Money well spent or not

What's nike plus?
quote from Wikipedia

"The Nike+iPod Sports Kit is a device which measures and records the distance and pace of a walk or run. The Nike+iPod consists of a small accelerometer attached to or embedded in a shoe, which communicates with either the Nike+ Sportband, a receiver plugged into an iPod nano, or directly with a 2nd or 3rd Generation iPod Touch or iPhone 3GS"

Pretty much it is the Nike way of encourage you to get your ass off the couch and go outside and run. go to www.nikerunning.com to learn more.

So, what's the deal with the new watch?
It is not just a watch. it is a GPS watch which it uses satellite to measure and records the distance, pace, elevation, max speed, Calories and of course it maps out your run. Also, it works on biking/swimming.

You can tell with all the additional features. To cut down my time for 20 sec shouldn't be hard. Before we start, my avg pace is around 5'30". lets find out how much faster my run....

Here is the Nike plus sportband with foot pod (accelerometer) on the shoes. It's just like a bracelet. light and simple.


Now, the Garmin FR 310XT

it is like a small PDA attached on the wrist. At first, you can feel the weight but once you start running, you won't notice it. You probably have a lot more things in your head than worry about the weight of the watch (why I'm doing this or how many meters more or i rather sit on the couch eating ice cream.....)






I'm not going to talk about the technical part . I'm sure you can Google it with all the expert review out there. Here we only focus on how much faster I can improve...I need to proof it to The Wife that money well spent.

ok, lets run....


after an hour.....


Garmin

total: 12.55 km
Avg Pace: 05:37 min/km

Nike

First 8.07 km (accidentally stop the run)
Avg Pace: 05:36 min/km

http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_CA/plus/?sitesrc=fbk_ab_plus#//runs/detail/275828918/1280671892/all/allRuns/

Second 4.42 km
Avg Pace: 05:30 min/km

http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_CA/plus/?sitesrc=fbk_ab_plus#//runs/detail/275828918/1616138229/all/allRuns/

So, both numbers look pretty close to me. Garmin of course has a lot more info on my run. You can see, the new watch didn't provide the boost to my run.

At the end, whatever work to get me out of the door, either the new watch or a new hi tech T shirt. That's matter.

Does it help to improve my time? No, I still run slow.
Does it get me excited to go out and run? Yes.
Does it create more fun factors after I run? Yes.
Does it make me feel like I'm Elite runner wannabe? Yes.

I say money was well spent.

What do you say?