races" to see who's faster. Theoretically, someone in England could challenge me to a 10K; they would run the distance and post their time and I would run the distance and post my time. The two times would then be compared and shown against each other, with the winner announced. It's a fun way to motivate people to run even more, I haven't tried it in practice though.

Currently my new, more lofty goal is to run 40 miles in 4 weeks. I'm sure 10 miles per week is chump change to a lot of runners out there, but not to a new runner like me. A side effect of all this milage tracking is that Nikeplus.com records the total miles you've run in their system. This should allow you know when your shoes are becoming worn. Maybe you'll want to trade them in for a rocking pair of Nike+'s.

I found a couple other reviews via Technorati of the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, an initial impression at Pyslent.com, and a short write-up comparing the accuracy of the Sport Kit vs a Garmin Forerunner over on Brian (hey you spell your name wrong!) Chesney's blog.

One of my favorite magazines, Wired, also has an interesting write-up on the accelerometer used in the Sport Kit

Again, inspiration for this article and TONS of credit have to go to Podophile. Without his initial testing of the Sport Kit in non-Nike shoes, I would never have bought any of these goodies. Hmmm, on second thought maybe I should send him a bill.


SDBryan is not a runner, nor does he play one on TV. He does enjoy running distances under 5 miles and may someday work up the courage to run a 10K. 5Ks are good enough for now though.