Gadgets: luv 'em or leave 'em...

So, I thought I would go into a bit of detail on my new luv toy, the new gadget, the thing that makes me wanna run...the Polar R200sd.

I ran today. 4 miles.
I ran yesterday. 2 miles.
Last week, I ran 3.03 miles.

Just to recap, after a week in Big Sur, I went away.
15 days in India. No Running. Lots of strange food and being chauffeured around. We are talking MINIMAL MOVEMENT - just enough to breathe and stay alive!!!

Then I got back and went to Ohio for 9 days.
No running - fighting jet lag, sour stomach, India e.coli, and a buncha other things.

Then I got back home just two weeks ago, got oriented, situated and did a buncha other things.
In the meantime, I went ahead and bought the Polar R200sd heart rate monitor. It's totally AWESOME! And after calibrating it last weeks (which I couldn't have done without my wonderful Hunny Bunny), it's even AWESOME-r!

I love it.
And I hate it.
So, after 6 weeks of no running, I strap on the Heart Rate Monitor and I am in heaven.
The thing actually works. It doesn't just bleep and bloop.
It actually registers a heart rate!
And when it does, it doesn't tell me that I am on the verge of death or ready to bust an aorta.
Uh no. I don't think that a HR of 270 is quite right.

Anyway, so here I am running along. It tells me my pace and it tells me my heart rate. And they seem to be reasonable, as in probably correct. At least it looks more correct that the old ones - which It threw out this morning.

So after a couple of run, I have a few observations.
First, after 6 weeks off my usual resting HR of 41 BPM is up to 45 BPM. Great. NOT!
My EASY run is run at an entirely too high of a HR.
Instead of the easy 65-70% HR, I am at 74% and I am running a 12:00 mile. HELLOOO.
That was yesterday.
So Today, I go out and I am running along and I am at 81% and I am running an 11:21 mile.
ARG!!!
I have a feeling that I've been running my easy runs entirely too fast (typical).
So it's probably going to take me a MONTH to get it down to the right percentages.
I used one of those university-proved formulas to calculate max HR.
In a couple of weeks when a simple run doesn't make me wanna puke, I'll take it out to Mt Vernon Street and see how high my HR will go.

Oh, the other thing is that this damn thing also says that the routes I've got mapped out are all SHORT!
No wonder my training stats don't support real world running of marathons! Or anything that is officially measured and NOT SHORT! GAH!!!

All I know is there is supposed to be a cold front coming through.
It had better get here fast before my skin melts off from the heat.

Oh, and can we talk about why I POUR BUCKETS OF SWEAT inside of 2 minutes in anything over 70% temps? Ok, maybe not…