Heartbeat

Product Review Time!

The fine folks over at Tech40 asked me to try one of their sports watches and write a review.

Today I'm giving my two cents about the The Tech4o Women's Accelorator Pulse.



Features:

* Highly Accurate Accelerometer-based Exercise Mode
(speed, distance, calories, steps, exercise time measurement)
* Heart Rate Monitor with conventional chest strap
* Chronograph (50 laps)
* Countdown Timer
* Alarm

What I liked:

I was somewhat reluctant to use a non GPS device to track my mileage, so I was rather anxious to use the pedometer feature along side my GPS tracking device that I subscribe to on my cell phone. Much to my surprise, the pedometer was very close to my GPS tracking. I did find that it would be slightly slower or slightly faster than my GPS depending on how fast I was running, but it was only off by a few seconds.

I like knowing how many calories have been burned and distance. My prior HRM/sports watch didn't have those features.

A minor detail, but I liked that it comes in a snappy bright blue color. I have a hard time finding fitness gear made for women that isn't all pastel colors. Just because I'm female doesn't mean I want everything in pastels.

There's a setting to track my heart rate zone.

Easy to read display for my presbyopic eyes. *sigh*

What needs improvement:

I'm a stickler for reading directions before using anything, but if you're the type of person who likes to use a gadget right out of the box without reading directions, like my husband, then this sports watch probably isn't the best choice for you. Carefully study the directions then do a test run on all of the features before you apply them to real life workouts and/or runs.

This is considered a women's watch. I have small wrists and I could have used at least one more notch to make the wrist band fit better.

The heart rate monitor chest strap stopped working after only a few uses. Yes, I'm going to replace the battery and give it another fair try, but the battery shouldn't give out that quickly.

In conclusion:

The The Tech4o Women's Accelorator Pulse is a great tool, especially if you're trying to take your fitness up a notch, without having to spend the big bucks for a GPS device. It retails for around $89.99. The accuracy of the pedometer feature was a pleasant surprise. I plan on using this watch during all of my workouts and runs.

EDIT
I replaced the battery in the heart rate monitor chest strap and it works MUCH better.


Yesterday's song:
The Morning After - Maureen McGovern - Heffer Blog (AKA Alice)


PEACE

The Morning After

From lolcats.com

Never EVER put me in charge of making mixed drinks... We helped to celebrate our friend Sam's birthday. I made mojitos from an internet recipe. Oh, the drinks came out great, and after a few we were feeling no pain... Now I remember why we quit doing margarita weekends. The mojito could easily replace the marg. I wasn't hung over, but I had sports rehab this morning, and it made for a more challenging than normal workout. Now I remember why I went to just one alcoholic beverage per week, if at all. I just don't bounce back like I did when I was a twenty-something. Duh.

My therapist did another quick movie clip of me running. He's going to try to overlay today's movie with the one he did when I first started going to sports rehab. If he can't do the overlay, he'll do a side-by-side comparison. I'll try and post those here, if they let me.

Saturday's song:
California Sun - The Ramones

PEACE

California Sun

Activity: Run
Date: 03/28/09 10:06 AM
Distance: 13.83 miles
Time: 2:38:42
Speed: 5.2 mph
Pace: 11' 28 min/mile
Calories: 1346

Between the above stats and the warm up run, I put in just a little over 14 miles with the track club today. I wasn't planning to go that far today since I hadn't put in a long run since the Sue Krenn 15K earlier this month. I suppose the conditions were just right to go the whole way. Perfect weather, a slower pace, the ankle not hurting, and great conversation made for a good run. I deliberately went slower so I could complete what ever distance I was doing. I also ran with AKA Alice, and running with her was a boost to my running. We ran at a talking pace and ran to the halfway point, about 7 miles, which was also the second hydration stop. I lost her after that, but ended up running with a woman who was keeping track of pace with her Garmin, and she helped to keep me from going faster, which I wanted to avoid. I think the slower pace helped me to not feel so thrashed after this run, however... TOTM arrived and that did me in more than the run. Yay me.

