Running with New Gadgets!

Today was day 3 of Week 7 of Couch to 5k. I changed a few things with my workout that ended up being pretty positive. I should backtrack a little bit....

...I had a bit of a scare last Thursday when out jogging in my (normally very safe, quiet) neighborhood. A truck drove past me several times, slowing down so the two men inside could stare at me. I tried to avoid them by changing my path and heading down a side street - but had no luck. They found me there too. After passing me that time, however, they stopped their vehicle and watched me out of the rearview and side mirrors. Just when I was starting to REALLY freak out, one of my neighbors pulled out of her driveway and the truck sped off.

Naturally, I was concerned. I wasn't close enough to home that I would have easily been able to run away from them and lock myself inside. Also, I am not overly confident in my sprinting abilities at this point! Probably my biggest worry, though, was that I didn't have my phone with me and couldn't call for help.

I don't usually bring my phone with me to work out - for a variety of reasons. First of all, that is MY time. Since I am on call for work, I often get phone calls that time of day and it takes away from my workout. Also, I already carry my iPod and (sometimes) keys, so I didn't want to have to carry anything else. Obviously, I had to make some changes to feel safe out on the roads again.

Since I have a new, fancy phone, I decided to try and figure out how to sync iTunes with my phone. It took about an hour to do that (especially since I'm not overly tech-savvy and most of the directions were for PCs - and I have a Mac), and then I decided to search for an app that used the GPS from my phone to track my run. I found (and used) CardioTrainer - and it was SO FUN! I'm really bad with gadgets - I love knowing as many useless details as possible about my workouts, food intake, etc., so this was perfect for me. Hopefully I'll be able to post screenshots, but for now, I'm happy to report that I completed 2.3 miles during my 38 minute workout (10 minutes were walking - 5 for a warm-up and 5 for a cool-down). Yay for me!