Runner Leana

...sometimes with a little swimming and biking thrown in...

I <3 new bike toys!!

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I fully admit it, I’m a numbers nerd.  I love my Garmin.  I don’t live by the numbers during a workout, but I do like to know how far, how fast at the end of the day.  I did have a Sigma bike computer earlier, but it went belly up back in July.  Then I picked up the Garmin cadence sensor so I could use my Forerunner 305 as my bike computer.  After all, GPS, cadence…what’s not to love?

But the battery life on the Forerunner would be sketchy during an Ironman.  Typical life is 10 hours so between the bike and the run it may be touch and go.  I was originally wowed by the flashy new 310XT.  Waterproof?  A 20 hour battery life?  Sweet!  But for a retail price of $400 Cdn it is a little tough to justify for just a bit of extra battery life.

Enter the Garmin Edge 305.  A slightly nicer price point, and it is bike specific.  It attaches to your stem or handlebars so it is easier to read and it records cadence, heart rate, speed, altitude…  Awesome!  And thanks to *cough, cough* eBay *cough, cough* I got a pretty good deal.  It arrived in the mail earlier in the week and I set it up.  Quick and easy!  Isn’t it pretty?DSCN1708

I really wanted to take the Edge out for a spin, but not just any old spin on the trainer.  I wanted to take it outdoors!  And since Saturday it was sunny out I decided I could brave the chilly wind and bundle up for a ride.  By the time I got going I didn’t have a ton of daylight left, but I managed just over 15.5 mi in an hour.  I haven’t ridden outdoors since maybe September but it felt so good to be outside!  Sure, the wind was chilly and seriously a bear (up to 35 kph or 22 mph).  Going up and down the hills north of my neighbourhood was a lot of fun though.

And the Edge?  I love it!  Everything I love about my Forerunner, but just better for the bike.  I need to play around with the display a little more though.  If you pick four fields to display the two on the bottom are fairly small to read, especially if one of them is cadence.DSCN1711

Sunday I hit up the Y to do a little strength workout.  It has probably been a year since I actually did some strength training at the Y??  It felt good to pump some iron (haha!!!).  What didn’t feel good?  Finding it next to impossible to pull up my emergency parking brake in my car this evening!!!  Hello DOMS!  Alright, it is 9:30 pm…I may have skipped swimming thanks to working late tonight, but now I need to get to bed!!

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Comments

  2. 2

    The first time back at weights is always a hilarious thing! 🙂

    Ebay completely rocks and so does slowtwitch…I bought my race wheels and a new pair of Sidi tri shoes from the slowtwitch classifieds. Great stuff there! 🙂 🙂

    I’m one of those odd balls who refuse to get a bike computer (or a cell phone.) I am most definitely NOT a numbers person — LOL!!

  3. 3

    Thanks for reminding me that I need to do strength in my workouts now. I just didn’t have the time and NOW is that time. Crap…

  4. 4

    Gotta love those weights! Nothing better than feeling like you worked out – as long as it’s not the “I’ve gone overboard” pain. I gotta hand it to you for heading out in the cold!

  6. 6

    nice! glad it is working well for you. those convenient gadgets sure help feed our stat-addiction.

    i re-started my pushup regime. where i used to do 200+ a day i only did 54. soooore (and out of shape). but it feels so good!

  13. 13

    you are SUCH an engineer with your new trinket, LOL. good on ya for getting outside. brrrrr… i just can’t do it this time of year. you are one tough cookie! or thoroughly insane, which is likely as you are doing ironman. tee hee.

  14. 14

    YAY, for the bike computer! I have a Garmin Edge 305 too, a hand me down from my hubby. Except for mine turning itself off occasionally (it’s pretty old), it works great. Have fun with your toy and thanks for the reminder that I should be getting back to strength training. LOL on the parking brake!

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