AKA Alice remembered to bring a camera!

This soooooo does not suck!

I didn't make it into the Nike Women's Half Marathon, I'm not so miffed about it like I was last year, however, it's still kind of disturbing to see my name next to "not selected." I have a few other options to ponder.

Thursday's song:
4 Minutes - Madonna and Justin Timberlake - 2nd Chances

PEACE

4 Minutes

Activity: Run - Treadmill
Date: 03/26/09 12:00 PM
Distance: 3.50 miles
Time: 0:42:00
Speed: 5.0 mph
Pace: 12' 00 min/mile
Calories: 336

Today's treadmill run was 4 minute intervals for 40 minutes with Lance Armstrong in my head. The last two minutes were the cool-down per the treadmill program. The ankle is tight but feeling so much better. I'm still icing it after every workout or run.

Other stuff:
Here's a blurb from the other day, while picking oranges and avocados with my grandson:

"Mimi, look at that lady bug and be careful not to step on it... Where did it go? I don't like spiders. Is that a spider? Is this orange ready to pick off the tree? This bag of oranges is too heavy. Avocados are gross. I like apples, oranges, tangerines and bananas. Avocados are yucky. They make me throw up. Avocados make me throw up a lot. When I throwed up, I throwed up in a trash can. It's really gross. Avocados are gross. Can we find another lady bug? I really don't like spiders. Spiders are scary and I say 'eeek.' We need to stay away from bees. Be careful, Mimi, so you don't fall down. Why are all of those oranges up so high? Is it OK to pick up the oranges from the ground? Can we pick the green oranges? What about the old oranges? Those look yucky. This bag of oranges is so heavy. Can we make orange juice? I'm thirsty."

Monday's song:
Water In The Sky - Phish

PEACE

Water In The Sky

My son comes rushing in the house this afternoon:

"Mom!"
"You've gotta come and see this."
"Bring your camera."

This is what I saw from my backyard:

I'm not quite sure what happened but we're guessing it's from either a broken fire hydrant OR a broken pipe, which my neighborhood has seen plenty of recently. We'll see if there's a blip on the news about it.

All is back to normal.

Yesterday's song:
Straight And Narrow Way - Bob Marley & the Wailers

PEACE

The Straight And Narrow Way

Yesterday morning was the track club's marathon pace run over at Hospitality Point. Everyone runs up and down a two mile stretch as many times as possible for two hours. They even set up a huge clock so we can at least get an idea of our two mile splits. I decided to take pictures for the track club instead of run since the ankle is still not quite right. Even though the run itself is rather boring, I kind of like this particular run because we get a chance to see everyone run, whether if it's side by side or in passing. I enjoyed taking pictures but I soon found out that a certain five year old boy had messed around with the settings on BOTH cameras I brought, and some of the shots on my back-up camera were over exposed - it took me a while to get the settings just right, and the other camera had pictures of things like nostrils, fingers, the ceiling, toys, video games, and such, but a lot of those pictures were locked, and the only way I could unlock those was to delete everything, and I already had taken several pictures of the runners. I was disappointed with the quality of some of the shots, especially off of the back-up camera, which seemed out of focus and grainy, but at least I was able to contribute something. Even though I had technical difficulties, I did get a few shots that I really liked:

Everyone is just starting out. Notice how fresh and happy everyone looks! That's AKA Alice on the far left side of the photo wearing the white track club t-shirt, black leggings, and a big smile.

My husband and Coleen running in to make mile four. There's usually a few more in their group but I think the Spring Break vacation had something to do with the many no-shows.

Four miles done!

Our fearless leader, Paul, giving out words of encouragement to everyone. "You make a difference!"

Before I forget:
The first couple of days of Spring were rather gray here. I had every intention of going outside and capturing what ever is left, besides weeds, in our backyard. I never made it out. My son brought these flowers in from our yard after mowing the lawn. I'm glad someone remembered.

Friday's song:
Superhero - Jane's Addiction

PEACE

Superhero

I stole this one from Barbie2be:


Running IS my super power. What's yours?



