No school November
November is great for kids, for it is a preview what's to come in December.
Haven't written anything for almost two months. In October I decided to get a Garmin watch, and did receive it and started running like crazy. After that, for the Thanksgiving shopping season, I got two more watches and returned the first one, regrettably creating some e-waste. LZ did not like it so that one was returned anew. The one I am keeping is Garmin FR955, which is a last generation of MIP display, and quite light and comfortable. I believe it is the best balance for runners.
What a Garmin watch (with its outdated app environment) can give you:
- nervous when the battery runs out. My last watch was CASIO for about $10, and its battery runs for who knows how many years.
- nervous when heart rate is high or low, or pace is high or low.
- candidate routes, also route back to start point. This is kind of my favorite, since I would not have followed such routes and just go for whatever seems interesting, but as the joke said when you have run too far, you'll have to take a Uber back. Now it is safe and easy to choose route of any length!
- music without cell phone. For the first month I did this pretty much for every run, but now it is cold outside, I don't think music is that important.. Anyway the favorite music is still "Swinging Bach" for about 3h, or "Cuphead OST" for about the same length.
- certainty of pace and distance. I was troubled by how many miles and how much time I need, but now I got a lot more certainty. Running to the nearby neighborhood is only 3mi, and going to the lake short trail only takes that much time, etc.
- community and kudos on Strava
- training plans. I have signed up for CARA winter training but without a paid training plan, the built-in one or the Connect coach are good too. The challenges and Strava events look motivating, but I think a reminder of "rest days" is assuring.
- subscriptions
- AI
- readings
- predictions