Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Go where you wanna go!

  GPS-just 3 letters but they have totally changed the way a lot of us run. GPS watches to me are the greatest innovation since Caller ID. They give us the freedom to run where we want and to know our pace, mileage, and total time immediately when we finish our runs.
  The old way(stone age time) for me was to run a route then get in my car and depend on my memory to be able to drive back over it for the mileage. Next came the out and back method. Drive out so far on a country road, measure it then run out and back with no deviations-boring huh! On my long runs my wife would put water bottles in the car and drive my rte. as I ran it( sweet sweet Lady). She would measure the miles, hand me water, and double check my times-what a girl! Last but not least I would pre-mark every long rte. with spray paint. I think at one time every county road and oil top had a white paint mark with a corresponding mi.# marked on it.
    Now with my GPS all that is gone. I just leave the house and go where I want. Turn left, turn right it doesn't matter because when I'm finished I know how far I went and at what pace. Heck-even on vacation you can run with knowledge that you always know your mileage. They will even map your rte. for you showing elevation as well as turns(I'm really still too technology challenged to figure this all out).
    Today I wanted to run a route similar to my race in Tyler next weekend so I just sought out every hill I could find and ran them. It was a totally up and down winding and turning run today. I couldn't have done that in the past.
    Now this said, I do suggest doing some of your easy runs without your GPS, I-Pod, or MP3 player. Just run to be running! How will you know if you ran far enough or fast enough? It doesn't matter-you were running and that's what counts!

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