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.

The Garmin 405 has been on the market for a few weeks now, and runners have had enough time with the product to start sharing their impressions. Below is a selection of reviews that I’ve rounded up for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed a review I should have included. Do you have a 405? Let us know what you think!

Day One Review: Garmin Forerunner 405 watch, GPS fitness done right

Its ability to acquire GPS satellites is noticeably improved. In fact, it was able to get a fix while we were still indoors, showing us the correct time within minutes of charging. When we went outside, it was ready to start tracking our 1km test walking route. Along the way, it didn’t drop the GPS signal once, even though we were walking under numerous trees. And the heart-rate monitor literally didn’t miss a beat.

Training - Forerunner 405

Tune in as Jake, avid runner and spokesperson for Garmin, gives you a simple overview of the hottest fitness watch on the streets and trails — the GPS-enabled Forerunner 405.

Review: Garmin Forerunner 405 HRM

I’ve been testing out the features of the Garmin watch for the past week and am very satisfied with the purchase. Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with the Forerunner 305 so I can’t make any direct comparisons with the 405’s predecessor. Below are a few aspects of the 405 that were most important to me as a runner.

Garmin Forerunner 405

I am still happy with my Forerunner 305 but the Forerunner 405 does look sexier. The difference is not as great as the style improvement between the Forerunner 301.

Garmin Forerunner 405 first impressions & review

Hey, it now looks like a watch instead of a PDA on my wrist! With that being said, I am not as impressed with the size of it that I thought I would be. It’s still a gigantic watch. In fact, if you hold the 305 and the 405 next to each other side-by-side, they are the same exact thickness!

Garmin associate puts Forerunner 405 to the test at Disney

The 405 was the easiest one for me to see and be able to watch my pace and heart rate zone. As much as I have loved the 305, I think the 405 in a very short time has taken the place in my heart where the 305 used to live.

The Case of the Missing Run

I went out for a quick two mile run this weekend, running with my Nike+ Sport Kit as always. When I went to upload my run data, I plugged in my iPod, launched iTunes, and nothing happened. Nothing! iTunes never gave me the “Your run data has been uploaded . . .” message, and my latest run didn’t show up on the Nike+ website. I knew that the run was recorded in my iPod - I could tell by viewing the Totals data listed in the History section of the Nike+iPod menu (Nike+iPod -> History -> Totals) - but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get the run to upload.

I tried the usual tricks: Close and open iTunes, unmount and mount the iPod, relentlessly Google the symptoms. While my Google searches turned up a lot of great tips, nothing seemed to match my particular situation. Thankfully, I was able to learn enough from the troubleshooting steps to resolve my problem and upload the missing run.

Read the rest of this entry »

400mToGo Challenges

We’ve been showing off our private Nike+ challenges since 400mToGo went live. The invite-only challenges began well before 400mToGo was a twinkle in Scott’s eye, and it’s been a blast sharing them with you. While the invite-only challenges have been a lot of fun for our friends and family, the 400mToGo team has decided we want to spread the challenge joy. Starting this month, all of the 400mToGo challenges will be open to the public.

Challenge Categories

The monthly challenge categories are Most Miles, Fastest 1 Mile, Fastest 3K, Fastest 5K, and Fastest 10K. We’ll also be opening up our Most Miles 2008 challenge. If you think you’re up for it, head over to the Challenges page and join up!

April’s Winners

Congrats to deewiles (400mToGo’s very own Cory) for winning the Most Miles April 2008 challenge. Major kudos to derekjmorris, a running machine, who swept the remaining April challenges. Keep up the hard work, guys. Things are about to get a lot more challenging.

With all of the speculation surrounding the release date of the Garmin Forerunner 405, I decided to go straight to Garmin and ask them when the new device will be released. I got this response from a Garmin Product Support Specialist in my inbox this morning:

The Forerunner 405 have started shipping. They have only been shipping out for a few days, so it may still be another week or two until some retailers start to receive them.

The 405 still shows up as “not yet released” on Amazon, but REI apparently already has some in stock.

