What time is it?

I misplaced my watch some time Thursday or Friday and it still hasn't turned up. It's annoying. As most of you can guess, it's not just a watch, but also a heart rate monitor. I use the timex ironman road trainer which is a pretty cheap HR monitor, but gives me all the information I need. Now that it has gone missing, I fear that I might have to replace it. I spent most of the weekend upending my apartment looking for it and then I hoped I would find it this morning in my classroom, but alas, I didn't. So the question is - do I simply replace what I had and was very happy with if I can't find my watch, or do I upgrade? I had been thinking that maybe for Christmas next year or something I would ask for a watch upgrade, but I would hold on to mine for this year. But now that it's gone, do I spend $75 replacing something that I might replace again in 11 months? Or do I bite the bullet now (even though I'm REALLY trying to be frugal) and upgrade early? If I do upgrade, I'd like to go with the timex ironman global trainer which I can get for around $200. I like timex, I like the ironman logo/endorsement/brand and it has HR, GPS and ant+ capabilities. I would have liked to wait another year so that timex can iron out all the kinks with the global trainer as it just came out last year, and all the ant+ features are useless until I upgrade some parts on my bike which I was also planning on doing next year...so is it worth it??

Maybe more importantly though - is it worth it at all to pay for all these little toys? I'm not too much of a numbers guy... I wear the HR monitor and have learned to use it to train in certain zones and to tell me when I'm going to bonk, but I don' know that I need GPS. I can mapmyrun or guestimate if I really feel like figuring distance out. I've been running long enough to know the routes and about what pace I'm holding. I don't have any ant+ monitors on my bike - I don't have a power meter or cadence. Power is something I'd like to know, but I'm not so sure it's necessary and cadence I can estimate. Plus, my training program is all about time spent biking/running, not distance covered.

Just some things I'm thinking about.

I'll officially start my training program next week. I started inputting the workouts in my google calendar. When I finish it I'll post a link to it on the blog. What is going to be tough is the two 5am workouts per week (minimum). And since my pool doesn't open early enough they will be either runs or rides thus my swims will be in the evenings.

I had an OK week to end January. 10 hours of training. 10k yards swimming. 15 miles running and 4.5 hours on the bike. Only 30 min of strength/core this week. I'll have to bump that up this week. I haven't taken a day off in 15 days and don't plan on it this week...

Lastly, I found this article about how to break 10 hours in the ironman (my goal). I'll write more on it later, but it's worth reading if you're a triathlete.

Go get it!