This is Livin’

Ah, the decadence of Sunday mornings.  Sleeping in until 5:45; a 16 mile trail run over hilly terrain; earning that plate of two fried eggs over sweet potato hash browns.  What more could a guy ask for?

When I left the house for my run, the temperature was 37 degrees, near the lower limit of shorts weather for me.  The temperature would climb to about 50 degrees before the end of my run a little over two hours later.  Along the way I spied a cute family - buck, doe and fawn - who were observing me from a draw near the path in the Backcountry Wilderness Area. 

I am a late adopter when it comes to gadgets, preferring to wait until the technology has proven itself and the second or third revision is on sale.  But there are a few pieces of technology I enjoy.  One is my Garmin Forerunner 205. 

I have owned a Forerunner 205 for about seven years.  I am on my second 205, having exchanged my original one for a refurbished unit when it stopped working.  I do not use all of the features on it, which is why I have not upgrade to fancier units. 

Garmin offers computer based software that allows the hyper anally-retentive athlete to micro-analyze their workouts.  I don’t have time for that.  I have an account with Strava, which offers many of the same features with a nicer interface.  Here is the map and elevation of this morning’s run.  You see that I haven’t figured out how to change the units to miles. 

I love listening to music while I workout and I have two devices that allow me to do so.  When I swim, I listen to tunes on a SwiMP3, which is a waterproof MP3 player.  The sound waves travel through bone conduction.  Because water is about 1,000 times denser than air, it almost feels like you are “swimming in the music”.

When I run, I listen to music on my iPod Shuffle.  It is so small; a good sized dog could swallow it whole.  Fortunately my cats are only capable of licking the unit, but Charlie has chewed through a pair of ear buds.  I can’t help but wonder if Apple embeds subliminal messages that play through their devices, because I have found myself shopping for black mock turtlenecks. 

The Forerunner and the Shuffle are nice gadgets, but they don’t move my legs.  I have to provide the locomotion.  An honest sweat in the cool air is its own reward.  While my body is fast yielding to the wasting hands of time, I can still enjoy a long run on a perfect fall morning.