Tag: Garmin

Skillet and Donut Holes

This “trying to be more dedicated than 3x a week plan” is really making me tired. The plan that I am following has been calling for 6 days a week. With being sick last week and my inherent Slacker-ness I have been hitting 4. Which is double what I did in December (oh the holidays) and 1 more than the Slacker Way. Who knows, maybe 5 is next. 🙂

Tonight I decided to try the Garmin on the treadmill one last time, and lo and behold, it worked!!! I was thinking that if non GPS mode was based on accelerometer technology (seriously who makes up these words?), then a lot of that is based on arm movement right? When I run on the treadmill, I wear my phone in an armband on my left arm. For whatever reasons, I’ve noticed that when I wear an armband, I don’t move my left arm as much. I have tried to correct it but not much luck. So tonight, I figured I would try the Garmin on the right hand. It was kind of awkward, I had troubles getting the watch tight, and pushing the buttons was tricky, but it worked! It matched the treadmill exactly. I still had Nike+ going on my phone just in case, but tonight they all matched. I can’t claim to understand why Nike+ works on my left arm and not the Garmin, but hopefully this will correct the issue in the future.

After yesterday’s rest day- chosen by me not the plan- today called for a 3 mile easy run. My goal was 6 miles to make up for the run I missed yesterday. After work, I got started later than I planned so 6 turned into 5. I slept kind of rough last night so I was glad that today was an easy run. Also thankful that the treadmill helps control your pace. 🙂 I wore the Wave Rider’s again and I am liking them so far. My shins and ankles were a little sore in the beginning and around mile 4, but no more than anytime I’ve changed shoes. The shoelaces are freakishly long so I will have to fix that.

I finished my 5 miles and walked a little more for a cool down. The run felt pretty good. I made sure to not push either myself or the shoes but it felt like a good workout. Which was good as a customer had brought us donut holes this afternoon. Seriously, no restraint with that yummy, glazed goodness.

I can’t wait for the time change, I miss running outside in the evening. The gym and the treadmill are great, but sometimes distracting. Tonight there were 2 women on treadmills next to me carrying on a movie trivia game. Which would have been fine if they weren’t so loud. My playlist tonight was Skillet, and they are not a quiet band. I had it pretty loud with both ear buds in and I could hear their conversation perfectly. Then there were the guys on the ellipticals in jeans and cargo pants. Isn’t there a dress code?

I stretched some before leaving. I also made nice with my foam roller tonight. Tomorrow will be another rest day then it’s a ten miler on the schedule for Saturday. I’d like to be optimistic and say I will try for a few miles tomorrow but with later hours at work and having to get my tires fixed in the AM again, let’s say rest day.

Right now, I’m being stalked by a Comfy chair thief, so it’s off to bed for me!

How is everyone’s week?

Anyone else have any random gym stories?

A Wave Rider Interval

As Monday was a holiday, I was able to get in a good 5 mile run outdoors instead of having to head into the gym. Prior to that I went to lunch with my mom and then helped her prune a bunch of oleanders. We do this every year and we always use a ladder in ways we shouldn’t while holding shears. This year was no different. I always crack jokes that it’s a great arm workout. Apparently a little too great, between that and puppy pulling on Sunday and Monday, my arms are so sore! Hmm, maybe I should check out the other equipment available at the gym, not just the treadmill.

My training plan called for 5 miles on Monday. I headed out early afternoon so I could get the miles in and then go get the puppy for walk attempt #2. The first part of my route takes me past a cemetery and I run if no ones there but if people are visiting close to the side, I walk. For some reason my mind thinks that more respectful. 🙂 This day someone was blowing the roads in the cemetery and next to it with a motorized golf cart looking blower thing. I ran into a dust storm! I came to a hacking, coughing halt from all the dust I aspirated in. My boss happened to call right then and I answered since I wasn’t running anyway, she thought I was dying sick again. I had to convince her it was just the dust! I ended up walking the first 1/2 mile, so I started off slow.

