Husband vs. Garmin

so it happened. the GARMIN and me are officially an item. husband introduced us on xmas day and i'm sure he'll soon wish he didn't. we sneaked out together for our first date today, and it was spectacular. although i’m not usually one to kiss and tell, here is the report:


what the hell are you talking out?

it’s a garmin forerunner 310XT (yes, i’m into inanimate objects.) it’s basically a big fat ugly GPS watch which is (for the first time) also waterproof. ideal for multi sports. before i used to run and guess what speed i was doing, how fast i was going. now i get beeped at, and, i get accuracy. sweet.


was it hard to get it set up?

let’s be honest, i’ve only scratched the surface, so no; it wasn’t hard to use. i followed all the little instructions and then found a route online which someone else had recorded, clicked the icon to send this to my watch- then it downloaded pretty much instantly. i used this route when running and it was great at telling me when i was off course (though not how to get back on?). the heart rate monitor, speed and distance were super easy to upload to my laptop upon return, and the results were there for all the family to see (“what’s this big spike?” “ummm, that’s me having a little rest.” “oh, there’s a couple of those.” “yeah... hmmmm.. thanks.”)


what about when you were running? that watch is GIGANTIC.

hell yeah, this watch is not small. it’s not pretty and it’s not small. but hey, we’re not always there to look our best right? so who cares.

HOWEVER i don’t usually run with a watch, or use one generally, so i found it pretty irritating. the cord of my ipod earphones kept getting caught in the watch strap. erg. and the watch was so big it rubbed against my skin pretty bad.


so what else?

not much. at the moment i’ve got more questions than answers, so maybe i’ll blog report once we’ve hung out a little more and got better acquainted. it was only a first date people, let’s not rush into things.

but here’s a couple of quasi interesting observations from our first day together;

1. for the first time husband has actually encouraged me to go running. three times. in one day. as it’s his present to me, he now has invested interest in my training. never thought of it like this, but take a page kids.

2. when passing every other runner i felt they were staring at my gigantic watch and wishing they had one. in reality, they were probably wondering why i was running so slow and whether the watch was weighing me down.

3. i can no longer hide from my shiteous running ability. it’s all being recorded now. every damn rest.

4a. i got beeped at for the entire duration of my 19km run. i don't know why but it was GREAT.

4b. i once ran into a hedge pressing a button. okay. twice.

5. i like it. a lot. but unlike a fellow tweep who met her own Garmin for xmas, i did not sleep with it last night. it was only a first date peoples. seriously.