2009 NYC Marathon Timelapse from mdkmc on Vimeo.

Kristin trained with the Endurance Base Camp group for the 2008 Chicago Marathon and just missed her goal of qualifying for Boston.  After training with us this past summer to complete her first Half Ironman Distance Race (Muncie Endurathon), she decided to get back to that Boston Marathon goal.

Below is her race report discussing how it feels to run her 10th marathon, set a personal best by almost 7 minutes and qualify for Boston!  Congrats Kristin.

Race Report – Marine Corps Marathon – 10/25/2009

The Chaotic Morning

We woke up three hours before the race, to consume our bagels with peanut butter and honey and have plenty of time to prepare for the big race.  We were planning on heading to the start a little before 7:00, since it was only a little over a mile away – the perfect little warm-up… until Jill went downstairs for coffee and when returning to the room at 5:45 informed me that all of the runners were catching a shuttle because the start was actually over three miles away!  I am very frustrated by this misinformation.  I specifically picked this hotel because it was so close to the start!  We scramble to get ready.  We walk about half a mile to the shuttle pick up and wait and wait.  In the meantime, I realize I forgot to take ibuprofen and put sunscreen on.  I decide the shuttle isn’t coming any time soon, so I can head back to the hotel to grab these items.  As I go back all the employees are questioning why we are all taking the shuttle.  “The start is only a mile away!” they say, “Why don’t you just jog there as your warm up?”  I get even more frazzled now, and head back to the shuttle stop to tell Jill the news.  When I arrive she is at the front of the line, so we hop on the shuttle anyway.  It dropped us off a couple blocks from the hotel – and we still had to walk most of the way to the start!! We got there around 7:30.  The race started at 8:00.

Once arriving, we wait in line for a very VERY long time for a port-a-potty.  We listen to the national anthem in line.  We see the fly over in line.  As a matter of fact, just as we are leaving the line, we hear the gun go off for the start of the race.  (Thank goodness for chip starts!  My pre-race nightmare has come true!) We run to the start and push through the crowd to reach our pace groups and give up when it is wall to wall people and we’re stuck in the 5:00 pace group.  “Okay,” I tell myself, “This is okay.  You’ll be passing people the entire race.  That’s a great strategy.  Just keep picking them off.”  We crossed the starting line over 13 minutes into the race.

Fighting the Crowd

Given the situation, I can honestly say the first five miles were probably the hardest and most frustrating miles during the race.  There were 21,000+ runners in this race, so space was a limited commodity.  I spent much time on the un-even brick side walks, the grass, and pushing through weeds to pass runners and stay on track.  It didn’t help that the first section of the race was the hilliest.  This made it even harder to pass runners pacing themselves for a 4:30+ race.  The pace was much slower than I needed it to be and I couldn’t use the down hills to coast, because of the crowd.  I wasted a lot of energy in the beginning of the race, and am not sure it was worth it.  I was able to keep my pace down this way, but almost acquired an additional half mile of distance, which threw my average pace off between my Garmin and the reality of the race.  A lesson learned on future situations like this is to just take it easy and make up the time once the crowd opens up.  I could have just relaxed and gotten the first few miles in at a lower heart rate and not have the stress and extra mileage as extra baggage.

The Fun Begins

After about mile eight, we head from Georgetown into the national mall area.  The fans are fabulous.  The weather is perfect (high in the low 60s, sunny, 8 mph winds).  There atmosphere is completely moving.  Every mile or so, I pass a runner carrying a huge American flag.  There are fly bys from more military aircraft and helicopters than I’ve ever seen.  The service men and women are stationed at practically every block supporting us the entire race.

Although miles 12 – 15 along the Potomac Golf Course were the loneliest, they helped give me a chance to focus.  The crowd was no longer an issue and I was able to concentrate on how I was feeling and evaluate my energy at half way.  The frustrating part again, was that my pace on my garmin was right on for a 1:47 half, but since I ran the extra half mile, the pace my garmin told me didn’t matter.  I crossed the half at 1:38:30.  I didn’t let this bother me though.  I felt great and knew I had the energy reserves to make up the time.  At mile 15 we left the golf course and entered the national mall.  The fans were everywhere.  The monuments were incredible.  I actually got emotional (first time I’ve ever cried during a race) because the atmosphere was so moving.   I was going to qualify for Boston.  I had no doubt.  I had God, the fans, the marines, the weather, my family, and my friends at home watching their computers on my side.  We were going to do it together!

