Sunday, June 28, 2009

Fathers Day & Afton Weather update

I received a couple of really nice presents for Fathers day last Sunday.

The first present was my two Chippewa Moraine 50k finisher prints nicely framed and ready for display. I figured I would take them to work but instead was surprised a second time when my wife said let's display them in our family room.

Here is a copy of this years print,

I couldn't find a copy of last years print but this picture (taken from the Chippewa Moraine 50 website) should help remind everyone of what the course looked like.

Can't wait to see next years print hanging on the wall and I do expect to have a good day, weather permitting.

The second present was a Garmin 201, I had often thought about getting one but couldn't justify the expense as I had my nike+ system and a watch, why did I need a Garmin? Yes I wanted one but how would I rationalize it, well my wife went ahead and got me one, so I had the easiest justification of all, a gift from her. Thank you.

As it turns out in reading on the Garmin website they suggest you get a Garmin with the high sensitivity receiver if you are running in woods. I emailed them to confirm and they gave me a definite maybe, so I emailed one of the ultrarunner groups and the responses I got said go with the 205 or 305 or 405 or what about the 310xt and the 405cx (can we say a lot more expensive). So today I returned the 201 to WalMart, my wife had ordered it on-line and had gotten a good price. I had no problem with the return at my local WalMart. So after that I ordered the 205 from NewEgg for $149.99 with no tax or shipping. I ordered it from NewEgg as they always have had fast shipping and I never have had a problem with them before. I did debate for a few minutes the 305 but I just have not been able to get into heart rate monitoring as a tool for my running. It seems to bug me more than it helps. So if the 205 arrives before Afton, I will give it a go, if not I will look forward to many runs in the woods and an increase in accuracy in my distance. The Nike+ can vary greatly or seem to record fairly accurate when I run in the woods, you just never know which you will get so it will be interesting to see how the Garmin checks out for consistency.

The weather for Afton is still looking good, here is the latest forecast.
Saturday, Jul 4
High: 75 °F RealFeel®: 74 °F
Sunshine and patchy clouds




The overnight low is calling for 56 so it should be a fairly good day for running, that is if their forecast stays on track :-).

7 comments:

Kel said...

The Garmin 305 has been on sale at Best Buy for $160 (free shipping)...just thought I'd throw that out there ;)

Mike W. said...

Kel - I checked at BestBuy before I ordered the 205 but I didn't see the $160 price, I thought they had it on sell as well but I saw $179 + $12 or so in tax. I did see a 305 for $160 at Buydig.com but I have never done business with them so I took the known :-).

Londell said...

And if it does not come, you can use my 305 or 405 to get used to it? I love mine, I am sure you will love yours. What I liked about the heart rate was the analysis I could do? Like when I ran slow with a high heart rate when under stress or fast with a low heart rate when I had a few days off... Garmin Connect is nice also... I will be out there taking pictures and supporting people. Was your wife coming out later in the day? If so, I could pick you up early so she does not need to wake early?

Mike W. said...

Thanks Londell, I will get back to you about Afton. With regards to the heart rate monitoring, I know you are right but since I occasionally over analyze things I figured the easiest out for me was to not have those stats to dwell on :-).

Unknown said...

Beautiful pictures.

Mike W. said...

It was beautiful with the snow in 08 and enjoyable to take in this year albeit a bit more spring like.

SteveQ said...

i don't care if the weather forecast stays on track, so long as I do! See ya Saturday.

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