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Walk.Blog.Run

Diary of a new marathon runner

Hacking the iPod Nike Sport Kit

Posted At : September 6, 2006 9:19 AM | Posted By : earnshavian
Related Categories: Arizona Marathon 2007

This morning when Melissa and I walked up the steps to the running path along the drive I hit the Nike+ Sport Kit button to begin my workout to see the ominous message along the lines of "You must first attach the receiver before commencing your workout". That's what happens to me when I am tired. I had come down 9 floors in an elevator and walked 100 yards to the start only to discover that I had forgotten to plug the darn receiver into my Nano. Looks like I'll be back on my watch to keep time instead today.

We ran the 5 mile course in just over 48 minutes and then walked back to the apartment. In the shower I mulled over how I might add my workout to the Nike+ site since, if you're like me, I would never remember a week or two from now that my list of runs were missing 5 miles from today. I'm a bit of a stickler and a total nerd so I figured that there was something I could find on the Nano to be able to recreate my run.

I wasn't so much looking for accuracy, just to be able to capture the fact that I ran 5.15 miles. I have my iPod setup to act as a hard disk so I have access to the files on it. I also have my windows explorer setup to show hidden files, which the iPod files are listed as. A quick dig around the files on my Nano while it was connected shows that there are two key folders for tracking your runs. There is a directory for your historical runs: {ipoddrive}:\iPod_Control\Device\Trainer\Workouts\Empeds\{personal pedometer id}\synched\ and another for your latest runs which haven't been synched yet: {ipoddrive}:\iPod_Control\Device\Trainer\Workouts\Empeds\{personal pedometer id}\latest\ My synched directory contained a run from September 3rd over the same distance and roughly the same time. I copied the file from my iPod to my desktop and then opened it using WordPad to see the contents. It seems that the iPod tracks key events:

power song
pace check
mile split
km split
pause workout
resume workout
stop workout

and it also keeps a list of distances taken every 10 seconds. Not wanting to fudz anything up, I found two parts of the file which refered to the date and time of the run so I updated it to show today at 6.29am in both places and saved the file. I noticed that the naming convention for the files was consistent so I followed the convention, renaming my new file "2006-09-06 07;39;54.xml". I copied it onto my iPod under the "latest" folder and ejected my iPod. When I looked at my workout history once disconnected from my computer, sure enough, I now have a 9/6/06 workout in place. The next and scariest step was to connect my Nano again while connected to the internet and visit the site to see what happened to my running history. Sure enough, my run was correctly added to my running history and happiness rained all around.

Use this information for good and not for any evil you may be considering but I am delighted this little hack worked! Of course, in an ideal world, this kind of hack wouldn't be necessary and the Nike+ site would allow you to add workouts you didn't do with your sport kit connected with some limitations like 1 per week or something to avoid people cheating themselves.

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Thank you for running with this idea. I had wondered about it myself, but was unsure how to find the data files and hack them. Very cool. Now I can add workouts that don't involve my iPod, rare as the may be.

# Posted By Colin | 9/12/06 2:52 PM

Thanks. I wrote it for practical purposes because sometimes when I run I am too sleepy to plug the receiver in! I know some people will think it's hilarious to cheat the system but I'm assuming that they wouldn't expect to find an answer here.

# Posted By Adam Howitt | 9/12/06 3:04 PM

One tip - I ran 7.5 miles the other day only to get home and have iTunes announce that it was unable to upload my data to the nikeplus.com website. After much headscratching I figured out that the problem was the name of my playlist - it contained an ampersand (&) which is invalid in the XMl format in which the workout data is recorded (at least without specific handling with a CDATA section).

In short, I edited the file, changing the & to the word 'and' and it uploaded fine, even though there was a run already uploaded that came after the offending workout.

Hope this helps someone avoid fretting about a lost workout!

J

# Posted By Jeremy | 10/10/06 10:28 PM

Cool, I like a bit of programming. Looks like a new project to me.
I'm gonna try to create a local offline program to deal with the data instead of using the Nike website.

I wanted to know if it was possible to access raw data on my ipod before I buy this kit.

Your article was very helpful, thanks! :)

*add to christmas list*

# Posted By Joffrey | 10/25/06 9:11 AM

# Posted By Joffrey | 10/25/06 9:12 AM

I tried to make this work, but I'm not experienced with xml format. My version of word won't save in this format, so I downloaded openoffice and used that to save my workout both as a docbook (xml) and Microsoft Word xml.(I wanted to change the date because when I synched my nano with my computer, the computer's date was wrong; this makes it look like I did my run on 12/4, rather than 11/4) However, whichever file I use causes my latest run to shows= up on my nano as 0 miles at 0.0 pace, etc. Any suggestions?

thanks,
Barbara

# Posted By barbara | 11/4/06 7:31 PM

Never mind. I did it.

Thanks.

