My New Baby

I'm in love with my new baby. I told Jake last summer this was all I wanted for Christmas. It was hard waiting for it, especially when I could have used it so many times last year as I trained for my half marathons. I remember coming back from a long run a few months ago and Jake asked how far I went and what my pace was. I said "I don't know exactly. If I had my Garmin, I would know for sure." Then I gave him 'the look' and he just laughed at me.

For those who don’t know, the Garmin Forerunner 305, is a watch-styled GPS for runners. It tracks location, distance, pace, heartrate, time and probably 50 other things. The really cool thing for geek runners is that you can upload all of the data to your computer so you can maintain a running log without even writing anything down.

Before I had my Garmin, in order to figure out distance, I had to either drive the route beforehand with my car, or try to use mapmyrun.com (which isn't always super accurate.) And forget being spontaneous. If I wanted to run a particular distance, I had to run the route I planned, no matter what. I couldn’t change my mind and run a different route, unless it was one I had already plotted.

Then came my Garmin. Now, I can run wherever I want and know exactly how far I have run. Not only that, but I can see my pace while I’m running, not just after. You can set the Garmin to “auto-lap”, which means every mile it marks a new lap. Then when you view the uploaded data, you can see how long each lap took.

The Garmin also tracks elevation changes. Really nice when you see mile 3 took you the longest, and oh, look at that, it’s because there is a giant hill at mile 3.

Different models come with different options, mine is the 305, so mine came with a heartrrate monitor. I haven't wore the strap yet, but I hear it is very useful for seeing how much farther you can push yourself. I plan to use it soon.

You can upload your data to www.motionbased.com, Garmin’s site. Now you can also upload your data to www.runningahead.com, a running website which has a really cool running log and great forums.

Anyway, I love my Garmin. If you are a runner, I recommend getting one. It has made my runs so much more enjoyable, and is a great tool to help me be a better runner. Just yesterday I ran 8 miles. I was able to keep checking my Garmin and make sure I was going the pace I aimed for. I could see if I was starting to slow down, and that it was time to pick up my pace. I could check my distance at any given second and know exactly how far I had gone. I could also see how many calories I was burning each mile, etc. Such an awesome tool, and for me, definitely worth the $139.99 (plus free shipping on Amazon) that Jake paid for it. Thanks baby for an awesome Christmas present. I love it!