Garmin

Peaking!

March 16, 2012 by Kristy 21 Comments

Said to the tune of “WINNING”.

Winning, Courtney-style (via)

I’ve mentioned numerous times that this training cycle has been tough mentally. I felt like I wasn’t getting faster, wasn’t seeing improvement, blah, blah, blah. Self doubt at its best. Even though I know I don’t generally see improvement until the end of a training cycle, I was still impatient.

I was getting the most frustrated at the track. Track workouts aren’t my favorite to begin with and my times were pretty stagnant and wreaking havoc mentally. So I took a break from the track. We needed some time apart.

For the past 3 weeks, I continued with speed work but instead of repeats I added more hills, tempo, and progression runs. As the wise Meggie said, solid and consistent hard work doesn’t disappear or go to waste. Remember that. Thank you Meggie for that comment. Those words have been in the back of my mind for the past few weeks.

Thursday I returned to the track for 3×1-mile repeats. I already decided I would do them at 10K pace (roughly 7:35-7:40) since I have 20 miles on Saturday. It was dark out and I couldn’t see my Garmin so I went by effort. After the first lap I took a peek at my Garmin was pretty shocked to see 6:40 as my average pace. WHAT?! I knew I had 3 laps to go and would never maintain that pace. I have never run a sub-7:00 minute/mile in my life.

With a half lap to go I peeked again and saw 7:02 average pace. I kicked it up a notch and finished in 6:59!!! Just barely under 7:00 but I’ll take it. The best part? I wasn’t dying. Yes, it was faster than 10K effort but my breathing was more controlled than expected.

My next 2 repeats were closer to 10K pace (7:19 and 7:20), but still faster than I predicted.

I’m definitely peaking as they say. I’m also running on some very tired legs. I hope this all translates into a sub-3:40 at Boston! Speaking of which, today marks the 1-month countdown!

Got a running breakthrough to brag about? It doesn’t have to be a PR…maybe a distance you never though you’d run or a pace you never thought you’d hit.

Friday Updates

February 23, 2012 by Kristy 12 Comments

don’t think it, just run it
Thank you for all of your advice and support on my last post. Some of my favorite mantras…

Amanda: My mantra is something like, “I may feel this exact way during my marathon and so I’ll need to know how to fight through this feeling then. I should practice it now just in case.”

Kate: “Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.” -Yoda … this manta has gotten me through many a race / training workout. You either do it, or you don’t. It’s kind of “tough love” but that’s what works for me.

Cindi: Mantra for you to try: I can f*$#ing do this! I knew I could count on Cindi for a f-bomb mantra Winking smile

I think my sister summed it up best though – don’t think it, just run it. My thinking and analyzing takes over my running way too much. So, with this new attitude, I was excited for Thursday’s run. I wasn’t following my plan so I had 9 miles to do whatever I wanted (it had to be speedy stuff though). The result…adding in a 1 mile warm-up and cool-down…

8:12, 8:08, 8:12, 8:03, 8:07, 8:03, 8:13

Success! I barely looked at my Garmin, either. Just kinda went by feel.

hawk’s birthday
Our little bundle of fur turned 2 yesterday! Naturally, like people that need to have kids, we sang happy birthday and took pictures.

The day we got Hawk…

He makes us laugh every day, even when he chews his dog bed.

If you have a dog, do you “celebrate” its birthday? I doubt I’m the only one!

Have a great weekend!

Effort based speed work

January 2, 2012 by Kristy 24 Comments

Boston training started off with a bang – mile repeats. My nemesis. I knew this was coming. I’ve used the FIRST training plan for my last 2 marathons and I always start with mile repeats. I was nervous. I was worried. I always think that I can’t do it. Speed work makes me feel insecure and a little nutty.

On top of my nervousness, I checked the weather last night and saw 20mph winds. Perfect. I woke up a 4:30 this morning and could hear the trashcans blowing around my street. By 7:00 I was at the track (bonus – I guess the wind scared everyone away because I had the track to myself!).

My training plan called for 3×1-mile repeats at 7:02 pace. The good news is that I only had to do 3 of them. The bad news is that I had to do them fast. Currently, 7:02 pace is pretty much all-out for me…considering I have yet to bang out a 21:xx 5K time.

I decided to do things a little different and NOT look at my Garmin during the repeats. Effort-wise I knew what a 7:02 pace entailed: I would be in the “no talk” zone and my breathing would be labored and quick. I don’t need a Garmin to confirm that feeling!

1st repeat: 7:10
2nd repeat: 7:08
3rd repeat: 7:11

Overall, not too bad considering the wind! They weren’t 7:02 pace but at least they were consistent. Even though my legs felt tired on the last repeat I kept my effort level up (judged by my labored breathing). I can 100% guarantee that if I went by my Garmin I would have (1) ran slower and (2) would not have been as consistent.

Another perk to ditching the Garmin during speed work? I hate when it’s still dark and I have to constantly keep checking (and lighting up) my Garmin to see if I’m on track. It’s such a waste of energy.

Day 1 done and I’m pretty damn pleased!

