Forbes reports that 24 Hour Fitness will soon begin outfitting selected gyms with Nike+ iPod enabled equipment.

“24 Hour Fitness, the largest fitness club chain in the U.S., is the first to offer new Nike + iPod enabled gym equipment in select clubs across the country. Nike and Apple worked with major gym equipment manufacturers to make their cardio equipment Nike + iPod compatible so gym members can easily track and record workouts on cardio equipment like treadmills, stair steppers, elliptical trainers and stationary bikes.”

We wrote about the Nike+ Gym tie-in back in March, along with Endgadget, Gizmodo, and others.  It’s nice to see some promised new features coming to pass.  Now let’s see about that Nike+ iPhone integration . . .

This week’s Onion includes a running related opinion column that’s too funny to pass up.  It’s a piece that describes the trials and hardships involved in training for “the ultimate physical challenge: ruining a marathon.”

“Now, I know what you’re thinking. Sure, everyone would like to ruin a marathon, but who among us has the discipline and energy to get up at the crack of dawn morning after morning, through rain, sleet, and snow, and practice handing out cups of vinegar to the frontrunners? Me, that’s who. Yes, there are some mornings when it’s darn near impossible to keep going—when you feel like you just can’t chip one more pothole in the course with a pickax. But endurance ruining is all about pushing through the pain. And when the big day comes, and you make it over that final hurdle, dodge the cops, and shove an old guy into the bushes, you’ll know all that training was worth it.”

Head over to The Onion to read the full article.

Brian Morrissey of The Internal Pigdog politely expressed some frustrations with the accuracy of his Nike+ SportBand over the course of a few posts in mid May.

On May 18:

“So far, I’m underwhelmed. The chart above shows my run today. After nine years of running, I figure I have a pretty good sense of pace. There’s no way it was that slow. I ran today more at 7:30 or a little below. The graph also has all these peaks and troughs that don’t make sense.”

Again, on May 19:

“To test the accuracy, I ran to the park, then started Nike+. I did the four-mile loop (technically, a USATF-measured 4.04). Nike+ told me 3.71 miles. I was pretty much exactly right about the distance. My internal odometer kicked Nike+’s ass.”

Nike responded directly to Brian’s concerns in the person of Blogger user PLe1, the director of Nike’s RUN NYC program.

“Brian, just for the sake of disclosure I’m the director of Nike’s RUN NYC program. I just want that out there so it’s not like I’m hidng the fact I work for Nike.
Out of the box it’s 90% accurate and set for 8 minute pace but it’s designed so that every runner can make it work for their particular cadence by calibrating it.”

Make sure to check out Brian’s article and the article’s comments thread for the whole story.

Congratulations to our challenge winners for the month of May!

• simonji ran the Most Miles with 236.1 miles under his belt
• robottino ran the Fastest 1 Mile with a time of 5′23”
• Robi. LM picked up Fasted 3K honors with a time of 11′56”
• SundanceKid ran May’s Fastest 5K with a time of 20′16”
• lasabur is our Fastest 10K winner with a time of 44′09”

Keep up the great work, folks. Jump over to our Challenges page to get into the action for the month of June. May the best runners win!

Photographer Nick Onken is currently in Latin America on a three-week assignment for Nike Running. Details on his project are thin, but this behind-the-scenes video gives us some clues. Enjoy.

We’ve discussed how to use an online pedometer to map and route your runs. Now there’s a new piece of Mac software that promises similar functionality with a much richer interface and a great set of features.

TrailRunner is a freeware application offered by Berbie Software.

“TrailRunner is a route planning software for all kinds of long distance sports . . . . TrailRunner can calculate a route for your desired distance and export directions onto your iPod, giving you a detailed orientation while you are on your way.”

TrailRunner is compatible with the Garmin Forerunner products, promising the ability to “display and manage workouts . . . directly from Garmin Training Center.” Support for the Nike+ Sport kit is available as well. The feature list is too long and too rich to include here, so head over to the TrailRunner home page to check it out for yourself.

At first blush, TrailRunner seemed to be the one killer app I’d like to use to map and manage my run data. The fact that it’s only available for the Mac is a deal killer for me.

Are you using TrailRunner? Let us know in the comments how you like it and if you’d recommend it to the rest of us.

According to various online reports, Nike has dumped ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky after a brief 13-month relationship. According to AdvertisingAge, “Nike is shifting its running-shoe and Nike-Plus business back to lead agency Wieden & Kennedy.” While this won’t make much practical difference to us in the short term, the single most interesting item about this is that Crispin Porter was apparently working on the Nike+ website. I’ve stated before the Nike+ site is prettier than it is functional, and an interview with Nike’s Chris Shimojima seems to point at some coming changes to the site. I’m hoping that dumping Crispin for Wieden may help speed that process a bit.

Great products frequently inspire great parodies. Here are two of my favorites, followed by my favorite viral Nike+ video. Enjoy the lighter side of Nike+.

