We basically went over race goals, both time and placement and he thought the idea of me concentrating on shorter distance races was a good idea. In my coaching package, I get to train in thier cycling training center which consists of being set up on a trainer  to do various types of 1 hour intense workouts. During these workouts, I’ll have my power wattage, heart rate, speed, cadence, etc all measured for every workout. I will do this twice a week with other people next to me which I hope will involve some racing!

The road to Kona probably looks something like this

He also thinks I should race some of the local time trials in Philadelphia on the weekends. This would be a new experience for me as I’ve never raced in that format before. I will get my workouts either daily or weekly. I forgot. Either way, he knows where I want to go, how ambitious I am, but he doesn’t want me to aim too high this year, but to just “improve.”

We spoke about what races I planned to do for 2010. Besides the Death Valley Marathon in February, and the Philly Triathlon in late June, I haven’t signed up for anything. I would like to do a Olympic triathlon per month, and maybe do three half-irons over the course of the year. I WOULD HAVE liked to culminate my season by doing 70.3 Miami but I found out last night it’s already sold out 10 months prior to the race! My family has never seen me race, and since they live in West Palm Beach, I’ll try to look for other races in the area. My main thing is limiting how much I want to pay for expensive races this year. Ironman UK was insanely expensive with flights, hotels, rent-a-car, and so forth. I would like to do a official 70.3 this year, but it’s not that imperative to me.

When it came to higher intensity workouts, the polar  foot-pod just wasn’t accurate. The main problem with Polar’s inertia based technology is  it calibrates based on  pace which you originally calibrate it. In other words, I walked around the track 4 times to calibrate it, but when I run with it, the accuracy is off because the stride difference between each step is so much larger (see River Run Race report). Add the fact that my heart rate strap stopped working, I just felt it was time for a change. Now, I don’t want to trash the company (not like my opinion matters anyway); the 625x lasted me 4 years without a problem. But being that I’m OCD on accuracy of distance and time, I felt the GPS unit was best. But which unit?

Polar 625x - Thanks for the memories

I had been researching the Garmin 305 forerunner for some time; listening to advice on various websites. I wasn’t sure if I’d go with the 310x or the 305 at first. The 310x is a machine in and of itself. You can even swim with it and track distances — while in the water (which is pretty darn cool). But do I really need all that? Triathletes in general are over compulsive in their gizmos and their data collection, but I’ve gotten to the point where I know what I want and what I need (see previous post on that too).

The main issue between the 310x and 305 was the battery life, and price. The 310x has a battery life of 20 hours or so. The 305 has a battery life of 10 hours. That’s not even enough to get you through an Ironman! At least not now yet. The 310x went for $369 while the 305 went for $150. Additionally, considering I will only be doing nothing longer than half IM this year, I felt that when I do get back to IM distance, I’ll have a Power Tap by that time; so I decided on the 305.  When I go get back to full IM racing, the strategy will be:  no watch on the swim, Power tap computer on the bike, and use the Garmin on the run. While I’d like to have an over all clock, I’m not really that worried about it.

Garmin 305 Forerunner - I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship

Yes, with the Polar, I never had to worry about battery life, but I think the trade off for proper distance recording, pacing, etc., is well worth it.

The outside of my shoes are the first to go

As I was planning on buying new shoes anyway, I thought the  timing was perfect. I decided upon a pair of the New Balance 758. What takes a little getting is use to is the lack of cushioning the New Balance has compared to the Kiyano. It also has taken some time to get over the effect of having a shoe designed to push you to the outside. After a week of running, I’m starting to feel myself pushing from the middle of my foot instead of the outside, which hopefully translates to a stronger plant to become a stronger runner.