Running

I’m taking part in a 5km run in Peterborough on March 11th for a local charity, Action4MensHealth, which was set up to help and educate about male health issues including prostate cancer. The run is appropriately named the ‘Chilly Willy 5k’.

Debbie’s dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer four years ago and - thankfully - he’s been successfully treated. Unfortunately her granddad died from prostate cancer in 1996 so this is a very personal and important issue for us both.

All the money raised will go directly to the UK Prostate Cancer Charity and it will help fund research and support for current sufferers.

Please donate if you can - every penny counts!

You can donate online: http://www.justgiving.com/chillywillyfunrun

Thanks!

I’ve just done a quick calculation of the distance I’ve run since April 2006 based on my own records and the data saved on my iPod+Nike profile.

Apparently, in 10 months I’ve run the equivalent distance of a trip from Orlando, Florida to Washington DC (846 miles according to Google Maps).

I think I’ll have a lie down now.

My last few blog entries have been about the iPod+Nike kit for the iPod.

I’ve completed my first 5mile run using my temporary shoe ‘hack’ to secure the sensor between the shoe tongue and the laces. I’ve uploaded my data to the nikeplus website and that’s when I experienced the first real disappointment with this product.

The Nikeplus website is a bit of a let down. It looks pretty enough as it’s all Flash driven but it lacking in several other areas. Firstly, there’s no sense of community. You can look up the ‘leader-boards’ for those who’ve run the furthest, those who’ve run for the longest and those who’ve turned in quick times for 5k and 10k runs - but that’s about it. You can’t browse their stats or their run histories to see how they’ve improved. I can appreciate that some runners will want to keep their data private but an opt-in setting to “share my stats with the community” would be a welcome improvement.

Worse yet; I can’t share my data with anyone. I was going to link up to my stats so you can browse my data and get a feel for the system but I can’t even do that — unless I gave out my log in information. In this age of community focused web-applications it feels like a bit of a step back.

This got me thinking: surely there’s a way to extract the run data from one’s iPod in it’s raw format. Apple are fond of using either XML or SQLite to store data locally so reading the data wouldn’t be a problem. I ran (pun intended) a few spotlight searches to see if the data is cached on my harddrive. It’s not. Hmmm.

I plugged back in my iPod Nano and enabled ‘Disk Mode’ and double clicked the icon. In typical Apple fashion, anything remotely scary is hidden. So, it’s over to terminal.
After a bit of digging around, I located the data. It’s stored in XML format (no surprise there) and is found in: iPod/iPod_Control/Device/Trainer/Workouts/Empeds/{Sensor ID}.
My sensor ID is ‘4H627YP2VSX’. This sensor ID is also located in a file called ‘linkData’ in the Emped folder. I copied the folder to my desktop so I could poke around without risking the data on my iPod.

As the data is in XML format, it makes for easy reading. The first part holds some interesting data:

<runSummary>
<workoutName>Basic</workoutName>
<time>2006-09-05T12:53:57+01:00</time>
<duration>3538875</duration>
<durationString>58:58</durationString>
<distance unit=”km”>8.0492</distance>
<distanceString>5.00 mi</distanceString>
<pace>11:47 min/mi</pace>
<calories>752</calories>
<battery></battery>
<playlistList>
<playlist>
<playlistName>a.Current</playlistName>
</playlist>
</playlistList>
<stepCounts>
<walkBegin>4490</walkBegin>
<walkEnd>9130</walkEnd>
<runBegin>3600</runBegin>
<runEnd>7666</runEnd>
</stepCounts>
</runSummary>

The most curious is the “stepCounts”. This data doesn’t appear to be used by the system currently and it’s unclear how it calculates “walkBegin” and “runBegin”.
Further down the file we get the KM and mile splits.

<startTime>2006-09-05T12:53:57+01:00</startTime>
<snapShotList snapShotType=”kmSplit”>
<snapShot><duration>435715</duration>
<distance>1.002</distance>
</snapShot>
<snapShot><duration>848088</duration>
<distance>2.0</distance>
</snapShot>
<snapShot><duration>1258480</duration>
<distance>3.001</distance>
</snapShot>
<snapShot><duration>1708667</duration>
<distance>4.002</distance>
</snapShot>
<snapShot><duration>2149958</duration>
<distance>5.003</distance>
</snapShot>
<snapShot><duration>2593229</duration>
<distance>6.003</distance>
</snapShot>
<snapShot><duration>3060237</duration>
<distance>7.002</distance>
</snapShot>
<snapShot><duration>3517397</duration>
<distance>8.0</distance>
</snapShot>
</snapShotList>

Right at the bottom is the extended data which must be used to fill the ‘curve’ shown when you’ve uploaded your data and when you view previous runs.

The most exciting prospect is writing a little application that can take this data from your iPod and upload it to another website where it’s stored, consumed and written out without a ton of flash. One could then invite others to download the application and upload their stats and create a ‘real’ community site where runners could browse other’s stats and share their own.

Hmmm….

