New year, new focus, new name, new gadgets

This blog used to be called 'Fad Free Fitness'.  I changed it because, fickle as I am, I now have too many gadgets to truly call myself 'fad free'. Last year, my focus was on finding ways to stay fit and healthy without spending lots of money or going to the gym.  This year, it's all about eating and running to de-stress and be happy.  If I can add another marathon PB to that, all the better.

The fad free ethos still stands. I'm not starting the new year with a detox or a resolution to eat special berries or drink exotically named tea in a bid for everlasting health.  However, who am I to judge when I head out for a run looking like Inspector Gadget?

I've been known to run with my Garmin Forerunner on one wrist and my Polar heart rate monitor on the other.  I then head back to upload it all into Fetch Everyone.  I somehow believe that the more information I hoard about my training, the faster I'll run.  I'm not particularly scientific about it, but I do like to look at the pretty graphs and charts and find out how I'm doing.  I think the main reason that it helps is that it keeps me motivated and on track. 

That's why, come tomorrow, I'll be back to monitoring my eating on Daily Burn.  This latest gadget is an app that I found on iPhone.  I've used online food diaries before, but soon got bored with constantly having to update them.  The beauty of doing it on your phone is that it's always with you and always logged in, so it's much simpler and easier to do.  Food diaries are a fantastic way of keeping you on track with a healthy diet, not least because they make you pay attention to what you're eating.  I don't aspire to lose lots of weight, but I have had a few too many chocolates over Christmas, so it will be good to get back to feeling healthy.

Planning moves into the 21st century

At last! I'm finally getting to grips with all the websites and technologies that are available to help me with my training. Like twitter, I signed up for Fetch everyone a good 18 months before I actually started to use it. I just didn't have the motivation to figure out how it worked.

Until now, my training log was strictly low-tech - scribbled in diaries or on bits of paper. Not any more! This week I finally succumbed to the lure of Fetch everyone's gadgets and gizmos and put it all online. The site is great - I've mapped out a few runs that I do regularly, uploaded some recent runs from my Garmin, logged recent race times and prepared a plan for the next four weeks training.

The trouble is, I'm now addicted. Between Fetch Everyone, Facebook, emails and this blog, not to mention work, I've been sitting on my bum for an unhealthy number of hours every day. How do you know when to stop?

To compensate, this week I joined my local running club and I've also started daydreaming about entering a marathon later in the year. I swore I'd never do another one after being unable to walk for days after the last time, but it's been four years now and I'm in the mood for a challenge. I think I'll get next week's 10k out of the way first though.