PART ONE

Terry Martin, product placement guy and celebrity coordinator for Power Bar and world class athlete himself, just hipped me to this new item from Nike.

"Yeah", he said, "it gives you running (or walking) mph, minutes per mile, distance, mile splits...it's really cool!"

I thought it was just another pedometer, and said so, pointing out stride length as one variable that would relegate this to novelty status instead of elevating it to a useful training tool.

"Not so", said Terry, "some new technology enables this unit to precisely -- 97% accurate Nike says -- calculate your speed and distance, right out of the box."

Know what? He was right! Ilana, at the Nike marketing department put a unit on my wrist for a test drive within a week. Since I pulled a calf muscle on New Year's Day some friends will take the wheel first. As always, my girlfriend Olivia takes the first stab. A 4 year-old at Christmas couldn't have been into the artfully designed package any faster.

"Ooh, I LIKE this!" Slipping it onto her wrist, and securing the clasp, she notices, "look, the band actually fits" -- she's 5'2", 103 pounds with athletic, mud-flap girl proportions, sans 500w headlamps. Her Polar S-610 looks like a wall clock on her arm. "and the leftover band is held snugly by this beltloop thingy."

The sleek styling, pure Nike, is sophisticated and subtle enough to wear at the office, cool enough for runners suffering a fashion bent and rugged-looking enough to be at home in an adventure race. I had to swipe it back from my girl just to complete this review. But, does function measure up to form?

My friend, Alan, a Hollywood executive and Ironman triathlete put some miles on the SDM (Speed Distance Monitor) Triax100 first (MSRP $235). The clear, concise instruction manual suggested that using this thing was a snap. It was. Hold the watch near the transmitter (affixed to your shoe) to acquaint the two components, then start running. That's it. The five buttons of the watch are arranged much like a HRM, and are intuitive enough. I'm especially pleased with the watch's ergonomic 30° offset body and display -- numbers are easy to read while on the road and the primary function button on the top right lies logically beneath your index finger and is directly opposed by your thumb which is met by six small rubberish traction ridges, bottom left. A-plus industrial design!

Nike places the display illumination switch about where you'd find the LAP button on your S series Polar. Press and hold this to have your SDM Triax 100 light whenever any button is depressed. Press the lower left button to scroll through various modes, including time, a bar graph of your running pace, a chronometer -- aka: stopwatch --, data files -- time, distance, lap times -- a countdown timer, and an alarm.

The first mode, run, takes you right to your current pace, in MPH, minutes per mile and total distance. While running, a press of the upper right button brings each measure of your workout to front and center, on the main display. The other data is still visible on the screen, but at a miniscule size that's more difficult to read while running.

The chrono displays split time, lap time -- recorded by pressing the top right button -- and distance. By the time I met Alan at the top of the first hill -- about 2 miles -- he'd figured out most of the watch's buttons. We reviewed the graph of his running speed and were able to see the course's elevation profile, based on pace.

"I've gotta get one of these", he says.

Next up, my buddy Bernard, another Ironman triathlete and fashion guru for jet-set Hollywood types. "I wouldn't buy it. I have enough to worry about with HRM, and using stopwatch for splits -- it's becoming too complicated. I don't pay as much attention to laps. It doesn't make a difference. Yeah, I like how it looks. It's probably better for beginners rather than experienced triathletes. We're pretty well aware of our pace and the distances we're running." This from a guy who straps both a HRM and a stopwatch to his wrists.

Olivia ran third, her longest run to date, 9 miles. She's a nursing student, experienced in fitness but new to endurance sports and finds this unit useful as an odometer. "The distance display could be bigger, easier to read." Olivia didn't feel comfortable messing around with the buttons, so never swapped distance for speed on the display. "Neither time [6 or 9 mile runs] did I pay attention to my MPH, I was really focused more on heartrate.

The transmitter on the shoe is cute, like a spaceship. And, it's easy: you just turn it on and go! I like it enough that I'd buy one for myself...but, I may not have to. Right, honey?!"

Cut to: Superbowl Sunday in the desert... Olivia, who'd started running just three months ago decided to keep me company in that hell-on-earth, Las Vegas, where my Train To End Stroke / American Heart Association marathoners were making good on their 42K commitments. She was due for a long run that weekend, so I signed her up online for the 21K race, indicating on the application that she'd be going under 2:00:00. She had doubts, aka anxiety!. Her long run had been 9 miles only two weeks ago and she'd run that at a low, aerobic heartrate.

