While taking a few days off and seeming to be running around at least as much as on normal days with various things the kids have going, I have still managed to get my runs in every day except for Thanksgiving. Every day this week – except for Monday, but that is a different subject for another post – has been ~25 – 30F with 5-10MPH winds, which is really pretty nice weather for a winter run.
This week has also brought me some cool new running gear. These will all be reviewed for Gear Diary, but I will get into detail here as well. Here is what is in the picture:
Magellan Echo: basically this just acts as a display for an iPhone app like MapMyRun. You pair up with your iPhone (Android coming later) over Bluetooth Smart and then when you go for a run the watch displays your stats just like a normal GPS watch, and your phone will chime in with your stats based on settings you establish with the running app.
Polar RC3 GPS: Polar is best known for heart-rate training monitors, and this is their first GPS watch. They call it a fitness tracking computer, and that is pretty accurate – it very quickly links up to the heart rate monitor and internal GPS is solid. And it displays tons of information. This is a complex device, and it outputs everything to Polarpersonaltrainer.com so you can keep track of things.
Polar H2 Heart Rate Monitor: you strap this to your chest (pre-moistened for best signal) and get your device to pair up over bluetooth, and you are good to go!
I have only done a few runs with the Polar GPS and heart rate monitor, and found that it works pretty well – I had to moisten the H2 sensor more after the first run as I found the signal was erratic until I got past a mile (in other words, until I was sweaty enough). Today was my first run with the Echo – and I think it is a really smart move. It offloads the GPS to the phone, the tracking to the app, and simply acts as a smart monitor. I didn’t look at it too much because I had gloves and long-sleeves on, but when I did it was easy to read the display.
Do you have any fun new tech you’re playing with?
Running Around the Bend 