Category Archives: garmin stuffs

Chicago Marathon end of Week 12, starting Week 13

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Yes, I did mostly do my workouts last week – the Olympics are really bad for training. Great for inspiring me to want to get out there, but bad because I want to watch!!

Anyway, I did take Tuesday off. But Wednesday I went up to Central Park to do 5 1/2 mile repeats with 5 minutes recovery between them. I’d initially thought I would do the 102nd Street transverse because one round trip would be about 1/2 a mile, and I didn’t realize that my new (ish) Garmin lets me mix intervals. On my old one it was time OR distance, but this one lets me mix, so I was able to set my run to a distance of 0.5 and my rest time to 5 minutes. So I thought I’d just run around the reservoir which is flatter and a softer surface. Well, as I got off the subway, I walked out into a downpour. I know that there are big puddles around the reservoir even a couple of days after a heavy rain, so…back to the transverse. What I somehow hadn’t realized was that that stupid transverse has a hill!! I normally go at it from the other direction, and I never noticed I was going downhill. Oops! I was nervous about this workout anyway as I knew that running the 1/2 mile would require me to run longer than I’m used to…but I’d be recovering longer between them as well. So I decided to go for it.

And I did it! I ran every single step of those 1/2 mile reps!! My average pace (mile-based) was: 10:18, 11:23, 11:14, 11:28, and 10:59!!!! I’m very proud of myself!!

Thursday I did Yoga for the Warrior, and the fact that it had been a while since I’d done that showed in my shakiness.

Saturday was scheduled to be 14 miles. I got 12 in before it became obvious that I need more support than the Skechers were providing. I was having aches in my knees I haven’t had in a long, long time. Evidenced by having to come home and put frozen peas and veggies on my knees.

I’m ok with them on shorter runs – though I made the decision to go back to my Brooks shoes this week to let things settle down – but no longer runs in them for me.

Saturday night and Sunday morning I was really sore – stiff and creaky in my upper back. I was attributing it to the yoga and not having done that in a while, but when I decided to try doing the DVD again on Sunday and felt better as it went on, I’m more inclined to say that it was largely due to the pounding from the lack of cushioning and support in the Skechers. I’m sure they’re great shoes for some people, don’t get me wrong. But if you’re heavier, I’d personally advise against them.

I don’t know if you follow runDisney’s facebook page, but they’re doing this “Great Medal Caper” to get to the reveal of the 20th Anniversary Marathon Medal. We’re having to follow Donald all over the place through liking and sharing pics. And the occasional video. The latest employs Jeff Galloway and introduces us to a song and line dance “The Galloway” that reminds is that “first you run; then you walk”. I’m not going to subject you to it here. If you really want to experience it, go to youtube and search “The Galloway” and “runDisney”. There was an option to download it as a song or ringtone. One of my friends came up with the best (and IMHO only) use for the ringtone: set it as the alarm tone on workout mornings because that will make you want to get up just to make it stop. And once you’re up, you might as well do your workout.

I can say it worked this morning. I got dressed, laced up my Ravennas, and headed to Prospect Park. Decided to try 5/1 rather than 4:30/1…and while I’m undecided on the exact ratio I’ll use, I generally did ok. In one of those moments of pure “Are you kidding me??” the humidity started to break and a nice breeze came up just as I finished. But I got more miles done, and that’s what’s important!

I decided to extend my matching the first $10 of every donation I receive towards my Team Breakthrough fundraising through the end of the Olympics. So far I’m ponying up $50…but I’d love to have to pony up more! :) Any support is greatly appreciated!! My Team Breakthrough Fund-Raising Page

Training mileage: 167.7 miles
Weight: 174

Got a runner on your gift list?

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Tis the season after all!!! :)

I had a comment asking about suggestions for gifts for runners. Ok, this was specifically birthday, but since it is the season of giving, I figured I’d do a post on it. Keep in mind, these are things that I have wished for and would love to have. You (and/or your runner’s) mileage may vary.

And NO I am not asking any reader for gifts! I’m merely pointing out things that I am wishing for from my family and in those Secret Santa exchanges I am participating in!! As well as offering my thoughts and suggestions for any readers who have a runner in their life.

Things on my wishlist…

SHOES!
In my case Brooks Defyance 4 and Brooks Ravenna 2 to be specific – for me. But whatever shoes your runner wears would make a great present. Especially at this time of year there are many makes which are being updated so you might be able to get quite the deal on the model they’ve been using. As someone who had to change shoes when her former model (the Asics GT-2150) was updated to a model that simply didn’t work with her feet, I really wish I’d stocked up on the 2150 when I had the chance. Well, until I discovered Brooks and began running happy!