The Energy Reserve

When I passed mile 17.5, I made a point to re-evaluate my energy.  With the White House to my left and the Washington Monument to my right, I had no trouble maintaining my energy level and motivation.

Mile 20 was over the bridge.  This could have been a lonely bridge, but I wouldn’t let it.  It was a fabulous bridge and I was running the strongest I had all day over it.  At mile 21 I could tell “the wall” was headed for me soon, but not just yet. In honor of the marines, I remembered Corporal Nich Dieruf (http://www.corporalnich.org/), my dear friend Emily’s past husband who was killed during combat in Iraq when he was 21.  He helped push me through every step of this mile.

The Wall

Mile 23…ahh…mile 23.  Well, I was beginning to lose focus at this point.  There was an out and back, and I apparently saw the wrong sign or was becoming delusional. I was pretty disappointed when I got to 23, because I thought it was time for mile 24.  In this instant, the wall hit me.  Hard. (Looking at the data from my garmin is pretty entertaining.  You can clearly see when this moment happened.  I switch instantly from an 8:00/mile pace to a 10:00+/mile pace). I looked at my watch. I was tired and ready to be done, but I was still on track. I had 35 minutes left to still qualify for Boston.  I knew that I could continue the pace I was at and break 3:35, or, I could kick back, relax, walk through the rest of the water breaks and still qualify for Boston.  I picked option 2.

It was such a great feeling knowing that I had the energy and the time reserve to meet my goal.  I felt better after this marathon than any in my past (this is my 10^th one!)  My tendonitis or IT bands are usually inflamed and throbbing at the end of the race.  I had no pain.  No chaffing (I think this is because of better posture).  I had three blisters on each foot.  That was it.

The funny part about all of this is that going into this race, I was ready for the pain of running fast to be over.  I wanted to hurry up and qualify for Boston so racing could be fun again.  The ironic part is that this race was probably the easiest and most fun marathon I have ever run.  And now I’m wondering to myself what’s next and how fast could I go?

Lessons Learned:

• No matter what kind of shape you are in, the wall is going to hit.  It’s a matter of how prepared you are for it from a mental, physical, health and nutrition standpoint.
  • Mentally, I was ready for anything.  At mile 23, I had an energy and time reserve.  I knew I could have broken 3:35, but I also knew I could coast the rest of the race and not have to worry to qualify for Boston.
  • Physically, I trained for a 3:30.  I knew there was no reason not to run a 3:40.
  • I was very healthy entering this race.  I was healthy through the entire race.  I didn’t have irritated IT bands or tendonitis.  Besides the bottom of my feet being sore, I felt great!
  • My nutrition is usually off somehow.  I think it helped that the water stops were about 2 – 2.5 miles away from each other.  I think this kept me from drinking too much.  Generally, I have a stomach ache by mile 20.  I didn’t have any stomach issues at all or feel like I ate or drank too much.  Many times I’ll start to get really cold and my hands will get swollen and I’ll lose feeling in them.  That didn’t happen at all this time.  I took 5 gus total.  One before the start, then one about every 5 miles.  I took poweraide at the stations when I didn’t take a gu.
• Find the start the day before the race.  This will save a lot of energy and confusion on the morning of your race!

Remaining Thoughts

I did leave something at the end.  I left probably five minutes at the last three miles of the race.  Why did my strategy change?  Although I still qualified for Boston and I still PRed by almost seven minutes, why didn’t I just go for it at the end?  At the time, it seemed like a great idea. And I don’t regret my decision. But looking back it makes me wonder what is left and if I should go back for more.  And when should I go back for it?  Do I take some time off from “competitive” running or do I continue with the base I have acquired and move on to 3:35 or 3:30..  What’s next?  And what is fast enough?

To progress from the basic lateral lunge, we like to add in a stability hold. This requires a powerful ground reaction with the lunging foot. The push off must be powerful enough to get the body back to it’s starting position, but it also needs to be able to get the leg elevated so you can complete the stability hold.

The stability is done at the end of the exercise, back at the top of the starting position. As you power off the lunging foot, you’ll lift that leg so the thigh is parallel to the floor. Hold that position for a couple seconds and then lower to start the next rep.

