I have been globally positioned

This past week I finally gave in and bought a GPS device.  So far I'm having some fun playing around with it in training, but I'm quite aware of its limitations.

I've always been something of a Luddite when it comes to the gadgets being marketed to athletes.  I really think that anybody with an appreciable amount of training under his belt should be able to determine intensity and pace by feel.  With a bit of practice and familiarity with your body it's not that hard to tell when you're in the "aerobic zone" or when you're "going lactic."  And if you tell a decent high school runner to run a lap of the 400-meter track in 75 seconds, he'll probably hit it within a second or so because he's become familiar with what 75-second pace feels like.

I doubt I will use my GPS during a race, especially one on anything rougher than dead-calm flatwater.  If I do take it in the boat with me, it'll be with the miles-per-hour display turned off.  When the objective is simply to compete with the other racers, knowing how fast or not-fast I'm going seems like an unwanted distraction.

Having said all that, I'm having fun using the GPS in practice.  One of my favorite things to do with it is measure distances.  In the harbor I have several courses defined by permanent objects that I've been timing myself on for years, and it's nice to know at last what the exact distances are.  I'm also experimenting with using the device in pace workouts, though it's important not to accept the feedback at face value.  The workout I did yesterday is a perfect example: I paddled from the marina out of the harbor and up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River; then, paddling on the Wolf, I timed myself over four one-mile pieces (note to my international readers: my GPS seems to deal only in British units).  My times were 9:24, 9:11, 8:16, and 8:07, and the rather large differences had everything to do with atmospheric and surface conditions.  I did the first two pieces going up the Wolf, but I should note that current wasn't much of a factor because at yesterday's Mississippi River stage (16.7 feet on the Memphis gauge) the big river backs pretty far up into the Wolf.  However, there was a stiff northeast wind blowing, and on the first piece in particular I was paddling right into the teeth of that wind.  For the second piece I was in a more protected section of the river, but by the end of it I was far enough up that I was running into some current.  I did the third and fourth pieces coming back down the Wolf, with the conditions opposite what they'd been going up, and that's the reason for the faster times.

Now that I think about it, I probably haven't said anything that profound in this post.  The athletes I race with are smart guys and gals and have probably figured these things out for themselves: I'm sure that when their GPSs tell them they're going really slow they can deduce the reason from the conditions they're paddling in.  I guess the main point I'm trying to make here is that I hope to have some fun with this new toy but I don't expect it to bring about any dramatic changes in my training.