I really like the data from my Garmin.  I don't use all the features, by any means, but I like the heart rate feedback.  Since I run every day, I need to manage my effort and I like to know my exact distances and pace. I remember the old days when we measured our courses with a car or a bicycle and you hated to veer off of it because God forbid you wouldn't know your exact distance!  We were so proud of some of our training PRs and then we discovered that our courses were way off....

I have my Garmin Vivoactive 3 (Music) (with no music on it) that I got when I retired in 2020, and it still work but doesn't give any performance reviews or body battery ratings that I've found. What is happening more and more is the HR monitor isn't working well. I'll be on the bike, huffing and puffing with my heart pounding on hard efforts, and the dumb watch gives a reading of 98 or something. Take it off, wipe it off, put it back on, then it works for awhile (usual hard effort for me is upper 150's to low 160's). So, other that that, it seems to work fine.

And YES, I remember those pre-Garmin days! I had a Saab 9-5 that you could set short trip distance measurements (vs. messing with the trip odometer) and I wrote down all sorts of "home to XX location" notes of how far various runs were. I recall being a little disappointed in some of them when I got the Garmin. But then, the car was on the road and the bike path was set away from the road, so curves measured differently, etc, etc. But yes, those are the "good old days," right?

And KSA, we rented an electric car (Chevy Bolt) in Maui. What a mistake. It was a nice enough car, great get up and go, and DH got used to the one pedal driving feature (almost rear-ending a Tesla in the process), but we spent an inordinate amount of time looking for chargers that: 1) worked, 2) were not fully occupied or 3) that our car would accept. Of our 4 days in Maui, we probably spent 10 hours either looking for, testing or actually charging at EV car chargers. Bleh. Don't rent one unless you have a charging station where you're staying is the lesson we learned.

Big, huge congratulations to Moebo on her race! Woot on your finish time and the wonderful meetups! I've met Stumpy a few times before but never his DW, so it's a treat seeing her too. The best part of racing is meeting online friends!

Dave, you're going through what I went through the last few years of my work life. I loved my job and was damn good at it. Then someone got the great idea I'd be good in management. That's when the fun pretty much dried up for me. I'm more of a hands on, get in there and fix it kind of person. Delegating, managing staff and spending time in meetings is not my idea of a good time. When my office reorganized and I had to reapply for my job, get more responsibilities and manage a team of employees, AND not get a raise for all that AND due to budget cuts faced furlough pay reduction... Nope. I muddled through for a few months but quit just before the pay cuts were to take effect. Best decision I ever made.

(But note to Tet: I bet Dave doesn't have a pension like you and I do...)

Anyhow, we got back Monday around noon and spent yesterday cleaning up and catching up. Today is my mom's 92nd birthday so I'll go over there and say hi and drop off a card. We'll probably COVID test tomorrow or Thursday just as precaution, but we did pretty well at avoiding crowds. Today is also when I get back on the bike! After almost a week off, I really miss it and hip feels worse because of it. (I swear it feels better after a ride)

Hi friends - work Saturday and busy Sunday meant Manic Monday was long run Monday

10.5 miles through the streets of Tewksbury and Billerica with a .5 walk/jog recovery on the little cul-de-sac across from our house.

 

Now there are some familiar names from one of my past lives! In the late 70s I was working for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) in the local office but made frequent trips out to The Old Mill in Maynard, MA where their main office was (but they had office space all over the greater Boston area at that time). For a guy who grew up in the Midwest, traveling to Boston felt like being in another country! Colonial-era road layout, traffic circles, odd driving standards, unfamiliar stores and restaurants (is Friendly's still around?), Sunday Blue Laws (discovered the route to New Hampshire for shopping and dining on Sundays!), etc. Good memories of my younger years though.

Been really enjoying all the data it collects. Runs, elevation, daily steps, HR, stress level, sleep metrics (which I do poorly on because I wake with hot flashes a few times a night and often take awhile to go back to sleep). It can even do oxygen saturation measurement, but not sure why that might be useful, unless you had a bad cold or asthma and were under normal level.

