"The goal is to become the unique, awesome, never to be repeated human being that we were called to be." -Patricia Deegan

Thursday, September 23, 2010

How many Garmins are enough?

Three. I think.

This week I finally broke down and bought the new 310XT. I've had a fondness for my simple replaceable-battery Forerunner 101s for years now. But, they only work off a few satellites, so they're notorious for losing signals and underestimating or overestimating distance. Hasn't been enough to cause issue for me in the past. But it's become a big problem now when racing. In both the German and Swiss trail races, I lost signal so many times I just had to start racing by lapsed time. It was a lot to think about over multiple hours. And at the 24 hr track race it was even overestimating and was a mental downer at the "marathon mark" to find out I'd only gone 41k, not 42.

I bonded quickly with the 310, but the heart rate monitor has done little other than to increase my blood pressure. Undecided how much stock I'll put into the heart rate monitor at this point - but the experiment continues.

Tomorrow I'm headed down to Dwellingup to pace and otherwise support a couple mates doing a fat ass 50 Miler. I should have at least the 310 and the eTrex in tow. Last time I paced this one was at night (100 Miler) and a compass and map were also helpful. Shouldn't need those tomorrow, as the guys will have it all wrapped up with the sun still overhead.

Training this week has been good - am trying to up my "marathon pace" training run and my "100k pace" training run, with consideration for Moe. I'll need more speed to tackle the records I'm looking at. Really feeling the heat already, as spring has come on strong and feels more like summer.

I'm also thinking about whether I need some new racing flats before Moe - hence the poll I've added, looking for opinions from those who use them regularly. I often train in my flats, so the mileage adds up more quickly.

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