New toy: my Garmin Forerunner 305 arrived this morning. Despite already owning and rarely using a (cheap) HRM (which is probably still somewhere around the place, for all that I haven't seen it in months) and having previously owned a GPS unit - broken in the One Eleven, where I found it didn't work too well as a wrist guard - which I also rarely used, I'm hoping that the new unit will come out more often.

OK, it's not just about spending money instead of doing work. I want a way to collect data (speed, effort) when I'm training, so that I have a better idea next year of what I'm doing and whether I'm getting faster than just trying to guess from marathon times. This new toy can be set to do things like interval workouts (e.g. 500m on, 2 minutes off) and remember them, so much less messing around with stopwatches and stuff. Next year's goal is - what the hell, why not? - a 1:10 marathon (and Engadine doesn't count), so getting some structure into my off season is going to be needed. This week:

• Monday off (mostly in Cologne (mostly in Starbucks))
• Tuesday RC for the LFNS which I'm leading tomorrow
• Wednesday short skate around Bethnal Green and then a rather unconvincing dryland session (some of the exercises we did in Sardinia, but too little of any of them to cripple me the following day)
• Thursday crossovers. Now, I'm moderately happy with crossovers turning left - there's still things to do, but they're not going to kill me. Turning right is still a messy business, though: I've got the going-round-in-circles drill licked, but when I actually have to actually go around an actual corner, it just doesn't translate. I can feel my toe wheel scraping at the end of the underpush, which says something is wrong (and I think it's the weight/upper body position).
• Friday will be LFNS leading, so doesn't count as training in any meaningful sense, but good opportunity to work on acceleration.
• Saturday Richmond: hills and bicycle chasing
• Sunday currently planning on some 500m sprints (had intended to do them today/yesterday, but couldn't find a suitable traffic-free 500m) and then ride the bike on the Stroll.

Initial notes on getting training data out of the Garmin and into a computer will follow when I've actually achieved same, but they don't make it easy for non-Windows users.