I was wondering about your thoughts and opinions on pedometers. Are they accurate? Do they work for trail running? Any suggestions for brands?
I started running on trails that I can’t get the mileage for, and don’t want to blow $100-$200 on a gps watch. I need somewhat accurate distances so I can get a good reading on how fast I’m running. Pedometers seem like the best thing for my budget, but I question how a $5 little gadget can give me good results. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
I sniped a Garmin Forerunner 205 on eBay for $86, so I think there are
options for not spending a ton on a GPS. I absolutely love mine and
don’t want to run without one. I love the automatic routes so I can
see where I wander. I love using mapmyrun.com to create a new route,
then load it and follow it. I love the splits and the pace data. I
was a bit hesitant, but have no regrets whatsoever about spending the
money on it.
I’ve got a Garmin 201 and 101. Got the 101 so that I could change
the batteries on runs longer than the rechargeable battery in the 201
could take. I like it for the same reasons that have been mentioned
here. The freedom to just run and have some record of speed and
distance. I think I and too many runners obsess over these details,
so this at least lets one delegate that obsession to a small portable
device.
Better than my Garmins is my Polar RS800SD watch/hrm/footpod. No
waiting to detect satellites, no loss of signal, very accurate and
precise. But expensive. If you’ve already got an iPod Nano, a poor-
man’s substitute is the Nike+iPod footpod. It does a reasonable job,
has a nice interface and online tracking software, and lets you pick
a song to play whenever you push a certain button 
On the
downside, I found it to be less reliable than a better footpod. I’ve
used both Polar and Nike footpods on my VFFs. The Nike required a
tiny pocket for the sensor that I got on Amazon.
But the OP wanted to know about pedometers. My main issue here is
that most pedometers can barely take 10,000 walking steps a day
without breaking down in short order, let along long training runs.
I would be looking for something more than the $5 pedometers that are
out there. They are reasonably accurate with respect to their
purpose – counting steps. They will generally be biased downwards,
missing steps if not properly aligned with your axis of motion. It’s
hard to count steps that aren’t there. The distance it may give is a
simple calculation of distance * steps. If it were me I’d log steps
rather than miles.
I’ve used this pedometer and found it durable:
http://www2.oregonscientific.com/shop/product.asp?cid=3&scid=10&pid=578
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