Geeky running

For a while (years...) I have been trying to activate myself.

This year I have registered for the "lidingöloppet" (30 km running in terrain). But how will I motivate myself to train for that?

Well, I found a nice formula:

1. Buy a new toy (eh...I mean training equipment, e.g. a watch that can record speed, distance, heart rate etc.)!

1. Feel guilty about not training when you have bought such a nice device!

1. Force yourself to go out running (you have to record data, to have anything to analyze, remember...)

1. Go home,connect the watch to the computer, and start analyze your running

1. Start over again...
   

I have had various more or less advanced training watches (from Polar and Suunto) but this summer I found my ultimate training companion, "Garmin Forerunner 305". It is a wristwatch equipped with a GPS-receiver. With this watch I can go out running, then go home, attach the watch to the computer via USB, and immediately watch my whole run on google maps, together with heart rate, distance, speed, elevation etc. Really cool!

There are a lot of different programs out there to upload the GPS-data and let you analyze it. I have tried out a few of them.

• Garmin Training Center (the included program) - basic, pretty crappy...


• Motionbased.com - Web application, really simple to upload data from device and nice interface to analyze data, and share a URL to your run. (I think Garmin bought motionbased.com). There is one version that costs about $100/year, and another more limited, free version (I just realized that the free version only lets you store your latest 10 activities)

When using Windows I had some bad experience with the PC didn't find my device and I had to uninstall/install the USB-driver, and the good-old "restart the computer"-action to find it again. But that is not really a problem for me because I much rather use my Mac.

When I am using a Mac there are two good Open Source applications I use.

• LoadMyTracks (Simple app that just connects to your watch and download the GPS-log and store it in GPX-format (XML), or KLM-format if you want) - not even a single time I have had any problems with "finding the device"


• TrackRunner - a desktop app that lets you view your run on a map together with training data. It is a bit buggy, but you get an overview over all your runs, and can do basic analysis and what the runs on a map.


• Also, motionbased.com are focusing on getting their tools to work for Mac, and the latest beta works to upload your tracks from the device if you are using safari (not firefox yet) with a plugin.

I really love my Garmin Forerunner, I just tried the "virtual partner" function, which means that you can either use an old GPS-log in the watch or download GPS-data to the watch. Then you can compete against your (or somebody else's) old run, and at every moment you can see on the watch how many seconds/meters you are before/after your partner. Because you are running the same way as a previous course you can even view the elevation.
I even tried to fool the watch by running a slightly different way - and got an "off course" message, then when I went back the same way I got a "course found" message, and my virtual partner was starting to catch up with me again...

As an example of what data you can get from the watch, look at "midnattsloppet" (based on the GPS log from my watch, from a 10km race in Stockholm the last weekend)

The latest cool thing I found out about is the facebook application "MyMotionbased" that shows the five latest runs on motionbased in facebook.

To conclude, Garmin Forerunner is really an amazing training partner which gives me motivation to go out running and I hope it will help me finish "lidingöloppet" the 29th of September...