Imara

This is my friend Imara. I bought her at the Nike employee store about a month ago, and I run with her every morning.

At first this seemed kind of gadget-y and unnecessary. I needed a running watch, for sure, so I could track my time. But Imara is so much more. She is a heart rate monitor/watch/computer. No GPS, but I'm OK with that. I love to wear the heart rate monitor on my runs, because it helps me know that I'm staying in the 80-90% zone for the best workout. It beeps at me when my heart rate is too low, and beeps at me if I'm pushing it too hard. Best of all, when I am done, I switch to data mode and see how many calories I have burned, and also how much time I spent in the target heart rate zone.

Saturday I ran 8 miles. It took me almost 1 1/2 hours because I am a slow runner right now. But when I got to the top of our hill on the way home, I hit the data button and saw that I had burned 1000 calories! I celebrated with a glass of chocolate milk. It's the best protein drink around.