I am afraid that I take after my father ... I am a gadget girl. My latest gadget is a Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS running watch. Prior to last week, I didn't even know that you could get a GPS running watch. I had taken a trip to the Running Room to buy a new heart rater monitor since my last one died. The question of whether or not I wanted GPS as well stumped me so I went home and did some research. I thought it was so amazing that you could track each run using GPS so I headed back to the store and bought myself the most basic Garmin model.
After charging it, I used it yesterday for the first 'long run' of my half marathon training ... a 10km loop around the Bow River. The watch was super simple to use - I just waited for the satellites to be located, pressed start and off I went. As I ran, I could see how long I'd been running for, how far I'd run and my current pace. Pretty neat. The run itself was pretty easy and I managed to run the 10km 10 minutes faster than I'd planned to. When I returned home, I plugged the watch into my computer and hey presto! All my running data appeared ... a map of where I'd run, several charts - timing, elevation, heart rate, my speed for each kilometre, total elevation gain/loss (I also learned that Calgary is just over 1000 metres above sea level). How awesome is that?! For some reason (probably my lack of technological skills) I can't work out how to insert the charts here but if you're interested in what the page looks like, you can check it out here. I just know that this latest gadget is going to keep me motivated for my training ... there is no cheating when all the data is laid out in front of you.
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| Not the daintiest of watches |
After charging it, I used it yesterday for the first 'long run' of my half marathon training ... a 10km loop around the Bow River. The watch was super simple to use - I just waited for the satellites to be located, pressed start and off I went. As I ran, I could see how long I'd been running for, how far I'd run and my current pace. Pretty neat. The run itself was pretty easy and I managed to run the 10km 10 minutes faster than I'd planned to. When I returned home, I plugged the watch into my computer and hey presto! All my running data appeared ... a map of where I'd run, several charts - timing, elevation, heart rate, my speed for each kilometre, total elevation gain/loss (I also learned that Calgary is just over 1000 metres above sea level). How awesome is that?! For some reason (probably my lack of technological skills) I can't work out how to insert the charts here but if you're interested in what the page looks like, you can check it out here. I just know that this latest gadget is going to keep me motivated for my training ... there is no cheating when all the data is laid out in front of you.
1 comment:
Oooh - I recently got a Forerunner 305 (second-hand, so it wasn't quite so outrageously expensive as new), and it's the best thing ever! I love having all the fancy charts and things to look at, and having a HRM for the first time ever is so interesting.
And if you're interested, there are a few online tracking sites which have giveaways and things - I'm on strava.com, and am currently trying to run my way towards 100 miles so I can win a 6-pack of gels... it's amazing how such a paltry reward can be so motivating.
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