An Evolution In Time

Sweets,

I remember when I first started running. I didn't have anything fancy to gauge my pace or progress, just a Timex stopwatch.

Remember that credit that  George Dubba-Ya gave us a few years back? Well, I spent $60 on this stopwatch and heart rate monitor and put the rest in savings. I can't be sure from this picture, but I am likely wearing the stopwatch in this photo from a 4th of July run Liz and I did in 2008.

I realized that I needed to start tracking my miles, not just my total time. It was time to upgrade to the most technologically advanced gadget I could think of......a device that I put in my shoe and connected to my iPod mini (this cool music player).

I would run the same route from my condo up to 11th avenue and down through Memory Grove Park. It is still one of my favorite places to run, but I don't make it there that often since I moved out of my condo.

Memory Grove

Then joy of all joy, HM gave me a Garmin for Christmas 2009. It has been my trusty pal for over 3 years.

One of my first runs using the Garmin was in Tucson. It was such a rush hearing those miles beep by. I was so motivated to keep going.

I have since gone on many runs in Tucson, like this one.

Since that first run, I have become very dependent on my Garmin. Only recently did I learn how to download the split results onto my computer, but just when things were going so well, it broke. Battery dead. It is no longer 2008. In 2012, they have an app to fix that!

Runmeter

Saturday was my first time using the app on my iPhone as my GPS/Pace tracker. What I liked: It only cost me $2.99 (as opposed to $300+ for a new Garmin), it worked perfectly, I didn't have to add a new setting to show my elevation (I always wondered), and I could set it to update directly to my social media sites. Here are the results of my weekend run:

What I didn't like: It didn't beep after each mile, it did not update progress until I pressed stop so there was no way to see how I was doing while running, I obviously could not wear it on my wrist and check it repeatedly. All in all, I was really impressed. I am glad I downloaded it. For those of you that have an iPhone but don't have a Garmin, I would HIGHLY suggest this one.

It is sort of cool to see how technology has changed!

Tell me Sweets, what do you use to track your mileage?