Wednesday, September 13th is my birthday (if you're wondering what to get me - please make a donation to Team for Kids in my name - just click on the link to the right).

My husband, Rob, always lets me pick out my own gift. Last month I decided I wanted a new heart rate monitor. If you read my blog about six weeks ago you know that I fried my old heart rate monitor while pool running. I spent the last month researching the different choices. I finally decided on the Polar F11. When I read about it I was dazzled by all of the cool tricks it could perform, and I LOVED that I could get the watch in red.

The F11 arrived the Friday before my birthday. Rob was kind enough to let me open it early. It was just as beautiful as it looked in the picture. The fabric Wearlink chest strap was more comfortable than any monitor I had ever worn. I was in heart rate heaven. I started to read the manual. Yep...it had all of the cool doodads that I was expecting. It even had a fit test, a function that could potentially confirm the fact that I was indeed the fittest woman in all the world (hey, we can all dream can't we?).

It wasn't until I was about half way through the manual that I realized that my dream monitor did not have a stopwatch. WHAT? No stopwatch? What kind of runner buys a monitor without a stopwatch? It had something called an exercise timer instead, which meant that you could start it and stop it, but that was it. No lap timer, no interval timer, nothing. This is fine if you're just using it for the stair climber or the elliptical trainer, but it's horrible if you're using it to get mile splits or do an interval workout. I immediately ran to the computer and looked it up. I had bought a fitness hr monitor, not a running one. I was so blinded by its beauty and it's gadgets that I didn't make sure it had the most important function, a stopwatch. Rob saw me checking out other monitors on the computer, and immediately realized something had gone horribly wrong. I finally told him the story. But instead of getting mad, he told me not to worry about it. He said to get online and pick out a new one, and told me we'd sell the F11 on EBay (which is where it sits now...waiting for a a bidder...in case you're interested).

Here's the picture of my new NEW heart rate monitor, the Polar S210. I know...it's not as cute as the F11, and it isn't red, but it has a stopwatch and that's the most important part.

Yesterday I did my hardest workout to date. It consisted of eight one mile repeats at a 7:40 pace, pretty fast for me. I'm getting geared up for the Boulder Backroads 1/2 marathon on Sunday, September 24th. I watched "Without Limits," the biography of runner Steve Prefontaine during my workout. That made the pain much easier to take.

It's interesting how both my mind and body respond to interval workouts. While I'm doing the one mile repeats, my mind is telling me to quit. Then it says "there is no way I can do six more of these." But when I finish the repeat, and start the three minute recovery jog, both my mind and body get a new attitude. Two minutes into the recovery and my mind starts saying "oh I can do more, I can finish this, it's not a problem," and my body starts to say "ok, whatever you say." I know this is how the whole thing is supposed to work, but I'm always amazed each time it actually does.

I know I'm getting a little bit faster and a little bit stronger with each interval workout that I do. The goal is to make it so that my 8:30 marathon pace feels comfortable during the race. The funny thing is that I don't actually know what an 8:30 pace feels like. All of my runs are either much faster or much slower. I know exactly what a 7:30 pace feels like, and exactly what a 10:00 pace feels like. I guess I'll find out exactly what an 8:30 feels like in two weeks at the 1/2 marathon.

Just a quick update on Rush and his broken leg...
He's doing much better. He actually started to walk in the cast, just like the doctor said he would. We call him Peggy because he walks like he has a peg leg. It's kind of cute. Only 10 more days and the cast comes off. I can't wait...and I'm sure Rush can't wait either. More later.