I also enjoy the data from my Garmin (Venu 2+). I usually don't sleep with it on but will do that once in a while for a few days, especially if I feel that I'm sleeping worse than usual. I like that it shows the stages of sleep and it definitely shows all my trips to the bathroom . But I think that sometimes the "light sleep" periods are times when I'm lying there awake but very still. I used the oxygen saturation a bit when I had Covid. The watch will also do an EKG, which looks just like the trace in the doc's office, but again of limited use unless I had a-fib or whatever.

I bundled up well this morning for our usual Tuesday ride -- it was about 42F -- but it never felt as cold as I was expecting. We took the unpaved rail-trail out to Lake Orion, had a late breakfast/early lunch, and rode back for a total of 19 miles. I took my hybrid today instead of the e-bike for the purpose of generating a bit more body heat, and apparently that worked.

Anne- not many pensions left out there.  Companies just don’t do that.  I have a legacy pension from my 10 years. (1991-2001) at Overhead Door in Dallas.  I had forgotten all about it and the payments started showing up a few years ago!  Maybe when I turned 65.  That was a nice little surprise.

Erika- I hear you on the chargers.  Even with our own Bolt and Ken totally plugged in (see what I did there?) to the charging networks, on Amelia Island there was a definite lack of chargers.

Hey there!

Thanks again for the kudos, everyone. I am working on my race report but have been short on time these past couple of days, so haven't quite finished. I will post it soon, though (I hope).

I will have a pension when I retire, but since this is a second career for me  it won't be very big.

I am happy to say I am not feeling too sore or tired from my race, so I got out for 3.3 slow miles this morning.

easy 3.1 miles after work today. Legs felt fine and the run felt effortless. Guess I'm rested 

Hi Masters!  Up early this Wednesday morning.   This time of year when I get. a good night's sleep it usually means I make it all the way to 4:00.  Which means in a couple of weeks, 3:00.  Ugh.  Then I'll probably get back in the swing of the 5:00 AM Swim workouts at the Y, instead of swimming in the evening.

I'll have a pension.  It's the main reason I stayed with my state job 20 years ago when I could have made more money elsewhere but would have no pension elsewhere.

Swimming watches are all the rage on the social media swimmers pages.  I just swim 100 yards (or whatever) at a time and read the time off of the big red LED clock at the shallow end of the pool, and check the synchronized big red LED clock on the side wall at the deep end of the pool when I'm timing 75 yarders.  If I were forced to swim at the "other" Y in the next town to the south, I'd need a watch because they have a big old swing hand clock that I can't see from any of the lanes, even with my prescription goggles.

Tet - I only wish I was in my final year, but we're getting closer.   My last scheduled day is October 31 of next year.

No swim Tuesday.  We met DD, her DH, Sleeping Beauty (Magdelena), and her DH's mom, step dad and grandmother out at a tavern called the Tipsy Moose.  Adirondack Mountain theme, great burgers.  They are up from their home in NC to see the baby, but they didn't get to see much of her there, packed safely away in her car seat.

DW heads down to her Mom's this morning, and I'll see her again Friday evening if her relief arrives on time, or it may turn into late Saturday morning.  Neither one of us likes her driving back home the 135 miles on the desolate highway (I-88) in the dark.  The rest areas are dark, cell service tends to be spotty, and there are deer, deer, deer everywhere.

In a quiet moment yesterday, "thinking about my swimming" - the competition aspect of it - I realized that the main difference between myself and the really fast swimmers that do so well in the bigger meets is the underwaters, starts and turns.  I notice it most at the start of events where I'm hitting the water and seeing the competition still soaring beyond me like Supermen, and when I can see them again they're five yards ahead of me.  Their superior starts and underwater dolphin kicks not only propel them far beyond me at the start, but also get them off to a faster speed from which they decelerate, while I decelerate from a slower start speed.   Unfortunately, the Y does not let us practice diving in, and flip turns make me susceptible to frequent sinus infections, so I don't think that will ever change.    And then I remember that I swim for fitness and not competition, and the competitions are a motivation to be consistent and train with purpose.  And I'm missing all of the competitions this fall due to grand baby's arrival and Election Day.