Tanita 6102 cardio heart rate monitor
SUMMARY: Works okay under proper conditions. Price is good.
More of a pulse meter than a heart rate monitor. I originally bought this pulse meter to try and measure my morning resting heart rate. It hasn’t been very useful for that though. When I wake up, I am still have asleep, and can’t focus my eyes. Then I need to turn the light on, and find the unit. After all of that moving around, my pulse has usually risen anyway.
Where I find it useful is when I am sitting around at work, or at home. I can pull the unit out of my pocket, and get my pulse. It is good for biofeedback. I can watch my pulse, and try to force myself to relax, and get my pulse lower.
The Tanita cardio heart rate monitor measures your pulse by measuring the light changes going through your finger. As your your hear pulses, blood is forced and into your finger, and less light comes through. Sometimes, it is tricky getting your finger in the right position. Because the unit it is looking for changes in light, it needs a consistent light source. So this unit does not work while you are moving around. Don’t even think about using it while you are running or walking. It just wont work. For that, you will better off buying a real heart rate monitor with a chest strap.
Since I bought the Tanita cardio heart rate monitor as a pulse meter, it has one behaviour that is really annoying. You press “PULSE”, and then put your finger on the sensor. It will read, and display your pulse for one minute, then switch back to displaying the time. I didn’t buy this as a clock! I don’t want it to keep switching back to displaying time!
Anyway, if you just want something to see your resting heart rate, while you are sitting around, and don’t want to go through the hassle counting beats, while watching a clock, then you might like this unit. The price is good.
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Surviving The Toughest Race On Earth by Martin Dugard
SUMMARY: Interesting book. Slows a little in places though.
The author starts out covering the Raid Gauloises as a journalist. The Raid Gauloises is a race that combines multiple disciplines. For example, you might sky dive, then hike through a jungle, then kayak on the ocean, then mountain bike up a mountain, etc. Details of the race are kept from the racers until shortly before the race. They are held in remote places like Borneo, the Andes and Madagascar. Eventually the author goes from journalist, to competitor. He puts together a team, but the team doesn’t work well together, and then after an injury, he is forced to drop out. The next year, he comes back as an independent, not part of a team. But going along, ready to fill in if a team loses a member. He eventually joins a team. The team encounters many problems, and is forced to quit. The author manages to go on and complete the race.
The Raid Gauloises has inspired other races such as Mark Burnett’s Eco Challenge, and very loosely The Amazing Race.
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Marathon-A Story Of Endurance And Friendship by Richard Harteis
SUMMARY: Not enough running. Too many intimate details of his gay sex life.
I read this because it is about the author training to run in the New York City Marathon. And since I am currently training to run my first marathon, I thought it would be interesting. However much of the book is spent talking about his non-running life. The author is gay and cares for his “friend” who is recovering from a stroke. I am not sure why he felt the need to put intimate details of his gay sex life in the book. I don’t recall too many of the autobiographical books by straight authors that had such details. If you are homophobic, you will pretty much hate this book. Then there are the bits of poetry interspersed throughout the book. I enjoyed the descriptions of his training, and actually running the NYC Marathon.
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To the Edge: A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Endurance by Kirk Johnson
SUMMARY: A very interesting book. Well written account, fun to read.
I read Dean Karnazes book (Ultramarathon Man), and I wanted to read other books about endurance running, and ultramarathons. One thing that I have found is that there aren’t very many autobiographical books from ultrarunners. But searching through Amazon, I found this book. The author was working a sports writer when he interviewed Lisa Smith, an ultrarunner. He was surprised to find the woman who had run the Badwater Ultramarathon was a normal person. If you are not familiar with the Badwater Ultramarathon, it is one of the most extreme ultramarathons in existance, if not the most extreme. The race is from the lowest point in Death Valley to the trailhead on Mt Whitney 135 miles away. It takes place in June or July, with the temperatures over 120 degrees.
After running a short ultramarathon, he talks his way into admitance to running in the Badwater. He says he only plans to run what he can, so that he can write about it. But soon his plans changes, and he decides to finish it. I have seen video of this specific race in the movie Running On The Sun. He does manage to finish the race. If you are interested in the Badwater Ultramarathon, or ultramarathons in general, I think you will enjoy this book.
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The Extra Mile-One Woman’s Personal Journey To Ultrarunning Greatness by Pam Reed
SUMMARY: Overall I enjoyed the book, but it was a little slow in some spots, and she spent a little too much time on non-running topics.
After reading Dean Karnazes book (Ultramarathon Man), I was looking for other similar books to read. The was the first one I found and bought. Unfortunately it didn’t grab me as much as Dean’s book did. She talks a lot about her problems with anorexia. But the parts of the book describing her racing are very interesting. Especially her races in the Badwater Ultramarathon which she won her first two tries. If you are interested in reading an autobiography related to running, or especially ultrarunning, you will probably enjoy this book. From what I have found, there seem to be a very small number of running related autobiographies.
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