19 Miles Wrapped

This training week is now logged in the books, and it was an awesome week for the most part! I had 4 runs scheduled for this week, 2 easy 2 milers, a 6 mile tempo, and 9 mile long run to close out the week. I decided this week that even though I would be forced to do most of my runs on the dreadmill, I would still pull out the Garmin and use it to time my splits. Why this never occurred to me before that I could do this I have no idea, but this makes a number obsessed runner like me very happy, especially when I can see the negative split I so know that I am logging when I am toying with the treadmill speed. So I set off this week with all gear in hand and ran my little heart out.

Tuesday an easy 2 miler was on the schedule, I love running 2 milers. They are so easy and I feel like I can just go. I always tend to be pretty conservative throughout the first mile though, as I want to sufficiently warm up, and I don't want to deviate too far from an "easy" pace, after all it's not supposed to be a speedwork session, but still, I find them quite fun. My training plan says my "easy" pace should be 11:56 or something ridiculous like that, I think that is way too slow for me, so I always tend to go quite a bit faster than that, but using the Garmin to time the splits was awesome because now I was able to see just how much faster, something the Nike+ never allowed me to by just giving me the average pace. There was a bit of a conflict this go round with the Nike+ and the Garmin, and I don't know if it's because I was late on pushing the start on one of them, or because the Nike+ ended up needing to be recalibrated at the end of this run, but Nike+ says the run was 20:27 and an average pace of 10:13, Garmin says the run was 19:54 with 10:13 and 9:40 splits, making the average pace 9:56. Big difference there. But alas, I think it's because the last time the Nike+ was calibrated it was outside, not on the 'mill.

Thursday was a 6 mile tempo run, and it was the worst run of the week. I could not focus, I just could not get my head in the game or zone out. First off I had my right contact lens in inside out, so every time I would look out the corner of my eye, everything was blurry, plus it was pretty scratchy. Every mile was a struggle. I stopped several times to stretch, catch my breath, fiddle with my eye, towel off, finally at mile 4 I couldn't take it anymore and went into the restroom and fixed my contact.

Friday was another short and sweet 2 miler with a negative split. I accidentally hit the lap button on the Garmin twice, so that :06 should be added to the 9:58 for a split of 10:04. Felt awesome compared to yesterday's disastrous tempo attempt.

Today's 9 miler was probably the best run I have ever had! It was a cool 54 degrees out and partly sunny out, perfect running weather! I wore capris and a short sleeve Under Armour tee, it was a little cool at first, but I warmed up a few minutes in. I also ran with my hand held water bottle filled with water and took my Chocolate Outrage GU at halfway, 4.5 miles, and learned it is very difficult to try to eat the GU, chug down water, run, and breathe all at the same time, especially while your nose is clogged. I finally gave in and ending up walking for a few seconds after eating the GU at about 4.70 miles so I could fish my tissues out of my SPIbelt and blow my nose. I'm proud to say I paused only once, for about 15 seconds at about 6.25 miles or so to try to refill my water bottle at a water fountain, but the fountain did not work, so disappointed I went along with my almost empty bottle. Lesson learned, during the half I will need a larger bottle or I will need my aunt to switch out my bottle at about 6 miles, and maybe again somewhere else along the way, better have her carry two just in case. Also, check out those negative splits! Most of the run was comprised of negative splits, except for lap 5, which is where I had the brief walk break where I had the GU and blew my nose. Other than the water situation, the run was amazing and I felt great, I could have gone on for a few more miles, my legs felt great, I was in a zone, I credit it mostly to the weather, I think the weather definitely influences my run more than I think. I can't wait for this week, I'm hoping we have nice weather again when I tackle my 10 miler next weekend.

Tuesday: 2 miles, 19:54, 9:56 av pace
Thursday: 6 miles, 1:02:56, 10:29 av pace
Friday: 2.01 miles, 20:40, 10:17 av pace
Sunday: 9.01 miles, 1:30:42, 10:04 av pace
Total Miles: 19.02 miles, 3:14:12, 10:12 av pace

Garmin vs. Nike+

Any runner has heard of the toys, maybe has drooled over them, and has even wondered, what's the difference? I was one of these runners. I started out with my beloved Nike+ that the hubs bought me for my birthday last year. I thought it would be a fun, and at $30, relatively cheap, way to keep track of my runs, calculate my pace and distance, and allow me to either rejoice at only having a small distance left to go, or groan at the knowledge that I have a much longer way to go. But then I started questioning its accuracy. I was told it wasn't always the most accurate tool, even after calibration, and after using it consistently for the last year I noticed that it was always a bit off. Some days it would over-estimate my distance, and other days it would under-estimate. This drove me crazy. I just wanted to know that I was running this distance in this amount of time. End of story. I did enjoy using it on the treadmill though, and since I've always heard treadmills are notorious for being inaccurate as well, I figured between the Nike+ and the treadmill screen, I would split the difference and call it good. Most of the time the treadmill was behind what the Nike+ said anyway.

As I began running more and more, and training for races, I began wanting more running toys. The prized jewel for me was the Garmin Forerunner 305. The GPS watch, to me, was the ultimate in accuracy. It would tell me precisely what my distance was, my pace, my splits, things my Nike+ was incapable of. Oh, and it has a wireless heart rate monitor, which I have yet to test, but that added bonus takes it into another universe above the Nike+.

So, now that I have both, I decided today would be the day to test the difference in accuracy, especially for the Nike+. I always used the Nike+ when running races, and most of the time it was off, which led me to believe that either the race distances were incorrect and I wasn't really racing a 5k, or my Nike+ was just not right. Although, when I ran the Germantown Half Marathon, it was pretty darn close, my Nike+ logged me in at 13.03 miles, so it was only about .07 miles off the certified race course.

Today's run was tough, considering I took the summer off and ran once in September and now twice in October, it's been an uphill battle to get back at it. My endurance is in the toilet and I just can't get going like I used to. I'm mad that I allowed myself so much time off, but then again, the heat here was enough to sway anyone from stepping outdoors. But anyway, the point of this post is the difference in the electronics and not me being out of shape. So, the Garmin put me at 2.07 miles in 25:09, with an average pace of 12:09 min/mi; Nike+ put me at 2.03 miles in 25:08, with an average pace of 12:23 min/mi. Soooo, not much difference! Overall, I can't say that the Garmin is better than the Nike+. I like the added features of the Garmin, the elevation, grade, splits, heart rate, laps, GPS, etc. I also like the Garmin's website and training interface better than that of the Nike+. But, if all you're looking for is distance and average pace, and don't want to shell out the $150 for a Garmin, the Nike+ is a much cheaper alternative and pretty good for the money!

Garmin upload, notice all the info it gives you on the left:

Nike+ upload, this is all it will ever give, the little lines behind the graph can be clicked on and you can see your pace throughout the run, but can't see the split: