A few weeks ago I started listening to audiobooks again and became very engrossed in a James Patterson book. I was running with an iPod Nano and walked the dog with my iPhone as well as had my iPhone with me while driving. In order to keep my position in the book, I had to sync the Nano after my run, then sync my iPhone and then before my run, sync the iPhone and then the Nano. This got old real fast (a few days).
I had been eyeing the Fisica Fitness Sensor Key for my iPhone to hook up my heart rate monitor for use with RunKeeper Pro. I couldn’t resist as eliminating my iPod Nano from the equation would make my life easier. I received the Sensor Key about 10 days ago and did my first run the next day. RunKeeper Pro is a decent app that handles everything my Garmin ForeRunner 405 did and more.
I thought that the weight of the iPhone 4 on my arm would be a problem (I also bought the case that Wahoo Fitness sold), but it isn’t that bad. The Sensor Key does exactly what it is advertised to do; it connects Ant+ devices to the iPhone. RunKeeper Pro integrates the heart rate monitor fairly well, but displays the current heart rate in a very small part of the display (almost unreadable). The iPhone is a bit unreadable in bright sun, but the large display is nice.
After a few runs with the iPhone, I can’t see going back to my iPod Nano and Garmin ForeRunner 405. One of the best features that just came to light today was when I was happily running and the narrator of the book’s voice started fading and the phone rang! I was quite surprised, but saw that it was my boss (technically my boss’s boss) calling, so I slowed to a walk and answered the call. I don’t get many phone calls, so being able to get a call when I take a midday run is a great feature of using the iPhone for running.
If I had been running with my iPhone last month, I would have been able to take a picture of the guy who had put a rope around his Christmas tree and dragged it behind him to take it to the recycling place instead of putting it on the roof of his Ford Explorer!
I’d like for RunKeeper Pro to add the ability to bulk export the files and then this combination would be perfect.