Yes, I can even geek up running

Posted on July 11, 2007
Filed Under Cool Stuff, Running

My wife asks me, “Do you have to geek up everything?” The answer to that should be obvious to her by now, you’d think…

Our marathon training is moving along nicely. This past weekend we ran 60 minutes. Upon returning to the start I was checking out my pedometer and it showed that I had ran just over 4 miles. That didn’t seem right to me. I asked one of the organizers how far it was to the water station. He said it was about 2 miles. I had run WELL past the water station and back again. We estimated that my pedometer was off by roughly .7 miles. That means that all the stats I have been keeping on paper for the past few weeks were totally useless. Time to find new gear.
Enter the Garmin Forerunner 301. This is basically an onboard computer that tracks your heart rate, speed, distance and a ton of other stuff for you while you train. It comes with PC software that lets you import all your workouts and then it will display graphs of your workout including heart rate, speed, etc… It’s got a built in GPS system so it tracks your course as well. So, while you are checking out your speed and what not, you can see where you were at in your course you are. So, if there are hills and valleys, you can see what they do to your speed and heart rate.

It has about 100 other features that I haven’t even got to yet. Alerts, saved courses, preset workouts and a bunch of others that I haven’t yet checked out. All in due time.

Oh, if you are interested in purchasing one, I did my homework before I bought mine. Dicks Sporting Goods - $219, Sports Authority - $219, Best Buy - didn’t carry this model, Target - $179, Amazon.com - $164.

And, if anybody is in need of a slightly used watch with timer and built in heart rate monitor, let me know. Since buying the Garmin, I won’t be using it anymore.