The Nike+iPod Sport Kit was too obvious not to happen. It takes an iPod nano that is already perfect for running (lightweight, easy to navigate) and adds an easy, inexpensive speed and mileage tracker. The kit consists of a coin-sized transmitter that fits in your Nike+ running shoes — or other shoes with slight modification — and a receiver than snaps onto your iPod nano.
The reviews have been generally positive. Walt Mossberg (Wall Street Journal) said the kit is “a great first effort” and hopes a future version includes a heart-rate monitor. Macworld said it is “simple but ingenious, easy enough to use for beginning runners and technophobes alike, while reliable enough for even competitive runners.” iLounge and PC Magazine rave about the nikeplus.com web site that automatically uploads and tracks your stats after each run and allows you to set running goals and network with other runners.
I am a little late to the Nike+iPod party — it’s been on the market since July 2006 — but I had been eying the $29 kit for some time and my wife got it for me for Christmas. After running twice with the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, there are at least five things I like about it.
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1. Stats. Not much of a free spirit, I want to know my distance, my time, my average mile pace, my weekly mileage, and my personal bests. Nike+iPod keeps up with those things remarkably well, displays them on the iPod, and lays them out beautifully on the Nike+iPod web site that charts the stats day after day, week after week.
2. Motivation. With the exception of the year I ran several triathlons, I have never been a particularly dedicated or consistent runner. I will have a 10- or 12-mile week, get lazy, get busy at work, run once or twice over the next month, and then start all over again. The Goals tab on the nikeplus.com web site should help with motivation; it allows you to set up goals for distance, number of runs, calories burned and speed over 4-, 8-, 12- and 16-week periods.
3. Run anywhere. Once you calibrate Nike+iPod to your stride, it keeps up with your running stats anywhere you go. That frees you up from having to run on fixed loops if you want to know your total distance.
4. Other shoes. Nike+iPod is made to work with Nike+ shoes that have a tiny cutout below the sole for the transmitter, but the transmitter works just a well stuck under your shoestrings or in a shoe pocket like this one (scroll down) from Fuel Belt available online or at running stores for about $6. I will seriously consider Nike+ for my next pair of running shoes, but this works fine for now.
5. Ease of use. Like most Apple products, Nike+iPod is extremely intuitive. You don’t need directions or to remember a lot of steps to use it. Like the iPod itself, you just scroll over to the Nike+iPod tab, choose your program (distance, time, etc.), choose your playlist, and start running.
I have only two gripes — one very minor, the other a work in progress.
1. Crash. The calibration function crashed my iPod the first time I ran it, and I had to hard reset the iPod to un-freeze it. It hasn’t happened again. No biggie.
2. Accuracy. I am not completely satisfied with the accuracy. I calibrated the distance today on a treadmill with a quarter-mile run, and then I ran a 5k. Nike+iPod said I ran 5.07k, but the treadmill said I ran 4.83k. For that particular run at least, the device was only about 95 percent accurate. I will recalibrate to one mile on an outdoor run and see if the longer distance calibration makes a difference.
On the balance, I am looking forward to using Nike+iPod, and I hope to report many miles in 2008. My first goal: 40 miles in four weeks.
