Category — Training

A few weeks ago Jen and I completed our first triathlon (400m Swim, 20km Bike, 5km Run) with a few friends of ours. Everyone did great (if we do say so ourselves), and for me, it felt good to finally tackle swimming; something I never actually learned as a kid.

As with the marathon last year, we’re taking a slight breather from training while we contemplate plans for next year. I think it’s safe to say that we’ll continue with more triathlons though. The combination of specialities really helps keep things interesting and offers more well-rounded overall fitness than running or cycling alone.

When I picked up my Forerunner 301 a few years ago, Garmin’s support for the Mac left much to be desired. MotionBased was clunky, the connection required some finagling, and on it went.

When I really picked up running last year I tried out a few different tools for syncing my training progress to my Mac. Ascent is very powerful. You can literally relive your runs and rides and dissect your performance by the minute. It’s handy for exporting routes but it really was more than I wanted. I ended up going with Runner’s Log which I loved for its simplicity and fun little progress awards to keep you motivated. Although it’s specifically for running and doesn’t handle routes or mapping, it was perfectly what I needed last year.

With our first triathlon coming up, I’ve been back in the market for an easy way to track progress, and share/discover great routes both on foot and the bike. I tried MapMyRun.com at a buddy’s suggestion, but for me, it was overkill. There were ads all over the site, offers to upgrade to premium, and a never ending set of details to enter about each and every training session. The UI was, very much, out-of-control. After using it once or twice it was quickly taking the fun out of any training progress I was making.

…

Enter Garmin Connect. Somehow I came back to Garmin’s site to see how they were getting on with the Mac support they promised oh so long. After downloading my entire GPS history and using the site the last few days I have to say that Garmin Connect is fabulous!

Syncing my GPS was fast and easy after installing one simple plugin in Safari 4. The interface is clean and appealing, and the feature set is focused. You can view routes in Google Maps, playback your route, chart speed, elevation, heart rate, and cadence, set goals, export in various formats, and post to social networking. Searching for routes in my area led to some really good finds: enough to motivate me to get out on the bike for 47 miles today! Now I can’t wait to explore some more.

It’s been a long time in coming, but Garmin, I like what I see so thanks!
Link to my Garmin Connect profile.

Screenshots

Jen and I are doing the Beverly Triathlon in August… it’s our first but should be a lot of fun especially since we’ve convinced a few of our good friends to join in the fun.

The race is a super sprint (400m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) so should be a nice intro to the triathlon experience. I haven’t run much since the marathon last year, and I used to bike a ton in college but the race is a good excuse to get back into it on these fronts. Swimming is completely foreign to me but with the help of the Mrs. I’ve been making progress there as well.

Today I went out for my first training day where I strung all three events together. The weather was beautiful and all in all it was a good first effort. When we come back from vacation the emphasis will shift to bringing down the times.

Today’s effort:
Swim: 800m in 19min
Bike: 36km in 1hr 23min
Run: 9.7km in 1hr 0min

Thanks to the Mrs. for being my ever patient coach.

Thanks again to my parents for coming all the way out to Odense to see me run. Between Jen and the two of them I had plenty of moral support! Here are two videos from my parents.