More powerful than a five year old.
Able to run faster than the speed of molasses.
Leaps over sidewalk cracks in a single bound...

It's a bird!
It's a plane!
It's the Merciful Shadow!
(AKA Eyeballrene)

Be your own hero.
The Hero Factory

PS:
If I had Photoshop I would have put a hydration belt around my waist, a running cap on my head, and a dumbbell or iPod in my clenched fist.


Yesterday's song:
One More Day - Diamond Rio - Katiefeldmom

PEACE

One More Day

A few random things:

Here's the kid and my son decorating sugar cookies on St. Patty's day. We made sugar cookies with orange flavored glaze drizzled over the cookies, colored green to look like grass, and flower sprinkles were placed on the top. The picture doesn't really show what they looked like (I didn't use the good camera) but the cookies looked great all on the same plate -- like a little bit of Spring. (The kid had his hair all spikey for crazy hair day at school, but it didn't stay up, so that's how it ended up)

Check out Kath Eats Real Food. She's on a trip to Kenya, visiting with the tea growers. Many of the photos are just stunning.

Tendinitis. Yep. That's what's going on with my ankle.

The hip is improving by leaps and bounds. I can now do some exercises that I couldn't even think of doing just less than a month ago, and that's even with the sore ankle.

Wednesday's song:
I'm Not Running Anymore - John Mellancamp - Katiefeldmom

PEACE

I'm Not Running Anymore

... At least for two weeks.


Question of the day:
Why is it when I have a morning to just sleep in, all of the animals (three cats and one dog) go nuts and want in or out HOURS before I was supposed to wake up? *sigh* When one wants out, then they all decide to go out, but not all at the same time. Then they all want back in, and not at the same time, either. We really need one of these:


Not the kid and the dog, the doggie door... We already have a kid and a dog, thankyouverymuch.

So much for sleeping in. I think the only way I could ever sleep in (any more) is if I were on vacation by myself, but how much fun would that be? Wait, don 't answer that. A day of alone time could be total bliss and recharge the battery...

My right foot is still rather sore and I'm going to take time off of my feet from running for the next couple of weeks, just to be on the safe side. No running means no track club this week and perhaps part of next week. I'm also taking it relatively easy at home and doing the R.I.C.E. thing for the foot when I can, and that helps quite a bit. This little foot issue hasn't deterred my sports therapy, though, as I'm able to work around it by doing alternate forms of the same exercises. I can still do most of the exercises except any form of pylometrics.

I'm not Irish, but I still make corned beef and wear green on St. Patty's day.

Sunday's song:
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Bob Dylan - She Do Run Run

PEACE

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

Activity: Run
Date: 03/14/09 08:30 AM
Distance: 6.28 miles
Time: 1:07:39
Speed: 5.6 mph
Pace: 10' 46 min/mile
Calories: 603



Today's track club run was supposed to be a 2:15 hour run, and, at my pace, is twice around the perimeter of Coronado - which is the purple line on the map. Even though I visited my chiropractor yesterday and he put my ankle back into place, I'm still sensitive. I decided to just run once around the island. I was a little torn about going around only once because I like this particular route, the weather was perfect for running (cool with cloud cover) but my ankle was arguing with the rest of my body -- and my ankle won. I've learned to listen to those nagging body parts... I was pleased with my 1:07:39 time for just one trip (about a 10K) around the island.

Either a lot of people were beat up from last week's 15K or they had something else going on. We were missing a lot of our usual runners. We had decent contingent of runners, but just about half, and we still made for a large group.

I also had a quick assessment from a massage therapist who was there for the track club. Apparently, what ever they're doing at rehab is working because I'm not as off as I thought I was. I always thought/knew I had crappy posture, but the guy seemed to think I was OK. It has been a while since anyone associated with anything medical or therapeutic said I was OK.

I thought this was cool:


Everything is Possible - video powered by Metacafe

Not much else to report on. I have a rather uneventful weekend ahead of me, and maybe that's a good thing.

