Nike Minus Running Program

My wife and I made the great mistake of devoting an entire day to shopping. We're both pretty serious shoppers, even if it doesn't show on the outside. We never look for anything amazingly specific, but we can impulse buy with the best of them. We're far from irresponsible: We both have credit cards paid off by the end of the month, and we really don't buy anything TOO crazy. (As evident by the fact that I don't have that 42" flat panel TV yet. I'm working on it...)

This weekend, I did have one objective: Polo shirts for work. Something nice and presentable that allowed for some breathing and allowed be to look at least a bit businesslike. 7 polos later, I called it "mission accomplished."

During the trip though, I wandered into the Nike Store to see what the new trends in sports were. I've always been a fan of Nike, and found that their shoes fit my feet amazingly well. I played a lot of sports in my life, and I've bought shoes from Reebok, Adidas, and all those other companies, but I've always headed back to Nike. (Currently, I have 3 pairs of shoes from Nike, including golf spikes. Yes, I realize I'll never be like Tiger. Ditto for my Lebron shoes.)

The store was having a big Memorial Day sale, so we popped in and meandered around the store. I went to the back of the shoe section, and ran into a really cool pair of white running shoes with a black swoosh and gold detailing. (Black and Gold happen to be my Alma Mater's colors, so it was a sign, right?) To add to my excitement, I turned the shoe over to see the Nike + symbol, meaning it worked with my iPod Touch to record my workout progress. I'm one of those people that think technology can improve anything... meaning also that it can ruin anything as well. (Foreshadowing! Oh my!)

Well, I purchased the shoes, and a Nike + sensor, which is the little transmitter that sends info to the iPod. I also picked up a new set of earbuds and an armband for my iPod. (The earbuds and armband weren't the nike/ iPod brand. I think it was Philips and Belkin. Whatever.) But I was pumped about running for maybe the first time in my life.

I got home, and started reading the directions. Setup seemed more than easy, so I put everything together and got ready for my first run in ages. I booked it up Park Avenue, which is a GIANT hill and ran out of gas at the top. I am horribly out of shape, but I pressed on out of excitement for all my new gadgets. About 15 minutes later, I returned back at the start and looked at my iPod to see my results.

Blank Screen. I had just ran for nothing. I went inside, synced up, and no results. Something went wrong. I spent the rest of the day reading Internet message boards about fixes, and finally just did a complete restore of my ipod. (It took about 1 hour to fix everything.) But I think it might have worked. Besides the obvious wasted time, and phantom run, I still carry the same excitement about my purchase. Hopefully it works the second time around. Still, the setup is a bit frustrating for a few reasons. I'll only share one right now, since the others might remedy themselves after time...

The sensor has a wake/sleep button, which controls when the shoe sensor is on or off. Well, you really can't tell when the unit is on or off without recalibrating the entire thing. Why couldn't they have just made an on/off switch? I'm horrified that this $20 thing is going to have it's battery run out without me even using it. There's no way to charge it or change the battery, so I'd have to buy a new one. Apple, consider this my grumble. I'm not a fan of running, and instead of grumbling about running, I'm grumbling about your product design...

We'll see how it goes...