This week is really not what I planned running wise, but I had a big emergency at work (my client had produciton down with 17 factories world wide not able to do business for 6 hours). I didn't get home till 10PM and didn't get out of course. I ran today, but it'll likely be my last run of the week. I'm going to Boston/New Jersey tomorrow 7AM and staying with my cousin in Boston first 3 days. Running is not very likely.
But today I experimented with a new toy - Nike+ SportBand. I got it for free (about $80 value) when Nike reps came to work to promote the Human Race 10K and were giving out these bands in return for signing up to upload your runs to Nike website. There is a team challenge, and I'm in a team with my colleague who is not a runner but decided to run this 10K on a whim. The SportBand consists of a bracelet with removable USB-compatible chip and a foot sensor that attaches to the shoe. Of course, Nike being Nike, is pushing their own shoes, because they have a special compartment in the midsole for the sensor. But I don't run in Nike shoes, and there is no way I'm buying them just for this! The sensor doesn't have any string to attach it to the shoelaces (very clever, huh?). But people are very resourceful - I looked on the web, and found a special adapter device that allows you to attach the sensor to any shoe you want. I bought it on eBay for 5 GBP, and now I'm in business. I wore the SportBand and the Garmin today to compare the measurements. I also ran my measured 5 mile course. I felt like such a geek with 2 devices on both arms, and it was annoying having to pause and restart 2 watches every time I hit a traffic light and had to stop. I heard that the SportBand is very inaccurate. On this first run, it was a little off - it measured 4.73 mi instead of 5. I will use for this challenge, but I won't use it afterwards. It shows mileage, pace, time and calories, but you can't have splits and there is no backlighting which is a problem at night. The plus is that the band is lightweight, and the sensor does not interfere with the shoe. Overall, though, it's a gimmick, can't compete with serious training watches.
Total time: 45:39 (9:07 pace). | 