From the Heart

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You all are so wonderful. I’ve enjoyed every comment and thank you for taking the time to send them to me both this week and since launching this Web log two years ago this month. Thanks also to those of you who’ve contacted me through e-mail or the phone or even in person. Without your kind words, I’m not sure I’d be so eager to go up to bat again after the latest curveballs life’s thrown at me. On a nicer note, today I’m officially the mother of a 20-year-old. Happy Birthday, Elise!

My husband took me to Road Runner Sports on Tuesday for my gift: a new heart rate monitor. I’d sustained myself on a basic model for several years, but the transmitter batteries were dead and the uncoded transmissions always prevented me from using it at the track, which is once again a key component of my weekly workouts. It also seemed slow to recover when I passed too closely to a neighbor’s television.

After long debate and price comparisons, we settled on the Polar RS200sd. It seemed to have a lot of the same features as the more popular and expensive Garmin model but uses different technology to measure pace and distance. I’ve yet to calibrate the foot pod but have tested the other features on two tempo runs and love what I see. I’ve tweaked the preset target zones so it beeps beyond 170 and below 120 (based on age charts). The soft-sounding alarm went off a few times Thursday morning despite me not feeling a change in pace.

I’m not sure if it’s good or bad that I surpass my maximum rate without “feeling it.” All I know is everyone better watch out ‘cause I’m coming up from behind. Beep! Beep!

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