12.5 and My New Toy!

Thursday I received an early birthday present…

This beautiful work of art arrived on my doorstep and I couldn’t wait to try her out! I was so glad that she arrived before my long run! I spent all evening reading over the instruction manual trying to figure out how she works and hoping I wouldn’t break it! If you know me at all, you know that I am NOT the type to read manuals. Only after I have messed something up will I go back to read the how to steps. My way is always better. But not with this beautiful thing, I have waited months to get this watch and now that I have it, I don’t want to break it!

Excited to hit my 12.5, armed with water, nuun, powerbar gels and my new toy, I headed out. I started my stop watch, chrono and then started my Garmin. I immediately tried to lock the bezel (as instructed by the owners manual) and then I had my first user error. Still running, I couldn’t figure out what screen I was on. I lost two minutes and a quarter of a mile but I finally figured it out and got back on pace.

It was nice to know the exact mileage. I have found that my body performs best when taking gels at miles 3, 6, 9 & 12. I was able to tell exactly when to take my gels. Unfortunately, in the excitement of my new toy, I forgot to charge my iPod so it died after 1.5 miles. I ran the remaining 11 miles listening to the birds cheer me on. (I choose to believe they were cheering me on and not laughing at me!) I could hear the Garmin beep at every mile; I could hear the timer go off when it was time to walk. I was flying. I am still using the Galloway run-walk on my longer runs (longer than 6.2 miles). I have found this program to really work with my exercise-induced asthma. I am finding that when my timer goes off, it is hard to stop running. Maybe the next go around I will try running 2-3 miles, then have a scheduled walk break, then run 2-3 more miles. I eventually want to wean myself off of the Galloway plan, I just don’t know how. If you have some advise I’d greatly appreciate it.

Back to my run: I was solid and strong. The hills didn’t kill me as much as I had thought they would. I got tired around mile 9, but was able to pull through it ok. I waited for the dreaded wall at mile 10 and it never really came. Phew! Those last three miles were hard and I was wishing that I had music, but I felt strong enough knowing that I could have run the .6 miles and finished a half strong. Looking at my time, I was actually one minute and 55 seconds slower than the last time I ran 12.5. I blame that on my two-minute loss to Garmin user error at the beginning. I finished strong, I could have run a half easy and I would have kicked my half marathon PR by 10 minutes!

My next long run is scheduled for my birthday, March 1. The Galloway plan has me running 14 miles that day. Since I have not signed up for a half, I’m just crazy enough to follow the training plan; I think I’ll ring in my new year with a solid 13.1 miles. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate myself on my day than running 13.1 miles!

Lessons learned from this run: charge iPod before heading out, bring more water (aka upgrade to a speed 4 or camelbak, eat a cliff bar 10 minutes before heading out- my tummy was growling at mile 6.