January 16, 2006
Running watches with speed indicator
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
