Sunday, April 3, 2011

This Almost Makes Me Wish I Was a Runner

I have an old Nike Mettle watch, which is (still) supa-fly stylish, but pretty much useless for anything other than telling time. I also have a Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch, which does a damn fine job of mapping my (infrequent) runs, but it's also ugly as sin.

If I were still crazy about running, I'd probably dump both of 'em for the new Nike+ SportsWatch GPS.

Up until last fall, to use the Nike+ system, runners had to stick a little thingamabob inside compatible running shoes. Then, about a half-year ago, Nike ditched the sensor and replaced it with an iOS app for your iPhone or iPod. Now, with the SportsWatch GPS (created in partnership with TomTom), gadget-obsessed runners can leave their cell phones at home and still map their runs and track their speed, distance, caloric burn and heart rate.

Too bad I don't even pretend to be a distance runner anymore. This watch is bee-yoo-tee-full.