I have now had the Nike+iPod kit, as well as my fancy shoes, for 4 days. I can safely say that I am still very happy with my purchase. I also think that it will be an invaluable tool in my attempt to get in better shape, and get ready for the Detroit Half Marathon that we will be running in October.
However, I am techie. Working for a company that has an extensive web development team, as well as a great deal of experience with popular websites, makes me a bit pickier then the average runner. So after spending some quality time with the Nike+ website I have a few concerns.
My first concern is the most obvious: It's a website. To view my graphs and goals I need an internet connected PC. I understand that this is a perfect example of Internet 2.0, and social networking, blah, blah. Fine, have a website, but could you not make a small application that keeps track of my runs locally? Heck, just take the flash application from the web page and compile it to a stand-alone application. Just disable web 2.0 stuff when there is no Internet available. I don't see any reason why I should have to log in every time I want to see how my last run compared to the run before that. |
Four "Runs" down. Something
like a billion to go.
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I also wish that the XML file sent to the server would contain a bit more information. This is most likely a problem with the Nike+ software on the Nano as well. When you run it seems to only record its data each kilometer or mile, as well as at the end of the workout (this is another annoyance altogether). So you can kind of cheat your graph by making sure you are running at the end of each KM or Mile. Below you can see our 10 mile Run/Walk from Sunday. The graph for KM is much more useful then the one for miles.
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Above you can see how, when I review the run with my preferences set to miles, the graph is rather boring and makes it look like we held pretty steady pace.
With the preferences set to KM there are more points to measure from so you can see that we had a much more varied pace.
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I know it would make the XML files a bit larger, but if it was possible to set the recorded intervals it would be incredibly useful. You can extrapolate from this sample how much more detailed a graph that derived from every 100 or even 500 meters would be. It could be an option for those of us who are obsessed with numbers.
As I mentioned, I find the way it records the end of your run to be a bit annoying. Nothing to stop using the kit for, but they could definitely polish things a bit. There seems to be a glitch that when you meet your goal and start navigating the click wheel to end your workout you get a spike in your readings. This causes your graphs to become distorted and throw off your averages. You seem to be able to avoid this by pausing your workout while you are still running, then ending the workout. This is not so bad, but it should not be necessary in my opinion. This brings up another issue: to end your workout you have to hit the menu button, then spin down to end workout and select it. This does not seem like much, but doing it to an iPod strapped to your arm after running 6km is not fun.
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Sunday I finally went to calibrate my Nike+ kit. Afterward I decided to run for a quick mile around the track. As you can see I got the now familiar spike when I ended the workout.
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This brings me to more more suggestion for future versions of The Nike+ kit. Give us the option to have the system stop recording automatically when the goal is reached. This would just be nice for those times when all you care about is a fixed distance, or time.
On the same note, I would also like the ability to - for lack of a better word - "insert" a workout. Let me explain:
I would like to be able to leave my house, set the Nano to working, warm up for 1k or so, then from that point start a 5K run. At the moment, to do this I would have to set myself on 6k run and just have crappy time for the first kilometer. It would be nice to be able to have warm-up and cool-down time recorded, but be able to separate the true workout, the 5K or whatever, from the rest. You are probably thinking, "just set yourself to a 6k or something", but this dose not work as well because then the voice feedback does not know when to prompt you. Its not very motivating to be walking along in your cool-down and have a voice in your ear say, "300 meters, 200 meters".... That makes you want to run, and that won't cool you down.
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Why I want to be able to "insert workouts": in the above example I had warmed up for about a half mile before I stared the 5k workout. Then after I met my goal I walked the 1k. I did however find some strength for a final push up the hill toward home. The problem is I have no record of what my warm-up consisted of. And my average time for the 5k was shot to hell because my 1k of walking killed my curve.
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Once more I have to point out that despite my bitching I love my Nike+ iPod setup. I would recommend them to anyone who wants to really get motivated to run. In my next running blog I will talk about the Nike+ websites fun features, like goals and challenges.
Today is Tuesday; no running for me. However I might have to see what happens when you wear the Nike+ ipod kit to play basketball. |