gotta love gadgets

Before I get to the cool new running gadget that I got last week, I have to vent about my training schedule! I was getting into such a groove with a great weekly schedule...3 runs, 2 cross training days and every other Wednesday running sprints. So I just sat down with all the back-to-school calendars for my whole family to compile them onto the huge "mom's calendar". After I filled in all the after school stuff...gymnastics, tae kwon do, boyscouts, my husband's weekly pastor search committee meeting, choir for the kids at church, etc....where does mom fit in?? I will have to have the organizational skills of Amanda to pull this off! : ) I'm being a little melodramatic, but it will be a challenge. Between getting up early, early on some mornings and having dinner served early and kids bathed early on other nights in order to have an after bedtime run, I've figured out all but my Thursday runs. I've thought about taking Sophie with me while the older 2 kids are at school but there's too many darned mosquitos right now! It's like a plague. Anyways, I'll figure it out somehow. The gym is off limits for my youngest for the whole fall because she had RSV last winter and was in the ICU for 3 days. Her doctor wants her away from large group childcare settings until she's a little older. This is slightly more important than my training schedule I suppose! : )

Onto a more positive note, my husband surprised me the other day with a cool new way to measure my mileage. I am somewhat behind on most things electronic so this may be nothing new or special to you guys! It's a chip that plugs into the bottom of your ipod that coordinates with a chip you wear on your shoe. When you turn on the ipod, you can customize your run....For example, my long run last Saturday was 7 miles. I entered 7 miles on the ipod and took off. Along with whatever song you're listening to on the ipod, it shows how far you've run and your pace. This is so great for me for 2 reasons. First, I love to wander when I run. I like to literally get lost in the run and see new sights. Hard to do though when you're training for a race and need to know how far you've been! However, the second and most surprisingly helpful thing for me was being aware of my pace. I actually finished the 7 miles in a little under 10 minutes per mile. For me that's pretty good. I found that I'm starting my long runs much faster than I thought which is probably why I was struggling so much to finish my long runs. Gotta love gadgets!


Rebecca