Even once I got going, I could tell I was tired. Both my legs and my breathing felt labored. The plan was 5 miles with 4 easy and the 5th faster. My 4th was faster than mile 5, oops. My legs felt heavy, and my stomach was telling me that lunch had been a little too big. By the end of the run, I could feel that I had a cranky toe as well. Sure enough, it was a little bloody. Ahhh, the joys of running. 🙂

I then picked up the pup and drug her down the driveway. Actually she trotted right down and halfway down the block before she realized what was going on. Then she just plopped flat on the sidewalk. With some coaxing and strong arming, we managed to walk a mile in 22 minutes. Yikes!!! I think people find us amusing. There was a man standing on his deck at one point laughing as we passed. Or as I drug her past. We then walked past a bigger version of her and she wasn’t sure how to process that; it was so funny. At the mile point, we turned around and took a slightly shorter route home. Same as the day before, the second we were headed back, she was the model of a perfect puppy behavior. We made the .84 mile back in 11 minutes. And yes, I timed it this time. 🙂

My reward for the almost 7 miles? A super yummy homemade smoothie-

Today called for a 3.75 mile interval workout. I knew it would after work and on the treadmill but I was ok with that because I still needed to actually run in my new Wave Riders! I also had a new armband to test out. I hate armbands as they usually make me bleed but I need one for the gym. Plus since switching to the iPhone 5s, all my old ones had the earphone jack in the wrong spot. I picked up a new one when I was at Sports Authority a few weeks ago.

The shoes felt amazing while driving but kind of awkward while walking. It made me a little nervous. I don’t usually run 4 days in a row, so even though I was going to follow the interval that Nike laid out, I wasn’t going to push it. Plus I wasn’t sure how the shoes would feel. I ran a mile warmup- 2 minute walk then 6.2 for the rest. Interval 1 was .75 of a mile at 6.6, then a .25 of 5.5. This was followed by a planned .75 at 6.6. I did all this then upped it to 7.1 for .25, not on the plan but I just felt like it. Then is was a cool down of .75 at 6.00. I shut Nike off at 3.75 and slowed the treadmill to 4 and walked until 4 miles or 40 minutes, whichever came first. They came at the same time, sweet!!!! The intervals were very smooth, now if I can just up the pace, I can hopefully break 2:00 this spring!

The shoes felt pretty good actually, I need to get in a few more miles to really try them out. Some street miles too. The armband held up well too. No bleeding so far, woo hoo!!! It could have fit a little snugger, though.

Tomorrow is hump day and a rest day!!!!

How is everyone’s week going so far?

The Difference in Numbers

It’s almost Friday!!!!

The schedule for Wednesday showed a 5 mile run. However, sleep on Tuesday night while better than Monday was the opposite of good. I was tired and my head hurt so I skipped the run and went for a rest day. Since running 2 days in a row, I was hoping a day off might. No dice. Again with the restless, crappy sleep. I barely managed to drag my tired butt out of bed this morning at 6:40. Why was this bad? I have leave for work by 7:15. If only I could find a way to channel that speed into running. 🙂

Work for the last week has been great all day and then chaos for the last 45 minutes. Is there some weird moon thing going on or something? Today was no different. I also spent over 30 minutes sitting in my car at lunch waiting for a car wash. Apparently I wasn’t the only one running errands on lunch. So now the outside matched the inside. Well, kind of. Now that it looks all shiny and clean, I can see just how badly I cleaned the inside windows. Seriously, I make them look worse after cleaning them.

After the last minute craziness at work, I changed and was ready to hit the gym. Tonight’s run called for an easy 3. However I ended up stuck behind a car going 20 miles under the speed limit who brake checked me every quarter mile. So much for a nice calming commute 😦 So I had some energy to burn by the time I finally made it to the gym. Once again I had the Garmin and Nike+ to track my miles. Combined with my fuel band on the other hand, I probably looked like the biggest gear nerd. The place was packed. It was the busiest I had seen it all week, I almost didn’t find a treadmill.

