I’ve been a member of a gym for over a year now and to say the least my attendance has been dismal. A couple of weeks ago I started taking my dog for a run at a nearby trail and I found it much easier to motivate myself to do that but I still had the odd day where I just couldn’t be bothered.

Last week I was looking through Yahoo Widgets and came across a Nike+ widget that sparked my interest. I had heard of the Nike+ thing a while ago but I wasn’t interested back then, this time I checked around a bit. If you haven’t seen the Nike+ site check it out, there are a number of movies and other bits that explain what this neat little piece of tech does.

I had been looking for an MP3 player for a while to take with me exercising and when I start travelling next year. The Nike+ system requires an iPod Nano, I’ve long been anti-iPod but now I can see that it was through ignorance. Looking at the specs the Nano doesn’t quite measure up to others I was considering and if I purely wanted an MP3 player I would still go for something different, but that is not to say I’m not happy with the Nano, I am. In the end though it was the Nike+ system that made me take a chance and buy the iPod it needed.

No need to review the iPod as they have been around for a long time now and there are many better reviews around than what I could write here. Likewise the Nike+ has the best explanations on how the system works there so I’m just going to look at how I am using the online features to motivate me.

Above is the Home screen you see when you log into Nike+, it shows my last run and my pace throughout that run, there are markers along the graph that represent Ks/Miles, Powersong played and when you pressed the center button for your stats. This graph is pretty useful for seeing how much of your run you are putting in effort or are even actually running. You can also compare the run you are looking at to your best run.

You can view runs in a bar graph individually, by week, month or route which helps you see longer term improvements in time or distance. You can also select individual runs to show the graph we looked at first for past runs.

Seeing improvements over time is one thing but making them happen is another, this is where setting Goals is useful. You can set goals for how much you want to run, how far, how fast and how many calories. When viewing your progress towards a goal it also shows you a marker that you should be at to be on track to reach your target.

On the community side there are Challenges which are pretty much the same as goals except you compete against others to win. This is another great way to motivate yourself and even better if you know personally the people you are competing with. You can create your own challenges or choose them from the gallery, you can also participate as an individual or team.

Nike+ also gives something little in the way or rewards other than improved health and fitness, when you reach milestones for distances such as 100km, 500km and so on. You can print out certificates and they are also displayed in your My Records section which stores your stats for your furthest run, fastest mile and more. It also displays the Goals you have met and medals for any Challenges you win. Mine is still empty at the moment so there isn’t much point showing it off.

One last feature that is really cool is Map It, where you can map your run routes and view the routes of other runners. It will be super cool if next year I can map runs while I am overseas.

Another thing worth a mention is the accuracy, I’ve read a number of reviews criticising the Nike+ kit for it’s inaccuracy. I have no doubt that they were being honest but just so you don’t only hear bad things regarding accuracy, mine was very accurate right out of the box, I still haven’t calibrated it because there is no urgent need to. If you use the Nike+ and find it inaccurate, calibrate, multiple times at different paces and distances if needed and if that doesn’t work get it replaced under warranty.Read more on accuracy at Podophile.

Maybe parents could use this to get their kids off the computer or away from the TV, Cabel has an interesting and humorous article on how he thinks Nike+ is the online Multiplayer Game of the Year. I think Nike+definitely has that potential. At least it seems to be working for me.