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Sc00t
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Joined: 16 May 2004
Posts: 26
Location: Wigan, near Manchester, England
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 Posted: 05/30/04 - 09:01 Post subject: Cheap tools for measuring distance/time?
[If this is the wrong forum feel free to shift it around, I couldn't decide which forum was more appropriate.]
I know that cars are about 10% inaccurate, this plus me not having a car, plus the fact that i run down tracks that aren't wide enough for a car to get down means that cars are out of the question for me to measure the distance of a run on.
Financially, I'm not too well off. To be honest with you I can only just afford the £1.80 it costs per week to go to the running club, so I can't afford a fancy GPS or anything like that, so I was wondering what is out there on the market that will let me measure out a run accuratley?
Thanks in advance guys, you've all been a great help to me so far.
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purple hayes
Frightened Inmate #2
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Joined: 14 May 2002
Posts: 14462
Location: ON YOUR LEFT!
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Posted: 05/30/04 - 10:09 Post subject:
Have you got a bike or a friend with a bike? The computers on those are pretty accurate. They're cheap too.
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Sc00t
Member
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Joined: 16 May 2004
Posts: 26
Location: Wigan, near Manchester, England
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Posted: 05/30/04 - 12:56 Post subject:
Nope, I'm saving up for a bike though heh:)
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MechEngDropout
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Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Posts: 10474
Location: Off the grid
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Posted: 05/30/04 - 17:23 Post subject:
They have things that are basically a wheel on the end of a rod. It's got a counter that measures the number of revolutions and calculates it in distance. No clue where to get one or how much it costs. If you want to be really cheap, you can build it yourself. Just put a wheel on the end of a rod, paint a spot on the wheel, and walk your routes. The number of times the spot passes you times the circumference of the wheel equals route distance. You'd look like a dork, but hey... you'd be accurate.
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kattzoo
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Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 3813
Location: Happily at the back of the pack
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Posted: 05/30/04 - 18:49 Post subject:
If you don't mind calibrating things, some pedometers are pretty accurate.
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Noley
AZhat
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Joined: 16 Aug 2003
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Posted: 05/31/04 - 02:56 Post subject:
Hey there!
Would you be close to a running track like you see at a school to run on (that's available to anyone to run on and not just a running club)? I'm not sure how things are set up in the UK, but that's always a sure bet that you'll know the exact distance per lap.
Are there any parks around with measured trails? We have a few around where you can select the distance you want to walk/run. Again, I'm not familiar with the UK and it may be completely different there.
This may sound weird, but do you know anyone with a car that could spend some time driving around one day measuring routes? You could drive around and figure out a 5K...10K...15K route. It wouldn't take a great deal of time to do and perhaps you could get the distance you need as close as you can (even with any inaccuracies). I understand that the tracks you run along aren't wide enough to drive a car, however it might be worth your time to find some other training routes where someone could drive you around to measure it out.
These are my recommendations and the others here have had some great things to say as well. Good luck to you and don't give up. 
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suburbman
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Joined: 28 May 2004
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Posted: 06/01/04 - 13:31 Post subject:
I was given as a gift, a little device called a talking pedometer which I'm sure didn't cost much more than $15 Canadian. By entering my stride as a base calculation, the device then measure the distance that I've travelled as well as the number of steps I've taken. It has a clock and an alarm on it as well.
The person got the device at Radio Shack, which I'm relatively confident is not in the UK but I'm sure there is an equivalent.
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Kimba90
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Joined: 03 Dec 2003
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Posted: 06/01/04 - 18:11 Post subject:
| suburbman wrote: | I was given as a gift, a little device called a talking pedometer which I'm sure didn't cost much more than $15 Canadian. By entering my stride as a base calculation, the device then measure the distance that I've travelled as well as the number of steps I've taken. It has a clock and an alarm on it as well.
The person got the device at Radio Shack, which I'm relatively confident is not in the UK but I'm sure there is an equivalent. |
You could then take the pedometer to a local track and check it for accuracy using the track.
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