If you are having trouble viewing this video here, you can view the video directly on YouTube: link to lateral lunge video here

You can also find our find out book here: Strength Training for Runners

This week one of our teammates, Kendrick Riggs, was recognized for his accomplishments as an attorney, father, community member and triathlon participant.  The magazine, Business First of Louisville wrote an article -  Power Attorney : Kendrick Riggs tackles his utility and energy practice, triathlons with quiet determination

I always say that the one thing that impresses me the most by some of my athletes is their ability to prioritize and manage their time.  Kendrick is way above average when it comes to displaying this characteristic.  He also displays something that I only hope I can do as well as he does when the time comes – put my family first.

I do not have children so I can not even begin to understand what it takes to be a father first and triathlete third to fifth in the line of priority.  As an outside observer – Kendrick has discovered how to put triathlon into his life and still be an active father.

Congratulation Kendrick on some well deserved recognition.

There are different responses to the way I handle this question, but here are the four general responses I get:

1. Just tell me what to eat and when to eat it and I’ll do it!  My response:  Well,  I am not a registered dietician so creating meal plans is out of my scope of practice and isn’t something I do.  I think a good place to start would be to assess where you are at and we can begin to make small changes to improve your diet.  While I understand you don’t want to have to put any thought into what you are eating and don’t want to make any decisions about your food, maybe that’s a sign of some psychological/behavioral changes we need to address first?

If you are interested in a structured meal plan to get started, then we can seek some advice from a dietician and begin working with them.  But we need to make sure they understand the demands and nutritional needs you’ll have to support your training.

2. I don’t eat vegetables, I can eat some fruit and I limit the amount of meat I eat. My response:  What do you eat?  Are you willing to try eating real foods and varying your diet?  Can you find time to make your own meals?

3.  I don’t really need help with my regular diet, just tell me what sports drink and sports nutrition I need to use before and after every workout. My response: This depends on a lot of factors.  For example, what part of your season are you in?  Are you doing off season training (which in late September many of us are) that doesn’t require a whole lot of extra caloric intake.  Or, are you in the middle of your specific preparation period that requires you to be diligent about your caloric intake while training and post workout recovery nutrition?

4.  Can’t I just workout a little more so I can eat what I want? That’s not the way it works!  Bob Seebohar has said it best when he said, “Eat to Train, Don’t Train to Eat”.  We want to create healthy eating patterns not a disordered relationship with food that we justify because we are training 8, 10, 20 or 30 hours a week.

How do I know these responses are slowing people down:

If you would walk around an Ironman race, it is interesting to see the different body types that are taking part in the event.  It doesn’t have to be an Ironman; it could be the local 5k, marathon or sprint distance triathlon.  I never get into the business of guessing how well a person will do at an endurance event based on what they look like, because I’ve seen many runners and triathletes have amazing performances that “don’t look the part”.  (I have an excellent story to tell about my first marathon, but will save it for another day).

But what puzzles me at times is how someone can be so obsessed about making the right equipment decisions, getting in all the right workouts at the proper intensities, yet they are limited in their ability to manage food and eating choices that would propel them from the back of the pack to the middle of the pack or even further.

There are several reasons that I think making these nutritional choices are harder than making the training decisions:

1. Marketing — we are sold the “magic” pill every day as athletes when it comes to sports nutrition products.  Use this product to increase your endurance, that product to hydrated more optimally or this substance to recover faster.  I see people that wouldn’t eat a Snickers bar in a million years take two Snickers Marathon bars on bike rides with them “because they work.”

Let me be clear, I’m not against the proper use of sports nutrition products!  Nikki and I have a bunch of Infinit nutrition products and egel’s left over from the pre Ironman Louisville training.  But the products need to support your training, not increase your positive caloric balance for no reason.

2.  We are told we work hard and can “afford” it.  Here’s a confession, my personal nutrition this past year has been a mess!  If it wasn’t for Nikki’s hard work and our CSA membership, I would probably live off of packaged meals and soda.  The interesting thing for me is that when I start to discuss with my clients about how I’m struggling with eating well, they always say:

Well, you can afford it with all the exercise you do.

Not true!  Not only is that not true from a weight management perspective, but it is especially not true from a long-term health perspective.  And the reality for most of us non-Elite age group athletes is that we are doing this to have fun and be healthy.  Eating 2 pounds of sugar a week is not healthy, no matter how much you exercise!

