Let me start out by saying that my husband worries. About our kids. And me. He worries a lot about me - especially when it comes to to the weather and running. He likes to know where I'm going and when I'm going. I've always thought it was sweet. I mean, who DOESN"T want their husband to be worried about them. But then something changed. That something was my Garmin Wearable (activity-tracking watch).
When I decided to start running again and train for another half marathon and full marathon, Justin decided that he needed a more reliable way to track where I was going. He wanted the ability to track me live. We - and by we I mean mostly him - researched multiple options. In the end, it was pretty much splitting hairs when it came to the capabilities of the devices we narrowed it down to. It came down to two different Garmin models: the Garmin Forerunner 235 and the Garmin vivosmart HR and we eventually decided on Garmin Forerunner 235. It's a GPS running watch with a wrist-based heart rate monitor.
It's capabilities include:
- Tracking distance, pace, time, heart rate and more
- Connecting automatically to and uploads to Garmin Connect™
- Live tracking, audio prompts, smart notifications and social media sharing
- Activity tracking counts daily steps, distance, calories and sleep
It's really pretty awesome and it's a lot more convenient than wearing my gigantic phone on my arm and dealing with the glare of the sun to see how far I'd gone and how fast. Plus I can now track my heart rate and easily navigate between my distance, heart rate, calories and pace.
I've been telling people at work about my new "toy" and their reactions all had one thing in common: they think Justin wanting to track my runs live is creepy. Is it? Is it creepy that my HUSBAND wants to know where I am when I'm out on a run? I was beginning to think that maybe it was. After all, the beginning weeks of my training program don't have me running that far . . . why should he worry?
The recent events of vandalism at the high school and shooting in a neighboring city, really opened up my eyes. Alicia - step outside your bubble! As terrible as it sounds, the world we live in is incredibly unpredictable. Don't get me wrong, I love our town. We wouldn't have lived here for the past 11 years if we didn't. But even our seemingly sleepy little town has proven it has the potential to be not be so sleepy. It's naive to think that even in a city with a small-town feel that nothing bad can happen.
So I've embraced technology as something not just something beneficial to my training, but my safety as well!
Here are some other safety tips for going on a walk, run etc.:
- Always tell at least one person where you are going and when you expect to return
- Run with a buddy if possibe
- Have your cell phone with you and make sure it's charged
- Avoid wearing headphones so you can better hear what's going on around you
- Be observant and listen to your gut...if something doesn't seem right - it likely isn't!
- Wear brightly colored clothing
- Run in well-lit areas and sidewalks when possible
Have fun and stay safe!
Alicia
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