Tech-no-no

Most people love technology. The advantages of technology, especially in our sport, can make a huge impact on our training and results. Pouring over data, splits, watts, cadence, and heart rate has almost become a discipline of its own. And then there's me. I certainly have nothing against technology, I think it's awesome. For some reason, the feeling isn't mutual. I don't understand why, I talk nicely to all my equipment, tuck it in at night, read it stories, but to no avail.

This discord first showed up in heart rate monitors. Training by heart rate is critical in Ironman. Teaching your body to stay in that golden zone 2 can be the difference between finishing strong and crawling. My first few months of training, I took my heart rate with my watch and counting beats. Then I tried monitors. The first one lasted five minutes, the second told me I had a heart rate in the 160's while I was light jogging, and dropped to a 55 while I was doing intervals...so basically I was dying. Right after that I tried a third, and I couldn't even get it to pick up my heart rate. So I went back to the old fashioned method, and I was happy to know I still had a heart rate during intervals.

GPS became an issue. During my Southern Tour with Hannah, Whinney (as she is called in our family), would take me the worst way possible. Trying to find Target from our hotel took us through every back road, and when we finally got there, right across the parking lot was the same road our hotel was on. What the heck?!? Whinney tried to take us back the way we came, but I ignored her and took the main road. Took 20 mins to get there, five to get back. Houston, we have a problem.

Michael didn't believe that Whinney had it out for me until we took two cars to Ikea in Atlanta. We typed in the same address, and off we went. We got separated in traffic, and after he got there, he asked me where I was. My answer? I have no idea. She had us on a road I had never seen, through two neighborhoods that were pretty scary and a U turn that I missed because why would there be a U turn???

Once we finally got there we looked at the routes. Using the same address, Whinney had Michael get off at exit 250, and I was sent to exit 252. He now believed.

As we were renovating, Lowe's became our second home. We took our cart to checkout, waited our turn, and then the lady started trying to scan our merchandise. And nothing. The gun wouldn't work. She tried resetting it, and nothing. She laughed, saying she had just used it. Michael looked at me and asked me to go stand about ten feet away. The lady look really confused. Michael told her to go ahead, and sure enough, the scanner worked. She couldn't believe it, but it didn't surprise me at all.

Theories range from having certain magnetic fields in my body that messes with tech, to since I was electrocuted as a child, it stayed with me. My Garmin and I get along well enough, except that it can take four or five tries to get it started sometimes. I'm reluctant to upgrade to the 920 since it's a lot of money to spend on something I'm not sure will work for me. Maybe I'm reading the wrong bedtime stories...