So how do I know that people are who are responding in one of the four ways mentioned above are slower than they probably could be?  Because their responses show me that they are not taking full responsibility for their eating habits.  And without a full investment into their daily nutritional needs, in addition to their training nutritional requirements, my guess is that they are carrying around a few pounds of excess body fat that is causing them to be slower on race day.

Did my nutritional habits this past year slow me down? I think they did.  I haven’t had my body fat tested in a few years, but my guess is that even though my weight is a few pounds heavier, I’m likely carrying 8 pounds of additional body fat and have lost a few pounds of muscle.  Despite my regular injury prevention work in the studio, I’m as weak as I’ve been since 2005.

Triathlon is a body weight to power sport!

Prior to Ironman Louisville I was riding with a power tap built into a pair of Zipp 404’s.  The use of power lead to several conversations regarding the bike course in Louisville and our debate about whether IMLouisville was a absolute watt or a watts/kg course.

I believe it was in the book, Lance Armstrong’s War, where the author (Coyle) discussed a test that Lance did prior to the Tour de France to know how fit he was leading up to the race.  The test was essentially a graded exercise test that he did on a hill climb (on some island, somewhere).  He knew he was fit and ready if he hit a specific watts/kg ratio at his lactate threshold. (If I remember correctly it was 6.7 watts/kg?)

The concept of improving your watts/kg ratio is something that is discussed a lot in cycling.  One thing that influences that is the exponential growth in age groupers using power devices on the bike.  But this concept is not isolated to cycling.

Does power to weight ratio matter in running?

This answer may not be quite as obvious because we don’t have simple tools  that measure power output on the run, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a  relationship in run performance.  One of the most obvious ways to logically think this through is to think about one of the quickest ways to get faster on the run – lose weight!

You don’t have to do a scientific study to start and view patterns of body type among elite runners.  They are lean!  I just read a very interesting article that discussed the relationship between body weight and running speed titled,  The Holy Grail in Speed Training written by Barry Ross.  Ross was the high school coach of Allyson Felix when she broke Marion Jones’ high school 200 meter record and ran the fastest 200 meters in the world that year.  Here’s one of the most interesting statements he makes in the article:

What they found was the Holy Grail to faster running speed. The old equation was still partially correct, but incomplete. It was missing the most important element – the Bodyweight.

(Sidenote: if you read the article, then there is a discussion we could have about how to improve the power and strength side of the equation, but for now we are discussing the body weight factor.  Power discussion will come later)

In triathlon, I personally believe this is where we see many of the poor nutritional choices – during the run.  The absolute power that some of the bigger guys possess allow them to overcome that extra body weight on the bike (at least appear to make up for it), but late in the run when fatigue begins to set in and the power output begins to fall, that power/body weight ratio really starts to slow the athlete down.  And when the fatigue really sets in, it is game over and it becomes survival, not racing.

There is a very interesting discussion regarding body weight and Ironman performance over at Endurance Corner.  The podcast was an interview with Chris McDonald, where they discuss the trend about how Ironman was being dominated by “Big guys racing small”.  That was something I was surprised to witness when McDonald won Ironman Louisville in it’s first year and I got to be at the finish line – He was much bigger than I expected.  If you listen to the whole podcast, a little later in the discussion Chris talks about the balance between size and strength and how he was dealing with it.

Eating Healthy does equate to eating for performance!

I’m going to say it again – your first nutritional decisions should be made to eat a healthy diet.  Once you start changing your food choices over to consuming more vegetables, fruits, quality meats and healthy fats – then you can start to look at the more “complicated” nutritional needs.

Here’s another piece of advice for beginner’s:  If your diet is disordered and full of processed foods, sugars and lacking in the above mentioned foods, then I suggest that you SLOWLY build into your training program.  As someone who is new to an exercise program, if you start to add in too many workouts or add too much intensity, it will make changing your nutritional habits even more difficult.

In a sport that partially depends upon your power/body weight ratio for success, the quickest way to become a FASTER Triathlete is to clean up your nutrition and lose that excess body fat.

Eat Healthy = Get Fast!