She was painfully aware of her pace as per the SDM Triax100 and saw just how fast, er...slow she'd been. Since I was wearing the unit to pace my marathoners at different points on the course we scrawled in ink on her forearm her anticipated 5K splits: 0:27; 0:54; 1:21; and, 1:48 at 12.4 miles. Seven tenths left and twelve minutes cushion. She had her challenge.

I ran up next to her at mile-twelve, about 1:47:00 into the race, and encouraged more speed, immediately calling out her pace from the SDM Triax100. It quickly improved: 8:30, down to 8:00, down to 7:30, down to 7:00! Her breathing and stride gave me good feedback, too -- a comfortable 80% when I saw her, LT within 200 yards, 90% a half mile out and as her form began to faulter at about 95% she pressed the last 100 yards at a 6:00 pace. She finished in 1:53:41.

Whew! She could have raced the final mile without me or Nike's unit, but the insight gleaned from the instant feedback of actual pace added motivation and was just downright fun! Since I can now run, and have finally used the SDM Triax100, myself I'd strongly recommend it. Instant comparisons of heartrate to pace at a glance develop an accurate sense of speed at various training levels.

Self awareness evolves -- which leads to performance improvement -- as one realizes his or her pace may not be as consistent as previously thought. Awareness by itself can be curative. And, ambiguous route distances are quickly clarified, keeping us honest in our training log entries. There are only two negatives: it's a bit cumbersome to wear the unit and a heartrate monitor (by the way, neither I nor anyone else experienced crosstalk between devices); and, data files, though recorded by the watch cannot be fully analyzed. I'd like to see the SDM Triax100 offer heartrate and downloadable functionality. Nike says a unit that solves both issues in the works. There is however a company that I believe might be well ahead of the curve and appears to make such a comprehensive unit. I'll give you the dirt when they ship me the goods.

PART TWO

My calf seems healed so now I can train!

My plan:

Set the SDM Triax alarm to wake me in the morning. Head down to Ocean and San Vicente for a 5 mile base/form run with the SDM keeping me at specific heartrates with predetermined upper and lower pace limits. Program the countdown timer to give me a warmup, several long intervals and a cooldown. Lastly, have the SDM automatically log lap times every mile.

What happened:

The alarm, a cheerful chirping, interrupted a twilight fantasy where I'd just dropped Hellriegel and Larson at the turnaround in Kona. Instead I was dropped into the rude white noise of street sweepers beneath my Brentwood window. As coffee dripped into the glass pot I fiddled with the SDM and quickly locked in my desired parameters. Once atop the bluff, scoping out the bike path and ocean conditions—clear with light offshore wind—I activated the SDM and began warming up.

If there is a way to simultaneously start the chrono and the timer I haven't figured it out, so the clock's running times were several seconds apart. No big thing. As expected the SDM, in chrono mode, displayed my pace which I'd selected earlier. Distance or time were other front and center window options.

My heartrate monitor showed my split time as well as level of exertion. Because I am experimenting with a different running stride, and the change in stride instantly shaved significant time from my pace and felt more springy and light to my skeleton. But muscularly, I was working harder and what was to be a base run turned into a threshold session. Watching the interplay between heartrate and pace as I tried to refine my leg movements was as informative as it was entertaining. It certainly kept me focused on my workout. Experientially I know that over time I'll gain efficiency, so I watched the numbers climb on my HRM, my respiratory rate increase, and my pace ultimately lag relative to my effort. With a unit like the SDM I observe it all with Zen detachment.

The upper and lower pace boundries proved useless to me. When walking from my car I heard a feeble beep indicating that I was moving too slowly. Once I began running, below or above the prescribed range, I heard nothing. Maybe the din of street noise and surf overshadowed the amplitude of the SDM beeps. Whatever. I look at the SDM and HRM frequently enough to keep myself consistent. The timer worked quite well with a conspicuous chirping that cued me to run a bit faster or a bit slower.

After about 3/4 of an hour I stopped the chrono and shifted to data. Right away, through fogging shades I examined the workout info sequentially rolling into view. It read: distance covered; lap one's time and split time; lap two's time and split time; lap three's time and split time; lap 4's time and split time; lap five's time and split time; top speed and average speed; fastest lap and average lap. I wiped my glasses, hit the top right button again and reviewed what I'd missed on the first scroll through. This alone makes the SDM Triax absolute gold

One more thing. Engage the auto-Electorlite. In addition to the display lighting, when a button is pushed it'll also light as each lap is covered—good for you athletes on dawn patrol.

The graph is a cool feature but since this wasn't really a dynamic interval session it didn't show much of a profile.

All that's left to do now is transfer the data to my training log and have breakfast.