One of my newest toys is this cool piece of running technology from Garmin. Basically it’s an oversized wrist watch, with builtin GPS, and lots of useful features for running and other sports.
For all its clever features, there’s really only one that I use – the Virtual Partner feature that lets me run against one of my previous runs. I just pick a previous run as my Virtual Partner, and the Forerunner shows me how far ahead or behind my ghostly other self I am. It’s definitely a weird feeling when you’re only 10 feet ahead or behind your Virtual Partner.
I pretty much exclusively run alone, and having a Virtual Partner is good motivation when I’m out on a run. And he doesn’t mind if I’m feeling fast or slow that day – I can just run at whatever pace I want and he doesn’t complain. When I am slow, at least it’s only myself on a better day that I can’t keep up with.
One important tip – if you own a Forerunner, resist the temptation to set a really fast run as your Virtual Partner. It’s only odd days that your body is up to running a personal best, and attempting to stay with a hard pace on a normal day will be unpleasant and possibly dangerous. A fast but comfortable run seems work for me.
If you’re a regular runner and enjoy your gadgets, it’s worthy of your consideration.
Sounds like a pretty cool toy and definitely something I’d like to purchase if I wasn’t a burdened with flat feet and a beer belly 🙂
A very poor excuse if ever I heard one 🙂
I have flat feet, and my belly is certainly nothing to be proud of. However, over the last three years, through excercise (mostly running) and eating more sensibly, I dropped from 16 stone to 11.5 stone (currently I’m about 11 stone 10 lbs). Flat feet just means that you won’t be setting any records, and you should choose your shoes carefully (go to a sports shop that specialises in running).
Having said that, you’ve got to enjoy (to some degree) whatever exercise you’re doing. Running seems to work for me, and it’s much less hassle than going to a gym.
I’m a reasonable 12 stone (1/2 on a bad day) atm and thats with a very inactive lifestyle and no exercise whatsoever. The flat feet are a pain and I get quite bad shin pains if I do a lot of running, which is never a big issue as I’m usually out of breathe after about a minute 🙂
Running gpses are great….I’ve been hacking around with mine for a while and made a site for displaying your runninng data online. Check it out an example with my runs at http://www.runningblogger.com/jeff/runninglog, and if you’re interested I can host your data too.
Nice site Jeff.
Thanks for the offer to host my data, but I’m happy just using it for my virtual partner at the moment.