A Shot In The Arm

Sometimes it take a little somethin' somethin' to get me motivated to get out there and train.  I'm counting down to Ironman France and those long bikes are like bad dreams lurking in my future!  In my MIND I want to be pro runner Kara Goucher, who ran religiously up until the day she delivered her baby, then ran a marathon a few months later.

In MY REALITY, it takes a little retail therapy to get me up and at 'em in the AM.

So lucky me, wandering past the Garmin booth at the Boston Expo last week, I heard that all-to-familiar whisper from a tricky salesman,"For you, special price!" Answer me this: what girl can walk away from that?  *BTW they can spot me a mile away in Mexico.

I've owned my fair share of HR monitors.  I've used a Polar, then switched to the Garmin 305 and 405, and I find them invaluable for training.  I've had my eye on the 310XT for years now, but didn't want to fork over the cash since I had a perfectly usable 305 charging on my bathroom counter.

But, those discounted prices got my palms all sweaty and the debit card just sort of slipped out of my hands and fell right into the credit card machine.  And now the 310XT is mine!

Let me just tell you how cool this thing is:

1.  After you've set up the device, the minute you walk in from a workout and walk by your computer, the 310XT buzzes and starts downloading your new workout information directly to your computer.  No wires, it's like magic.

2.  You get all kinds of really useful information in the form of graphs, maps, mile splits.  It's so detailed and easy to read, like this:

And, you can upload all this information to Training Peaks.  Bonus.

3.  It's waterproof, which means you can swim with it and get accurate distance measurements for open water swims.  Sweet!

4.  If you have different bikes, you can set up each one under a different name, so you look back on your records and know which bike you were using on a particular day.

I know there is tons more this handy device has to offer.  I am still exploring and learning.  But I am a fan already.  And that might just get me through that next long bike.