Once I found one, I started it up as well as all my gear. I admit I walked a minute of every mile. I ran 10 miles at race pace before walking in my last half marathon, but I can’t run one on the treadmill. What gives? Plus I still haven’t mastered drinking and running, ha! Ok, I’m not that bad but it’s a great excuse. 🙂 I hit 3 miles at just shy of 31 minutes and kept going. I actually sped up. I was tired and hot but feeling ok so I pushed on. 4.5 miles in 44:55 so I pushed stop on both the Garmin and Nike. I walked another quarter mile cool down.

Stat check: The treadmill read 4.5 miles in 44:55. Nike said 4.37 miles in 44:56 and the Garmin? Well, Garmin said 3.90 miles in 45:01. Hmmmm, what to believe. Other than the 60 seconds of walking each mile, I ran between 6.4 and 7.1, so I really want to believe the treadmill. I think the Garmin will only be used outside from now on. Once home, it was time for another smoothie. And hopefully some decent sleep very, very soon. Please? I rarely ever get in a run on Fridays, so I am looking forward to getting in my long run this weekend.

Oh, yesterday I received the medal from the only virtual race I did last year. I’m still not sure how I feel about those but I will admit that I did this one just for the medal. My inner nerd girl was jumping up and down-

How has everyone’s week been?

Any races this weekend?

The First Monday

The first Monday of 2014 is almost over 🙂 Which means that really this could have been a Monday of epic proportions… luckily it was just average. I hope everyone else had a good day. 🙂

I chose to take yesterday as a rest day like my plan called for. I actually felt pretty good after Saturday’s 8 miler. I was only slightly sore, but it was a good kind of sore, you know? So instead I turned my attention to the usual errands and laundry that needs to be done every week. I also cleaned in the inside of my car, good lord did it need it. Except that I cannot clean windows, seriously they almost look as bad as they were before I started. 😦 I finally put a new running sticker on my back window too, now I might actually be able to find it in a parking lot.

Today was a pretty good day at work. It only became really hectic towards the end. But all in all much calmer that I had expected from the first Monday. I wore a dress today that when I wore it a month ago was super comfy and very appropriate. Today however, it felt a little more scandalous. Stupid holiday indulging; too bad it all tasted so yummy 🙂 The dress has a modest V front and back and when I was walking away from my boss, she cracked up laughing. I spun around thinking there was toilet paper on my boot or something and she just smiled. Apparently my racerback tank tan lines are fairly obvious and the back of the dress showed a bit. Oops! Runner problems 🙂

Don't forget the tank top tan! — Don’t forget the tank top tan!

I was not looking forward to the gym tonight. I figured it being Monday and the new year, it would be crazy busy. Plus it was the first Monday of the month and my gym does pizza night. I have never understood the logic of that. So I had to walk past people scarfing down to get to a treadmill and ignore the smell while running. But other than that, it wasn’t busy, it was more of an average day. Woo hoo!

I was looking forward to trying out my new Garmin on the treadmill because it was supposed to work. When I ran on Saturday it had a little trouble finding a satellite, so my Nike + app had at a little faster and a little longer. Yes, I am still using both, which turned out to be a good thing tonight as the Garmin was not working. It kept vibrating that I had a pace of 00:00. I finally turned it off 10 minutes in. It said I had gone .10 of a mile, ha! Nike + tracked the run of 3.5 miles in 34:51.

Tonight felt hard. Maybe I was more tired than I thought, but my legs felt heavy and I was so stinkin’ hot. I seriously felt like I was dripping in sweat (over share!), ugh. My training plan called for 5 miles but I only did 3.5. Nike+ has a new coaching section, so I figured I would give it a shot. This is what this week looks like, um yeah, that’s a bit much for me, but I want to break 2:00 in my half, we’ll see how it goes! Otherwise back to 3x a week for the Slacker!

