Okay, I have had the Fuel Band for around 10 days. For those who don’t know much about this nifty gadget, it is essentially an accelerometer, calculating your daily steps taken, calories spent, Nike fuel used (I’ll come to this in a moment) as well as doubling up as a watch!
Leading a fairly active life-style, I will boldly confess that this was more of a ‘want’ than a ‘need’ product. Admittedly, no one actually needs this device, but it is an excellent self-motivator to stay active. I constantly find myself punching the air in order to reach my daily goal Nike fuel! So what is Nike fuel? Well, it is Nike’s currency for energy expenditure. Think calories, in a communal universal pedometer currency. It is based on hand movements, and exercises such as cycling won’t make a huge count. Typically, a 7 km run earns me around 700-800 Nike fuel points. Climbing around 200 steps at Covent Garden Underground Station in London got me no more than 45 points (which I can assure you is more strenuous than a 7 km run!).
Data is the fed back to Nike+ servers, allowing you to view this data in a graph, as well as track your progress. Funky animations and ‘trophies’ are shown for goals and milestones completed. However, it is worth mentioning that not all trophies/achievements are awarded, and Nike claim to be working on these bugs/issues.
The Fuel Band is a fantastic device which is as aesthetically pleasing as it’s functionality. A simple design which is well crafted allows the user to adjust the size of the band with provided sizing clips, providing a snug (or loose) fit. Data is conveyed by pressing a single button, which toggles between each feature (time, Nike fuel, steps taken and calories). The only slight niggle I have with this device is the battery life, which lasts around 3 days.
Conclusively, the Fuel Band is definitely something which I feel (on a personal note) other companies will try to capitalise on, and with rumours of an iWatch device from Apple surfacing, believe this may be in the near future.
RUNNING, CYCLING AND TECH REVIEWS 
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Hello,
I am replying from Houston, TX. I am intrigued in your blog since I too am a runner by heart. I ran cross country in high school where my fastest event of 3 miles was a time of 16:08. I slacked off in college only focusing on graduating and ran occasionally. I recently started working as a civi engineer and now I want to start running and doing 10k races and buidling up to do half marathons. I’m intrigued by all the races you have under your belt. I wanted to know if you have any tips of workouts during a week? Anything will help. I’ve been doing a plan where I am running 18-23 miles a week and have done so 3 weeks now. I am also looking to buy the ultra boosts which is how I found your blog since I googled ultra boost review for long distance. I started having shin splints and i think it is because of my shoes. I also see thay you look at your nutrition is there any websites you recommendfor eating healthy. Is there also running clubs you recommend of joining that you know are in the US? Also, are you still using the fuel band because I am interested in buying one. Hope to hear your response since this was a very long reply with lots of questions.
Best regards,
Carlos escobedo
Hi Carlos, good to her from you! Your 16:08 for 3 mile is super quick, and I’m sure you can easily reach that level again. I typically do at least one track session, tempo run and a long run each week. It really depends on what race is coming up. As you have a running history, you should be able to increase your weekly mileage by ~10% quite easily, which will have you running 40/50 mile weeks in no time. The Ultra boosts are really comfortable, and I tend to use them for marathon distances/long runs.
For anything shorter (up to 21km) I am rocking the adios adizeros, which are really light weight and quite simply make me fly! As for nutrition, I try to avoid any processed foods and anything with high fat content (particularly saturates).
Eating lots of fresh produce helps, too, and I was particularly inspired by Michael Arnstein ‘The Fruitarian’, who has quit a few YouTube videos.
Unfortunately I don’t know of any running clubs in the US, as I am from England, but they should be ubiquitous I imagine. I wish you the best of luck in your training, will be good to hear how you get on! I am on Stara, so if you use that we can track each others runs 🙂