This is Just Downright Awesome.

I'll admit that when I first started exercising, it definitely came under the heading of ''necessary evil". If I had a choice of being out walking or sitting on my ass in front of the TV, the TV won by a huge margin.

Then I actually started to 'feel the benefit' as they say and started to enjoy exercise, for the benefits at least, if not the exercise itself.

Then came the gadgets.

As most of you know, I'm a huge geek and quite a big nerd. Just buying a watch that uses EKG technology to give me instant feedback on my heart rate and calories burned motivated me a lot, and once I had the 'duh' moment where I could make exercising a lot more fun if I listened to my favorite podcasts while I walked motivated me even more.

Then Nike+ came along and turned exercise into a goddamned RPG…and that's a very good thing.

Ok, walking and running to get fit is one thing. Walking and running so you can fill bars on a computer screen and literally 'level up' as a runner is right up my alley. Before I'd go for a walk because I had to, now I'm going for a walk because once I've gone another 27 miles I level up from a yellow level runner to an orange level runner….and every mile I run not only goes towards my '210 miles in 2010' challenge, but banks miles in the Europe Vs. America 'Most Miles in 2010' challenge. (I'm running for Europe…in your FACE Americans!)

Did I mention that as well as leveling up, you can join any number of challenges and win trophies and medals?

Basically, it's a huge motivator because it's one thing to get up and head out in the rain for some exercise, but it's something completely different to get up and go out in the rain because that day's session will put you over the top on a challenge.

As a geek and a nerd, I can highly recommend Nike+, as well as recommend it for serious athletes who want to track some fairly detailed stats.