Review of Nike+ from The Sunday Times 22 February 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article5774661.ece

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Back from my weekly long run – 12.4 miles in 1hr 57mins. I’m pretty happy overall with this considering the route is not flat and I felt okay by the end of it. This hopefully keeps me on track for the marathon in 8 weeks time, although I will probably only get one 18 miler in rather than the two I had hoped for given that I lost some training time due to injury and the snow.

It struck me that a lot of running is to do with what goes on in our heads and our attitude. Read More…

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I had a lovely romantic long run (10.4 miles) with my other half on Saturday! It was good to get running in daylight as all my weekday runs are after work in the dark. Roll on the spring and the longer evenings! Somehow it is so much more difficult to get motivated to run in the dark evenings – probably a contributing factor is that I have to use the same route each night as it is the only safe route with pavements all the way. It was lovely to run by the canal on Saturday and see snowdrops and crocus appearing the banks. Read More…

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Just to update what I’m currently using and testing at the moment.

• Garmin Forerunner 50 watch. Am getting to grips with watch and loving it and am just getting into using the heart rate monitor. Will keep you posted on that.
• Flickr – continuing to use Flickr for my visual food diary and have got into the habit of automatically photographing my meals on my camera phone.
• Twitter – tweeting about my runs and the occasional word of running wisdom.
• Fetch Everyone – another web tool for logging training, planning runs, connecting with other runners, More info on this to come.
• Dailymile – have just started to use www.dailymile.com for recording my training (similar to Gyminee) and will blog a bit more about that in the next day or so.

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The Garmin 50 watch is suitable for running, cycling and other fitness activities. Unlike some of the other Garmin models is does not work on GPS but works with a wireless footpod and heart rate monitor (optional).

• The footpod lets you track running pace, distance, calories burned, cadence.
• The heart rate monitor tracks your heart rate and allows you train in a certain heart rate zone.
• The USB ANT stick allows for all the data to be automatically transmitted to your computer when the device is within range. You can then analyse and share it using Garmin Training Center software.

The Forerunner 50 website on the Garmin website demonstrates how it all works

Further general info on the Forerunner 50 on the Garmin website

Cost: TechnoTrotter paid approx £105 for the watch, footpod and HRM

TechnoTrotter is currently testing the Forerunner 50 and will post a review in due course.

Posted under gadgets and gear

Had a great run tonight. Was using my new Garmin 50 watch now that I’ve managed to “pair” the watch with the foot pod.  It works with a foot pod rather than GPS to measure distance, pace, time, cadence etc which is great as it means you’re not standing about at the start of a run looking distinctly odd as you hold your forearm to the skies muttering “come on, come on” as it takes ages to lock onto a satellite (I have previously owned a GPS garmin).

Anyway it’s a while since I’ve had a watch that measured pace as I ran – I went through a phase of running without a watch so there was no pressure, but know that if I’m going to improve I need to train a bit more intelligently. So for about a mile or so of the run I pushed myself and was doing 8 – 8:15m/m which for me is fast. Having the watch meant that I knew exactly how fast I was running and helped me hold the pace. Overall I ran 4.5 miles in 40 mins.

Only downside – I’m a bit accident prone and in risk of running into street furniture (lamp posts, litterbins, street signs) as I peer in the dark at my watch trying to read my running pace! Oh, and there’s also a heart rate monitor – I will try that shortly but my multi-tasking isn’t great and it will probably mean flicking between screens which could get interesting!

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