CLOTHING!
Specifically technical clothing that’s designed to wick sweat away from the body. In other words, NOT COTTON (well, unless it’s the newer stuff that’s engineered as a technical cotton…runDisney has a few shirts in this). Socks are great…running socks! If your runner is running in cold weather, gloves, a headband or hat, and a vest or running jacket (or if you’re feeling really generous a jacket that becomes a vest by zipping the arms off). And/or arm sleeves! I haven’t asked for any of these things specifically…I’m pretty set on that kind of gear at the moment.
What I have asked for is skirts!!
Lotta Breeze Capri from SkirtSports and RunningSkirts SubZero Skirt. I’ve got regular skirts pretty well covered at the moment, but I could use some with capris or tights since I do live in NYC. I’ve got one, and I’ve been making my own combining capris and skirts. Keeps my butt warm anyway.

FUEL!
GU ~ my favorite flavors are Peppermint Stick, Mint Chocolate, Chocolate Outrage and then in the Roctane formula Chocolate Raspberry.
Nuun hydration tabs. My faves Tri-Berry and Strawberry Lemonade.
Honey Stinger. This is a fairly new discovery for me. In the gels I’ve only had the chocolate and it was good – yeah, I wouldn’t have thought chocolate and honey go together either, but it’s good. But the real treasure here is the Honey Stinger Waffle. I’ve had the honey waffle and the vanilla waffle and am completely in love with them. Definitely high on my list – and for me about the only thing I’ve found I can comfortably run and chew at the same time.

MISCELLANEOUS
The Grid foam roller. I need a new one and am lusting after this one!!
BibFolio. My personal fave is Run With Your Heart.
Medal Displays. My personal fave is Believe.
Spirit of the Marathon. For me, the most inspirational movie regarding running. If I don’t get this one from Santa, I’m buying it myself for viewing on the way to Disney. And the night before. And possibly the morning of before getting on the bus since I may not sleep much at all.
Marathon Woman by Katherine Switzer. She’s definitely a hero of mine and it’s one book I’ll make an exception to my e-book-only rule.
BodyGlide. Enough said.
KT Tape. Again, enough said.

And IMHO the most important thing you could give a runner in your life:
RoadID. I have the interactive dogtag form but am definitely considering getting a bracelet form as well. This kind of thing can save your life. It’s saved the lives of relatives of friends. It can speak for you if you’re unable to speak for yourself. My sister has a friend whose father was at a conference and went running during a break. He had a heart attack and collapsed – and no one knew where he was. He was found – and no, RoadID wouldn’t have helped in actually locating him – and spent a couple of days in the hospital as a John Doe before people at the conference were able to put two and two together and track him down. If he had a Road ID (and had been wearing it), the doctors would have had immediate access to his medical history as well as his emergency contact information. He’s doing ok now, but it’s scary to think what could have happened. Seriously…get the runner in your life a RoadID!

I promise, tomorrow a review of my Garmin 210. Which was my Christmas present to me!

Catching up

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Yes, yes. Don’t shoot me. I shall for sure be better!! For now, here’s a catch up on the last week-ish.

6/25 – FRNY Gay and Lesbian Pride Run 5-miler
The day was charged with lots of excitement since less than 12 hours before the state senate had passed and Governor Cuomo had signed the Marriage Equality bill (now law)! So everyone was extra happy – some were hungover or still riding the buzz from the night before, but that’s beside the point. (And no, I was not one of them…I’d been at a film screening the night before and my only “vice” was simply having about 2 hours of sleep.) It was hot – in the 70s at least and 93% humidity (NYRR has removed the weather info from their site). And we had a different course that included Harlem Hills in the most evil direction. I was trying my best with a 2:30/1 ratio, but I ended up doing a lot more walking, especially on the hills. One of my running club teammates and I played leapfrog for most of the race – I’d pass her on a run interval and she’d pass me on a walk. But it kept me going. There had been mention of “misting stations” during the pre-race talk, but no one I know of ever encountered them (hint to NYRR…don’t say there are going to be things unless you know for 100% sure there are going to be things…misting stations aren’t like t-shirts where “oops, we ran out” after all; they’re either set up and ready to go or they’re not). I was again glad for my handheld as I could use the water from the fluid stations to pour over my arms and try to cool me off a little. Somewhere in the last mile, the aforementioned teammate said “Come on, let’s run this in together.” I knew it was going to be further than I usually run on my own, but we were keeping the pace slow, so I decided to go for it. All was ok until I started feeling goosebumps. When you’re hot and sweating, goosebumps are NOT a good thing. So I told her to go on ahead and I’d get there. Somehow I was not directed immediately to Medical but instead was sent to Popsicle (We give out popsicles at the end of this race. Rainbow ones of course!), and that helped. Later in the day and into the next, it became obvious that I probably should have gone to medical, but lesson learned. I finished with a time of 1:02:53 – so like 6 minutes slower than my baseline PR (which was set on a nice cool Thanksgiving morning on a course that did NOT include the evilness that is Harlem Hills), but definitely better than I’d anticipated it being.

