Going out on the track and jogging is about as basic as it gets - there's the fresh morning air, there is the track, and there is you. The clothes on your back are about the only accessories you need - some people even dispense with the shoes and try barefoot jogging. But that might describe the casual jogger or the purist. For anyone with more than merely a passing interest in the sport, there's always the need to keep better tabs on everything that goes on. Let's look at some great tech jogging accessories that you could buy to enhance your jogging experience.
The Stopwatch
Sure, jogging doesn't really lend itself to split-second timing - it's supposed to be all about pacing yourself, about taking your time and letting off steam - not building it up. But the stopwatch really would be a great asset when you go out and it's just you and the pavement. Even if you do run for pleasure, there are times when you jog, that you try to get in competition with yourself. You do get curious about whether you 've improved over the past month or perhaps slowed down a little. And of course, it always is an idea to keep yourself on your toes, figuratively and literally. There are great jogging stopwatches out there by Timex, Casio and Nike, all built into the standard wristwatch for women; but you could also take a look at Joggy Steps - a great little jogging app for your iPhone or iPod Touch that will give you all kinds of information, and make sure that you don't have to carry an extra piece of equipment.
Do you really need a heartrate monitor when you go out jogging? A heartrate monitor measures how hard your body has to work to keep up with your speed, by measuring your heartbeat and your pulse rate. How necessary is this? To many runners and joggers, the sport just doesn't feel the same when they aren't really connected with their bodies all through. If you are running the right way, youwant to see your heartrate dropping as the months go by, and you need to make sure that you're not pushing yourself too hard too soon. It might be hard to believe this at first, but there is such a thing as training too hard with jogging. A heartrate monitor is actually two devices in one. The electrode part and the transmitter, you wear around your chest in contact with the skin around your heart. And the other is the receiver built into a handheld machine, or even some wristwatches. It can be extremely engaging to watch your heartrate go up and down the harder or the slower you go, and it helps you use the right heartrate formula to pace yourself properly. Before long, you should be able to run faster with less stress. As jogging accessories go, this one is a must have.
A pedometer is next in your list of essential jogging accessories to think of grabbing on your next run out. Do you remember how Adidas built a pedometer into one of its shoes at one time? A pedometer simply calculates your footfalls through a jogging session. And then they will try to tell you how long you've come, based on how many steps you take in; but unless you are in precise control of how long each one of your strides is, distance calculations can be fairly inaccurate. I always choose mechanical pedometers over the modern digital ones. They are easier to read, they are easier to use, and there are no batteries to replace. You need to do a little homework on any of these though, setting your stride length on them so that they are able to tell you how far you've come.
In the end, jogging is an activity that can take that can take you far from home, and a GPS unit may be a real asset. You don't want to be carrying too much equipment - it would defeat the very purpose you have in mind taking jogging up over another activity - you want to feel free, and one with nature. But packing your iPhone most often should do the job for you. The best jogging accessories are the ones that can take the rough-and-tumble of an active lifestyle. Whatever you do, make sure that you always pick hardy well-built equipment. It needs to go with the spirit of the sport.