Technology Part II & Athlete Updates

First off some "Kudos" to athletes out racing ...

Chuck Sloan ... secures his first Ironman World Championship spot, in his first Ironman (Couer D' Alene), by executing the perfect race plan and running 2:57 off the bike for a 9:34. Chucks time put him in the top 25 overall and had the 5th fastest (overall) run of the day. All done on less than ideal preps! Chuck now gets to be part of that mess in the picture above :)

Eileen Rice ... congratulations to Eileen for conquering her first Ironman at Couer D' Alene on a weather day in Idaho!

Paul Stimson ... for improving his "Terrible Two" time by two and half hours ... WOW, well done Paul!

More racing this weekend at Ironman Austria!

TECHNOLOGY PART II - Garmin & Running

Last installment (see the May 29th write up) my over-riding message when it comes to using technology in training was simple: "use the data from your technological devices, in line with the messages your body is sending you, to get the most out of your investment!"

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Over time I have had a pretty good "tachometer" when it came to running. I seemed to be able to, from experience, correlate HR / perceived exertion / pace pretty well and have never considered getting a Garmin device. Well, my wife purchased one late last summer before the preparation period for Ironman Arizona and it gave me a little more exposure to the device. For her, the goal was helping dial in the pace / HR equation and gave us realistic expectation on what to expect come race day. In the end it was a very good tool to be able to download and then look at sections of long runs we used as pace / HR "simulation" runs.

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Even with that experience I still didn't have a desire to buy a Garmin for myself and held off. BUT, back in April it was my birthday and wedding anniversary and my wife splurged in the form of a new Garmin 405 for Coach D .... sweeet! Since then I have been able to use it, play with with, try different things and just generally see what the best applications might be with the device.

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EXAMPLE of an applications. When people come to me with time expectations of what they are going to do in a race, my first question tends to be: "Well, what have you done in training (or races) that proves you can acheive that?". If we don't have relative race data, having something like the Garmin allows us to evaluate time/distance/pace/HR from training quite accurately ... once we download the data ;)

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Good & Bad of the Garmin?

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The Bad:

1) You don't always get reliable pace accuracy. Tree cover, especially, gets in the way of the instant feedback. Though, when it "re-aligns" itself and gives accuaret data at the end of the run when you download or look at the run details.

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2) I see so many people are very pre-occupied with what the pace they are running or trying to hit specific paces out of the gate on a run they forget the relevance of HR and perceived exertion. My training prescriptions are most often based on exertion level, therefore pace is a product of the specific effort. When athletes tend to be "pace focused" I tend to see their pace fade over a session OR have to work so hard to maintain pace at the end of a session they effectively altered the goal of that training session.

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3) It is technology you know :) (batteries die, HR strap battery is dead, screen freezes up, you get erratic high HR readings etc.)

The Good:
1) Un-Biased pace / distance / HR data at the end of the run.

2) Great tool for early in the race pacing ... a time when we often get over excited and can't control emotions.

3) A great way to keep a data base of pace / hr / distance correlation over extended periods of time. (performance tracking)

4) Easy to download and store data (see #3)

My Suggestions For Best Using the Garmin w/ Running?
1) Wear the Garmin for as many of your runs as you can.

2) Don't be hyper focused on the data every minute of every run! Stick to your plan and don't deviate because of technology ... listen to your body & brain first!

3) Save the data from your runs (downloaded is best) and do brief analysis of the session. Don't get into the "paralysis from analysis" trend by studying the data.

4) Unless you have a specific 'interval session" consider setting your Garmin to auto split every mile. When you see the data at the end of the day look for trends ... does your pace fade in the closing miles? does your pace increase? does your pace stay even? ... how does the pace look relative to HR? Be honest with yourself!

5) Finally ... get a VERY good feel for you perceived exertion relative to HR and pace. I've seen athletes become completely lost in events because their technological devices fail or are not working correctly. Be prepared

Listen to the body, listen to the brain and use your Garmin appropriately!

I'm Just Sayin' ... DL