That’s your power song?

When I’m running, I hear music . . .

Man Boobs

Smelly shoes are an occupational hazard for all runners. While it’s generally acceptable for your running shoes to smell a little less fresh than the rest of your footwear, no one likes to have a pair of rancid sneakers hiding in the closet. The problem is even worse for guys like myself who don’t own a second pair of casual athletic shoes. I’ve got a nice pair of boots, some dress shoes for work, and then my running shoes. Let’s just say I have to think twice before wearing my running shoes to work on casual Friday.

So how does one win the war on smelly shoes? I’ve scoured the internet for solutions so that you don’t have to, and I’m listing my favorites below.

Invest in a Shoe Dryer

A shoe dryer is a nifty device that uses thermal convection to dry out your footwear. I picked one up years ago when I purchased a nice pair of boots, but I’ve found that it works just as well with any pair of shoes I throw at it. A shoe dryer is one of my favorite ways to keep all of my shoes comfortable and smelling fresh.

Cat Litter and Knee Socks

Sure, this sounds a little weird, but isn’t cat litter intended to kill odors and soak up wetness? Why shouldn’t it work just as well for your smelly shoes as it does for it’s other smelly chore? Simply grab yourself some long socks, fill ‘em with cat litter, tie off the ends, and stick ‘em in your shoes overnight. When you get up the next morning you’ll find that your shoes are nice and dry. Just make sure that you find a scented litter with an agreeable scent, as you’ll likely be catching a whiff throughout the day.

Also recommended: dryer sheets and baby powder.

Put your Shoes in the Freezer

This one sounds weirder than kitty litter in a sock, but think about it for a second. Bacteria is what makes your shoes smell, and bacteria doesn’t survive long in the cold. Grab yourself a large Ziploc bag, seal your shoes inside, and place them in the freezer overnight. Kids, get your parents permission for this one. Mom probably won’t look too kindly on shoes in the freezer unless you’ve given her a heads up first.

Other tips: antibacterial insoles, drying shoes in the sun.

Wicking Fabrics for your Feet

We all know that wicking fabrics are a lot better than cotton for outdoor sports. Using wicking fabric in socks can help keep your feet a lot dryer than they would be otherwise. I picked up some New Balance socks a while back and, while they’re not perfect, they’re a lot more comfortable for exercise and daily wear than 100% cotton socks. And, if you’re not into synthetic wicking materials, try out these bamboo socks. Wicking socks won’t solve the smelly shoe problem, but it does help, and it makes things much more comfortable for the sweaty-footed among us.

Have any of these tips helped out? Have I missed a tip that I should have included? Head down to the comments and let us know!

Using the Nike+ website to track your runs is fast, easy, and rewarding. Go on a run, upload your data, and you’ve got immediate access to graphs, analysis, run comparisons, and more - everything a gadget runner could want. Well, maybe not everything.

There are those who take issue with the manner in which Nike displays the uploaded run information. The run graphs are pretty, but they’re not terribly accurate. The site is 100% Flash, as are the widgets that they provide for your blog (see the 400mToGo challenges page, for example). It frequently takes hours before your run data is reflected in your challenges. I could go on.

If you’re unhappy with what Nike+ provides, and you’re geeky enough (or determined enough) to strike out on your own, there are a couple of options. While Nike+ doesn’t advertise their API (correct me if I’m wrong on this one), a public API does exist. Every bit of the run data that you upload to the Nike+ site is available for retrieval, for you to do with as you will.

Runner+

An excellent example of the Nike+ API in action is Runner+, a third party website for Nike+ data analysis. While they use the same data that the Nike folks do, they present it a little differently, the biggest difference being in the way they chart your runs. Runner+ also features personal profiles, lively forums, challenges, and running groups. The team and the community over at Runner+ are a great bunch of folks. I highly recommend visiting.

If you’d rather strike out on your own, below are three options to consider.

Nike+ iPod Stats Wordpress Plugin

Mark Rickert over at ear-fung.us has whipped up the Nike+ iPod Stats WordPress plugin that will display your stats on your WordPress blog. Mark has provided excellent instructions for getting the plugin up and running, including a copy-and-paste code snippet to insert in your template for those who aren’t comfortable typing in the code themselves.

Rasmus Lerdorf’s NikePlus API

For those of you who are confident in your coding skills and want more control over the display and analysis of your data, PHP’s very own Rasmus Lerdorf put together a PHP5 implementation of the Nike+ API. Grab the code here, read his comments about Nike+, including brief comments on the API, here, and check out another write up, with an example of the SimpleXML object the code returns, here.

Eric Wroolie’s C#Nike+ API

For those who are more comfortable on the .NET side of the house, Eric Wroolie has put together an implementation of the Nike+ API in C#. Included is a discussion of the difficulties he faced in getting the code to work along and some code snippets. While the full implementation isn’t linked in the article, Eric has kindly offered to email it to anyone who requests a copy.