Some Extra Resources:

The Paleo Diet for Athletes: A Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance – by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel

Nutrition Periodization for Endurance Athletes: Taking Traditional Sports Nutrition to the Next Level -  by Bob Seebohar

Nutritional Videos on STACK TV – by Bob Seebohar

Team First Endurance Blog – it’s a product company and while I don’t use their products, there’s some good info here

The ZoneDiet’s – ZoneCompete – again a company with something to sale, but good info

Mark’s Daily Apple – an interesting blog written by Mark Sission, a former elite runner and triathlete. The blog contains a lot of information on living a more “primal lifestyle” with nutritional, fitness and health discussions.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling well rested but really nervous.  We had decided that with the time trial start being first come first serve we would not worry about where in the line we ended up.  As we were walking to the end of the line we ran into Ron Shashy who I had swam with a few weeks prior at the YMCA open water swim at Cave Run Lake.  He promptly placed me in line in front of him in hopes of catching a ride on my draft for the swim, not that he needed it one bit. It didn’t seem like the others in line minded that we jumped in (at least I hope they didn’t).  The race started and I was surprised at how quickly we made our way down to the water and started.  I jumped in and lost Ron immediately.  So much for our master plan.  The swim course is 1/3 out against the current and 2/3 back in with the current.  I took it easy going out, and felt really good.  I checked my watch after the turn around and it read under 22 min which I was happy with since my effort low and it was supposed to be against the current.  As soon as I turned around I swam a little wide towards the middle of the river to try to catch the current some.  After a few minutes I started feeling really nauseous.  The more I swam the more nauseous I felt.  The more nauseous I felt the angrier I got.  I could not believe I was getting sick in the swim!  I had never DNF’d a race and it was going to happen after the swim, are you kidding me?!? Nine months of training and I’m not even going to get on my bike?!? I went through hot and cold spells, tried not to throw up in the water, and what seemed like forever, floated back in to the shore.  I made it up the stairs out of the water and walked to transition.  I saw Jeff and Neeley and told them I wasn’t feeling well.  Jeff said “you’ll be fine!” which is maybe what I needed to hear.  I decided to keep walking and see how I felt.  Surprisingly the more I walked the better I felt.  I got my transition bag, sat down and started to put my shoes and helmet on.  I was feeling so much better – I couldn’t believe it!  The river had been a little choppy and since the nausea disappeared almost immediately once I hit land I am assuming it was just motion sickness.  I’ve never had that happen before, but it sure felt good to be sitting on my bike.  I swam about 5-8 min slower than I thought I was going to, but at this point I was just glad the nausea was gone.

The crowd at transition was incredible and I was starting to feel a lot better about my race.  I turned my Garmin on before I got on my bike and I was happy to see my heart rate below 150.  Gary and I had decided a few days before on a HR cap of 150 for at least the first 87 miles.  I thought this was going to be a lot harder than it actually was.  The first part of the bike is the most challenging and the biggest hill is in the first 20 miles or so.  However, so is the longest descent.  I kept my cadence high up the hills, and tried to take full advantage of the down hills.  I knew the first part of the ride would be the slowest, and the mph read around 17 for a long time.  I had been hoping for 17.5 overall for the day.  I stayed with my plan of a 150 HR cap and convinced myself that feeling good was much more important than going fast.  Gary passed me on the out and back part of the course.  It was really nice to see be able to see him for a little bit.  After some exchanged words of encouragement, he was off.  The course was beautiful once we got out of town.  The gorgeous rolling landscape almost made me forget that I was racing.  I was really enjoying the ride.  Lagrange was so awesome.  The crowd was so uplifting and loud!  We went through the town twice and both times I felt like someone in the crowd handed me a new pair of legs.  Throughout the ride I saw my average increase to 17.5.  This made me happy, especially because I felt so great.  I got to mile 87 and since I was on pace and feeling great, I decided to continue at the same effort.  I had thought about pushing a little harder, but I kept thinking that the more I save now the more I will have for the run.  The last 25 miles or so of the course are pretty flat, and downhill.  All I wanted to do was keep my 17.5mph average and finish feeling good.  Then something happened that I did not anticipate.  I had feared a headwind for the last 25 miles like we had when we rode the course a few months earlier.  So even with the fast road, the wind made it so my effort had to increase to keep pace.  However, we had no headwind!  I kept my effort the same, and watched as the numbers crept up to 17.6, 17.7…all the way to 18.0.  I got off the bike in 6:13.  I couldn’t have been happier.