The Comfy chair has been getting a workout these past 2 days as well. My inner nerd girl has been celebrating the return of Downtown Abbey and Teen Wolf. Hmmm, those look odd next to each other 🙂 But both are so good! One made me misty eyed and the other made me jump multiple times.

So fingers crossed, I get some miles in tomorrow. And I think I finally figured the Garmin out, so I need to test it again 🙂

How did everyone’s Monday go?

What’s you TV guilty pleasure?

Good luck to everyone running Disney!!!

A New Year 10K

I love days off in the middle of week, even if they do confuse me a bit. This feels more like a Sunday than a Hump-day Wednesday. Which is not a horrible thing. It means I only have 2 days of work before the weekend, not 5, woo hoo! Can’t complain about that! And bonus, tomorrow there should be a crew of 5 at work, well hopefully. Fingers crossed!

Last night was an extremely chill New Years Eve. Like so chill that I forgot to watch the clock so the fireworks had to remind me of what time it was. After I jumped about a foot in the air, that is. Then it was off to bed for me. The plan was to sleep in but I woke up around 7:30 thinking I had a bladder infection (TMI?). Not pleasant. So I read some blogs while trying to doze of for the next 2 hours. Getting up I still felt a little touch and go but chose to ignore it. I headed out for lunch and some errands. I hit up Target to stare at some more food labels. It was funny how empty town was and it was after 12 by then. How late did some people sleep?

I was out the door by 2 for an easy run. I was aiming for around 5-6 miles. My first 3 miles were at a good pace even with my little walking warmup. A little past 2 miles I hit the top of incline and usually head back down a block over. This time I went right and continued up another little hill. As I rounded the downhill on the other side coming on 3 miles, I saw my mom and Zoey down the street. Or heard them, Zoey was not being a good walker today, haha. I met up with them at the bottom of another hill. They were headed up it, I really didn’t want another hill but I joined them. I won’t lie, I walked that hill and was huffing and puffing all the way up. This is one way Garmin is not great, I looked at my watch and saw that my pace was now 16+ minutes per mile, yikes!

Once at the top, I walked another .25 of a mile with them. I tried to jog with Zoey to the end of the block but it only lasted about 20 yards before she decided to pay tug of war with the leash. I think though that whenever she is finally trained she will be a fast running partner. She’s less than 4 months old and she treats 4-5 mile walks like it’s a run around the yard. I didn’t know an animal could have that much energy! Downside is she seems to think I am a giant chew toy. No matter what I say or do, she jumps all over me every time she sees me. I have puppy teeth marks up and down my arm and holes in some of my clothes. 😦 She’s lucky she’s cute.

Hill in the background, Zoey chewing her leash in front :) — Hill in the background, Zoey chewing her leash in front 🙂

I left them there and ran on. I added in one last uphill towards the end so I would hit 6 miles. I finished my run at 6.31 miles. Perhaps not as speedy as I would liked but pretty dang good for an easy run where I walked too. So first day of the year, and the first 6 miles towards my 750 goal done! Now if I can just keep it up. 🙂

I stretched out and then completed my first Nike Training workout. I always wanted to try this out but my previous iPhone didn’t have enough memory. When I upgraded to the 32gb in November I was finally able to download it. I tried my first one today and I was glad no one was around to see. I am seriously uncoordinated and just special when it comes to thing like that. Seriously, I forgot how to skip! Other than that, it felt like I did something and I liked that I could choose my own music.

I think my issue from this morning was a false alarm but I will keep an eye on it. It couldn’t be a hydration issue because I usually drink too much water on a daily basis. I though the doctor was crazy when he told me to drink less, but then another seconded that opinion. Well, damn. But I ok with nothing being wrong because I want to run this weekend!!!! Hmm, maybe tomorrow?

Hope everyone had an awesome New Years Day!