So, I think Garmin’s taking over the world, and I think I may actually be the cause of it. Hear me out on this. See, it was only nine months ago that I bought my very first Garmin watch, not really that long ago when you think about it, and yet, here I am, nine months later, once again, Garmin shopping! It’s obvious, don’t you think, I’m so stroking the company’s ego (I already had a Garmin GPS … not much good that’s done me though) which is totally the result of their latest addition to the Garmin line: The Garmin Phone! It’s a pretty logical theory if you ask me 😀
When I bought the Garmin Forerunner 205 last September, I was fine with the fact that it didn’t come equipped with a heart rate monitor, in fact, I was quite over joyed by it. Firstly, I was saving a bit of money and even more so because I bought it in Oregon – no taxes! And secondly, I really had no desire to know if my heart was about to explode from overexertion … if you haven’t already noticed, I like to live in a world of denial. But, I’m also runner who can be easily swayed.
For last night’s running clinic, we went over the value of running to your heart rate. While I’ve been basing my runs on a specific pace – a static, one size fits all kind of number – your heart rate is your heart rate. Most training regimes will tell you to run at 60 per cent of your maximum heart rate, or 70 or 80 per cent dependent on whether you’re running a steady run, a tempo run, or a LSD run. And going by pace, I really couldn’t tell you what the heck my heart’s doing. One guy in the clinic, learned in his last clinic that he was running at 85 per cent of his maximum heart rate on a LSD run, going way faster than he should have been, and didn’t realize until then why he was burning out his energy so quick. Hmmm … interesting …
It does, however, seem like there’s a lot of math involved, something about subtracting your age from like 230 (I think that’s what the number was) to figure out what your maximum heart rate is, which is a little bit intimidating for people like me who don’t do math (yes, I even have issues subtracting 32!). But when I piped up about my lacking math skills, I was quickly informed that there’s a teacher in our mix – who loves math!
I was sold!
Now, the question is which one do I get. I love the orange 310XT, which would go with so many of my running outfits, but it’s $439, which might be a little out of my price range 🙁 I’m not a fan of the touch screen ones, and the slimmed down 110 looks a little too simple for my liking, so that just leaves the bulky red 305. Decisions! Decisions!
After the talk portion of the clinic we went for a 6k jaunt and I felt awesome, probably the best I’ve felt in a long time. It was an out and back route and my legs felt great, my body felt great, my head felt great. I was in the zone … my only issue was slowing it down a bit. I was supposed to be doing a 7:08r km pace, but I didn’t get down to that pace until about 2.5 km in. I am trying, though, oh boy am I ever. I am so determined to follow the plan and NOT get injured again! I’ve just got to keep reminding myself is all!
THURSDAY NIGHT CLINIC RUN:
- 6:45 p.m. BG before: 9.3 (temporary basal -40 per cent)
- Distance: 6 km
- Average Pace: 6:45
- Time: 40:35
- 8 p.m. BG after: 8.0
Putting things into perspective: While my running gals and I are no longer the leaders of the pack, we are still the fast ones, as one of the gals pointed out, it’s just the runners slower than us didn’t join this clinic is all! Loved it!
thanks Katie!