Listening To My Body

Yesterday morning as I prepared to knock out my final training run of the week I was feeling a bit worn down. Thus, I decided to dial the pace back on my five-miler to 7:19 from the 7:03 I have been hitting the past two weeks. I have always heard about listening to your body, and that definitely felt like the right thing to do--particularly given the fact I am still nearly a year away from my big race. So my run totals for last week were four runs, 21 miles. The only other somewhat exciting thing is I synced my Garmin Forerunner 210 with my PC and updated the software, which is supposed to help with connecting to satellites (which has been a big issue lately). In conjunction, I joined Garmin Connect and will start logging workouts to the app/website. We'll see how that goes--I am not a big fan of manually logging workouts, which I will largely be relegated to given the fact I won't be running outside much for quite some time.

O.K., one addendum--I decided to buy a Garmin foot pod, which will theoretically allow me to track my treadmill runs (as well as outdoor ones when my watch fails to pick up a signal). Supposedly it's pretty accurate, but we'll see...

Another Pre-Training Week In The Books

This morning I knocked out another five mile run before work at 7:13 pace. Once again it felt much easier than Monday's initial run at this pace, which is a very good sign. Aside from that it was fairly uneventful--kind of boring, actually. I guess that is to be expected on the treadmill, but I continue to believe in treadmill running--if nothing else I think it helps from a mental discipline perspective. For the week I ran 21 miles, which I think is perfect given the fact my marathon is nearly a year away--I just need to focus on having a decent base and feeling super comfortable running fast by the time my 16-week marathon training course kicks in next year.

The only other remotely noteworthy thing to mention is I read online that deleting your running history from your Garmin Forerunner 210 helps when you are having problems picking up satellite signals, which has been a major issue for me lately. So I went ahead and deleted every run I had stored on there, including my 2013 Marathon Corp Marathon (which was a hilly disaster). It kind of felt like a stroll through memory lane going through those runs. Most were in the 4-5 mile range and a lot of them were fast, including last year when I ran sub-7:00 pace for four miles. Hopefully I can start actually picking up satellite signals again. Not super important right now given the fact I will be doing the vast majority of my runs on the treadmill for the next several months, but I really would rather not have to buy a new watch once it is time to start doing serious outdoor training next year.

P.S. Yesterday's "leave you running clothes in the locker to dry while you are at work" experiment failed miserably--when I went to pick them up right before 5:00 P.M. they were still pretty wet nearly ten hours later. Oh well.

Garmin Forerunner 210 Review

This morning I went running with my new Garmin Forerunner 210 GPS watch, and I just wanted to share my initial thoughts. So far I really like it. First off, it picked up a satellite signal in well less than a minute, which was a recurring problem with my 205. In addition, it appears to be extremely accurate. The 210 measured my 2.5 mile loop around Hoboken (per Gmaps Pedometer) to a couple of hundredths of a mile--which I consider to be virtually spot on. It is also very simple and user friendly. The 205 definitely has more features and is more customizable, but for just running I am more than happy with the 210. Plus it actually looks like a normal watch, unlike the 205, which makes you look like you are wearing a brick on your wrist. Man, posts two days in a row--don't get used to it!

Killing It

This morning I decided to switch things up a bit and get my long run for the week out of the way first thing. After a bit of internal deliberating I decided to hit the treadmill as opposed to running outdoors. I brought along my iPod nano, so instead of watching television as I usually do on the treadmill I listened to music. I then locked in a 7:30 per mile pace and banged out eight miles. I must say, I was super pumped after this run--it just flew by, and at the end I felt like knocking out a few more miles at that pace would have been no problem whatsoever!

My legs felt a little banged up afterwards, but nothing major. I was also shocked at how quickly my heart rate settled down afterwards--no fighting sweat for the next hour like I sometimes do after even shorter runs. All in all, it was definitely a success, and really boosted my confidence even more. On a somewhat related note I picked up a new toy today--a Garmin Forerunner 210 GPS watch to replace the POS 205 I have had for the last five and a half years. I will definitely report back later this week after I have had a chance to use it a few times. One thing I can already see is the 210 picks up satellite signals much faster, which was one of my primary (but not only) complaints with the 205.