Garmin good

In a fit of wanting to get back into running I made a few purchases. While actual running is free there are a few necessary pieces of equipment.

So I went to the running room and laid out $180 for new shoes (ridiculous cost but I can't put a price on my health/knee and joints) and got some good socks. Then I decided I need a new gadget to make the training more fun and help me figure out if I am getting enough kms in to do a 1/2 marathon in the fall. I only want to run 3 times a week max so those runs really need to count. I've been coveting the Garmin Forerunner 305 as my new gadget. I checked it out at the running room, said I would think about it, and then went over to Costco and bought it for $90 less than what they were selling it for there.

It is amazing. Wore it for a walk first and it was super cool to come home and download the walk and see an actual map of Vancouver where we had been.

Then I put together some of the workouts I would normally do on the Garmin Training Centre software and loaded them up. Since I am all about the run/walk training method I am pumped that this puppy does it all. Heart rate, speed, time...you name it I can enter it in as the method to calculate intervals. You can even denote intervals, like a one minute rest, as actual rest so it doesn't calculate into your average speed for the workout. There are 5 heart rate zones and 10 speed zones which you can adjust for yourself. For instance, the default fast jog is my 1/2 marathon pace and speed zone 10 default is faster than I could ever run. So I adjusted for my less than speedy running capabilities.

Amazing. And worth every dollar. Love that you can see where/when you get tired and how your heart rate is up and your speed is down.

Now if they could just combine this with an ipod I would be down to just the one gadget.

PS Totally realised on my 9.5k run yesterday that the ipod is way off on mileage. Like way, way off. It was a punishingly long 9.5k followed be the cold bath/hot shower at home to recover.