Hi it's Laura.
I have been struggling this week with what to talk
about.
Do I talk about the heat? I started to write one blog
about the heat but it sounded like a big whiny complaint. So I ditched it. I
started another entry but it too sounded like complaining. And since nothing
remarkable has happened, I am lost for a good story.
When I finally sat down this morning, I decided to write.
I decided it was best to start with happy news that made me dance instead of
whining news. I am not going to attach the accompanying video because well,
it's just too embarrassing. Let's just say the guys at the restaurant got a
good laugh at me for the dance.
I will start at the beginning. The Husband passed down to
me his Garmin Forerunner 301 a few years ago. The Forerunner 301 is a GPS device that tracks
your runs, cycling routes and heart rate (even though we call it a watch it
actually does not tell time). The F301came out on the market in 2005ish, state
of the art at the time. The Husband passed it down to me in 2008 when I did my
first half marathon. He of course got himself the latest and greatest at that
time.
Don't get me wrong. I did not care. I am not a huge
gadget person. I like my iPhone and my iPad but the Garmin with the GPS was
kind of above my level of interest. I did not care how far or how fast
I was running, just that I was.
I had a pretty standard polar heart rate monitor and that
was good enough for me. The Garmin 301 is big. It's at least 3 inches long
and 1 5/8 inches high and straps to your wrist with Velcro. It
took some getting used to because the thing is a brick. I was very self
conscience wearing for the first time in Central Park. I felt like it was so
big that everyone was looking at me.
In addition to it being old it is well used. The chest
strap for the heart rate monitor is constantly chaffing at the bra line. Over
the years I have tried a lot of different lubricants to prevent the chaffing
which can be very very painful especially when it first hits water (for those
of you who grappled with me, it’s the same thing but on your chest instead of
your back). My old formula of just Glide stopped working. I am now on some
chamois lube with a French name and I top that with Vaseline. For now, that
works. (Vaseline alone gets absorbed into the skin and does not make a good
barrier to prevent chaffing.)
With all of that being said, I count on it now. I could
not go for a run or a bike ride without.
I will not call myself obsessed but I certainly like to
see what I am doing on any given day. Am I running fast because I am well
rested? I am riding slowly because I had a bad night sleep? The
one biggest drawback being a triathlete (OMG I just totally called myself
that) is that the Garmin Forerunner 301 is not water proof and not capable of
being used in the pool. Plus it was never designed to do so. But the Garmin
Forerunner 910XT is designed for water.
I was quite flabbergasted when The Husband got one
for me. He surprised me with it earlier this week. I felt like Ralphie on
Christmas morning when he finally got the BB gun [Editor’s note: It is 200 shot
range model air rifle!]. Not only does it track riding and running but it also goes
in the pool (Ralphie's bb gun came with a “thing that tells the time” but the Garmin still does not tell time BTW).
I swam with it Thursday morning and was so excited to see how far and fast I
was swimming, I was positively giddy.
It may not tell time but it has amazing bells and
whistles that I never even thought of before. You can set it to automatically
change sports during triathlon. Very exciting.
So exciting in fact, The Husband and I met for
lunch Thursday after my swim. I originally recorded a reenactment of the dance in the restaurant and then thought better that you use your imagination.
Laura
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