Kinda Quiet In Here

It appears that folks either aren't running, or aren't blogging but there's not much action up here this week.

Tomorrow I go again, but I figured I'd post something up for discussion sake. In my posts I put a little list of time, HR, distance, temp and Training Effect. The last item is probably unfamiliar to you. For Christmas I received a Suunto T3 Heart Rate Monitor. Like most HR monitors it comes in two pieces -- a wrist watch and a chest belt. The belt broadcasts the heart rate to the watch where it is recorded.

The watch is quite robust and it stores the data -- up to 15 workouts -- and let's you scroll through the data. It counts monthly and weekly totals and it can even be paired with a GPS to record mileage -- that's my next acquisition I think. Anyway, in addition to HR, time, calories (I burn an average of about 450 Kcals/run) it also records the aforementioned Training Effect. Basically, the watch scores each run based on avg/max HR, distance and Kcals on a scale of 1-5. The longer and harder you go, the higher your score -- though if you scroll down the list you'll notice that higher isn't necessarily better based on goals.

You can set your fitness level and the watch will move you up as you perform more. I moved very quickly from level 4-5 but have been on 5 for a while. I need to boost my training and get my workouts up to 5 in order to move to the next level. The levels are based on frequency and length of workout/week. It's a cool tool and I love to run with it. Allegedly, Carmichael Training Systems (the dudes who trained Armstrong) use this watch. I'd totally recommend running with a HR monitor if you don't -- it's nice to see the data from a run and it helps with pacing and helps you to see where you're netting out.

So, get out there and start running (and blogging) the weather's getting nice and you're running out of excuses.

Super Cool!

Well, I didn't go running today (tomorrow's my day) but I did find a fascinating tool while speaking with a colleague. It's Google Maps mash-up that let's you track your running route. I've been thinking about one of these for a while but always forget to look for it.

The URL for the app is here:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

My colleague found it on this blog:

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com

I'll add both to the link list. An interesting thing is that I've been running further than I thought on my short route -- 3.3153 miles to be exact. Have fun with this time waster! Above is the shot of my route -- I don't want to give access to the satellite image and let people hone in on the casa -- call me paranoid.

LDT Tech

Because I work in the interactive marketing industry, and I'm curious about such things I've added some nifty high tech features to this blog. More for my own curiosity and self education than anything else, but it's also kind of interesting.

FeedBurner
I've added a couple of icons in the right hand column, under "Feeds" -- one is a general RSS feed from FeedBurner (Orange Icon, which is an industry standard symbol for feed) -- it works in all readers. The other is a Google Reader-specific feed. If you know about feed readers you know how cool they can be. Click on the general (orange) icon, and you'll get a link and an offer to place it into your favorite reader. I use Google reader because it's easy and it keeps my online tool suite on one basic platform. The really cool thing about FeedBurner however is that it tracks how many people have your feed and how often they use it. I've got a login on FeedBurner.com that let's me see this data. Right now, we don't have too many subscribers -- so subscribe and get our numbers up! Tell your friends and family and get the word out!

Google Analytics
On Saturday night I was totally geeking out and added some code to the blog template that permits us to track the traffic to LDT over on Google Analytics. I know for instance that somebody (most likely VT Runner) logged in from China -- there is a visit logged from over there. We have a minuscule traffic which is expected for a blog of this nature, and it's all us. It's interesting to see the data and the graphs -- I'll share data as it becomes available and interesting, right now it's gearing up.

I just wanted to let you all know what I'm up to with the blog -- it's not just a writing exercise, it's an educational experience.

Oh, yeah, the cold whipped me again . . . it's got to be 8 F or above for me to go out. Totally arbitrary, but very much a psychological threshold.