I took my time through transition, and figured out what I needed to do on the run to do a sub 12 hour Ironman.  All I needed to do was a 4:28 marathon!  I could do that!  I had planned on trying for a 9:30-9:45 min/mile pace, but since I had so much of a buffer from the bike I decided to go for 10 min/mile pace for the first half and really enjoy the race.  I came out of transition and saw my girls, Kirstin and Jill.  They were so motivating!  It was really hard to slow myself down to a 10 min mile for the first 4-5 miles. I kept falling into a 9:15-9:30 pace.  I felt so good, but I knew I needed to conserve.  The run course was a blast, especially around town.  Once you got farther out on the out and back it was pretty quiet and a little tough to stay motivated.  Coming back in to town on the first loop was great.  Seeing the girls gave me just the spark I needed.  The turn around on the first loop is right by the finish line which is kind of tough, but I was feeling so good I honestly didn’t care too much.  I worked on keeping my heart rate in the 140s and at a 9:45-10 min mile I was right around 139-141 the whole time.  I enjoyed seeing everyone on the run course.  I saw Royden first, then eventually saw almost everyone, Gary, Tyson, Rodney, Paula, Saori, Alan.  It was great, and everyone looked so good.  On my way back to town just after mile 20 I got to see Beth for a bit and she gave me some great motivation.  I was pretty sure I was going to make it, but I know that in a marathon, especially an Ironman, it’s not over until it’s over.  I kept on pace, allowing myself to walk a little extra at each aid station.  I felt really good that I never had to walk except at the aid stations.  It was probably the best I have ever felt during a marathon.  It actually went by pretty fast.  Once I got to mile 23 I started to hurt.  I was grateful the hurt/fatigue held off until then.  By that time I didn’t even care, I was almost done!  As I came back into town it was hard to hold my excitement in.  The crowd, the girls, 4^th Street…it was extraordinary.  The only thing I regret about my finish is how quickly it was over.  I sort of wish I had taken my time coming down the finish line.  I still can’t believe I broke 12 hours!  To top it all off, Mike Reilly, the ‘voice of Ironman’ was there, and as I came down the finish line I heard his voice, “Nikki Ditsch from Lexington, Kentucky…YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” I just love hearing those words.

All week I had played around with the numbers and I figured that everything had to be perfect for me to go under 12 hours.  Going 11:55 feels that much sweeter especially considering it wasn’t the perfect day (swim).  I have to admit, I still can’t help but smile when I think about that race.  What an amazing day!

Results:

Time: 11:55:24, Overall Place: 716, Division Place: 25

Swim time: 1:09:44, Overall Place: 323, Division Place: 17
T1: 5:58
Bike time: 6:13:43, Overall Place: 1102, Division Place: 24
T2 3:44
Run time: 4:22:14, Overall Place: 803, Division Place: 30

If the video doesn’t show up, use the link to the blog post: Sprint Drills with Keats and Patrick

So let’s assume you are beyond the debate of whether to use or not use a heart rate monitor and you are ready to buy, what heart rate monitor should you buy?

What I have used:

Sigma Sport
I began using a heart rate monitor back in 2000. I had run a couple marathons by this time and needed to find a way to train more intelligently, because after running a 3:53 and a 4:00 marathon, I wasn’t satisfied. As a college student that was waiting tables to cover tuition and living expenses, I found the cheapest monitor I could find. I ended up with a Sigma Sport. It worked well for the first couple years, but it gave just the very basic detail. It gave me the time (chrono) and my current heart rate.

Looking at their current site, it does look like they have current models that include more advanced technology.  But I can’t give any testimony to their current devices.  I can say that back when I was using their product, they had some of the best customer service that I’ve ever had to deal with.  Even with a cheap monitor, they worked with me and completely replaced my unit at one point.

Suggestion:  You will find something more common in use among other triathletes and runners, which in my point of view is valuable knowledge.  And despite the good customer service, I have never bought another Sigma Sport, which also says something.  I’d find something that is more actively used in our endurance culture.

Polar
When I wanted to upgrade the heart rate monitor I chose to buy a Polar.  One of the reasons that I bought the Polar was due to the fact that Polar heart rate straps were what we used in the exercise physiology lab.  At the time, it seemed like Polar was well known for their reliability and I believe that they still are.

I have had two different Polar heart rate monitors, but the main device that I’ve used over the years is the Polar F6 .  I have really liked this monitor for a general purpose watch.  It is pretty basic in relation to all the advanced watches they offer, but it has worked well for my purposes.  Here are a couple Pro’s and Con’s:

Pro’s — I like the size of the watch.  It fits like a watch and not a computer attached to my arm.  I also like the basic and user friendly settings.  It stores the last 12 workouts that you can pull up on the watch.  Those records include time, percent fat used, average heart rate and max heart rate.  It will also pull up exercise totals and a diary.