Off to enjoy my last day of vacation. I’m not so pleased about that 🙁

Garmin Obsessed

November 25, 2011 by Kristy 8 Comments

From the looks of my Philly HM photos, you would think that I (1) was overjoyed at my time and (2) had the race of my life. Both are false. Maybe I was just so happy it was over? I don’t know…but I have a big goofy grin on my face.

I swear I raised my arms in triumphant joy as I crossed the finish line and they didn’t capture any of that. Instead my eyes are locked on my Garmin.

Pre-finish line: hating life

Now comes the goofy grin…

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Did you go shopping today? I avoid the mall today, I hate the crowds! Matt and I were pretty productive and put up our Christmas decorations and tree.

22 Miles, Take 5 (aka Dress Rehearsal)

August 26, 2011 by Kristy 22 Comments

8/26/11
22 miles / 3:07 / 8:30 avg pace
*Since I like to be exact and precise, I need to point out that my average pace is 4 seconds below goal marathon pace! 4 seconds isn’t much but I’ll take it!

And with that I’m DONE! It’s taper time!

every time i say taper time, i think of MC hammer

Since I’m on an endorphin-high and thoughts are still going through my head a mile a minute, let’s stick with bullet points for today.

My goal was to keep my splits even from the get-go. Instead of taking a few miles to warm-up and then picking it up during the middle of the run to make up time, I aimed for 8:30 splits. This helped tremendously. My energy level was consistent throughout the entire run. In fact, from mile 15 on all my splits were 8:30 or under, with the exception of my last mile (8:45 – huge hill).
It was humid. Not crazy humid but 93% at the start.
I ignored my (negative) thoughts during this run. Let me explain. I know at a certain point my brain is going to say “you cannot maintain this pace, you are nuts, you need to slow down, you are tired”. And most of the time I listen and obey when I still have gas in the tank. Today I only listened to my body and my Garmin and I was fine. I didn’t slow down and I wasn’t tired. I definitely had gas left for 4 more miles. Don’t get me wrong, BQing is going to be hard but I think I can do it.
I passed a guy wearing a CamelBak on a hill. Even though it was a guy and I passed him on a hill, I didn’t feel very bad ass AT ALL. To me, the CamelBak wearers are ultramarathoners and he probably thinks my 22 miler is a walk in the park. Us marathoners only carry handheld water bottles 😉
A guy on a bike asked me what time it was. I’m sure he saw the Garmin on my wrist a mile away and he stupidly thought that the watch could tell time. It displays 4 things at a time but time isn’t one of them. I told him my watch “doesn’t do time” and he probably thought I was nuts…or extremely lazy (sidenote: I do know where the time is on my Garmin but that would involve slowing down and switching screens which I didn’t have time for today).

Almost forgot…here are some post-LR pics!

DSCN1623 — too tired to hold my head up straight

Have a great weekend everyone!

Question: Is Hurricane Irene ruining your long run or race plans this weekend? I was supposed to do a tempo run on Sunday but may have to switch it to Saturday or brave the TM on Sunday (oh the horror)!

Please keep voting throughout the weekend for RTLR for CBS Philly’s Most Valuable Blogger(click here to vote)!

Thursday Ramblings

August 24, 2011 by Kristy 12 Comments

My Garmin Does What?!
So last week I wrote about pace smoothing on my Garmin 305. I’m still a bit peeved that my (instant) pace jumps around so much, even when I have it set to the “most” smooth. So I did a little research and found that lap pace is more accurate (i.e., your average pace within that lap/mile). This wasn’t a huge shock…I have heard of this before. But the huge light bulb moment was when I realized you could customize your display! For real?! I had this watch for 2 years and I’m just realizing this now? I cannot wait to try this out on tomorrow’s LR. I customized it to have distance, time, (instant) pace, and lap pace. I do like having (instant) pace on there to ensure I don’t go out too fast, even if it is a little off. By the way, I re-set my pace smoothing to “least”.

Grrrr, Brooks Adrenaline GTS
Dear Brooks, I’m a devoted wearer of your Adrenaline GTS shoe and have been so for the past 10 years. But why oh why did you decide to use these fancy shoelaces that clearly are not functional. I always double knot my laces and during 3 of my last 4 runs these stupid laces have come undone (this has NEVER happened with any of my prior Adrenalines). I cannot afford to waste time during my marathon retying my shoes!!! Yes, they are a cute purple color but they suck. Please go back to the boring old white laces that stay knotted.

120082_593_a_LG — is this how i have to tie my shoes so they don't come undone?

(via)

Keep On Voting
Thank you for voting for RTLR for CBS Philly’s Most Valuable Blogger Awards! Keep those votes coming (you can vote once per day here). Many of you asked if I know what place I am in. I don’t 🙁 Very little information was given and I assume I won’t know anything until September 9 when the contest ends.

Question: Do you wear Brooks Adrenaline GTS? Did you notice anything funny with the laces? I’m going to have to swap out these fancy laces with an old pair for my marathon.

What does your Garmin display look like? Did you customize it?