One of the things I was trying to figure out is how the iPod/Nike+ is measuring the mile. The Nike+ iPod Integration measures the mile starting at the first step, so as soon as you start that is the start of the mile it is measuring. I like to do a warm-up first and then do my mile, which the Nike Triax system allows me to do laps and measure what portion of the run I want. So I run the warm-up, then press the lap button and start the next portion of the workout, the run. When I put the speed up some and off I go for a while (at least a mile and hopefully two or three) to do the mile for measurement in the challenge.

This comes down to a personal choice to some degree, should one count the warm-up and warm-down or just the “workout”. From previous discussions I have decided that the warm-up and warm-down counts as I am getting the heart beating. If one uses one of the predefined programs on the treadmill it includes the warm time as part of the overall time. But it is interesting to make the “mile” challenge work for the way I run, I had to put five minutes into a different run to make the measurement work. It was either that or do a 1 mile warm up, which I am not ready for yet.

To get an idea of the difference, here is the graphs of the run…

Nike Triax

Nike+ Run

So I have decided that when I engage the measurement is as important as what I am measuring. And this all looks different from the Twitter update as Nike+ puts the average of the run in.

I can use the Nike Triax Elite system to get heart rate, distance, time, and pace.  It also includes a software tool with some basic tools for graphing and viewing, and a feature to export the data as a pretty understandable file. The printing is not always well formatted and there is no Mac OS X version of the software available. I can use the Nike+ & the iPod to get distance, time, and pace. However to get most of the good information one has to use iTunes and the Nike+ website. One can hack the iPod to get the data using information from Runometer. So I did that, and it is an XML file that would need to be parted and sorted. Not as easy as I would like either.

Still not quite what I am looking for, perhaps there is one out there that I haven’t found yet, but basically what I am looking for is a way to look at my runs and my health as a trend. So that I can look at my mileage as a table and also look at my heart rate. I also want to be able to see how I do the run, how much is warm up, how much is the run, do I change speeds as I waddle, how is speed to heart rate, and what is the warm down. Also I want to be able to look at other exercize that I might be doing seperate from running – cross training.

I am thinking that at some point in the near future I am simply going to create my own database that will give me what I want. Perhaps time to start working on a schema as a mind map.

I will say that it is pretty cool that when I synched my iPod to Nike+ and it automatically tweeted it for me; “ran 2.07 mi on 7/28/2009 at 7:10 PM with a pace of 16′48″/mi  http://bit.ly/Ftep4” It is also a nicer graph than what the Triax software produces, but the Triax has more data.

So I did 40 minutes today on the treadmill, I don’t want to scare the neighbors with my waddling in public. I am still trying to determine what is running, what is walking, and what is waddling. For those of you who don’t get the waddling comment, it is a common thread from one of the running authors I read, John “The Penguin” Bingham. He closes his articles and posts with Waddle On, or a derivative there of.

I also will admit that my interest piqued up again after reading the Wired article The Nike Experiment: How the Shoe Giant Unleashed the Power of Personal Metrics about the impact of measuring your metrics. Basically the article says that one will continue running or what ever they are doing, if they track it more than if they don’t. I will admit that does make sense to me as I am wired to the hilt when I run. I have my Nike+ and iPod connected and logging. I also have my Nike Triax system, and the treadmill has metrics but no logging.  The Triax will log heartrate, speed, distance, and time, the iPod will log speed, distance, and time. Both of these will allow one to save the data on the computer in various ways.

The iPod & Nike+ requires the connection to the Nike+ site. However this also allows one to share it easily – in theory it will also show up easily in Twitter and other locations. Here is my widget:

I am not sure I like it a whole bunch, what do you think?

To do the Triax one I have to do it manually, but it is static and doesn’t update the way I think that the widget above will

So here are the stats:

Duration: 0:40′01.29″
Distance: 2.14 mi
Average pace: 18′42″ /mi
HR average: 164

Here is the graphics results:

Click for larger

So long winded post to just put this stuff up. I am curious to see if this will keep me running…