Ready, Set, Tap, Click, Go

It’s a brisk autumn morning. Your running shoes are laced up. Your calves, hamstrings and quadriceps are stretched. You are ready for a jog, right?

If you’re a high-tech runner with all the latest gadgets, you’re just getting started.

You still need to start the chronograph on your running watch, calibrate your pedometer, click on your heart-rate monitor, start your digital music player and strap on your personal security device.

Sporting goods manufacturers are making a hard pitch these days that a good pair of running shoes is not enough for the cutting-edge runner.

They say you also need a watch that can calculate speed, a heart-rate monitor with reminders to exercise regularly, a pedometer that also counts calories, a digital music player the size of a cigarette lighter and headphones with removable colored caps to match your running outfit.

The digital revolution, which has transformed the workplace and the entertainment industry, also has changed the once-pure sport of running--despite the resistance of many longtime runners and coaches.

Pat Connelly, the coach of the Los Angeles Roadrunners, a marathon training group, believes that all you really need is a good pair of running shoes and a wristwatch. Too many high-tech gadgets, he said, are just a distraction.

“At a certain point, the tail starts waging the dog,” he said. “You can overdo it and you become a robot with all these beeps and bells.”

Still, those beeps and bells have attracted tens of thousands of runners and have become a growing segment of the multibillion-dollar sporting goods industry.

Nike Inc., the world’s most popular running-shoe company, launched its Techlab division this year to produce digital music players, heart-rate monitors and watches that display speed, altitude and even the weather forecast.

“Nike has always been about innovation and enhancing the sports experience, so this has been the logical next step,” Nike spokeswoman Claudine Leith said.

For runners, the most popular high-tech products have been watches, heart-rate monitors, portable music players and pedometers.

Many of the products combine several functions into one device. The $50 Acumen JogMan is a pedometer with a built-in FM radio.

Quorum Inc. sells the $50 Workout PAAL, which combines a pedometer with a personal-defense alarm that sounds at 103 decibels when you pull out a metal pin.

This holiday season, Nike’s Techlab division plans to distribute the Triax 100, which comes with a tiny pod that you lace into your sneakers. The $200 pod calculates your speed and distance and then transmits the information on a watch display.

Then there is the $100 SportBrain, a device that is about the size of a pager. It combines the features of a pedometer, a timer and a heart-rate monitor.

Before you use the SportBrain, you need to sign on to the SportBrain Inc. Web site and input some personal information such as height, weight and age. The SportBrain, which clips onto your waist, counts your steps and records the exact time of every movement.

At the end of the day, you connect the SportBrain to a computer and send your daily exercise information to a personalized Web page via a phone line.

The SportBrain can calculate the calories you burned and the speed and distance you covered. All of this is posted on your Web page.

The advent of digital music has made portable music players much smaller and lighter, a definite plus for runners. But the costs for these players are still pretty steep.

This year, Sony unveiled the Network Walkman, a digital music player that weighs less than 1.6 ounces and is the size of a cigarette lighter. The Network Walkman can play 120 minutes of digital-quality music. Because the device has no moving parts, there is no danger of skipping.

The drawbacks: a $300 price tag and the hassle of having to download all the music from your computer.

Sony also is marketing its new $30 W.ear headphones for runners. The headphones clip to your ears with a spring-loaded earpiece. The interchangeable headphone caps come in 12 colors, so you can change them to match your outfit.

Warning: If you wear glasses, your ears are going to get a workout from holding up the headphones and the glasses.

Heart-rate monitors have become one of the most popular high-tech items for jocks who just have to know their physical condition at any given second.

One of the most popular models is made by Polar Electro Inc., which is promoting its new “S” series. Like many other heart monitors, it includes a chest strap that uses electrocardiogram technology to send heart-rate information to the Polar watch. Using personal data that you input into the watch, it can calculate the calories burned during a workout.

The “S” series has a few new wrinkles: It keeps track of altitude, temperature and training conditions. One of the “S” series watches, the $250 Polar Coach, lets you send exercise information to a personal computer using audio signals. To upload the information, you simply hold the watch to a microphone connected to a PC.

One amusing feature: If the watch hasn’t been used in three days, it displays a message, such as “Today is a great day to exercise.”

If you need even more motivation, you might try the Heartalker from Newlife Technologies Corp. It is a heart-rate monitor that gives you prerecorded pep talks through a pair of headphones that are wired to a chest strap.

For example, if you slack off during a run, the digitally recorded voice says, “Pick up the pace.” If you are in your targeted heart-rate zone, the voice says, “Good job.”

The $80 Heartalker comes with the voices of either Kathy Smith or Denise Austin, two popular fitness gurus.

The JogMan pedometer has its own motivational feature. If you are not meeting your targeted heart rate, the device turns off the FM radio and replaces the music with the sound of a metronome to get you into a faster pace.

If you don’t like the idea of wearing a chest strap, some companies, such as Casio, sell watches that check your pulse from your fingertip. You need to hold one or two fingers to the watch face.

The pulse monitor on the $75 Casio Personal Trainer, however, does not work well for runners because you need to hold your finger very still over the photo sensor and wait at least 10 seconds to get a reading.

To send information from your watch to your computer, Acumen, Polar, Cardiosport and other heart-monitor manufacturers make a variety of interface devices.

After a run, you set your watch on the interface unit and your workout information is automatically entered into a training log stored on the computer.

Such devices are for people who love numbers or need precise training information for coaching or competition. They also are for people with money: The interface units alone cost as much as $130 each.

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Hugo Martin is a reporter on The Times’ Metro staff.