Not everything has gone so smoothly with the Nike Plus iPod system.

First of all, it is only compatible with the iPod Nano which meant my 30 gb iPod was useless. That didn't make sense to me because the remote sensor thing fit in the slot. So I had to shell out more than $150 for an iPod Nano.

Then not all Nike shoes have a place for the foot sensor. You have to buy the special Nike shoes. That set me back another $70 or so.

It turns out iPod Nano needs Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher to be able to use the Nike Plus iPod system. I had to ask five friends before I found one that had the discs so I could upgrade my laptop. It upgraded fairly quickly until I lost the internet connection.

Then I had to go to a fast food place and coffee shop for internet access to complete the upgrade. That took another three hours because the internet connection would get lost and I'd have to start over from the beginning.

I was close to breaking my laptop in half over my knee.

So after all this work, was it worth it? Yes.

It's a great motivational tool to be able to track your progress and get your friends involved in your workouts. I just hope other companies make compatible software that can be used with ipods other than the Nano so people don't have to shell out more money.

But who knows if that'll happen. It's all about the Benjamins...