Ratchet Up Your Run Training With Gadgets
In my earlier days I was more of a purist, wearing sweat clothes and trying to break my personal best every time on my favorite local route. As I grew older and learned how to train smarter, I also found how beneficial gadgets could be in helping me attain my goals. First was the heart rate monitor (Polar), next was the portable digital music player (iPod), and now it’s the GPS watch (Garmin). At first these gadgets may just appear to be toys - Huh, that’s my heart rate…or…I love this song!…or…Hmmm, that’s my pace. Although it’s important to have fun when your running, the novelty will wear off and you will no longer benefit from the devices. Now you don’t have to read the instruction booklets word for word, but try to learn how to do something with each device that can help boost the effectiveness of your workouts and lead to greater results. Here are a few suggestions:
Heart Rate Monitor: Determine your heart rate zones and plan what heart rate zone you are going to run in before you lace up the sneakers. Every training run should have a purpose, even if that purpose is to mentally recharge, so you should make it a point to actually specify the purpose and use your heart rate monitor to stick to your plan.
Portable Digital Music Player: Music has affects on our mental and physical being that the scientific community is still trying to explain. Finding the right songs with the proper tempo for the purpose of your training run can have profound effects on your ability to get the most out of your run. Try different types of music until you find one that inspires you to maintain about 90 RPM cadence (count how many times your left foot hits the ground in a minute). So try 10 minutes of classical and count your cadence during the final minute, then try 10 minutes of alternative rock and count your cadence during the final minute and so on. Progressive Trance works for me!
GPS: Knowing your distance traveled and current and overall pace is extremely beneficial in itself if you have planned out how far and fast you are going to run beforehand. But you can take it to another level with some GPS watches and download courses. When you download a course, it can help you navigate an unfamiliar route (such as a marathon course you are prepping for) and race against either your own or another runners previous results. You can also post and retrieve courses from a network of user uploaded courses on websites such as MotionBased.com (check out my public activities on the website). The prices have come down considerably - I was able to purchase a Garmin Forerunner 305 on Amazon.com for about $180 after a mail-in rebate back in October - almost $200 off the original retail price! The Forerunner 405 is smaller, has a touch sensitive bezel for scrolling, and includes wireless transmission of data to your computer, but at about twice the price of what you can get the predecessor I’m not so sure it would be worth the extra money - unless you always have to have the newest stuff!
If you want to spend the money you’ve been saving up for a new car you might also be able to get your hands on anti-gravity treadmill. Call me a purist, but I’m not so sure if I would chose that over a new hybrid vehicle just yet!