My new pair of Brooks Pureflow 3 running shoes with the pod attached to the elastic laces.

I recently heard about a new product called the MilestonePod that clips onto one of your running shoelaces and it begins collecting data as soon as you start running. After a run you wirelessly upload the data to the free app on your Android, iPhone, Kindle Fire, or iPad using Bluetooth 4.0, (BLE).

I’m sort of a data hoarder so when I learned the technology was less than 25 bucks, I ordered one right away from amazon.

The startup page of the app. It’s still very early in the season and I haven’t started any speedwork yet.

I already use a Garmin Forerunner 15 watch and heart rate monitor so I didn’t necessarily need the Pod to tell me time/pace/distance since I get that in realtime from the GPS watch. I was more curious about the foot strike data: cadence, foot strike position, rate of impact, stride length, etc. All really nice metrics to collect with cadence in particular (over different paces/distances throughout the year).

Right out of the box the Pod’s distance data was close to accurate. However, after a six mile run of a known distance I calibrated it in the app. I’ll be curious to see how it does over time with different conditions such as pace, hills and heavy wind.

One of the many data screens to view after a run.

The Pod itself installs quickly and is quite lightweight. While running, I can’t notice it at all on my right shoe and I’m a bit of a weight-weenie when it comes to running footwear. One thing that will be useful to some people is the mileage tracker for shoes. You place the Pod on a new pair of shoes as I did and it keeps track of how many miles are on them. That’s not how I personally determine when to toss my old running shoes, but it’s semi-helpful nevertheless.

Of course you don’t get data from the Pod in realtime but for me it’s still well worth the money to get this kind of running data. This Pod would be awesome for someone that doesn’t have a GPS watch and doesn’t want to spend the money to buy one. Also great for advanced runners that want more metrics than GPS watches provide.