When I first started running, eleven years ago, I took with me an egg timer. I was following a couch to 5k training plan, and I needed the egg timer to tell me if I could stop running already.
4 bucks worth of watch
After a while I started to take myself and my running seriously enough to invest in a real watch. It cost about 4 bucks, but I managed to make it beep every 11 minutes. So I ran 10 minutes, walked 1 minute and repeated that. I didn’t get any other use out of it, because I didn’t understand the manual.
Nike Chip and sensor
This watch was followed by the Nike Chip and sensor. I bought a second hand iPod and by using the Nike Chip and sensor I could see how far I had run. I really liked the Nike Chip, and the fact that all the info from my run was automatically sent to the Nike+ website.
Polar heart monitor
I think it was about three years ago I invested in a heart monitor. The heart monitor proved to be quite a revelation: it turned out I didn’t have to run as fast as I was trying to, to get a good work out. I liked it even better than my Nike Chip and Sensor. And after buying a Samsung smart phone I tossed the Nike Chip and sensor to the curb, because Runkeeper works as a GPS and tells me how much miles I have run too. And my Polar heart monitor tells me how many calories I have burned, so my Nike Chip had become obsolete.
But I also read a lot about the Garmin Forerunner. Recently I saw one here. It seems like all the ‘real’ runners are using it. The price keeps putting me off, and I still like my Polar heart monitor, but sometimes I wonder: am I missing out on a great running tool?
What kind of gadgets do you use during your run?
