On last Sunday’s 10-mile run, I decided to take my wife’s Forerunner 205 with me along with my S625X. I had gotten a new pair of shoes and I was going use the Forerunner to help me calibrate my S625X for the new shoes.

At 5.84 miles, my S625X decided to simply stop recording speed and distance. The HR monitor continued to work just fine. When I got home and offloaded the data, the data ended at the same point that the speed and distance stopped recording.

At first I thought the battery had died, but I didn’t want to stop running to check. I did check when I got home though and the green LED was blinking normally.

I did a 3-mile run today and the S625X worked flawlessly.

Maybe it was just jealous that I took the Forerunner with me

Posted by derek as Gear at 12:37 PM PST

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Last week I started to experience a pain on the outside of my left leg. After doing some digging, a likely culprit is ITBS (Iliotibial band Syndrome). It was actually very depressing getting this injury.

Among the likely causes is my shoes. I had been running in a pair of Asics GEL-1110 since I started running and I had 245 miles on them. I decided to go to a running store and get fitted for a new pair. After trying on various pairs, I settled on a pair of Saucony Grid Shadow 9 shoes which actually fit great. The sales person said that Saucony’s typically have narrow heels and wider toe boxes which fit my foot shape perfectly.

I did a 10-mile run this morning and I didn’t have any knee pains. I’m hoping this holds up and I don’t get the pain again.

The nice thing about the Saucony’s is that they are relatively cheap and that’s good news since I’ll have to be changing shoes every 2-3 months at the mileage I’m running. The only problem is that the model I got has been discontinued. I did find some places selling them online so I may have to stock up.

Posted by derek as Training, Gear, Injury at 11:19 AM PST

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I bought a Polar S625X a while back, but at the time, I was debating whether to get that or the Forerunner 305. I decided to get the Polar as I think it’s a bit more reliable and once calibrated, is very accurate.

I never did any calibration, but I was satisfied with the accuracy out of the box.

Well, I bought my wife the Forerunner 205 for Christmas as she recently started running, and yes, I gave it to her early . I took it on one of my runs and wore it along with my S625X and I must say, it’s a nice device. I did find that the S625X was off a bit and I put in a callibration factor of 970 (0.97)

I’ve set her up with SportTracks which is much better than the software that ships with the Forerunner. I have to admit that it is nice seeing where you can run. I especially like the ability to move along the course and see the data for that instant in time.

I’m still a bit apprehensive about the GPS devices as I hear about so many issues with reception, but I guess in TX, it’s not a problem since we’re so flat and we also live out in the suburbs with no tall buildings around.

I may just end up getting the Forerunner 305 next year

Posted by derek as Gear at 11:50 AM PST

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