Running for nerds
I decided to work on speed today, so I ran a shorter, faster run: 4.00 miles in 0:31:49. This level of detail is brought to you by the lovely and generous Erin, who bought a Garmin Forerunner 201 for me.
The unit uses GPS to record speed, time, location, etc. It includes a serial interface so run data can be transferred to a computer (and some geek has even written a Perl script to grab the data, though I haven’t tried it yet). Using Garmin-supplied software, I present a visualization of today’s run:
Graphs, maps, weekly and monthly totals, all made with XML-formatted data. Yeehaw.
My only problem so far: I didn’t push the adapter cable in the whole way the first time, and it didn’t connect. Two or three reboots later, I figured it out. Oh, and it does work as a GPS, too, with the map function giving longitude, latitude, and elevation, though because the battery is a 15-hr internal rechargeable, it wouldn’t be suitable for long trips.
August 7th, 2005 at 5:44 am
Cool! I bet you’ll love this. It really is one of the cooler pieces of bling that I own. Nerd bling.
Let me know what you think.
August 7th, 2005 at 10:16 am
Jeff’s been telling me for years that I need more bling.
I’m putting the Garmin to work again tomorrow, bright and early, and I’m going to play with the map mode this time. If it’s cool, I’ll share.