The week in training:
Tuesday I was still feeling the effects of the heat from Saturday’s race. As evidenced by my over 13mm average pace. Ouch! Still, I was getting out there and getting foot time in.

Thursday was a little better. Still 13mm-ish average pace, but better than Tuesday.

Yes…I need to definitely get back on my XT as I’ve slacked off tremendously on that, and I’m sure that’s part of the issue.

Saturday was my long, slow run. Thanks to the subway issues, I decided the easiest thing was to start in Battery Park and head up the Hudson. 9 miles was on the schedule. I managed to keep the pace slowish and overall felt good. Well, until the last couple of miles when my old friend my ITB decided to flare up. So in spite of needing to get back on the XT wagon, I’m not ure it’ll happen today – unless I just do the abs workout on Bob Harper’s Yoga dvd before or after doing my stretches for all my leg muscles, but especially my ITB stretches.

My overall distance was 9.88 miles. Thank goodness for my trusty Garmin footpod because I had a massive runkeeper fail…

Oh yes RunKeeper, you are special. Wrong, but special.

So things overall are going well. I don’t want this entry to get overwhelming, so I’ll look back over the things I need to discuss and work on getting that done this week! Along with training! (And finding a summer job as fundage is sooooooo needed right now.)

Pilates, Running, and Answering a Question

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Last night was my second ever Pilates class. This one was called Barres and Belles and used both the ballet barre and a kettlebell. Not together. Actually the barre was used for one stretching of the legs and then we had a strap over it to hold while we did ab work. Even at the worst of the ab workout on Bob’s Yoga for the Warrior dvd or Jillian’s No More Trouble Zones I’ve never felt like I was going to puke doing them. I did last night. LOL. Still, I did enjoy the class. I’m kind of sad that I only signed up for one more of them. But I’m afraid that if I did cancel some of the mat plus classes, all the Barres and Belles classes between now and when my groupon expires. So I’ll take 2 more mat plus classes and 1 more Barres and Belles. Yay!

Today was a run day. Because it was raining a bit, and because I’ve heard there are some wicked puddles at Prospect Park, I went to the gym. I was kind of surprised to see that my pace was all the way down to 13 minute miles. I guess I was going more the treadmill speed. And I was taking “easy run” pretty literally – kept it at 4.8mph for all but the last run interval. That one I pushed to 5mph. The good news is I didn’t think about dropping the pace at all during any of the run intervals, so that was good. And I did what a lot of coaches (well, most all I’ve read anyway) say: stop the workout feeling like you could have gone one more interval. So that’s a good thing I suppose. I’ve got a longer run tomorrow – I think I’ll try to go up to Central Park and run. First, that will let me do some work on Harlem Hill – meaning I’ll make myself run it. Or run/walk it. Second, it’ll get me outside and will actually be easier to get to because the wonderful MTA had the G and the F shut down all weekend, and shuttle buses are horrendous.

I don’t know if I’ve put my racing schedule up lately. So here it is…

6/11 ~ NYRR Modern Mini 10K
6/25 ~ FRNY Lesbian and Gay Pride Run 5-miler
7/30 ~ NYRR Half Marathon Series Queens Half Marathon*
9/4 ~ Disneyland Half Marathon
10/1 ~ Walt Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon
1/8 ~ Walt Disney World Marathon

*I was looking at my training frankenplan, and it calls for a 13 mile run on July 30. I saw that the Queens Half is that day, and after talking over facebook with a friend, decided that I should do it and just not go balls to the wall. It’ll be like a supported training run. :)

And now to the question! Andy, someone who reads my little blog, asked me about something I mentioned in my last post – how I signal that I’m going to drop to a walk when I’m racing. I actually do it when I’m running in a park as well if I know there are others running too.

I use my Garmin set at intervals to beep at me and tell me when I’m supposed to drop to a walk. It gives me a 6 second warning, so on the change I’ve drifted mentally while I’m running, I can start the process then. Ideally when I’m racing (or later in the training sessions when I’ve been at the same interval for a while) I will have a feel for when it’s about to beep so I can start the process a little sooner if it’s a crowded race or section of path. I also do this if I need to drop to a walk sooner. It basically just (should) helps to a) keep you and those around you safe from collision and b) is just common courtesy. Like using your turn signal when changing lanes when you’re driving.

