During Deena Kastor’s recent visit to Garmin HQ, she talked about a less-than-enjoyable run in Las Vegas. The paved streets, fumes and buzzing lights were a far cry from her usual workout regime: crisp runs along mountaintop trails in Mammoth Lakes. Rather than leave the desert city with a bad taste in her mouth, Deena turned to a resource I’ve used myself on many an out-of-town trip: the Explore feature in Garmin Connect. “With one click of the mouse, I found a run in Red Rock Canyon, and that run absolutely changed my Las Vegas experience.” Who knows? Maybe the very activity she found in Garmin Connect was my own Red Rock Canyon run from a visit there in March. One of my favorite things about “running away from home” is having the Garmin Connect data as a travel log to relive whenever I wish.
And here’s the rest of the story of my brief visit to the desert:
A couple weeks before the official launch of the Forerunner 110, I took my eager new training partner on a little spring break vaca with my teenage daughter. Our destination: Vegas, baby. Odd pick for a mother/teen daughter trip perhaps, but we had a higher purpose than that of the zillions who spin through Sin City. Namely, restoring our vitamin D levels while visiting my sister and her family. Their party of five includes two rambunctious boys who can be anywhere and everywhere in 6 secs flat and a cherub-cheeked angel girl who’ll be busting out of that stroller any day and giving her brothers a run for the money. And she might be wearing boots and nothing else while doing so, but that’s another story entirely.
Day one of our stay included a family-friendly hike at Red Rock Canyon. Though I didn’t have my Forerunner 110 with me that day to record our trek, we took plenty of photos to chronicle our outing. My brother-in-law told us about some of the other trails and piqued our interest in one called Icebox Canyon. It was labeled as “moderate” in the trail guide and would be roughly a 2-hour journey. My daughter’s intrigue grew and we determined we must fit it in during our short stay.
Day two involved play time with the kids followed by an evening out for my daughter and me — dinner and a Cirque Soleil show. The show was exceptional and as for the dining, it was possibly the only time I’ve come close to earning/eating a fair value at a food buffet. Comes with the territory when you’re in peak mileage for marathon training (I was a month out from Boston Marathon at the time). Thanks to nüvi’s diligent directions, we made it to the big city and back to the ‘burbs without a hitch.
Day three was my time to overdose on the outdoors. I drove out to
Red Rock Canyon as the sun was first rising, begging me to come out and play. Play I did. With Forerunner 110 ready to track every mile and minute, I set out for a 14-mile run on the Scenic Loop. One of the things I most love about the 110 is that
it’s so fuss-free. Records the data I need — distance, pace and heart rate — and I can upload later to Garmin Connect for more detail. Like elevation. It wouldn’t be the scenery alone taking my breath away on this run. Less than two miles into my run, I was panting and Forerunner showed my heart rate was elevated.
I started taking in the terrain and landmarks and had instant recall of
biking this loop a few years ago at the Interbike show. I was grateful to be powering up these climbs on my legs vs. a demo bike that wasn’t exactly a perfect fit for an XS female. I also recalled how the 14-mile loop included killer long climbs on the front end and some drastic, brake-burning drops on the backside. I soon decided that running this as an out-and-back would save me from a lot of extra pounding. So once Forerunner heralded my halfway point, I circled back and enjoyed some downhill coasting. Check out
my run in the map player function of Garmin Connect.
But, my day of ODing in the desert was far from over. My sister drove my daughter out to join me for a twosome trek to Icebox Canyon. Though my sister was never a scout of any sort, she came with a day’s worth of food & drink rations for us plus a huge ice pack to take the heat off my chronic “pain in the foot. Medical training, she does have. And the worrying traits of our mother. After resting, replenishing and resetting my Forerunner, my daughter and I set off on our hike. As we scrambled over boulders and walk-jogged the craggy pathways, there was a sense of adventure and teamwork that doesn’t seem to surface when dealing with geometry homework or chores.
I was grateful that this was how she chose to round out our last full day in the desert vs strolling through shopping malls. Roundtrip, the hike took us a little over an hour. While making it up to see the waterfalls tucked deep in that canyon proved more challenging than the “moderate” rating in the trail guide suggested, we loved every minute of it. And, we ended up with more stories to tell, including a chance to relive every step in Garmin Connect. Like a travel log complete with map, notes and stats.
