Long Run Sunday

We had a busy weekend and actually decided to bag Saturday's short run in favor of taking the dog for a long walk. Sometimes running isn't the most important thing on earth! I am happy to report she made it all the way around the reservoir and we didn't even have to carry her home. She was VERY tired though when we got home!

Using my purse as a pillow

So my husband had work commitments most of the day on Sunday, so we had no choice but to do our long run later in the day. I am NOT a fan of doing long runs in the afternoon/night - I usually have less energy and less drive to run, not to mention the decrease in daylight. We set out to run for ~2 hours around 6pm. It was pretty uneventful; although some runner's knee pain started around mile 9-10, so we took a shortcut on the way back and cut the run about a mile short. Since it's race week, it didn't seem worth it to me to push further and possibly hurt myself.

Run: 13.04 miles

Time: 1:51:00

Avg. Pace: 8:31

I still need to work on pacing - I told myself I was going to take it easy, but again, I just got impatient around  10-11 miles and had a random mile at 7:37, after which my exasperated husband (who was having some foot pain himself) chided me for going so fast. I seem to consistently be pretty slow for the first 5 miles - not really hitting a good stride until miles 5-10. 

There's a good possibility it will be very warm at this weekend's race - low 80's, but the race starts at 7 am so hopefully that will be helpful. Fingers crossed, I really don't want another Nashville-esque disaster.

Mile Total for the Week: 30

I bit the bullet... and ordered a Garmin.

I ordered the Garmin 405 (water resistant version) last night:

I wanted the green one, but I was considerate and ordered the black one in case my husband wants to borrow it. I told myself I'd think about it a few days. In that time frame I did a lot research, and discovered that the reviews are decidedly mixed on EVERY model of Garmin. I asked some running friends, and quite a few use this model, and like it (I will certainly be locking the bezel on runs). But this one was definitely the most wallet-friendly at $137. So I ordered one that was "Used-Like New" from Amazon, so if for some reason I don't like it or it doesn't work well for me, I can return it no problem. It also comes with a warranty. It looks as if it was just returned and repackaged, no big deal to me. I also have seen there are LOT of Garmin 305's on eBay, so if this one doesn't work, I'll probably go to that option. That one seems to get the best reviews, but that sucker is BIG and I have child-sized wrists (like 5.5" circumference). 

I decided to order mostly out of frustration. My iPhone GPS app does some great things, and I will still use it for most of my runs, but the accuracy of all the apps leaves a lot to be desired. At the Country Music Half,  my distance was off my almost a quarter mile. I have to wonder if is has to do with having a lot of people in one place trying to use the same cell signals. Neither mine or my husband's data would work at all at the finisher's village. 

Yesterday I set out for a standard run, and about a 1/2 mile from my house, I hear my robot man voice come over my earbuds to tell me I'd just run 1 mile in 3:59. Yeah, um, I wish! And then I'd had enough, and decided that I needed something that provided some consistent accuracy, along with being able to *accurately* tell me my CURRENT pace. I went out WAY too fast in my last race and didn't know until it was too late and the damage was done. I also read a lot of running blogs these days, and it seems that every fast, strong runner out there uses a Garmin. I finally admitted to myself that it was probably an important element to training to get faster. 

So it arrives in 2 days and I am like a kid in a candy store. I LOVE gadgets! I am also looking forward to using it when I visit my parents later this month - they live in a very rural area where there is no cell reception or GPS reception. 

I also want to become less dependent on running with music - I know it's not inherently safe. (Although I gotta admit, Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" totally helped me run to the finish in Nashville) I need to understand what a certain pace 'feels' like and be able to maintain it. So I really looking forward to this new chapter in my running journey!

Do you guys use a GPS watch, and if so what brand/model? Do you love it? Do you run with music? 

Long Run Saturday

So we ran 12 miles today. When I say we, I mean my lovely husband K and myself. We sort of lolligagged around so by the time we got out to start it was almost 10 am. It was probably in the high 60's by then. Bad decisions, we haz them. But anyway, it had to be done.

1: 8:24
2: 8:23
3: 8:09
4: 8:25
5: 8:33
6: 8:15
7: 8:56

Around mile 4.5, K told me he didn't feel well (he's an excellent runner and normally runs much faster than me, but has been battling a stomach bug all week). So we kept going because we were doing an out and back home (and we had to get back home somehow) but a little into mile 7 he said he could run any longer. We had a dilemma, because we only had one set of keys between us. So we decided I would continue on and take the keys, and he would walk back. I thought I might need to run home and get the car, so I tried to be as speedy as I could (although we right at the biggest hill of the course).

8: 8:27
9: 8:34
10: 7:49

So I made it back home at about 10.5, and called K to see if he needed a ride. He had gotten on the T, so he didn't, but I had the house keys. So I waited around (without sitting down!) and headed out when he got home to finish my last few miles.

11: 8:18
12: 8:28

Overall I felt it went really well. I wasn't running 'all out' because I don't think it's worth it at this point; I'll save that for the race next weekend. I was also had moderately sore legs and arms from overdoing it at yoga yesterday (yes, I am sore from yoga - obviously, I'm doing it wrong). I really want to go under 1:45 for this race; a sub-8 min pace would be awesome. Guess we'll see how goes next weekend!

Note to self - make sure the lid is actually completely screwed on before turning it up to drink. I ended up with water all down the front of my shirt and legs. I'm pretty sure I looked crazy!