# Posted By barbara | 11/4/06 7:55 PM

Hey everybody,
I was told by a person at the store where i bought my Nike + iPod that it would work on any ipod, regardless of the fact that all over the box it says to use it with your Nano. The problem i have here is that i have a very multi-purpose ipod and use it for things other than running, but running included. is there anyway to somehow put the nano software onto a 30 gig video ipod and maybe run both the original software and the nano software at the same time? I have no idea if this is even possible but it seems that ppl here know what they are doing.
Thanks for the help if you've got any.

# Posted By Cole | 11/19/06 11:21 PM

i'm having trouble with the naming of the run. it doesn't exactly match up with the time. what exactly is it matched up with?

# Posted By blade | 12/5/06 4:20 PM

hey i have a 30 gig ipod and was wondering if i can use this nike + ipod thing, i want to know if i can or cant before i buy it, if it doesnt work please tell me

# Posted By loyal | 12/18/06 9:31 PM

As far as I know, the sport kit is only designed to work with iPod Nano and as such, only the nano has software and updates containing the sport kit program. I tried it on my old iPod Mini to no avail. There are articles on the web where people have asked the same question and the answer is typically a resounding no.

# Posted By Adam Howitt | 12/18/06 10:14 PM

Just a question or 2.

Can you use you own powersong? At the moment I take trance mixes and add beeps in the mix so I know where to run and where to walk. (run-walk-run method). How is this actually working with the voices? All I can make out of the descrptions online is that a voice tells you about your progress etc. I noticed last week in an update of my nano software it downloaded 16mb of stuff related to the runningkit which I dont even have yet. Just curious if I can use this software. I'm hoping to figure out how to play 2 mp3's at the same time. One mp3 only with beeps playing together with any unedited trance mix. Saves me editing all my trance mixes all the time.
What software comes with your kit? I'm not too bothered bout all the data. I create routes on www.gmap-pedometer.com and time with my watch. Which I add in a excel spreadsheet.

# Posted By Joffrey | 12/20/06 12:04 PM

Hi Joffrey,
You have the freedom and flexibility to select a power song on the iPod nano itself from your library of songs. The only thing I noticed was fairly obvious - if you update your playlist for your ipod and the powersong is no longer on the ipod it doesn't automatically grab it for you. I only noticed when I hit the powersong button and it beeped then continued with the current song. Hmph. Your trance mixes with beeps sound like a good idea. I have no idea how you might get two mp3s playing at once but with the announcements it just fades the current track out and back in again while he or she speaks.

The kit doesn't come with any software besides the stuff to run it on your ipod. It does, however, allow you to sync your runs up to the nike+ website where you can track your progress etc. I love it.

Finally, I don't know if you were aware but this blog is a subsection of the WalkJogRun.net website for tracking and sharing route information with Google Maps. It predates gmap-pedometer by a couple of years when it used to run on maps you uploaded yourself.

# Posted By Adam Howitt | 12/20/06 2:01 PM

Im working on a site that tracks the data from Nike Plus files. Anyone is welcome to use it. It lets you do whatever you want with your data. Add and modify runs as you need. Export the data out to excel, and even create your own RSS Feed with it. Check it out at http://www.workoutdump.com. It is still a work in progress though.

# Posted By Mcbeev | 2/2/07 8:26 PM

Thanks for posting this tip. I visited my dad this weekend. He lives on one of the great lakes, so I wasn't about to miss an opportunity to run on the beach! Unfortunately, I forgot my nike+ adapter. It took a couple tries for the nike site to process the run, but it did work eventually. Thanks!

# Posted By Katy W | 5/15/07 8:35 PM

Thanks!!!! Somehow my date and time was reset on my nano. I went for a run today, but it was posting it with the date of 01/05/2000. Your hack worked wonders to fix the date. Although, I use a mac and had to search on displaying hidden files. Here is a page for any mac users out there: http://www.osxfaq.com/DailyTips/02-2005/02-01.ws

Thanks Again!!!

# Posted By Chris D | 6/20/07 7:36 PM

Hey Chris, Glad you were able to use the tip and get it working on your Mac. Keep on running!

# Posted By Adam Howitt | 6/21/07 7:41 AM

Great info, thanks! I was heartbroken when sync'd this morning and my 7 mile run hadn't been uploaded. I'd set a personal best! I tried your quick hack and at least got my 7 miles counted toward my goal, even if not with the personal best time. I can try that again next week ;)

# Posted By Todd | 7/18/07 4:07 PM

On a Mac, you still need to mount the iPod in disk mode; the easiest way to get to the empeds folder is to open up a Finder window, hit Command-Shift-G (or go to the Go menu of the Finder, and choose the Go to Folder... item), and type (or copy and paste) the following:

/Volumes/[name of your ipod]/iPod_Control/Device/Trainer/Workouts/Empeds/

And then find your user id folder. Or, for less typing, double click you iPod icon, then with the iPod finder window focused, hit Command-Shift-G, and type:

iPod_Control/Device/Trainer/Workouts/Empeds/

Note that there is no slash at the beginning.

