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First outside run

I ran outside for the first time in several weeks. I did not want to run and it was a struggle right up until I started running, then it was business as usual. I've been running on the treadmill, so it was nice to have a change.

My heart rate spiked on the hills:

Garmin Forerunner 50

I got a Garmin Forerunner 50 for Father's Day. It's pretty slick. It's a watch that monitors heart rate and running speed. It can display heart rate, pace, speed, cadence, time, split time, or a two-level countdown timer. After the workout it gives time, calories (based on the weight I enter), average speed, average cadence, total steps taken, etc.

The Kit

  • watch
  • heart rate strap
  • foot pod
  • I will be getting the speed/cadence option for my bike
    --

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    Positive

  • all the components link up quickly and easily
  • heart rate is as accurate as the Polar HRM I used before this one
  • the watch stores every pretty much automatically
  • accelerometer-based foot pod is very accurate - 95-99% for me without calibration
  • web software makes cool charts for each workout
  • all parts use standard CR-2023 lithium cell

    Negative

  • data seems to be deleted from the watch without verifying that it made it to the web site, so I lost a couple of workouts
  • Garmin stuff is not very water resistant
  • no way (apparently) to edit the raw data before it gets uploaded, so spurious data can junk up the graphs (ex: a workout had one heart rate data point at 240, so the graph compressed the range)
  • foot pod snaps around laces with a strong double-snap but it's not meant to move to a new pair of shoes very often

    Link:
    http://www8.garmin.com/buzz/fr50/
    http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-00679-25-Forerunner-50-Monitor/dp/B000U...

    • dogs...

    Stray dogs that live on the highway walk on three legs
    - Leon Russell in "Ballad for a Soldier"

    I live in a semi-rural area. It's out of town but it is a neighborhood. For as long as I've lived here various neighbors have had free-range dogs. Some of them live long happy lives, some get hit by cars, some just disappear. They've stolen things out of my garage, pulled new trees out of the ground, dug up and chewed up irrigation line, pooped all over my front yard, scared my daughter and her friends, nipped at our heels, dug holes in the yard, and fought outside my bedroom window in the middle of the night. But that's part of the price of living out on the lawless prairie. For the most part they don't cause problems.

    I went out for a run this morning and almost immediately I had three loose neighborhood dogs running around me. By the time I passed the house next door to me two more had joined. They are all annoying, but only one or two are real problems. One of them growls and barks like crazy, but he doesn't get closer than about five feet. Another one used to get close enough that my "kick" would make contact - I suppose with the underside of her head but she was behind me and I was really trying to ignore her so I don't know for sure. This pack stayed with me for a couple of hundred yards.

    Just before I hit the one-mile turn-around I picked up three new dogs. They were happy & quiet and were just looking for someone to follow. They ran with me all the way home, and one of them - a young white lab - decided she liked my house and tried to go in with me. Ninety minutes later when I left for work she was still there. I drove slow enough for her to chase me until I got almost to where I picked her up, and thankfully she wasn't on my porch when I got home from work tonight.

  • If your dogs go nuts because I'm running at 6:00am then it's your fault you're awake, not mine.
  • If someone is driving a little too fast they're going to fixate on not hitting me, and not necessarily be looking out for little Fifi running circles around me. A pretty Husky pup learned a hard lesson this way a few weeks ago. The driver stopped and told me he was sorry so I said I was sorry the owner doesn't care enough to take care of the animal.
  • The driver probably won't stop when your dog gets hit. If you don't have a collar with ID then it won't matter if they stop or not.
  • Your one dog doesn't do so much until you let it run with the free dog from next door and the one across the street. Like teenagers they seem to get in more trouble when there are three or more run in a pack.

    I'm really thankful for the responsible dog owners who keep fences, and collars, and apologize when something happens.

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