The Camera Eye

Kathy & I have each been using the Nike+ipod system for our runs lately — 2 gizmos: one that attaches to your running shoe, another that attaches to your nano. It adds some functionality to your ipod during runs — a voice will interject when you’ve run 1K, 2K, 3K — when you’re halfway to your goal distance/time/etc. That by itself is really terrific, although it’s not *as* important for me since I often run inside on treadmills. What’s really cool is that my ipod stores information about my runs and automatically syncs it to the Nike web site:

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Keeps track of all sorts of information — the particular view above shows my run totals week-by-week since the end of October, when we started. (One beef I have with the site is that it’s all in Flash — not web native.) You can see that some weeks I did better than others — like the week before Christmas, when things were pretty quiet around the office, as opposed to the week of Christmas, when Mom was here and Sam was a little under the weather.

What I find particularly useful, though, is goal setting. Here’s a goal that I set a couple of weeks ago, to run 75 miles in 4 weeks:

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I’m behind a bit — because of the aforementioned Christmas week. I’ll catch up a bunch today, but with my trip to China coming up, I’m betting I’m not quite going to get this one done. It’s okay, though, as I find that the nike+ipod makes me want to run more, to run faster, to perform better. And my runs are getting longer & faster as a result, in measurable ways. (There is a funny counter-effect — the times when I forget to bring your ipod, I’m much less motivated to run hard or far, as I don’t get “credit” — Kathy’s noticed the same thing for her. A related effect, I think, is that I’ve been doing more running compared to lifting weights than previously — again, I think it’s the psychological issue of getting credit.) I also find myself, once I’ve set a goal (of, say 8 miles or a 10K), that even if I’m tired, I generally power through and finish. The other day I mis-entered a run of 2 miles longer than I wanted to run — but instead of stopping when I had intended, I took it as a challenge to run a little bit further.

Anyway, this is turning out to be an extremely useful & fulfilling thing for both Kathy & me. Makes me start thinking about what other parts of our lives will start/continue to be metered. (Kathy & I used something like this called a SportBrain a few years ago, but this is a lot lot better.)

4 comments

  1. There was a story about the security vulnerabilities of the nike+ipod system, a while ago.
    See:

    I don’t know if that has been addressed.

  2. There was a story about the security vulnerabilities of the nike+ipod system, a while ago.
    See:

    I don’t know if that has been addressed.

  3. Through the Camera Eye is a videocassette/laserdisc release by the Canadian band Rush. It was released in 1985 by Poly Gram Records. No DVD re-issue was released, likely because most of the clips on Though The Camera Eye are on the on Chronicles compilation except for Vital Signs,The Body Electric and Countdown.
    ————————
    Jenifer

    Guaranteed ROI

  4. nike+ipod makes me want to run more, to run faster,
    to perform better. And my runs are getting
    longer and faster as a result