Lastly, for easier access in the future, you can select the Empeds folder, or your user data folder, and make an alias of it and store that alias somewhere closer to the top level of your iPod (or even on your computer). The easiest way to do this is to click and hold on the folder you want to make an alias, then press the Command and Option keys, and drag to the location where you want the alias to be stored. You should see a little curved arrow in the lower left corner of the folder icon as you drag; that means you'll create an alias when you drop the folder.

# Posted By Dru | 7/26/07 1:06 PM

I forgot to mention in my last comment that there is a nifty little site that creates the XML file for you:

http://www.nikeplusedit.com/

# Posted By Dru | 7/26/07 1:09 PM

Thank you so much! I was so frustrated that a 5 mile run got deleted somehow off my new Nano. Nike should really add an edit option to their application. If people cheat, they cheat. They're only hurting themselves. Why punish the rest of us?

# Posted By Brad | 1/11/08 9:58 PM

Just wanted to say thanks. Your instructions worked perfectly. It was very disheartening to learn that my recent 8-mile run was lost, but your instructions saved me when Nike could do nothing for me. Thank you!

# Posted By Will | 1/14/08 10:46 PM

So you created your own file in the correct format and then put that file on the nano to upload to the nike site? i'm using the nike plus wrist band, not the nano, and i have the same challenge. i do runs without the nike plus and i want those to be entered into my log. any ideas?

# Posted By Harris | 7/7/08 4:48 PM

You can backup your workouts with the open source software called Running Tracker. Analysing and comparing NikePlus workouts is also possible: http://runningtracker.tuxfamily.org

# Posted By RunningTracker | 11/26/08 4:15 PM

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!
I am finally able to get my lost run sessions! You are the best!! You fixed something Apple said was not possible!

# Posted By kekede | 12/5/08 5:29 PM

This is the first advice that worked. I lost a run last night and it was driving me crazy. Tried a few different suggestions and they didn't work. Yours worked. Thanks so much!!

# Posted By Robin | 1/15/09 7:21 PM

thanks, I'm a run leader with the Nike lounge in Toronto and I've lost literally hundreds of KM due to various reasons, forgetting my chip and or sensor because I grab the wrong shoes, nano not working, chip or sensor not working, connecting my ipod to the computer at the lounge and it automatically sending my information to someone else plus account. My latest lost was a mystery I finished running and heard that beautiful voice tell me my stats but when I connected my nano to upload the latest run to Nike plus, my blog and twiike.com there was nothing there [shrugs shoulders]. Well being a geek the first time this happened I thought to myself that there had to be a way to<strike> hack</strike> i mean investigate a way to ad my runs to show my missed runs. The first thing I did was a google search 'hacking nike plus', and the results came as they always do. I picked through my findings and came across this article http://www.walkjogrun.net/blog/index.cfm/2006/9/6/..., right now in Toronto its 23:14 and I just got back from the gym and a 5KM run and I have to meet with a client tomorrow so I want to get to bed so I will try "earnshavian" lil trick tomorrow when I get home and post my results on my blog www.gregkeane.com.

# Posted By Greg Keane | 3/30/09 10:41 PM

I did not manage to find what you suggested probable because mine is an iTouch. So for iTouch users here's how we can find our XML data.

/var/mobile/Media/iTune_Control/Device\Trainer\Workouts\Empeds\{personal pedometer id}\synched\

# Posted By Rayee | 5/11/09 4:37 AM

When you said that the naming convention was constant, " I noticed that the naming convention for the files was consistent so I followed the convention, renaming my new file "2006-09-06 07;39;54.xml" What does the 07;39;54 refere to?

# Posted By Matt | 7/1/09 8:52 AM

AH! thank you so much! this saved my life:)

# Posted By fresia | 7/25/09 12:37 PM

Good tip! I needed to delete my original nikeplus account, and this made it easy to restore all my old runs to the new account.

Thanks!

# Posted By tj | 8/9/09 9:41 AM

Yo mate, thanks very much for the hints. I have promised myself not to sleep today till I fix the wrong date (demon of the computer) that my last run was filed... You see, I run it in the future (in November 2009). I dedicate to you this night sleep. Thanks again.

# Posted By Vasse | 8/18/09 5:14 PM

wow! thanks! my first ever run was lost and i don't know what to do! if not for this post, i would never have used my sport kit again! thank you so much!!!

# Posted By jayreus | 8/23/09 10:11 PM

1) I use the Nike+ Sportband. so I cannot readout the xml files. How can I see the directory in the sportband?

2) If I use www.nikeplusedit.com it works. But what can I do now to upload the xml file to nike+?

Last week I lost my sensor and I still ordered a new one. But in the time I didn´t received the sensor, I like to upload my runs manually.

# Posted By chartheft | 9/3/09 4:54 AM

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