In the old days runners measured their distances and calculated speeds using a maps and stopwatch. Then simple, mechanical pedometers were invented. These measured the number of strides that a runner too - but were very inaccurate as the athlete had to work out their stride length over the runs to get a distance. Not only does this change from runner to runner, but also on the speed of run or the terrain being run over for the individual.

As a cheap device to get a runner started they can provide a bit of insight into roughly how far you have run.

Now a company called Dynastream have invented the Footpod, which has been put into the devices made by a number of different companies, including Polar, Garmin and Nike which measure the acceleration and deceleration of the foot during running over 1000 times a second to calculate the speed at which the athlete is running.

These are far more accurate and have the advantage that they continue to work under the cover of trees / tunnels / indoors where a GPS based system would fail. Out of the box they have an accuracy of about 97% - but this can be calibrated to the individual and move this up to 99%.

We don't currently have any examples of these to show you - but will do shortly.