Heart Rate Monitor

I bought a heart rate monitor on ebay. It's a Timex ironman 30 laps something.
I already took it for a test-drive last week at the gym when running on the threadmill, I think my average heartrate was 140, with a peak of 155.
Today, I went running on the road for an hour. It was around freezing point and some spots still had snow on the streets, so I had to be carefull. Normally today was a tempo run, but I didn't run since last week, because my gym membership expired, I got sick early last week, and then I got this sore throat for over 5 days, of which I knew that it would get worse if I went running.
So, I kind of kicked the pace a little without really going as hard as a regular tempo run.
Here are the numbers:
heart rate in zone (I think that's between 130-152): 28
average heartrate: 155
peak heartrate: 173
min heartrate: 72
total calories: 998

recovery 1 minute: 161 - 121

So, since my average heartrate is around 155, I guess I ran a little faster then my normal runs.
The recovery seems good to me. I'll have to check how this evolves.

On another note, I bought "advanced marathoning" by Pfitzinger. That book is somewhat considered a bible in marathon preparation, so I'm really looking forward to read it. Also, the book uses a lot of heartrate functionalities, so that will certainly come in handy.