Dream Catcher

A few days ago I received my Garmin Forerunner 310XT with heart rate monitor (HRM). I named it Dream Catcher (hey, the Garmin software asked...). After all, it's going to accompany me and help me go after my dreams, with the first challenge being the half-marathon in May (Starwalker, in case you just landed on my blog from outer space...).

Today I took it for a little spin with two of my kids - Yanir and Liam. We went to the park close to our house here in Superior to have some fun in the snow. We had our plastic sled with us, and I went down the hill with the boys a few times, other times documenting the event with our camcorder.

Click here to see the resulting data. I am really impressed by the watch and believe it will help me achieve my goal of being prepared to run the Starwalker half-marathon and beyond.

The 310XT GPS training watch is pretty amazing. Very easy to operate and very customizable. I was close to get the 405CX but after realizing it loses a lot of the features (no map view, 3 data screens instead of 4, 3 data fields instead of 4 per data screen, smaller screen, 8 hours battery life instead of 20), I went with the bulkier but still lighter than my normal watch, 310XT.

I know, this is just a tool that's only as good as the training it will track - it will be my dedication and sweat which will do the most to get me to run a half marathon at a good time. But I am sure it will be a source of help and motivation, especially once the weather improves and I'm actually able to run outside rather than on a treadmill. Until then it will keep track of my heart rate, starting tomorrow with my first interval training.

Now I'm "fully equipped", including my new Asics running shoes and iPod Shuffle 4GB, which is an amazing example of combining minimalism and utility.