Thursday's song
In My World - Moody Blues - Barbie2be

PEACE

In My World

I thought I would take a go at today's TIART.

"Today's theme is .... Only in running... Have you ever noticed that your definition of "acceptable" changes when it comes to your running? Your standards of public displays of bodily functions lower, you find it acceptable to give bear hugs to sweaty complete strangers who you bonded with in the last mile of a tough race, you easily pay $100+ for a pair of shoes you may wear a few months, and on and on. Share your take of the interesting and peculiar things running brings into our lives."

• Upon seeing someone wearing a t-shirt from a run event is every reason to strike up a conversation about running. ("Did you actually run in that race? Are you planning to do that one again this year? How did you do? Did you PR? How about that hill at mile 6?")
• I, too, have given and received hugs to or from people before, during and after a run event. The sweatiest people were at the 23.5 point at last year's San Diego Rock 'N' Roll Marathon, where I volunteered at the hydration tables. I hugged a whole lot of sweaty people that day.
• Because I run my father thinks I know everyone who runs. I think this is funny because I don't think my dad realizes how many people run, and just in my city alone. ("My doctor runs. She has all of her race numbers taped to her office wall. You probably know who she is!")
• I accepted a ride to a run event from a blogging runner who I had never met in person. That was 3 years ago. (Remember what your mom said about accepting rides from strangers?) I'm still alive, no creepy person, and we're still friends. Hi Anne!
• It was so cold that we thought nothing of reusing someone else's discarded gloves! The 2007 PF Chang's AZ Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon had start of the race temperatures around 24 degrees Fahrenheit . Who would have thought it would be THAT cold? Phoenix NEVER gets that cold, or so we had just assumed. The race brochure shows people running with tank tops and shorts and boasts about the warm climate. Even the locals were perplexed with the cold snap. Around the second mile of the run we were so cold that my husband "shopped" the ground for discarded mittens/gloves. At first my reaction was "ewww", but my fingers were numb and any warm mittens/gloves would do. I got over the "ewww-ness" of it.

I'm sure I'll think of more "only in running" incidents later, but those are the ones that come to mind.




Tuesday's song:
Wounded Feet - Telecast - Barbie2be


PEACE

Wounded Feet

Are we awake yet??? It's worth the early wake-up time to experience such a great morning as this. This is the track club doing the post warm-up run stretch routine at Mission Bay Park before Saturday's 15K.


My thing right now is working on form and I use the pictures from the track club to figure out how much further I need to improve, however, there's no full picture of me running, at least not yet...




Well, there's the backside of me on the left side of the picture. (I don't know who the guy is, but he's super fast, because I'm probably just past the 5 mile point and this guy is running in for the finish.) I couldn't find any pictures of my husband.


I'm supposed to have a track club workout tonight but my foot is still a little twingey and I'm not recouping from the run as quickly as I normally do. I went into the GP this morning for the *just in case* scenario. My foot will be fine in a few days and my leg is just dealing with D.O.M.S. (Delayed onset muscle soreness.) I'm going to take an extra rest day and not run tonight.

Sunday's song:
Chasing Pavements - Adele - Run-DMZ

PEACE

photos from the SDTC

Chasing Pavements

Activity: Run
Date: 03/07/09 07:01 AM
Distance: 9.51 miles
Time: 1:38:19
Speed: 5.8 mph
Pace: 10' 21 min/mile
Calories: 911

Saturday morning's run was the Sue Krenn 15K. This is a track club sponsored event, so there's usually a lot of veteran track club members, but there was a pretty good showing of non-members as well. Some of my favorite bloggers were there, such as AKA Alice and Anne. I haven't run with Anne since the Balboa Park 8 mile run two years ago, so it was nice to run with her for about the first 3 miles of the race and briefly catch up on happenings. I also met another running blogger, Laura, who I have probably met before, but she's been away from running for a while. I also saw several track club friends who didn't run but volunteered at the race. My husband even saw a work colleague who ran the race as well. It was a day of reunions. I'm kicking myself for not bringing a camera.

