It’s an absolutely gorgeous day in Vancouver (sunny days in January are as rare as black folks in the Republican party), so instead of sitting around on my rear end, I decided to take a long walk and run some errands instead. The N82 was an ideal companion because it not only allowed me to capture some photos from my walk, but thanks to Sports Tracker, I was able to keep track of how much exercise I got while walking.
SportsTracker is a GPS-enabled utility that allows users to track their activities. Initially, I decided not to send live data to the service because I didn’t want to incur my provider’s internet charges. Because I didn’t read the help documentation, I wasn’t sure if I could save the data on my handset and upload it later. After I got home, I was pleasantly surprised to find I could.
When you upload your data to SportsTracker, the site takes the information collected by the GPS and plots it on a Google map. If you take photos during your workout, the SportsTracker application searches for any photos taken during that time, and using the GPS data, links the photos to specific points on your route. You can even share workouts with your friends on Facebook. It was fast and easy, and — I almost hate to say it — kind of fun.
At the end of my walk, I checked my stats and saw that I’d walked 2.67 miles (4.3km) in just under an hour. It wasn’t the fastest time in the world, but part of that was my meandering walk around the grocery store. Oddly, the SportsTracker application says that my highest speed — 17.0 mph — occurred at the grocery store. I guess I was in a great hurry to get to the bananas or something.
After my walk, I had a record of the number of steps I’d taken in the day (handy if you’re trying to work your way toward 10,000 steps per day), and because I can store the workouts on the phone or on an SD card, I can save this data and can monitor my progress as I become more fit. If you’re a fitness nut who is looking for an easy way to track your workouts but you don’t want to carry a lot of gear, the N82 plus SportsTracker makes for a very attractive option.
