Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate.
After gearing up with my iPod Nano, my Nike+ AirMax Moto Shoes, and my Nike+iPod connection kit, I learned that, without calibration, the Nike+ system makes me look SLLLOW.
For those of you who don't know, the Nike+iPod system is a combination of sneakers, ipod, a transmitter and a receiver, which collects running data from your sneakers (via the transmitter that slots into the specially designed shoe), sends it to your iPod (via the receiver that clips into the dock connector), and syncs it to nikeplus.com to track your runs. During a run, you can have the Nano give you feedback via headphones about distance, etc.
Sounds great, right? Is it, sort of.
Unless you calibrate the sensor on a track, by running a set distance and telling the sensor what that distance was (400 meters, a mile, etc), the sensor can be WAY off, which is disconcerting during a run.
During the 4-mile Run for Central Park, I would pass a mile marker, and a long time later, the Nano would say I just went that mile. When I finished the race, the Nano thought I had gone 3.49 miles. That's a huge difference between reality.
The drag is that it synced that race to the site... so it thinks I ran MUCH slower than I did, because the clock was accurate, but the distance wasn't. Bummer.
Anyway: I'm going to calibrate the sensor this weekend, and I'll report back then.
Love to all. Even you, the guy driving the limo, fast and in reverse, through the train station parking lot.
2 comments:
Thanks for the review -
I have been trying to decide between the nike+ipod and getting a garmin gps (only works with pc). I like the idea of the nike+ipod because 1. I already have an ipod 2. it is smaller and 3. it is compatible with a mac. I really am not psyched about nike shoes though. I am an asics fan all the way.
So let me know how you like it when you get all the bugs out.
Have you ever had or tried out the garmin?
CG
p.s. when I see people do stupid things I think of your saying ...love to .. even you ...
ha ha
I just got a setup yesterday.
I lucked out with calibration. I did a run on a route where a local running club had spray-painted kilometre (in Canada) markers on the pavement. My nano was dead on.
I'm not surprized that some people have to calibrate. I had a nike triax watch which had a footpod that you would attach to your shoe and I had to calibrate that. I recognize that its frustrating but I don't think it can be avoided.
I would not get a garmin gps unless you live in a desert. A gps was my first speed+distance monitor. It worked fine in the park during the spring and winter (when there are no leaves on the trees) but it worked terribly near buildings and when the trees had leaves on them. The system needs to "see" the sky. Buildings and trees interfere quite a bit. As I live downtown and my only choices are the urban environment and treed parks, the garmin turned out to be a bad choice. It might be ok in the suburbs, but then again, that would depend on how many trees are around.
The Nano system is great. The only thing that I don't like is the lack of a heartrate monitor - something that mike Nike triax watch has.
MH
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