If you've been using nike+ products with your iphone or your ipod nano then you can simply login with your same username and life is good. If you're new to nikeplus you have to set up a free account. Nikeplus has some issues like it's not great on Macs and sometimes it repeatedly asks you to login, but once you're in it's a pretty user friendly basic site. Runs are tracked showing mile splits and you can set up goals, challenges, or training plans. The GPS feature adds some really new and beneficial features to nikeplus where you can see your run mapped out and it shows you the spots where you ran the fastest and the slowest.
I don't understand all the reviews completely bashing the website - maybe they're all Mac users? It's annoying that it always asks you to login every single time, but the data displayed on the GPS route is everything I need (mile/lap splits, elevation, fastest/slowest point, etc.)
Running Experience
So far I've had no problems connecting to GPS and the watch has measured out extremely close to what my previous nike+ shoe sensor (and mapmyrun) was telling me. The watch is definitely less bulky than some of those older Garmin models and it fits very well. The plastic fittings make me a little nervous, but better than having hot metal against you skin I suppose. I have big clumsy fingers and I can press the buttons no problem in order to cycle through the stats that I want.
I've gone on about 30 runs and 26 of those time the watched linked perfectly and worked flawlessly. 2 times the watch never could link to a satellite so I was stuck running with only the footpod, which yields slightly different results than using GPS. Another 2 times about 5 minutes into the run my average pace would start to sore up into the 4:00/mile pace, which clearly was faster than I was actually moving. Ending that run and starting another fixes the problem, but you have to delete that messed up run from the website or all of your records will be skewed. (The GPS map of that messed up run showed me running straight through a mountain and a lake - clearly a satellite issue). I also lost a few runs in the beginning because of some issue connecting the watch to my computer, but that issue has not happened again thankfully.
I've been using the watch for awhile now, logged over 200 miles with it. It's a solid design, weight, comfortable, and easy to use. I'm surprised that another reviewer calls it a poor effort, because usually I'm partial to Garmin products over Tom Tom, but this watch is simple and straightforward, which is what you want in a athletic training piece of gear. But, I'll admit, next generation hopefully some of its shortcomings will get ironed out. I don't like how the PACE updates every second. It's not useful to see that your pace is perpetually switching between 4.40 minute miles and 14.50 minute miles. It's a pointless feature if you can't track better what pace you're running each mile at, while you're running.
Second, I'm skeptical about it's purported accuracy. The product claims that it synchronizes the chip in your shoe with the GPS data for a more accurate report of your time, but I've noticed similar runs coming to different distances, and my pace often seems much slower than it should be when I sprint (take more, shorter steps). Overall, great product and look forward to the next gen.
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