got my new shoes on

Ignoring for the moment that I have a Horizon Report and a couple other things to write, I just had to take a moment to giggle about my new shoes. Quite apart from the bouncy, floaty, light-a-fire-under-your-feet feeling of new running shoes, these ones have annother, very geeky attraction: they talk to my iPhone.

At least, the little sensor hidden in the left one does. As I run (or walk, since I’m still building back up to running after a six- or seven-year hiatus), the sensor keeps track of how far and how fast I’m going. The phone knows how long I’ve been going, where I’m going, and how many calories I’m burning. After the workout, I dock the phone and it uploads all this info to my profile on Nike’s site, where YOU can see some of it too. Just what you needed, I know.

For me, running is great — once I’m out there doing it. Getting myself out of the house, into the world, and moving is the tough part. I have to trick myself into it. One trick is new shoes; I put them on and I can’t wait to get started. Another trick is a great workout playlist. But the best trick of all is knowing that I can come back afterward and see a graph of my workout, look at my path on a map, and track my progress over time. I am so hooked. I feel like a poster child for Nike (or at least Nike+, which is the bit with the sensor). I discovered a little too late that I could have personalized my shoes — picked my own color combination, and even gotten “NINMAH” printed on one tongue and “ROCKS” on the other — for an additional $20, but now I have an incentive to wear this pair out ;-)

The kit’s pretty flexible, so if you don’t need new shoes or you have an iPod and not an iPhone, you can still geek out. You can get the sensor with an attachment for the iPod (whatever style you have), and you can get a little pouch that slips onto your shoelaces to hold the sensor. The sensor is $20 ($30 with the iPod attachment) and the shoe pouch goes for about $5. If you have a Nike+ profile, friend me! I’m Ninmah there too.