%@$&* Garmin!

First order of business is to congratulate my wife (not really a runner) on her third 5k last Saturday. She cut 3 minutes off her previous PB and finished in just under 36 minutes. I knew she could do it (she wasn't so sure).

Now on to me. You can tell by the title of this post that I had some technical problems with my Garmin on this run. I was about a mile down the road, driving to a regional park when I realized I forgot the thing. No problem, I just turned around and got it. I think our dog, Hiroo, was confused and distraught when I came home and then left again right away. As I headed of to the park again the thing, Garmin not dog, gave me the dreaded "Batteries Low" signal and died. What? There were still two bars on the indicator. What happened to one bar and then none? I started it up again and this time it worked for a minute or so before dying. Once again I turned it on and this time it would have no more of this funny business. It not only died but died with a bunch of gibberish on the screen and would no longer respond to my protestations. Ugh; I guess I had to run the old fashioned way, with my regular digital watch and push the lap button at every mile. How 1990's.

Luckily the park where I was running was well marked by miles and k's but since it is a 3.35 mile loop I had to do the last .35 on its own and then start over again at the beginning. Also, since I didn't have the Garmin my splits were way whack. Check it out:

8:26
8:27 (warming up)
6:44(!)
2:42 for .35; 7:43 pace
7:07
7:39(!)
6:57(!)
2:38; 7:31 pace
7:08
7:41(!)
7:05
2:38; 7:31 pace
7:16
Total at MP was 9.05 at 7:15.

Now, I wasn't really speeding up and slowing down so drastically. The park has fairly rolling hills and I think I discovered that the first mile although hilly must have a net gain of about 0. The second mile of the loop is the most uphill while the last is mostly downhill. But then again maybe my pacing was that bad. The overall pacing was spot on though.

Anyway, another 9 miles at MP. Really these workouts need to be in the 11-12 (or more) mile range and not stuck in the 9-10 mile range. I even used two gels for this run, orange-vanilla roctane at the start and the old favorite vanilla bean gu at about mile 7. Starting to get frustrated and maybe even a little worried. Oh well, I can only do what I can do and go from there.

By the way, I was on a daddy/daughter camping trip over the weekend so I didn't get a long run in. I did do 13 sluggish miles on Monday. Didn't really get into it physically until about mile 11 but by then I was gone mentally so kept it short. Two more weekends for 20 miles so not to worried on the LSD front.

All in: Monday, 13 miles at 8:56; Wednesday, 11 miles at 7:28.