Read Scott’s pre-release review of the 405 here.

Visit Garmin’s 405 site, with specs, manuals, and FAQs, here.

UPDATE: 405’s have arrived at Chicago’s Garmin store, and a tip on getting 15% off from a commenter at Navigadget.

Since 2006, Chris Shimojima has overseen Nike’s online business. E-consultancy.com had an opportunity to sit down with Chris and ask some questions during ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst Conference. Most interesting to me were the questions Chris answered about how Flash heavy the Nike sites are.

“There are some limitations [to Flash], absolutely. We are looking at the whole execution of it. We got a little bit too technology oriented without really thinking about the other collateral benefits or disadvantages with Flash.”

Scott and I have frequently said to each other the Nike+ site is a lot prettier than it is functional. It’s good to hear that Nike is aware of this and is considering making some changes.

You can read the whole interview here.

Back in the day, if you wanted to map a running route by distance, you had a couple of options: drive a route and track mileage with your odometer, grab a map, a ruler, and a calculator, or pick a route that was measured by someone else and hope their calculation was correct. Thankfully, with the advent of online mapping, that’s no longer the case. Route planning, mapping, and distance calculation is now a simple matter of a few clicks of the mouse.

So, what’s a pedometer anyhow? According to this Wikipedia article, a pedometer is “a device . . . that counts each step a person takes by detecting the motion of their hips” in order to calculate distance traveled. I guess that means an online mapping tool that calculates distance traveled isn’t really a pedometer, but now I’m just being pedantic.

Seeing as how each of the three online pedometers below is a Google Maps mashup, the “best” tool becomes a matter of personal preference.

Read the rest of this entry »

The New Balance LOVE/hate campaign has begun, and it’s even better than I thought it would be. Very clever ads, in my opinion. As is common nowadays, New Balance is attempting to take their campaign viral by posting the videos on YouTube. Below are my favorite ads from the campaign.

LOVE/hate Rain: “. . . nothing spices up a relationship like a hot, sweaty, make-up run.”

LOVE/hate Bench: “You broke up with running last week, and now you see running everywhere, looking really, really good.”

See the other LOVE/hate videos at YouTube.

Loic Le Meur, a San Francisco based French blogger and entrepreneur, ran into Michael Tchao of Nike+ while in Cannes. Luis took the opportunity to interview Michael for his show Seesmic du Jour. Among other topics, Michael discusses the motivation behind the product, the social aspects of Nike+, and the Nike+ SportsBand. Enjoy.

Stuff.tv reported last week that Nike+ functionality is definitely coming to the iPhone. Mark Wilson of Stuff.tv had a sitdown with the guys in Beaverton and came back with the exciting news.

“. . . Nike+ will definitely be extending its compatibility beyond the iPod Nano to the iPhone and iPod Touch. No surprise there really, but the interesting detail is that it could also make use of both devices Wi-Fi (and, ultimately for the iPhone, 3G capability) to let you update your training log on the fly.”

While getting your news straight from Nike HQ would seem to be authoritative, there’s some suspicion at Electronista that Nike+ won’t be coming to the iPhone as soon as we might hope. The clues come from beta firmware slated for the iPhone 2.0.

“. . . earlier references to Nike+ equipment have been dropped and point to delayed or scrapped plans for integrating the sport pedometer with the phone.”

The “earlier references” line comes from comparing earlier versions of iPhone firmware to the latest beta version.

So where does this leave those of us who can’t wait to go running with a Nike+ enabled iPhone? I don’t think there’s any doubt that the iPhone will eventually support Nike+, but it may not be happening as quickly as we hope.

The majority of reports seem to contradict my conclusion. Check them out and decide for yourself.

GPS, Stereo Bluetooth & Nike+ Headed For iPhone

Nike+ on its way to iPhone and iPod touch

iPhone to Support GPS, Stereo Bluetooth, Nike+, Battle Hackers

Nike+ coming to iPhone and iPod touch

iPhone/iTouch users may get Nike+ functionality… one day