How to be a running geek...
Monday May 09, 2005
So you are a geek and thinking about running? Follow these steps to not feel like a different person were getting fit and changing our life.
You aren't a geek unless you have gadgets. I knew early on in my running career, that I needed to make sure that any early setbacks didn't deter me from running. Being cheap, if I committed cash, I would be locked in. Being a geek and way type A person, I wanted to keep up with my progress.
Enter the Garmin 201. This slim watch like device is a GPS. It monitors pace, time, distance (and therefore speed) and has several other great features. It has a virtual buddy, if you are too geeky to actually ask someone to run with you OR aren't yet ready to show how ugly a runner you are in the startup phase. I was all about the second part. Given that I would run for a while and then walk rapidly at first (and now?), I didn't want to subject someone else to my running style.
With running buddy turned on, you can choice a pace for your run and look at the GPS unit (think big Timex watch) and see if you were staying with and smoking your virtual buddy.
I'm also a big iPod mini fan. It fits nicely in the small pocket in most running shorts. I have also determined after lots of trial and error that my old Sony Walkman earplugs (yellow) are the best for running.
I have some running friends that are purists, no watches or music just running. Some folks seem to have an attitude about being purists, like the rest of us at some point will graduate to being purists. But the purists all dig the Garmin 201. At the end of the run, when you can tell them average pace, best pace, distance, and then show them the map of where we went, the geeks win.
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