http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article5774661.ece

It struck me that a lot of running is to do with what goes on in our heads and our attitude. Often when running in my head I am viewing it as a “hobby” so feel I should be enjoying it, looking at the scenery etc and it shouldn’t hurt too much. However, training for an event is different – the running is not an end in itself and therefore my attitude needs to be different. I need to concentrate more, both on my pace and running style (I need to keep reminding myself to lift my knees up when I get tired) and run intelligently. So if I’m on a hilly bit I moderate my pace and take smaller steps and conversely when on the flat I need to push myself a bit more. Oh yes – and not be afraid of a bit of discomfort. As my other half often reminds me, I have never not made it back from a run or collapsed in a heap so there is more “in the tank” and you can usually push yourself more than you think without disaster! Now I know none of the above is rocket science – I just needed to remind myself of it and practice it!

By the way, my Garmin footpod is now operational again – a new battery was all that was required thankfully. Was so glad to have it today.

On a downside, my Garmin footpod (which I use with my Garmin Forerunner 50 watch to tell my pace and distance) stopped working. Hopefully it just needs a new battery although I did put in the battery from my heart rate monitor and it still didn’t work. It was however strangely liberating just running and concentrating on my style and pace without constantly checking what pace my watch said I was doing. Consequently I appeared to run faster than usual along the flat canal part of the run (according to my other half’s Garmin).

Cooked up mussels with a white wine and cream (double cream!) sauce – don’t usually use cream in sauces but it was Valentines night. Had bought some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream but we just couldn’t face it so it’s still in the freezer!

• Garmin Forerunner 50 watch. Am getting to grips with watch and loving it and am just getting into using the heart rate monitor. Will keep you posted on that.
• Flickr – continuing to use Flickr for my visual food diary and have got into the habit of automatically photographing my meals on my camera phone.
• Twitter – tweeting about my runs and the occasional word of running wisdom.
• Fetch Everyone – another web tool for logging training, planning runs, connecting with other runners, More info on this to come.
• Dailymile – have just started to use www.dailymile.com for recording my training (similar to Gyminee) and will blog a bit more about that in the next day or so.

• The footpod lets you track running pace, distance, calories burned, cadence.
• The heart rate monitor tracks your heart rate and allows you train in a certain heart rate zone.
• The USB ANT stick allows for all the data to be automatically transmitted to your computer when the device is within range. You can then analyse and share it using Garmin Training Center software.

The Forerunner 50 website on the Garmin website demonstrates how it all works

Further general info on the Forerunner 50 on the Garmin website

Cost: TechnoTrotter paid approx £105 for the watch, footpod and HRM

TechnoTrotter is currently testing the Forerunner 50 and will post a review in due course.

Anyway it’s a while since I’ve had a watch that measured pace as I ran – I went through a phase of running without a watch so there was no pressure, but know that if I’m going to improve I need to train a bit more intelligently. So for about a mile or so of the run I pushed myself and was doing 8 – 8:15m/m which for me is fast. Having the watch meant that I knew exactly how fast I was running and helped me hold the pace. Overall I ran 4.5 miles in 40 mins.

Only downside – I’m a bit accident prone and in risk of running into street furniture (lamp posts, litterbins, street signs) as I peer in the dark at my watch trying to read my running pace! Oh, and there’s also a heart rate monitor – I will try that shortly but my multi-tasking isn’t great and it will probably mean flicking between screens which could get interesting!