I haven't run in about two weeks now. I'm appreciating how much that sucks now.
I went home for a week two weeks ago. I got a couple of fun runs in while I was home, but one night I left the window open, having forgotten how much the temperature drops in that area.
Long story short, I got sick, and have spent the last two weeks getting better, and I don't think I'm quite 'there' yet. It started in my nose and throat, but as they say, shit rolls down hill, and the cold moved into my lungs.
Today, I tried a run, and managed to make it half-way before I gave up the ghost, due to a few things:
Insufficient nutrition: Yeah, I was dumb and didn't eat very well.
Heat: Holy hell is it hot out there at noon. Not only that, it's impossible to choose a better side of the street to run on, because the sun is right overhead.
Not enough water: Since I was only planning to do 4k out there, I didn't think it'd be so bad. Lesson learned.
Damn cold: The cough is still in my lungs, though so much lesser than it was a week ago.
Fortunately (or so I keep telling myself), we're still really early in the running program, so I am hoping to bounce back without too much difficulty.
Something that I've been wanting to do for a while, and hopefully will be able to, is running in the morning before work. The problem is that I am very bad at getting up and doing anything more strenuous than having a shower and downing some Cheerios. Maybe I'll give it a shot this week when I have more time off of work.
And last but not least, I got my shiny new wrist toy! The Garmin Forerunner 305 now clunkenly adorns my wrist, and I've got to learn how to use it. First thing: changing the miles to kilometers. Things seem faster that way.
Showing posts with label heart rate monitor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart rate monitor. Show all posts
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
First Running Room Clinic
I had my first Running Room clinic (RRC) today! And I survived! Even moreso, I enjoyed it.
There's a totally different feeling to running in a group, I found. We did three 10+1s, and I handled it with ease. Admittedly, we were likely going slower than we will be in the future, but we left the shop and ran up the canal to Pretoria Bridge. It's lovely outside today, and though the air was cool, the sky was perfect to run beneath. However, I think sunglasses are a must on days like this.
I just mapped this out on Google Maps, and it's saying that we ran a kilometer longer than the coaches said. Very disappointing, because now I don't know how far I've run. This leads to my next subject: heart-rate, distance, and time monitor watches. I saw a bunch at the Running Room store today, and asked see the Garmin 305. It's a lot larger than I thought it was, which just made its ugliness worse. At least with the 405, I could almost pass it off as a huge watch.
Anyways, I went and spoiled my work-out with an eggs florentine at the Arrow&Loon. I was craving eggs and spinach. I should have gone for the spinach and swiss omelette!
I can't wait for next week
There's a totally different feeling to running in a group, I found. We did three 10+1s, and I handled it with ease. Admittedly, we were likely going slower than we will be in the future, but we left the shop and ran up the canal to Pretoria Bridge. It's lovely outside today, and though the air was cool, the sky was perfect to run beneath. However, I think sunglasses are a must on days like this.
I just mapped this out on Google Maps, and it's saying that we ran a kilometer longer than the coaches said. Very disappointing, because now I don't know how far I've run. This leads to my next subject: heart-rate, distance, and time monitor watches. I saw a bunch at the Running Room store today, and asked see the Garmin 305. It's a lot larger than I thought it was, which just made its ugliness worse. At least with the 405, I could almost pass it off as a huge watch.
Anyways, I went and spoiled my work-out with an eggs florentine at the Arrow&Loon. I was craving eggs and spinach. I should have gone for the spinach and swiss omelette!
I can't wait for next week
Saturday, March 7, 2009
A New Heart-rate Monitor
If you remember, when I started this blog, I was talking about heart-rate monitors. I had decided to go with a very simple one, the F2 by Polar.
It actually came early on that I realized how useless the one-button-to-rule-them-all feature was. I can't flip back and forth between my heart-rate monitoring and my time without stopping the time, a frustration that has led to me using simply the watch, not the heart-rate band.
It comes down to: cheap=simple=not doing what I need it to. So I am in the market for a new one. Le sigh.
Right now, the Garmin Forerunner 305 (which the Sports 4 guy suggested!) is looking really good, despite the price. It can track my progress and distance by GPS, it monitors my heart, I can use it indoors with a superneat Foot Pod (take us to your feet, puny earthling) which ties to your shoe and monitors how far you've gone, and it comes in some nice colours.
However, the Forerunner 405 is a more attractive display, comes with an iPod-like touch bezel, and it can transmit information to other 405 users. It's the same price as the 305, as well, though I don't think the buttons are quite as intuitive as the 305.
Decisions, decisions.
As to why I haven't really looked too hard at Polar: their website is a bit more confusing than the Garmin site - Garmin lets me go through the list of things I need, and suggests an appropriate watch, whereas Polar lets you select multiple watches and shows you the comparisons. I'm just finding Garmin to be easier.
