I was given a Garmin 305 as a present for my 40th birthday and to be honest it's one of the best running watches I've ever owned. It can't do what a Polar can do with regards to heart rate, but bearing in mind that it costs a third of the price (and that I'm no longer a performance athlete), and I think I can suffer that loss. A friend of mine also has one and he has started calling it "Mr Garmin". I'm more inclined to call it Mrs Garmin as it is a particularly fickle and more often than not a little inaccurate.
The first thing that bothers me is how long it takes to find the GPS position. Literally 5 minutes of standing in EXACTLY the same position and it will have found enough satellites for me to start running. If I start running during this process, then it never actually settles down and I don't get any files for this running. This means I often switch the watch on 10 to 15 minutes before I go running.
The second thing that gets me is that it only records in 2 dimensions. I mean WTF...... Why is it not possible to develop a software that does this all correctly. I understand that climb is not so important to the average Joe, but for a mountain runner or an orienteerer, climb is exceptionally important. Honestly, quite shabby for a top GPS to be fair.
And thirdly is this "auto pause" option which drives me to drink. I used to have it turned off, but then it measures the entire time you are out, which is often not actually your running time. Then I turned it on and it works more or less OK, but NOT if you are running hills (because it only measures in 2 dimensions). The "auto pause" function doesn't work on position (go figure) but rather on straight line speed. I have yet to discover what the speed is at which it starts recording, but it is definitely faster than I can manage at the moment uphill, so it is often stopping even though I am actually going uphill at the time.
Point in fact is yesterday’s small hike up the stoawandel. Although I took almost exactly the same route, the uphill was apparently 600m shorter than the downhill and took me (downhill slightly longer - time wise) than getting up the hill. Oh well. The missus in still in fact the best watch I have ever had, so I'll live with her fickleness a bit longer :)
And now to Mr. Merl. WOT a performance he has given over the last week. World Champion and Vice-World Champion - WOW. Well done Robi, keep it up! Next hurdle is the Elite World Champs!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Monday, July 04, 2011
A small injury....
I'm always the one telling people to go slow when they start running again..... Ha Ha, I should have followed my own advice. The problme with starting to run with ambious people is that they always want to push push push and so you get a bit dragged into it. And so it was this time.....
I haven't written for a while but started to think about it a few weeks ago when I started running regularly again (i.e. more than once a week). My new job takes me to Zurich and we sort of got a small group growing where the 3 of us (Max, Tom and myself) run form the hotel in the evnings after work. The problem is that both of them are over achievers and always pushing that bit more, so I have to struggle to keep up. I noticed already the signs on Monday last week after the Salzburg sprints that I was doing to much and mostly too fast. Start slow I always say.....
Oh well, during an easy run on Saturday I slowly felt the rip coming on, and pretty much nothing could stop it. By the time I got home I was in agony and have been limping since then. I'll take a walk / jog to see how it is tonight....
Bummer, hopefully it's not too bad and I can get back to training soon again, otherwise I'll never catch Max and Tom......
Just a short word to the Salzburg sprint champs. My level of fitness is probably at the lowest it has been since I was ten. I'm a good 10 - 15 kilos too many and my resting heart rate is now over 60. But I still try to get out there occasionally. The sprint was in a great little town called Hallein, perfect for sprinting. The map is tricky and difficult to read at full speed and so it was on the first leg. I made 90 s mistake to one control on a course that took me 20 minutes and Robi 14. TTTOOOOOOOO much I would say. I was very disapointed that I forget my routine and calmness so quickly. My aim was then to settle down for the second run, which went perfectly well. No errors and a clean run...... I was still some 4 minutes behind Robi - our shooting star.
Oh well, no more orienteering until August I think, so I'll have some time to get back into shape.
Cheers for now,
Richard.
I haven't written for a while but started to think about it a few weeks ago when I started running regularly again (i.e. more than once a week). My new job takes me to Zurich and we sort of got a small group growing where the 3 of us (Max, Tom and myself) run form the hotel in the evnings after work. The problem is that both of them are over achievers and always pushing that bit more, so I have to struggle to keep up. I noticed already the signs on Monday last week after the Salzburg sprints that I was doing to much and mostly too fast. Start slow I always say.....
Oh well, during an easy run on Saturday I slowly felt the rip coming on, and pretty much nothing could stop it. By the time I got home I was in agony and have been limping since then. I'll take a walk / jog to see how it is tonight....
Bummer, hopefully it's not too bad and I can get back to training soon again, otherwise I'll never catch Max and Tom......
Just a short word to the Salzburg sprint champs. My level of fitness is probably at the lowest it has been since I was ten. I'm a good 10 - 15 kilos too many and my resting heart rate is now over 60. But I still try to get out there occasionally. The sprint was in a great little town called Hallein, perfect for sprinting. The map is tricky and difficult to read at full speed and so it was on the first leg. I made 90 s mistake to one control on a course that took me 20 minutes and Robi 14. TTTOOOOOOOO much I would say. I was very disapointed that I forget my routine and calmness so quickly. My aim was then to settle down for the second run, which went perfectly well. No errors and a clean run...... I was still some 4 minutes behind Robi - our shooting star.
Oh well, no more orienteering until August I think, so I'll have some time to get back into shape.
Cheers for now,
Richard.
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