The start of the run was a little confusing. There was no audible horn or buzzer to indicate that the race had started, at least I didn't hear anything. Everyone just started running. I'm guessing someone yelled "go." I did well when we ran on Fiesta Island, which has an asphalt road. It's when we ran along the bay path at Mission Bay park that I had some issues. It's all concrete and my legs felt heavy, but I paced myself with a young lady who was slightly in front of me, just to keep going. My right shoe dug into my ankle with about 2 miles left to run. I was running on the slanted side of the walk-way, just so I could stay out of the way of the on-coming traffic of kids from another run event that was going on at the same time at the opposite end of Mission Bay park. Amazingly, the kid traffic didn't interfere with my time too much, as I kept an even pace while following the young lady in front of me.

Around mile 4 of the race I used my iPod. I think this is the first race where I've used an iPod. I normally like to be completely aware of all the sounds around me when I run outdoors, but at the 10k back in January I was really distracted with two miles to go and I just wanted the run to be over. Having music when I needed it gave me somewhat of a mental boost, especially when my legs felt heavy. I finished the race to "Handlebars" by the Flobots.

1:39 and change was the approximate time on the race clock when I finished, but my GPS gave me 1:38:19. Final results haven't been posted yet, so it will be interesting to see those results, since it's not a chipped run and we actually ran 9.5 miles, not 9.3 miles. Several people were comparing the distances on their Garmins and other GPS devices. I'm guessing my results will be in the 1:40:00 range, just because it always seems that official results are usually higher for a non-chipped event. Regardless of time, I completed yet another goal, and that was to just finish the race.

Post race we went to the High Dive for breakfast. I felt pretty good at breakfast, but by the time we got home my ankle was swollen where the shoe dug into my foot. I'm doing the R.I.C.E thing and took an analgesic. I'm hoping the ankle will be OK soon. It just feels bruised.

My husband was having some issues with cramping and blisters during the race. He finished near the end of the pack. He' s fine now, but I think it was mostly a matter of his day-before-the-race glasses of wine and food choices... He finished at around 2 hours.

I was hoping to have pictures and official results to add to this post, but neither have been posted yet.

Wednesday's song:
Hey Muscles I Love You - Muscles

PEACE

*****EDIT*****
489 IRENE M 1936 49 16/27 F San Diego 1:37:53 10:31

Hey Muscles I Love You

LAST NIGHT

Activity: Run
Date: 03/03/09 06:35 PM
Distance: 4.39 miles
Time: 0:45:53
Speed: 5.7 mph
Pace: 10' 27 min/mile

The track club workout was a threshold workout, but I came nowhere near the target heart rate, I hovered around 140-150. The right side of my hip, butt muscles, and quad muscles were rather sore/tight. I took it easy, very easy, and I even walked a little. The soreness is something different, but I will proceed with caution. I will be in touch with endocrinology, my surgeon, radiology, and the lab soon. These are planned appointments, but I'm going to see about getting in earlier.

Sports rehab is going well, and I think that's why I'm sore. I'm engaging muscles in my right leg that I haven't used properly in months. Someone at the track club workout last night commented that I run more evenly when I run just a little bit faster. When I slow down I look just a little gimpier. I guess that's a good thing. People used to ask me if I hurt upon seeing me run. It didn't hurt, I just looked extremely crooked, as pictured on the left (Photo from around the end of January). Sports rehab, as I said, is going well, but I feel so uncoordinated when doing some of the exercises. They'll show me how to do an exercise, but when I try to replicate it I just can't do it right on the first try. ("Is it right hand and right leg at the same time or right leg and left hand?") It's making me feel old, uncoordinated, dyslexic, and dopey. It's not that hard, really! When I do workout DVD's at home, I can stop and replay a segment and slow-motion it to get the steps. In reality people don't move in slow motion! I took dance classes in college, so I'm used to following the steps along BEHIND someone. When someone shows me in front, I just can't put it together. I DIGRESS. I swear, I'm not complaining because I am making progress.