Ok. So my Garmin starts beeping or I’m feeling like it’s time to drop to a walk. I take a look around – over both shoulders – to see where other runners are in relation to me and make my way over to the (usually) right hand side. (I say usually because while I try to stick with the “slower traffic stay right” thing, there have been times I’ve ended up on the far left.) Basically you want to get over to the side so you’re not going to be in the middle of the path where people might come up behind you a lot faster and create a not so good situation. If there’s someone beside you to the point where I can’t go directly over, I very gradually adjust my pace so that person can get past me and then move over. As I’m doing this and when I’m over on the side, I’ll raise my arm which basically just serves to hopefully get the attention of anyone coming up behind me so that they can be aware that I’m doing something. I also look around when the Garmin starts beeping at the end of the walk interval so that I’m more aware of what’s going on around me so I don’t just bolt out in front of someone.

Does that make sense? Hopefully so! :D Not only does it keep you safe, but it hopefully will build up some good karma with other runners and help the ones who have “walker issues” (I’ll be nice) to not get so irate at us. (Though really, in a race situation, anyone who has an anti-walker (or run/walker) bias should be far enough away from you that shouldn’t enter into the equation. Hee!)

Thanks for the question Andy! :D Happy running and good luck with your upcoming 10K!!

Oh, and in gear notes, I got my new running skirt today and wore it for my run. I LOVE IT!!! Thanks for making a great product SkirtSports!! I’ll definitely be a repeat customer! And the new shoes felt great!!

Training Day 71 ~ BLAH!!!!

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It’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day here in Beth-ville. No one thing I can put my finger on. Just sort of the cumulation of a bunch of stuff.

After school I went to the post office to get part of my gift from my Secret Santa on the runnersworld.com beginners forum. Was walking along fine, no problem. Until this girl who had been standing on the sidewalk decided to take a huge step back, right into my path. And I tumbled hard. And she just turned around and looked at me like “What the…?” Two men nearby – one on the sidewalk with me and one in a car at the corner – asked if I was ok and made sure I was moving alright. She still said nothing. I don’t think it was intentional, but still. Thankfully my knee doesn’t seem to be any more sore than it was from hitting the bedframe. My hip’s a little sore, but it was kinda sore anyway. The heels of both hands are bruised. But other than that I’m fine – and my coat stayed intact too. I had on my new red coat and would have been a VERY unhappy camper if it had gotten ripped.

But it was all I could do to NOT burst into tears. I had to choke down sobs when I got around the corner still. I wasn’t hurt. And wasn’t even that embarrassed. It was just sort of that proverbial straw, you know?

Tomorrow’s lottery day for the NYC Half. At the point that happened, some people were already reporting charges appearing on their accounts. Nothing had shown up on mine. And I think that really was a case of not realizing just how much I wanted to get into that race until I didn’t think I had. NOW there is a pending charge on my account…but I’m trying not to get my hopes up in case they authorize everyone’s and then those that don’t get in just have the pending charge dropped. But it seems like a hopeful sign.

I REALLY didn’t want to do anything exercise-wise this afternoon. Especially after the tumble. But I did make myself do Jillian’s Banish Fat Boost Metabolism – well, all but the last 2 circuits. I was just getting really tired and I knew that there are a lot of jumping exercises in those two, and I didn’t want to hurt myself. So I skipped to the cool-down. It’s cool…still got in 45 minutes of exercise.

The HRM still isn’t working. So I may call around to sports and running stores tomorrow and see if anyone carries just the HRM for Garmin devices. If not, I’ll order it and splurge for super speedy shipping.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a much better and happier day.

Training Day 70 ~ That felt good!!

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The good news is the knee and leg felt ok all day!!

So I headed out for my training run. I debated going over to Prospect Park, but ultimately decided just to go to Von King. It was closer, and I wouldn’t have to shiver on the train. I decided to break out a pair of my new shoes and see what those felt like. I’m not positive that the others are why my legs have been heavy and tired easily lately, but I’m not positive it’s not the shoes.

Well, the legs felt great the whole time! Woo!! Now…I’m not 100% sure it was the shoes as I had a total rest day yesterday (other than walking like 8 blocks round trip to Duane Reade). But it felt great t have a really good run!!

The only little glitch was that the HRM strap isn’t reading – or wasn’t today. I’ll see what it does tomorrow…I guess I’ll just use recent calories burned with whatever I decide to do. Maybe average them or something. I’m wondering if it was the battery – that could explain the wildly different amount of calories burned between Friday’s and Saturday’s Yoga for the Warrior.

It’s always something! Gah!!