Adidas Micoach: The Next Generation of Pedometers

To each his own heart rate. That's the concept behind Adidas's heart rate monitor and stride sensor, Micoach. The foot pod chip that slips into your shoe (any shoe) is like an über-pedometer. It tracks everything from strides and pace to calories burned.

It also resolves many of the glitches and annoyances that go along with other heart rate monitors. You won't, for instance, trip over your feet trying to peek at the numbers on your watch; instead the monitor gives audio feedback at well-timed intervals as well as gentle reminders during your workout when you are either moving too fast or too slow.

Also, there are no complex formulas to work through in order to determine your correct heart rate zones. A simple walk-run test you perform the first time you use the system does that for you with what the company says is a 99 percent accuracy rate. The Micoach then divides up the zone into four easy-to-grasp color coded quadrants so you can readily eyeball where your heart rate should be during the majority of your workout.

After each workout you simply sync up your chip with the Micoach website and it slices and dices your statistics in enough ways to satisfy even the nerdiest fitness wonk. You can graph pace, distance, calorie burn or even the percentage of time you weren't in the correct training zone -- and you can do this for individual workouts or across a series of workouts.

If you like assistance planning your workouts, you can choose from a number of predetermined programs designed to achieve a specific goal such as losing weight or run your personal best 5K. The software allows you to customize the schedules to a certain extent by dropping and dragging routines onto different days of the week. Or, you can simply design your own.

As great as the system is, there are limitations. Because it is run-walk centric, it isn't terribly supportive of cross training workouts. Though it will record basics like heart rate and time, that's the extent of what it stores if you decide you want to go cycling or lift weights. There's also no food log function so if you're on a weight loss regiment, you'll have to look for a separate piece of software to track nutrition and then do your own analysis of calories in and calories out. And in this day and age, where is the social networking community?

Adidas says they will address all of these complaints in due time. The best part of that is they won't require you to buy a new and improved system each time they upgrade. Your unit will automatically receive all software updates when you synch up.

Price: $139.99 For more info or to order: Head for the nearest Adidas store or click to to Adidas's website.

If your health isn't enough of a reason to clip on a pedometer, maybe you need this pedometer that calculates the money you could be saving in cab fares!