Saturday, February 21, 2009

It's Cool, but is it Necessary?

That's the question at hand regarding our new Garmin Forerunner 305. D took it out for a test drive this morning, and I would have gone along but I was (am) lazy and didn't drag myself out of bed. The upside of my laziness, and I always find an upside, is that I got to take it for a test myself. I headed to the bike path, and did the same run she did.

Admittedly, it's very cool to have all that data at your fingertips...or on your wrist in this case. During the run, I could watch my heart rate, which was interesting in conjunction with the pace. And so on and so on. I got home dumped the info into the computer, and the result was 5.33 miles in 43:42; average pace of 8:12; average heart rate of 147 bpm and a max heart rate of 162 bpm. All of this is cool, but I'm not really sure what to make of it. I'm sure I could determine a baseline, averages, yada yada, but since I never took a lab course in college I have neither the patience or inclination. So, in all likelihood, D will be using it more than I.

Additionally, I was always aware that I was wearing both the unit and the heart rate strap. Especially, the latter. I've never worn a strap before, and it felt restricting, although I'm sure that was mostly psychological. The unit felt weird the whole time, and this from a guy who has a Suunto Vector, aka the wristop bird bath. I'm sure you get used to both, and I'm sure I will. It's going to be really useful on trails, so I know we'll be glad we have it.

As far as how I felt on the run, I'd say I felt mostly OK. Even three weeks after the race that shall not be mentioned, my hamstrings are still cranky. Plan is to just run through it and hope they loosen up. I feel much better tonight after my run, so that's an encouraging sign. Long run at Bradbury tomorrow.

1 comment:

middle.professor said...

It is, indeed, xxxxxxtremely necessary. It has numbers. 'nuff said.