My day today is kind of a sick child train wreck, and it is so not even worth discussing. For this reason, I will tell you all about some interesting information that I learned on the Fourth of July. Now, last year, I met Mike Gugat at a party, and he was then working for Mizuno and he sent me a pair of Mizuno shoes. The shoes were somewhat life changing as I had been running in rather heavy Saucony's with all sorts of added insoles and arch supports, and my feet sounded sort of funny when they hit the pavement. (I would call the sound a slap/ drag) The Mizuno's were lighter, and I didn't need any arch support, and I was a convert. I ran the Boston marathon in them, and I feel that I am a Mizuno girl.
SO, on the Fourth of July, we were invited to a party with the same Mike Gugat and he is now working for Adidas. Now, Mike Gugat himself, is a fascinating individual: charismatic, diplomatic, tall, knowledgable - all of the things that make you want to listen. Anyway, he told me all about a new technology which Adidas is introducing called the miCoach. The miCoach works through any ipod, and it corresponds with a foot sensor, heart rate monitor, and pacer sensor to tell you the paces you need to be hitting to make your goals. You can program it to tell you at any mile mark or meter mark if you are on pace or too fast or too slow.
Now, NO DOUBT, the miCoach would change my life during a track workout. I could set it to tell me if I was on pace every 200 meters. Currently Tracy the Great is my miCoach, but what if I had something in my head that told me to slow down or speed up at every 200 meter evaluation? What if I had had that same technology while I was training for Boston? What if I had programmed that I wanted a 3:20 marathon and the watch told me every couple of minutes whether I needed to pick it up or drop it down.
When I was Boston training, the first several months I struggled mightily with starting out too fast and then being forced to drop down to a shameful pace to finish the run. This was because I tried to hang with the 3:15 runners for the first several miles, before crashing burning and maybe calling my mom on the way home a couple of time and crying a bit. Marathon training was sad times, and I needed a pace car. Is the miCoach that pace car?
I ran Boston successfully this year, by receiving great coaching from Richard Baker. He made me back my times off, and he told me how to start out Boston. I would have had to walk Boston without Richard Baker, but with a miCoach, I could have been on it the whole time. I could have run each mile at Boston 10 seconds faster and finished closer to my long term goal.
I really think a miCoach would make me more successful, but is the miCoach going to be that technology that makes me dependent on technology. My car GPS has robbed me of the knowledge of which way is east and which way is west. I really don't know how to get anywhere, I rely completely on technology. I feel that I would never learn true pacing with the miCoach. BUT, the bottom line is that I am 34 years old, I haven't learned pacing yet, and if I want a faster marathon while I am still at an age to be competitive, the miCoach may be my only option.
I see a miCoach in my future, but I have questions. Is a miCoach race legal? Can I wear it at Boston. You know what, I bet I can. Adidas is the cash cow at Boston and I bet they won't stop anyone from using their products. It may not be for purists, but I bet it works. IN FACT, I think I saw a lot of people running at Boston wearing signs that said "ask me about miCoach". If you can do it at Boston, that is really all that matters. Boston is really the only marathon I want to run. Oooh, I take that back: Paris and London, but just for the trips. Boston is the only place I want to run well.
Pic is of Kathleen Johnson beating me at the Tom King because I started out at sub 7:00 minute miles and fell apart at the end. The miCoach would have stopped me!!
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