i-run.com

Michael at Michael’s Blog has a good run down on running watches that measure speed - worth taking a look at if you are looking for a watch, heart rate monitor, GPS watch etc.

More and more heart-rate monitors are brought to the market, that allow speed monitoring. Speed monitoring during running is very useful because you get instant feedback about your performance. You avoid going too fast, and in combination with a heart rate monitor, you can plan your training much better. Using the information from the watch, you can run intervals almost everywhere. If you look at how average speed and heart rate improves (or worsens) over weeks, you get a good idea how fit you are and a great deal of motivation!

What is the technology behind it?

Accelerometer-based technology uses a small device that measures acceleration or deceleration of the foot. Similar devices are used in airbags, for example, to trigger the release during a car crash. It was optimized for sports applications by Dynastream (read the white paper). Attached to a runner’s foot, the device can determine the frequency of the steps and the step length. Due to slight variations from runner to runner and shoe to shoe, accelerometers have to be calibrated. Once that is done, they are surprisingly accurate (<1% error).

Read the rest of the blog post at Michael’s Blog

Technorati Tags: gps, i-run.com, watch

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This is great for mac users who have wanted the capability to work get in touch with their GPS side. Hopefully Garmin will release something that will allow a USB interface with their hardware instead of going through a third party serial to USB adapter.

Pulled from the Garmin Press Room

MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO/January 10, 2006/PR Newswire — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), today announced that it will immediately begin to make its line of GPS and mobile electronics devices compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4 “Tiger.” This makes Garmin the first major GPS designer and manufacturer to announce direct support for Mac OS X.

“We are very excited to be supporting the many tech-savvy Garmin users who are also Mac devotees,” said Min Kao, Garmin Ltd.’s chairman and CEO. “Mac users have been encouraging us to make our GPS units Mac compatible, and we’ve listened. We hope this brings the many benefits of GPS to current Mac users and invites future Apple customers to the Garmin fold.”

“The popularity of Mac OS X is attracting many first time developers to the Mac and driving astonishing innovation,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “We’re thrilled to welcome Garmin to the platform and look forward to exciting new applications that take advantage of its GPS-based products and Mac OS X.”

Beginning in spring 2006, Garmin will offer a Mac version of its popular Training Center software. Used with Garmin’s line of Forerunner and Edge series of fitness products, the Training Center software lets users plan and analyze workouts. Fitness enthusiasts can create their own workouts or use workout templates that can be downloaded into the unit for any level of personal training. The software also offers interactive analysis tools that will now allow Mac users to chart their performance information like speed, heart rate, cadence, elevation, and pace.

Sponsor Link- Garmin Forerunner 305 Wrist-Mounted GPS Personal Training Device

Technorati Tags: garmin, gps, i-run.com, apple

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Trail Exchange is currently a UK based site for trading route that can be loaded to your GPS unit in the GPX (GPS Exchange Format)

Site blurb - The site was developed in response to comments made by a number of tech savvy Runners, & Hill Walkers who liked being able to go off road, but felt limited by the availability of proven routes . By using files in the GPX format, anyone with a compatible GPS Unit or software programme can import the files we have here and use them as they wish, WITHOUT having to pay for third party mapping products. Whilst these products are great in their own right, it is prohibitively expensive to get coverage of a wide area. - Blub stop

Looks like they have a few routes right now and have a google map set up of the routes that can be loaded to your unit, click on the locator and it will give you some general info on the route, distance, elevation, type of trail etc. The site says that they will may expand beyond UK routes if there is demand. Have fun.

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