Con’s — This watch is in the Fitness line of their devices, which means it lacks some basic features that a runner or multisport athlete would want.  The biggest feature that I would like is a lap function.  It was a bit frustrating at times when I first began using it to realize that I had to stop the watch and restart a new session to get my splits during a race.  If you look at my Ironman Wisconsin finisher’s photo you’ll notice I am wearing two watches, a timex wrist watch on my left wrist and the F6 on my right wrist.  I have done this for all my races the last few years so I’m used to it now, but not ideal.  In fact, at Ironman Louisville I came out of T2 and didn’t stop and restart the watch.  So when I was finished I only had the cumulative splits of Bike/T2/Run for heart rate.

The one big negative about a Polar monitor is when the batteries die or you need to have something worked on.  Even changing a simple battery requires you to send the unit to Polar to be serviced.  A major bummer!  It will leave you without a unit for a couple weeks and it will also start to add to the expenses because of the shipping and the cost of the service.

What I would buy next time, if I bought a Polar:

The athletes that I know that use their running / multisport watches don’t have the lap problem.  Even the beginning Polar watches in the running and multisport category like the rs300 sd or rs 300x g1 offer all the features I believe I would need.  They do offer the rs 100, but I think the ability to add the speed and distance with the rs300 sd or the gps capabilities of the rs300 g1 would be nice.

I had an athlete that trained with the Polar RS800CX for Ironman Louisville.  She seemed to be very happy with the unit, hopefully I can get some additional comments from other athletes.  I’ve included links to amazon so you can read some of the reviews (and provide a little side bonus to me should you chose to buy through them).

Garmin
In 2007/2008 I coached the running team for our local chapter of Team in Training.  As a “Thank You” gift from one of the athletes, I was given a Garmin 305.  I was incredibly excited because I had wanted to use gps to track my running and cycling.

In 2008, I used the Garmin for every single run and bike I did (ok, I may have missed 1 or 2 workouts?).  I even used the monitor when I used the treadmill so that I could have the heart rate data.  This would have worked out really well if I had the foot pod so I could get the distance without the gps syncing.    Here are some of the Pro’s vs Con’s:

Pro’s — I enjoy getting all the data.  It can be a type A personality athlete’s best dream.  You get a lot of data on the go:  lap pace, overall pace, heart rate, lap heart rate, distance – Here’s a link to the specs at Garmin’s site.  I also think that Garmin has the best online integration with their devices, Garmin Connect is a very nice and easy to use site.

Con’s — There are a couple things about the 305 that I don’t really care for: #1 is the size of the watch.  It is something I put up with while training, but not willing to do while racing a triathlon.  That being said, Nikki used her’s during Ironman Louisville.  I also know others that used them at IMLou and during many marathons.  Actually, I have used them during a couple stand alone marathons too, but I do think if I was seriously racing the constant feedback might be a little too much.

#2 – The other issue is the battery life.  I really dislike that I have to constantly worry about getting the watch charged.  And at times, I forget and it runs out mid run.  The battery often lasts around 6 to 8 hours, but Nikki has had it last much longer than that a couple times – not sure how?

Other Garmin Products:

I have a couple people I know that are using the Garmin 50. It is there basic watch that is only a heart rate monitor. While the Garmin 50 doesn’t have a gps, you can purchase the foot pod and still get speed and distance. The other thing that I really like the 50 is that it uses the ANT+ wireless system, which makes downloading your data much easier than the docking system that I have to use with my 305.

The other Garmin products that I have known people to use are the Garmin Forerunner 405
and the newer Garmin Forerunner 310XT . A lot of the feedback about the 405 is that the user controls are difficult to manage and are very sensitive. I know one runner who went back to the 305 after using the 405 for a period of time, but I also know those that have been using the 405 and have gotten used to the user controls. The 310xt is new enough that I have not had enough discussions to determine how valuable it is. The two positives the 310xt presents is the long battery life (20 hours) and it is water proof, which makes it a more multisport friendly watch.

Suunto

I have been intrigued by other runners and triathletes that have been using the Suunto watches lately.  I have one triathlete/runner that has started using one for his training in the past few months, but I don’t have enough experience to give a good review.

