oh baffled there are MANY

There are many brands of pod style data collection systems which link to watches, I think nike's is currently the only one that links to an MP3. Google Footpod. Sumpto (sp?) and polar are well respected.

There is also the GPS option (Garmin and a few others)

GPS needs no calibration but does not work well in heavily wooded areas, also if you run in the city with tall buildings, it is less reliable. I have a 305, I have heard good things about the next generation but any GPS needs to be able to recieve a sattelite signal. Elevation is less accurate so hilly runs may measure short. I find typically on an open (suburbs and country) run that the accuracy is within 1-2% - certainly better than my car odometer!

Footpods need calibration and some people find that their stride length changes significantly with pace and have a more difficult time calibrating one than others. But if you run on trails with tree cover they are really the only way to go

I am intrigued because when I googled footpod apparently I can get one to talk to my garmin and have data when I cant get a signal, although I think I would have to choose one or the other for the run.

I have a polar RS200SD footpod, there's a thing you put on your shoe, a heart rate strap and a watch unit. The shoe thing looks quite bulky but I don't really notice the weight (you can see it on my foot in the photo on the previous page). It's not 100% accurate, but it gives a decent enough idea.

Did I say very short and very slow earlier? Oops. My legs feel surprisingly good, so even though I was wondering whether to go to running club at all, once I got there and started to run I decided to go a bit further and faster than I was intending. I was quite prepared to bail out early if my legs felt tired, but they didn't, so I carried on. We'll see how they react tomorrow morning. I ended up doing nearly 6.5 miles, had been aiming for 3...

Hi everyone,
Congrats to Helen & Shananigans on new PBs.

Well tomorrow is the day I will be going to get fitted for running shoes. I will let you know how that goes.

I've already decided on my first 5K even though I haven't started running yet. I plan to do it in March. My friend's dd's school is doing it as a fundraiser. We plan to do it together. I think my supervisor plans to do it too. All of our paces are different but it will still be something we do together.

I did 2 miles today. It has been raining off and on all day and I waited until it cleared up a bit. It started really coming down after I hit my 2 mile mark and since I don't have a stroller cover, I cut it a bit short...not that I would've gone much further anyway. Tomorrow is rest day and then 5k. Maybe do some yoga tomorrow.

I did just over 5 miles today. I didn't use my HRM/footpod and strangely ended up running the route faster than I ever have before. Admittedly I don't run it too often, but still... that wasn't meant to happen!

This time next week I'll be getting very excited in New York...

I'm already excited for you about New York, Helen!

Cross country practice was cancelled both yesterday and today (for a school problem that had us released early yesterday and for heavy rain today), so I just did a quick 2 miles on the treadmill today. My hamstring hurt, so I'm still worried about tomorrow. I worry that I'll just manage to get through it without running the race well. Ah well -- I have plenty of races in my future anyway!

I'm back from my 5K and I have something to celebrate! I didn't get a little trophy, but I did hit one of my fitness goals. I wanted to finish under 30 minutes, and I finished in 28:26!! Woohoo!!

It turned out that the age groups were just the following: women under 40 and women over 40. Well, two teenagers and a 33 year old came in before I did. Oh, and a woman over 40 was the first woman overall! So I was 5th in the race and 4th under 40, but the top 3 got trophies. That was ok, though, because one of my cross country runners was 2nd place under 40, and I was so happy for her! She ran a much better time than she's been running at our meets, and we were there to congratulate her so that was fun! It was so great for her to get a trophy, too, because she's not one of our top runners so she doesn't get that much praise from her teammates.

It was cold and drizzly and my hamstring hurt pretty bad, but I'm quite pleased with my time. The race was relatively flat, just out and back, but on the way back most of it was a gradual incline. So I ran much faster in the first half than the 2nd, and my goal is always to push it at the end. I pushed too hard in the first mile, because when I checked my time at that point it was 8:28, which is a considerably faster mile time than I usually do. I struggled, but it was fun!

Oh, and my husband won the whole thing again this year!

Congrats, Lisa!! What a great time!

I just finished my first 5k.
It was blast, very fun! There were tons of door prizes given out and I got a free 2 week pass the to Y, along with a t-shirt, and some clinique stuff. What I didn't like was the hot wings, pizza, and sausage biscuits they had waiting afterwards. Talk about temptation. I came in at 37 minutes and some change, I will know the exact time tomorrow. I'd never done 3 miles before, so this was the first time. My time was MUCH better than I'd thought it would be. I'm pretty happy with it.

Congrats Lisa and LeedaRenee! Love reading those race reports, it sounds like you both had a great day.

I ran 8 miles today, finally feel like all the marathon aches are gone, so it felt really good. The only problem is that I've realized my fall running wardrobe needs serious updating - my tights from last spring are literally falling off me!

You all have different stories and achievements...but you are all..

AWESOME!

Congrats on the great races Lisa and Leeda Renee!

I forgot to come over here and report I did get fitted for my shoes on Thursday. I got NB 766 8 Wide. He told me I overpronate and that I had probably been wearing my shoes too tight for years. I've been wearing a 7.5 wide. I lucked into a sale. Normally the shoes would be $90 but I got them for $75.60 including taxes. Well my starting date is almost here. I'm scared and excited at the same time.

This time next week... (I'm not sure on the time difference, what time the race starts, or how long it will take us) ...I'll either be running, or just have finished, the New York marathon! I think it's officially time to start getting excited.

I did about 8.5 miles this morning, that's actually longer than I normally do the week before a mara, but I wanted a bit of confidence that my legs have recovered from Amsterdam. luckily it started pouring with rain after about 6 miles which removed any desire to push it by going further, which might have tired me out too much. I'm setting off on Tuesday morning - I'm travelling down to London and "working" from there on Tuesday (not sure how much work will be done) then meeting up with the rest of the team in a hotel before flying out on Wednesday, then a couple of days to prepare, mara on Sunday and a bit of time to relax and enjoy New York before flying back on Wednesday evening. I can't describe how much I'm looking forward to it!

Helen, I am officially excited about your NY marathon too! Can't wait to read all about it - and I'm glad you have a little time to enjoy the city, it's a great place to visit (even if I wouldn't want to live there - at least not unless I inherited a boat load of money).

I had one of those difficult run days - some sort of tummy upset, but it's my long run day, so I plowed through and managed to grind out 10 miles, but felt pretty much awful the whole way.

LeedaRenee, that's a weird post-race feast! I'm used to bagels and bananas! I'm so glad you enjoyed your first race -- you'll be hooked now like the rest of us!

Rachel, I know what you mean about needing new fall running clothes. I have NOTHING. In fact, I don't even have a fall jacket or winter coat that I can wear this year. I think most of my coaching check will go to winter clothes, both running and everyday clothes! On my run today, I wore a Brooks running shirt I bought in the summer and it felt really good but it was an XL and it basically swamped me. It was $30, though, so I'm going to keep wearing it!

I ran 8 miles today. I ran the first 3 with my sis-in-law and we had to go really really slowly because she hasn't been running. I tried to make up for it a little in the last 5 after she left, but I'm sore from yesterday's race. Felt good to do a slightly longer run, and I wanted to go for 11 miles but I didn't have time.