Adidas MiCoach

Was in Jaipur for 2 days so I wasn't able to run on Thursday as I drove out at 6am, so I swapped my rest day with the usual one of Friday. On Friday morning my wife and I went out for a run in a lovely wooded part of town just near the University on Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg - Smriti Van - set up by Rajasthan Patrika Newspaper and now managed by the Jaipur Development Authority and the Forest Department.

It's one of the nicest in city running tracks that I have been on, lots of walkers, but unfortunately I had left My Adidas Mi coach in the hotel so my 7 mile run was one that was with the only statistics provided by my stopwatch, which was also fine. It was lovely, but no data.

Today, back home in Gurgaon, I read the instructions again, synched micoach with my Macbook Air, and checked that all systems were fine, and then I went for a 7mile pace run training for my 89km Comrades Ultra Marathon, on my treadmill, and also with micoach.

I think what I am missing sorely, is a display I can refer to and get info real time whenever I want to. I obviously did not press the appropriate button on the pacer as I got no feedback during the run. The absence of a display and also of an audio feedback post pressing the running icon button leaves me wondering if the device has started or not. I would have loved a GPS visual real time tracker yesterday when I was running in Jaipur.

Now at 8000 rupees this is what I would expect on a running device, especially since it is now available in several phones too.

While n the topic of running devices I must add that I am also quite unhappy with my top of the line Polar system RS 800SD. They seem to specialise in making sophisticated stuff which is very user unfriendly. The battery of the foot pod has been changed quite a few times over and still functions erratically - I will try taking that out tomorrow when I do my 42km training run, and will also take out MiCoach. The heart rate monitor of the polar has been better but there again the buttons of the heart sensor have had to be cleaned with some vinegar to get rid of the green coatings!! What I love about the polar is the wireless connectivity of the devices, with the watch.

Wish MiCoach could do something similar. The latter has an audio interface but I am not a great fan of having something stuck in my ear while running.

Lets see how it pans out tomorrow