I have asked a few people to share some thoughts on their experiences with the different units, hopefully I can get some more information and pass it along.  I will have to say that looking through their catalog of products, they do seem to be innovating for the fitness and training demographic more than some of the other companies.  Products like the memory belt and the Team Pod are very interesting devices (Although I’ve heard Mike Boyle discuss that the way the company goes about selling the team pod system makes it unattractive and impractical?).

So what would I personally buy today:

If I had to buy a new monitor today I would buy either the rs300 sd, rs300 g1 or the garmin 50.  The sole purpose being that I am fairly cheap and buying a $400 watch would probably make me resent the technology more than appreciate it.  Those three watches all give me the basic functions I need, heart rates, times and when paired with the right accessories speed and distance.

Now if I had a little more time to review options and save up to buy a top end watch, I’d look at the Garmin 310xt (although it still seems large), the Polar rs800 cx (and just use trainingpeaks.com for all my downloading) or continue to learn more about the Suunto line of watches (you can check out a few thoughts from Bret at Zentriathlon here).

Hopefully that helps you in your decision when choosing the right heart rate monitor for you and your budget.  I also hope it will create some discussion about the pro’s and con’s of the different products so I can learn about some of the newest technology I haven’t been able to play with yet!

Added Note:  If you want a great discussion comparing the Garmin and Suunto units, check out the blog Zentience written by Morten Leibach.  Here’s the link – Garmin or Suunto?

Yesterday I posted my Ironman Louisville race report and a few minutes later I received an email that said:

Gary, I just read your race report and a couple of the articles linked to therein.  I appreciate your perspective.  It was nice to see you in L’ville, meet Nikki, and talk with you after the race.  And congratulations on finishing your 4th (right?) 140.6!

Over the years, I’ve received similar responses from others through email, at races and on my blog.  Endurance sport is a self-improvement project for me and I realize that our events can mean so much more than “first to the finish line.”  It’s very hard to have that mindset at times but when I’m willing to view our sport in that way, it begins to be incredibly more self-fulling.

I also realize that sport is not so noble at times.  Endurance sports take a pretty big beating at times, especially cycling.  The level of drug abuse and cheating is sad, disgusting and takes away a lot of my excitement for what they accomplish.  It doesn’t only happen at the professional level as we consistently hear more and more issues with age grouper doping.  Team sports can also be ugly, as we saw on opening night of this years college football season after the Oregon vs Boise State Football game (video here).

This brings me to a personal hero of mine – Tom Osborne.  When I think of Nebraska Football, he is what I think of.  As one of the most successful college football coaches of all time, I remember him as a very humble and down-to-earth person.  The only experience I have with him in person was at a McDonalds while I was in college.  He was there with what appeared to be his grandchildren.  As most people were looking and pointing, he didn’t appear disturbed.  And when a fan finally went up to say ‘hi’ he replied and didn’t appear to be bothered by a fan interrupting his time with his family.

As a freshmen at the University of Nebraska, I remember walking back to my room in Abel Hall after the football team had just won it’s 3rd national championship in 4 years (1994, 1995, 1997).  As I walked into the dorm I saw 18, 19 and 20 year old college males in distress and some so much so that they were crying.  Why?  Because Tom Osborne decided to retire.  It seemed like we were being left out a little bit, like it was way too early for him to retire.  Look at JoePa at Penn State or Bowden at Florida State, why did he have to retire so early?

That’s what I’ve always admired about Osborne.  He has the ability to look beyond sport and understand a greater meaning within life.  I could go on for a long time discussing why I admire Tom Osborne, but I don’t need to.  His actions and character have done well for themselves.  He has just written a new book: Beyond the Final Score: There’s More to Life Than the Game.  I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I’m excited to pick it up.

If you are interested to hear him speak about the book, just watch the video below. Some people may listen to him and think, “that guy is a little dull”. But when I listen to him I think about all the wisdom he’s offering and how he doesn’t make it about him. You might not think that he could motivate athletes the way a coach that yells and screams does, but if you think that …. then you never watched the Huskers play on a Saturday afternoon while he walked the sidelines – never cracking a smile or throwing a fit.

Also think about this: The last four years he coached college football, his teams were 49 – 2, with 3 national titles. Then like a great western movie, he walked away into the sunset. (Well at least until he came back to save our program as the athletic director).