How Far?

Numbers can be very harsh. There is no room for negotiation or special pleading. It is what it is.

Traditionally I have never worried too much about mileage and mainly measured by time and heart rate and have a rough idea of the length of most of my routes. That is not good enough if I want to increase my E number as I have to know my mileage on my longer runs. In the absence of anything else, the Gmap Pedometer is really good but I use it after a run, to measure where I have been. I like to set out with only a vague plan of where I am going, with the option of making changes – either shortening or extending, trying somewhere new or even adding a hill (I can imagine all the serious athletes with their strict schedules shaking their heads with pity at someone who always builds in latitude).

This week’s longer run was a good example: all I knew was that I wanted to run about 11 miles so that I could start to raise my E Number above 10 but I did not know whether I was going to do an out and back along the canal or loop back over a ridge. As I felt quite strong when I reached Berkhamsted I thought a bit of hill work would be OK and so went up to the Common and enjoyed a section running through the trees. All in all it was a good day. Except …

Except that when I measured the distance it was 10.96 miles. Only 0.04 short of 11 but by the rules it still counts as a 10 mile run. Damn, if I had known I could have easily run the extra couple of hundred yards.

A speed/distance device would have sorted me out and I am thinking about buying one. The trouble is I cannot decide what I want: footpod or GPS, Garmin, Polar, Suunto or Timex. It is all so damn confusing. In the grand scheme of things it probably does not matter - choose one, for whatever reason, and go with it. They all have different strengths and weaknesses but will all do a job. However I can be paralysed by choice and spend ages wallying around thinking: Do I need more than the cheapest option i.e. the Garmin 50? I like the Timex as a sports watch and would also wear it all day. The Suunto display is really neat and it looks good but I think Polar have heart rate information really well sorted. There is no functional reason to prefer the more expensive Garmin 405 over the 305 but the 305 does look a bit of a lump. Etc, etc, etc.

So there you have it – the numbers might be clear and absolute but how you arrive at those numbers is far from straightforward.