FUN GEAR AND GADGETS (Part 1)

Ok, so I guess in my previous post I may have said something about adding one post per week, but anyone that knows me well knows that I tend to have a lot to say. So is it really all that surprising that I am already adding more posts? No.
This morning as I was running I was thinking (what else do I have to do for that hour out there on the road) that I should post about all the fun gear involved with running. So this will be the first in a series of posts on this subject. I'll start with my favorite running gadget my IPOD with the NikePlus chip. I have a little chip attached to the tongue of my shoe (because I had to adapt it to my non-Nike shoe) with a combination of glue and velcro. If I had Nike shoes (more on shoes in another installment), there is a compartment in the sole of the shoe to house this chip.
The chip talks to a sensor that I plus into the bottom of my IPOD. When I start my run, I can either ask it to run for time or distance. So today, for example, I set it for 60 minutes and it tells me my progress in my earphones. It also keeps track of how far I go, my pace, and how many calories I burned.
It has other fun features too. One is the Power Song. I can pick any song off my IPOD to be my Power Song which I can play anytime I need a boost during my workout simply by holding the center button for a couple seconds. Another fun feature is the celebrity athletes that congratulate me on my accomplishments. When you complete your fastest mile or longest distance, you may have someone like Lance Armstrong or Paula Ratcliff tell you you did a good job. My favorite feature by far is the ablility to upload my workouts to the Nike website which I have added to the right hand column of this blog. It's always a little exciting to plug my IPOD into my computer when I get home from a run just to see another workout add to my collection.
My NikePlus chip has definitely made running a lot more fun to me. Check back to see what other fun things I use when I run.