Go, go gadget runner go
Chris Jennings/Herald Democrat

Pick up any run magazine or book and take a look at a photo of the finish or start line of just about any run and you'll see all kinds gadgets people carry. It used to be you would lace up your shoes and go run, then you could get a high tech watch to keep track of how fast, or slow, you ran your laps.

Then comes the Sony Walkman, which changed the face of running, and many other sports almost instantly.

There is nothing like having a good song going to motivate you to run faster. For people that run alone, music can make the runs more enjoyable. It almost seems to make the run go by faster.

My wife thinks I’m strange with my music choice when running. I usually listen to classic rock in the car, but when I’m shooting basketball or volleyball it’s either rap or punk that I use to keep me in rhythm with the game. Not when I’m running though. My favorite run artists is Mozart. It’s a little bit different than what I normally listen to, but it works for me.

Nike has come out with a new tool that integrates your run with your music. With certain Nike + shoes you can get a sensor that fits in the bottom of the shoe. Then you hook a special attachment to your ipod Nano mp3 player and as your running a voice will come on and tell you how fast, or slow your going, among other things.

There are a whole slew of mp3 players out there to pick from. They all operate under the same principle with each one having it’s own particular catch.

Times have changed even more with the introduction of the GPS. Now you can wear a GPS watch that will tell you how fast your going, how fast you went, and you fast you need to go. Some of them even put a little dot either ahead of you or behind you as a virtual training partner.

Say for example you run a route at a certain time that makes you proud. With one of these fancy GPS watches you can load that same run into your watch then race yourself as your past time is displayed as a little figure with you chasing or leading, depending on your time. Now that's motivation.

Training has always been kind of scientific, but it was the domain of coaches and people who are a lot smarter than me. Now with the heart rate monitors so easy to get and use you can develop your training plan structured around you and what kind of shape you and your heart are in.

You put in your heart rate zones, which are pretty easy to figure out with charts, and the monitor will beep at you if your not working hard enough.

It will also alert you if your heart is about to blow up, I know this for a fact. There is even a combination heart rate monitor and GPS that will tell you how hard you were working at specific points in a course.

Now with the GPS technology in cell phones there is software available that will track your run and then upload it automatically to a web site to share with your friends and family. Having your mother call you and say you didn’t work hard enough today is a whole other kind of motivation.

My gadgets of choice are the cell phone to record my route, on old fashion Timex watch for intervals, and a Sony Minidisc player for music. Now if they would only come up with some way for the mileage to automatically double without any extra work.