GPS and Things

I finally went out and bought a GPS watch. I picked up the Garmin Forerunner 205 (http://www.garmin.com/products/forerunner205/) for $249.99. I considered the 305 for a short time, but I didn't think monitoring my heart rate was something that I needed. I really just needed it for the running speed, time and distance.
I was also considering a non-GPS watch like the Polar RS200sd (http://www.polarelectro.com.sg/html/segments/Running/RS200sd/allfeatures.html )or the Polar s625x (http://www.polarelectro.com.sg/html/segments/Running/S625x/allfeatures.html).
Both of the Polars have a shoe pod that you strap to your shoe that sends data to the watch in the form of speed, distance, elevation. The s625x has a heart rate monitor that you strap to your chest. Both are good watches from what I read, but the idea of putting a watch, a shoe pod, and a chest strap, along with my Ipod and headphones was not something I thought I would enjoy doing every single time I went out....so I went with the Garmin...one piece on and I'm good to go. Here's a pic of the Garmin on my wrist :

Looks kinda big, but it's pretty light (2.72 oz). It has a bunch of configureable windows like speed, time, laps, grade%, elevation, fastest lap, date, sunrise, sunset, and some other stuff I haven't looked at. The cool thing is that you can connect it to your computer with a USB cable and upload all your running data into something called Garmin Training Center where you can analyze your speed, ascent, descent, calories burned, miles run, all that good stuff. There's also a web site called MotionBased (http://www.motionbased.com) where you can upload your running data and see the same stats as Training Center but there's also a prettier map where you can 'play' back your run (it shows a dot moving across the map). Here's a link to my Rosebowl 6 mile run on Motionbased (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=608653). I'm not sure if you have to have an account to view it, but signing up is free.

So since my last post I've put in three runs. Tuesday 4/11/06 I did a 6.09 mile run in Montclair, total time 55:35. Then on Thursday 4/13/06 I did a 6.19 mile run around the Rosebowl twice in 55:17. And Saturday, I decided to do a 3 mile run around the house for some hill training: 3.05 miles in 29:47. I found out that need to do more hill training....at one point in the run there was a 30% grade according to my watch (ouch). I think I might be doing 6 more miles at the Rosebowl on Sunday depending on how my body responds to the hill training I did today and if it rains or not.