Home Again

I'm home from our two state juggernaut which included 26 hours of driving, plenty of family visiting, and way too much junk food. Finding time to write has been difficult because I also was able to fit in several workouts and now I have post workout chores to do.

Usually, I like post workout chores because they give me an excuse to sit down for a little while when I am tired. The primary chore is to download my workout from my Garmin 305 to Training Center, the software that comes with the Garmin. If you don't have a Garmin, now is a great time to think about getting a 305. The newer models are out and the 305 is a bargain. A few weeks ago Best Buy had it on sale for $120. Amazon.com usually has a competitive price for it. Add the bike kit which gives you speed and cadence and you have the perfect workout companion. It records all of your workout data and then transfers it to the computer.

After I download my workout and either pat myself on the back for a great performance or lament the poor showing, it's time to record the info in my log. Log? Training Center is a log in that it lists all of your workouts in date order. A simple click on the date gives you all the details including a map of the route and a heart rate and speed chart. Good enough, right? Uh, no.

A couple years ago, before I had a Garmin, I started recording my workouts on a bare bones, free workout tracking site. Less than 50 people use it and its run by a guy out of the goodness of his heart. He posts monthly and yearly running mileage totals and tracks your monthly average speed. When I started, I went back and recorded several months of previous workouts, so I have a lot of workout history on this site. When I was marathon training, it was great to be able to go back and compare runs to previous training cycles. After each workout I log my stats here so that I have a continuous record.

So, that should be plenty of data recording... for your average person. But, I am not average in this department. I started to get worried that the guy who maintains the bare bones site would get tired of it and shut it down, so I decided I better have a back up. Starting a couple months ago, I also record my workouts on Training Peaks, the free version. Is anyone using the Premium Version? The upgrade to the Premium Version is $20 a month, so I haven't given that a try. THAT would seem excessive, as opposed to what I am doing (sarcasm). I've been slowly going back and uploading my old workouts to Training Peaks so that I'll have plenty of history there. If anyone loves the Premium Version, let me know. Given my obsessive tendencies, I could be convinced to give it a try.

As you can see, since I was able to work out several times while I was on vacation, I've been very busy downloading, logging, and re-logging workouts. That along with washing the mountains of smelly laundry created by myself and my Ironman training husband has left me with little time for much else. I am happy with the track workout, long swim, 40 mile bike ride, strength training at the gym, and 5.5 mile hilly run I accomplished while we were gone. I'm a little sleep deprived since almost all of these occurred in the early morning hours, but I'm still thankful I got them done. If I could have only passed over the chocolate pie, hamburgers, fries, pizza and multiple servings of ice cream, I may have come home in a little better shape than I left. Instead, I am 2 pounds heavier. Thank goodness I haven't gotten around to tracking my weight. That would be crazy!