I think this will become a lot more pressing in the next couple of weeks, when I start training by distance instead of time. That gives me a little time to make a choice.
It actually came early on that I realized how useless the one-button-to-rule-them-all feature was. I can't flip back and forth between my heart-rate monitoring and my time without stopping the time, a frustration that has led to me using simply the watch, not the heart-rate band.
It comes down to: cheap=simple=not doing what I need it to. So I am in the market for a new one. Le sigh.
Right now, the Garmin Forerunner 305 (which the Sports 4 guy suggested!) is looking really good, despite the price. It can track my progress and distance by GPS, it monitors my heart, I can use it indoors with a superneat Foot Pod (take us to your feet, puny earthling) which ties to your shoe and monitors how far you've gone, and it comes in some nice colours.
However, the Forerunner 405 is a more attractive display, comes with an iPod-like touch bezel, and it can transmit information to other 405 users. It's the same price as the 305, as well, though I don't think the buttons are quite as intuitive as the 305.
Decisions, decisions.
As to why I haven't really looked too hard at Polar: their website is a bit more confusing than the Garmin site - Garmin lets me go through the list of things I need, and suggests an appropriate watch, whereas Polar lets you select multiple watches and shows you the comparisons. I'm just finding Garmin to be easier.
I think this will become a lot more pressing in the next couple of weeks, when I start training by distance instead of time. That gives me a little time to make a choice.
Friday, January 16, 2009
On Heart-Rate Monitors
So I figured if I'm going to do this, I may as well do it properly. So I got a heart-rate monitor (HRM).
Suddenly, what I've read in John Stanton's Running Room's Book on Running is making more sense. Maximum heart rate, target zone, fartlek - these words hold no menace for me anymore. Since heart rate seemed so important to training, and moreso to not exhausting myself, I figured I would look into a heart rate monitor.
Since I'm starting out, I rationalized I only need a very simple monitor - you can get them with bells, whistles, doodads and add-ons to make your head spin. Of course, the more doodads, the higher price. Also, I'm on a budget.
I was looking at the Acumen Eon Basix heartrate monitor, because it seemed like the most basic and least expensive of them. The review I read was pretty blasé - there are pluses, there are minuses - but it seemed to be generally what I wanted.
The book mentioned above describes Polar as the best monitor brand out there, however, so when I didn't see Acumen at the store, I wasn't too depressed. I ended up purchasing the F2 by Polar for $70 plus tax. However, the salesman was really adamant that I might just be wasting my money. Instead, he suggested the Garmin Forerunner, either the 205 or the 305. According to him, the heart rate is less important than the pace and speed.
I certainly can't disagree with something I don't know enough about. But I was also looking for a timer/stop watch, and I'm going on what I do know, which is that when I started running the first time (somewhere, an ex is chortling at the words 'first time'), we used a heart rate monitor, and it was fun.
Not to mention - the 205 comes in at a cool $199 and the 305 is $299 (suggested retail prices on Garmin's website). Since that totally blows my budget, I think for now, I will keep it to the basic monitor that I bought, until I have a better understanding of what I'm doing.
Suddenly, what I've read in John Stanton's Running Room's Book on Running is making more sense. Maximum heart rate, target zone, fartlek - these words hold no menace for me anymore. Since heart rate seemed so important to training, and moreso to not exhausting myself, I figured I would look into a heart rate monitor.
Since I'm starting out, I rationalized I only need a very simple monitor - you can get them with bells, whistles, doodads and add-ons to make your head spin. Of course, the more doodads, the higher price. Also, I'm on a budget.
I was looking at the Acumen Eon Basix heartrate monitor, because it seemed like the most basic and least expensive of them. The review I read was pretty blasé - there are pluses, there are minuses - but it seemed to be generally what I wanted.
The book mentioned above describes Polar as the best monitor brand out there, however, so when I didn't see Acumen at the store, I wasn't too depressed. I ended up purchasing the F2 by Polar for $70 plus tax. However, the salesman was really adamant that I might just be wasting my money. Instead, he suggested the Garmin Forerunner, either the 205 or the 305. According to him, the heart rate is less important than the pace and speed.
I certainly can't disagree with something I don't know enough about. But I was also looking for a timer/stop watch, and I'm going on what I do know, which is that when I started running the first time (somewhere, an ex is chortling at the words 'first time'), we used a heart rate monitor, and it was fun.
Not to mention - the 205 comes in at a cool $199 and the 305 is $299 (suggested retail prices on Garmin's website). Since that totally blows my budget, I think for now, I will keep it to the basic monitor that I bought, until I have a better understanding of what I'm doing.
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