After four steady months of swimming and biking, I decided I should go ahead and get a multi-sport watch. I really wanted it for swimming, as I'd had no real method for tracking my progress, and even my laps I 'd been counting in my head, hoping I didn't skip a number. So I went to the bike shop to check out what was available, and the choice was pretty much made for me after I looked at the prices. I "opted" for the Garmin Vivoactive , which seemed perfectly suited to my needs for a starter multi-sport watch. I was still just amazed that I could wear a watch under water! FYI, I'll probably never use the golf function. I've used it for two rides and a swim so far--but I noticed something was off on the first two summaries: The coolest feature is that I can see my strokes per lap, which are pretty consistent! 5,606 calories burned on a 20-mile ride--pretty amazing, no? As much I wanted to believe it, I knew there was no way I was burn...

I'm in about my seventh week of marathon training for Steamtown Marathon  (I didn't have an official start date--or plan--but started doing long runs some time back). Eleven more weeks of training remain. So far, so good. Yesterday morning I ran 15 miles with my friend and training buddy Nicole, and it was (for me) significantly better than last weekend's 12 miles. Part of this was because I'd just started to feel the effects of doing 13- and 14-milers for several weekends in a row without brining my mileage down, but what also helped yesterday's run was that I got to use my new GPS watch, and new running things always make a run better :) Last weekend, while running the 12 brutal miles at Upper Tampa Bay Trail , my old trusty Garmin Forerunner 305  (now discontinued and significantly more expensive than when I bought it) gave out on me. It had been giving me problems since the Nike Women's Half , back in April, mostly not charging properly and taking an extr...