Gadgets

 I never would have considered running to be a sport that required a lot of gear or gadgets.  And really, it doesn't "require" anything beyond a good pair of shoes and a great sports bra (DO NOT skimp on a good sports bra ladies, it is not worth it)

But I have found that I now have 3 different gadgets that have become part of my running kit.

Fitbit

This one isn't specific to running, in fact I wear it everyday.  It's a step counter that automatically syncs up to their website to track your daily number of steps.  I was amazed at how many steps 30 minutes of running/walking can add.

TimeTimer watch

I recently won this watch from a Toys are Tools giveaway.  I was very excited because I knew that I was going to start learning to run and this has a great counter feature.  You can not only watch the timer run down, but the whole watch vibrates letting you know when the minute is up.  This worked great for the first week of training when my intervals were all 1 or 2 minutes.  Now that I'm getting into sets of 4-5 minutes, it's a lot harder to keep track of the number of times it's gone off during each set.  That led me to my next gadget.

Ipod Touch with an UltraTimer App

I searched out a few apps before settling on this one.  It has the ability for me to set up any combination of run/walk times as well as lets me pick the number of sets to do for each run.  It has great sound effects like a groaning crowd when it's time to run, cheering when you are supposed to walk and applause when you are finished all sets.  It runs in the back ground while you listen to your music, even turning down the music so that you can hear it's updates.  The counter numbers are also nice and big and you can set different background colours, so that at a glance you know if you should be running or walking.

I love technology and any new toy to play with while I take up this new activity helps to keep me interested.  What gadgets do you run with?