Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Advicicles

I don't know what that word is, why advice combines with icicles (or another icles if you prefer...) but that's what I said in my head so there it is.

I need advice runners! I sorta was thinking for my birthday I'd get a fancy schmancy running "accessory" that tracks your distance and speed and whatever. Like a Garmin something or a Nike+ thing. But I do not have an iPod, I have a panasonic or something mp3 player. And I don't want to change that. and I don't want to spend $1000s of dollars. So runners, what do you have? what do you wish you had? What's not worth the money? Where can I find it (i'm thinking of checkin' ebay.)

thanks!

5 comments:

Angela Power said...

I gotta remember to check back on this post cause I wanna know too...my b-day is in 2 weeks :-)

Angela Power said...

Hey did you get your AA order in yet for your dresses? I went and ordered up 3 of the shear ones that were on sale too and I mixed up my address so it got delayed, but I just got the delivery slip and I'm going to pick it up after work! :)

Sara said...

I'm really sorry but I have no advise b/c I don't use anything like that. But I've heard lots of great things about the Garmin series.

I'll be sure to do a "race" report next week!

marie said...

Allo! :)

I have both a Garmin 205 and the Nike+.

Nike+ - Cost is about $39 north of the border and you have to have a nano for it to function (so another $150+)...Sooooo, you're looking at about $200 and change, almost the price of a garmin, for something that's accurate 70 per cent of the time. Yes, that's right. Well, in my case that's what it's been. It's fairly accurate for indoor, treadmill running but as soon as I go outside, that puppy will tack on about .5kms for every 5kms I run. It's good for counting down minutes remaining in your ear if you want to only go out and run for say 30 minutes or a predetermined time though and I do enjoy when Lance or Paula come on and congratulate me on a new PB.

Garmin - I love this stupid thing. It looks like a mini computer on my freakin' arm, but it's awesome. Will record elevation levels, pace, do intervals for you (beep at let's say 10:1s if you set it), you can race against a virtual friend, auto stop it for lights, auto lap, GPS, and the 305 has a heart rate monitor. They do have a lower end model that has less frills but more attachements you can buy and a NEW model that's coming out which is smaller (wheeee!) WHICH MEANS 205s and 305s MAY drop in price AGAIN. Who knows?!

I know this really doesn't help...but I run with both. Why? Because the Garmin has a hard time finding a GPS signal in downtown TO. Something about too many tall buildings. My preference is the Garmin though.

sherijung said...

I just got the Nike Sport and Ipod nano (my old mp3 player is hopelessly small-only 512MB). I looked into the Garmin but it seemed really expensive for something that won't play music and is really chunky on the wrist.

I haven't found the Nike Sport to be too off in the mileage, but you do have to calibrate it. It was pretty far off before I calibrated. I used to do mapmyrun.com after every run, and that was a major pain, and really affected where I could run (not take too many side streets and not be able to remember my route). Now I can run anywhere and it counts out the miles as I go.

My only wish is that it would tell me my pace as it counts the miles, but I can look at my split times on the website after I upload my run data.

Cost me about $270 for all the gear for the 8GB model (including arm band and thingy to attach the sensor to my non-Nike shoe). It is my new favorite toy.