My Garmin Forerunner 50

For the first time since the last of the gruelling efforts (yes, I'm exaggerating) made in the past month, I have finally managed to get my Garmin Training Centre up and running. Yay! The useful program allows me to track and record the progress of my fitness training. Not that I'm becoming a hardcore fitness buff, but there's a growing realization in me that knowing your physical strength, abilities and limits is the key to a well-balanced lifestyle.

My Forerunner 50 comes with the sports monitoring watch, USB ANT stick, heart rate monitor and a foot pod. Initially, I was very, VERY concerned about how I am going to make full use of this seemingly high tech toys. I kept postponing on reading the manual and pairing up the devices (a synchronization process) and just stick to wearing the lightweight, cool-looking watch everyday just to please Mr. B. Haha! It was actually a present from him, in an effort to stimulate my waning interest in sweating it out at the gym. I would be carrying the set to the gym every single time; not knowing how to use it properly.

Every time I tried to use it- imagine walking the treadmill with one arm held up to toggle and test the functions and another flipping through the manual helplessly- it just doesn't function well. Last week when I confessed to Mr. B that I can't set it up (the ego has landed!), he went through the setting up again with me every step of the way. That's when he figured out that the heart rate monitor and foot pod batteries were probably out.

I hate it when he's right.

So he changed the batteries and walla! everything worked out fine. So today, I recorded my training and flaunted my braggadocio rights to my trainer and gym pals. At home, I just have to plug in the USB ANT stick into my laptop and the program instantly started a wireless upload from my watch. The data and graphs were so detailed to the point that makes me feel like I'm carrying out a health diagnosis on myself.

I'll continue charting my progress, and I hope soon I'll be able to figure out what all these data actually translates to. If you wanna know more about this cool device, check it out here.