Update 6th September
I’ve written a dashboard widget that uses the widget.system() functionality in javascript to call a perl script which locates the iPod, iPod serial number and training data. It then POSTs this to a PHP file sitting on this server which simply writes the data to a temporary file.

I’m using the ‘lastWorkout.xml file as my test subject. It works well. I can now add a username and password field in the widget and write a basic log in handler and we have the beginnings of our community of runners. The next step is to store the last sync date and upload the real XML files as attachments for storing in a database.

I had previously blogged about the ipod+nike kit which comprises of a sensor for your running shoes and a little unit that “docks” onto the iPod nano.

As I mentioned in that other blog entry, you need to purchase Nike’s running shoes that have a cut-out for the sensor. Most runners have chosen shoes that work for them and won’t want to part with them which is where Podophile stepped in and came up with the sensor hack to fix the sensor to the shoe’s tongue.

Today I took delivery of the iPod nano, ipod+Nike sensor and iPod unit and a new wrist strap and I was itching for a go on the treadmill.

The Podophile website makes it very clear that laces alone will not keep the sensor inplace for very long and I found this to be true. I didn’t have any velcro handy so I couldn’t ‘hack’ my trainers as per the Podophile instructions. I gave it a go anyway.

I walked the first quarter of a mile to see how accurate the sensor was. The treadmill completed a lap (0.25 miles) and my iPod reported 0.25 miles which is absolutely spot on. A quick run for another 0.25 miles at 7.5mph at a 2% elevation caused the sensor to slip a little inside my shoe. After 0.50 miles my iPod reported 0.49 miles - which is very good considering the sensor slipped.

A stopped to re-adjust the sensor which took a few minutes. A few miles further into my run the sensor popped out and bounced from the treadmill deck onto the tiled floor.

I rummaged through a few drawers and located some low-tack masking tape. I used that to secure the sensor in place (see the image below). Even though the low-tack tape didn’t adhere well to the shoes (especially as I was dripping sweat on them when I was trying to tape them up) it kept the sensor in place for the rest of my run (another 3 miles or so). It appeared that the laces has a greater surface area to grip which did a good job of keeping the sensor in place.

Now, I did spend the rest of my run stopping now and again for a second to make sure the sensor wasn’t going to make another journey across the room which kept breaking my concentration. I knew I had to find a more secure way to keep the sensor in my shoe. The tape did its job but it’s obvious that a few more miles and the sensor would have come unstuck again.

I had a few ideas - from taping it down with duck tape to using a large plaster strip to secure it in place and ended up using a spare heart rate monitor pad. I have a Slendertone belt that is designed to be used while out running and it has a separate heart rate belt for your chest. The pads are extremely sticky and the replacement pad set that I buy has two skin pads designed for the lady’s version of the heart rate monitor. These are the perfect size for securing the sensor to my shoe.

The pads are designed to be stuck to your skin so I was confident that it wouldn’t damage the sensor and they adhered nicely to the shoe tongue. The laces cross over snugly and have more surface area to grip. I had another quick test to make sure it would suffice and so far, it’s doing the job well.

I have also ordered a Nike running wallet as a more permanent solution but I’m hoping that my makeshift ‘hack’ will keep me going until it arrives.

Ever since Apple teamed up with Nike, in what can only be described as a huge marketing gimmick, to produce the imaginatively titled “ipod+nike” I’ve been contemplating purchasing the system. I’m not a huge running nut but I do around 20 miles a week (4 sessions of 5 miles) on our treadmill. Now and again I lack the motivation to really enjoy it. When you’re really tired, or the twinge in your knee has returned it’s easy to consider not running. The Nike system appeals because you can upload your data to the nikeplus website to track your progress and compare yourself to other runners.

However, there are two problems:

The first is that you need an iPod nano. There doesn’t appear to be any hardware reason for the sensor only working with iPod nanos but rather it’s a shrewd move on Apple’s behalf to sell more nanos. I guess they figured that exercise can be the nanos niche. I own a 3G iPod that was a gift from Debbie a few birthdays ago so I’m reluctant to retire it just yet. As it’s the 20gig model and contains my entire iTunes library (10gb), I use it on long journeys via my car stereo and when travelling to the US. A nano won’t have the storage I need.

The second is that you have to purchase Nike running shoes at around £70 a pair. I’m extremely reluctant to change my shoes. I currently run in a pair of Asics Gel Kayano XI which suit me well. I don’t want to switch to a pair of trainers that I’ve not tested first. Anyone who runs will stick to a shoe they find comfortable.

Fortunately, I came across a website which has ‘hacked’ the sensor into his own running shoes. It’s an extremely low-fi hack that seems to work based on his tests and the feedback of others. You simply stick a bit of velcro on the sensor and place it between the tongue and laces of your shoes. You can then configure the sensor to adjust for the different placing as the Nike shoes have a cut-out in the sole for the sensor.

Although I don’t want to retire my iPod, 1gb Nanos are fairly inexpensive these days and the storage will suffice for the few playlists I run to and to host the Nike software.

With that in mind, I’ve ordered the sports kit with a 1gb nano and I’ll let you know how it goes…