New gadget alert...training smarter!

I have been running with my Garmin Forerunner 305 for nearly five months now, the problem of late has been the lack of running. While running has taken a move to the back burner, cycling has been brought to the forefront; as a way to maintain my overall fitness and to develop my quadriceps muscle group which forms part of the prescribed treatment of my IT Band Syndrome. While I enjoy covering the miles on the open road it is also important to build in some speed/hill work on the trainer, typically these are presented in a cadence format. To round out the dataset from the 305, I decided to invest in the Garmin Cadence/Speed Sensor. I ordered it through an Amazon affiliate ANTOnline, for $35.67, ($25 cheaper than RRP), I took advantage of free standard (3-5 days) shipping and was delighted to find it on my doorstep two days later.

After spending five minutes fitting the monitor to the chainstay and the magnets to the pedal for cadence and a spoke for speed it was up and running…well cycling, you know what I mean. After an hour riding a set of Cadence Intervals and Isolated Leg Training sets (sorry for the image quality) I uploaded the data into Garmin Training Center and I could see the cadence results in addition to the usual data; heart rate, speed etc.

Given the recent demise of my Polar S410; the receiver has finally given up the ghost after 401 hours/118,475 calories worth of exercise, I am now migrating my data to the Garmin Training Center and Buckeye Outdoors so the addition of the cadence data will allow me to train smarter, what does that really mean? Well, when I am fully recovered and start training in earnest for the next year's season I can (1) eliminate those junk miles, and (2) avoid a repeat of my current ITB issues. Achieving both of these sounds like a good idea to me.