Have you taken advantage of the great Cyber Monday deals yet? If not, you’d better get busy because the clock is ticking. And while you’re surfing for the best deals, stop by our site and we’ll help you sharpen your Cyber Monday keyboard skills. If you’re really good at our Give-a-Garmin game, you’ll also have a chance to win 10 new Garmin GPS devices.

Signs of my addiction: Packing for a long weekend getaway to Phoenix, the first items to go in the suitcase are my running shoes, shorts, running shirts, socks and water bottles (for cycling and running). Not to mention three Forerunners and a nüvi. Now I’m set for a relaxing vacation. My husband has finally come to terms with my addiction and knows that when it’s just the two of us on vacation, we’re going somewhere warm and recreation-friendly. And by recreation, I don’t mean go-carts or golf carts (no offense to Caddy Carl), though we were surrounded by plenty of lush courses during our stay in Scottsdale. I prefer recreation that requires “me” power — biking, hiking, running. My husband picked the perfect place for us to stay in Scottsdale. We were less than a mile from a multi-use trail, which was ideal for some morning runs and even a short bike ride.

There are lots of reasons to love Garmin Connect, and one of my favs is that I can easily upload my activities to the site when I’m traveling. Better yet, I can use the Explore function to search for runs, rides or even hiking routes that other Garmin Connect users have uploaded. Not only does this give you an idea of where to find these great routes, but you can view all sorts of data for that activity. It’s what Garmin Connect does best—recording elevation, distance, timing and more, so you get a real-world picture of the route before you set out to explore it. Our last day in Phoenix, we made a quick stop at Papago Park outside Tempe. Didn’t have much time for our hike, but we did take in some beautiful sights with the sun setting over the mountain ridge. Alas, the setting sun signaled the end of our vacation and time to get back to reality. Would’ve loved to have stayed a few more days, especially when I saw signs at a nearby marina for Ironman Arizona, which is this weekend. I could’ve cheered on my friend Mike and some other triathletes from this area. Another time perhaps. I’ll be back to the sunny southwest again. And I’ve given my husband fair warning of my vacation wish for our 20th anniversary: hiking the Grand Canyon. He said he was thinking beach time, maybe Waikiki. We have a few years to see who wins out. I’ll keep you posted.  

A lot of people ask me for freebies. Here you go: Go get your Garmin. Update the software right now. You’re at a computer – unless you’re reading this on your phone, in which case I’ll try to keep it short – so you don’t have any excuses. Even if you just bought your Garmin yesterday, had it for years or will be opening it a month from
now, our engineers may have been working on new software while it sat
on a shelf, in your house or under the tree. Updating your software through my.Garmin.com is free, it’s fast, it’s easy and it makes your Garmin even better than before without costing a dime. And with as much as our engineers are able to pack into a software update, it should really be called a product upgrade. 

Take, for example, this week’s news about Custom Maps. Simply by updating the software on your Garmin Oregon, Dakota or Colorado and following a few simple steps, you can now transform existing paper and digital maps into downloadable content to overlay onto your device. Visit garmin.com/CustomMaps to learn more about this process that maximizes the potential of your product. To get an idea of the other aspects that can be added or improved upon through software updates, check out the newest post at GPSFix.com. While it focuses on Custom Maps, the entry also rattles off the other new benefits of the latest software updates. And it’s not just outdoor handhelds that show how great products can be made even better. My fellow bloggers Carl and Peg have shown how recent software updates can improve the Approach G5 golf GPS or the Forerunner family of fitness watches. And many of these improvements are based on customer feedback, so whether you’re talking to clerks at a retail store, my colleagues at a trade show or me during a race (that’s how I passed a couple miles of the Chicago Marathon last month), your feedback is being heard. But enough from me, you’re supposed to be updating your software. You can thank me later.

Time to check in with cyclists across the globe who are relying on Garmin’s Edge 705 to get the most out of their training, touring and racing. While Team Garmin-Slipstream enjoys a brief offseason, American sprinting sensation Tyler Farrar just wrapped up a meet-and-greet at Cycle University in West Seattle, near his hometown of Wenatchee. We’ll be announcing another chance for fans to meet Tyler, so stay tuned. Many of Tyler’s fans are in the Washington State Bicycle Association, and we had a chance to sponsor more great cycling through the WSBA’s Garmin Series for CAT4 women. “I was this year’s winner for the 2009 Garmin Series,” wrote Jennifer Hamilton, pictured at left, “and I believe that because of your generous sponsorship, it helped to get more women out racing more often this year. I’m proof of that, I ended up racing a total of 30 races this year. The Garmin 705 is a wonderful new addition to my cycling gear and I’m amazed at all of the features it has. Thank you again for your investment to our women’s racing community. It’s because of you that the WSBA can continue to develop and support new bike racers and improve the quality of women’s bike racing in the Pacific Northwest.” Congratulations, Jennifer, and thanks for sharing the highlights video from the races!

Garmin’s work with women’s cycling obviously goes far beyond Washington, as our technology is on the handlebars of the world’s best in mountain biking. German cross-country cyclist Sabine Spitz, the 2008 gold medalist in Beijing and 2009 world champion, has been busy with her Edge 705. Sabine, pictured above right, tracks her training on Garmin Connect and shares her data on Twitter. But don’t think that Edge 705 is just for racing. Our friends Mollie and Geraldine at BikesandBiscuits.com and Conde Nast Traveler used their 705′s mapping and navigation features to plan an awe-inspiring two-month bike tour of the south, fueled by curiosity and motivated by culinary delicacies. Read their blog, and join us in envying their adventures.