TODAY
I put my name in for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco this October, but I'm keeping my options open for other events if that doesn't pan out this year. I won't stress over it. We find out who gets in on or around March 20th.

Sunday's song:
The Beat Goes On - Sonny & Cher - Run-DMZ

PEACE

The Beat Goes On

Around the end of January...
I had a tough time dealing with some personal issues, and needed to separate myself from blogging (and other on-line communities). I just didn't want to say too much, as it can be so easy to spill my guts on this type of medium. Part of it was my health, which was something I did not anticipate, and it's a chronic illness. It's not extremely serious, but just enough to mess with my psyche. I'll just leave it at that for now. Another reason for the break is that we were just so damn busy, and we still didn't complete everything...

I did keep a quick diary of a few things that happened in February:

2/4 - Sports Rehab. I'm amazed. I'm already running less gimpier than last week, but my therapist is making me do things that feels so unnatural. It's working. Went and waited for trial shoes for about an hour through the track club. I was lucky and ended up with Saucony Pro Grid Ride 2.

2/5 - Last day of meds for now! I hope I don't need those for a long time. 2.2 mile run in the neighborhood.

2/6 - Lactose free ice cream. Hooray!

2/7 - Overslept and missed the run with the track club. Ran 7 miles near Sea World instead. Post run breakfast at the High Dive.

2/9 Sports rehab. It took me about 45 minutes to get there due to the downpour of rain. Tough but good workout. Note to self - don't carb it up for dinner the night before rehab. I sweat like crazy...


2/10

2/12 Weird, splotchy hives over the past few days. Not sure what the trigger is. Might be the meds...

2/14 Ran over 8 miles with the track club. I splurged and bought our family a Wii for Valentine's Day. (We rarely splurge for Valentine's Day.) I also purchased Wii Fit, an extra stick and steering wheel, and Mario Cart -- Everyone is having fun with it.

2/15 I've just discovered an independent/co-op type grocery store near by that has a lot of organic foods I'm not allergic to. I'm trying rice cheese, soy whipped cream, coconut ice cream made without dairy, soy, or gluten, and a lime-ginger beverage.

2/18 I'm so sore and exhausted... Sports rehab. It's a good thing.

2/19 A blurb from Shape magazine:

“The International Journal of Obesity found that women taken in between 90 to 500 extra calories during the two weeks before their period. ‘Our research shows that a woman’s stomach empties about 25 percent faster in the two weeks before her period than it does in the weeks immediately following it,” says Ixchel Brennan…This may be due to a rise in the levels of the hormone progesterone right after ovulation.’”

2/21 Missed another long run. I hope to make up the run sometimes next week, provided the weather is kind.We're hosting a baby shower on the 22nd and there was no way we could run and be back home in time for the table and chairs delivery. We worked our butts off doing yard work, painting and cleaning and it still feels like we haven't put a dent in anything... Ever feel like bulldozing the entire yard and start from scratch? I wonder what it would take to get on one of those yard make-over shows on HGTV?

2/22 Baby shower



2/28 Ran with the track club in Coronado, about 11.8 miles in a little over 2 hours. Last year I ran this same route in about the same time, but ran 13 miles and change. I know, there's no looking back, really, but I sort of wonder if I'll be able to get back that strength and stamina to PR a half marathon? I have blisters on my feet for the first time in over a year.

By the way, that's my husband right behind me. I still ran further than he did, as he turned around on the run before I did. I still passed him up on the last mile, which surprised him, and it took every ounce of his being to catch up to me and pass me up with about 100 yards to go.

Today
March 1, 2009 ... Finally...
Spring is just around the corner, but we're having a very Spring-like day.

This tree will be in full bloom in about 2 to 3 weeks.

A good day to be outside!

Little things mean a lot...

Ripe!

Finding beauty in the weeds... Hmmm... Blog header?

Friday's song:
Cheap and Cheerful - The Kills - Barbie2be

Februrary 2, 2009's song:
Nothing Is Easy - Jethro Tull - She Do Run Run

PEACE