This morning, my breakfast was split so I'd be able to eat before, during, & after this morning's long run.

Before:
Oatmeal: 320
Banana: 109

During:
Gel: 110

After:
Pria Bar: 170
Pancakes: 150

Total: 689

Keep in mind though, this is MUCH more calories than I normally have. If I was sitting on my butt this morning I would have eaten more like 200.

So the long run... same route as last week, same distance, 13.3 miles. Remember earlier in the week I turned auto laps every mile? So now I have splits.

I ran it differently this week and it made a HUGE difference. Remember last week I talked about my calves burning? That didn't happen. I ate a banana before I ran, which likely made a difference. The biggest difference though is that I watched my pace closely early on and kept it strictly at 10 min/mi or slower, and let it dip down to 11 a couple times. As a result, my time was MUCH better than last week. More importantly, I feel great. I'm not exhausted like I was, and have virtually no soreness.

After the halfway point I stepped it up a tiny bit and ran faster, but came to a dead stop when four dogs came out of the trees, barking like crazy. They were obviously not attacking me, but I was still cautious. I walked slowly until they gave up, that's all I needed, having neighborhood dogs chasing me. Even pets can bite on occasion. Once they gave up on me, I started again.

Unlike last Saturday, the last two miles weren't bad at all. In fact, when I got to the Furneaux Rd. sign a mile from my house, I said out loud, "Take THAT, Furneaux!" Last week that was the sign that I just felt MISERABLE at.

Mile 1: 10:04
Mile 2: 10:07
Mile 3: 10:25
Mile 4:10:46
Mile 5: 10:42
Mile 6: 10:09
Mile 7: 10:57
Mile 8: 10:52
Mile 9: 9:32
Mile 10: 10:03
Mile 11: 9:11
Mile 12: 9:33
Mile 13: 9:58

I don't have the mile splits for last week but it's obvious what they looked like. My average pace then was 11:19/mi, THIS week's average was 10:09. Last week I finished in 2:30, this week was 2:15. If I keep working on it, by the time I run my first real half marathon, I just might break 2 hours!

Oh, and on the Garmin 305, the heart rate strap, and how it calculates, I think I just proved it's using the heart rate in calculations. Calories burned were 1689, and last week's was 1684. Almost the same number, even though I was 15 minutes faster. I think that throws my whole time/distance theory out the window. :)

Empirical data GOOD. Fire BAD.

Today I ran 5.35 miles again. My usual route, although I was a bit faster overall. I think though that I need to slow down in the earlier miles so I can be a bit faster in the later ones. Here's the splits:

Mile 1: 9:13
Mile 2: 9:18
Mile 3: 9:39
Mile 4: 10:07
Mile 5: 10:19
Average: 9:43/mi
Total Time: 52:03
Calories Burned: 675

And that's another thing. The Garmin's HRM isn't varying much run to run, so I'm starting to think it's still only going by time & distance. What I should do is wear it and drive 5 miles at 5mph and see what it reads then. Heh.

Well, this is interesting.

Saturday morning, I did the 13.3 miles.

Sunday I did nothing, I barely walked to the bathroom all day, and watched a lot of TV.

Today I ran 5 miles. I felt GREAT! I was expecting to still be a little sore, maybe a little slower, but nope. My heart rate was where it needed to be, I was faster than I was the previous week, and I'm in a great mood now.

Why did I feel so much better? Was it being exhausted after my Saturday run, and then the rest? I'm happy it's this way, but it's totally unexpected.

I also changed the settings on the Garmin to auto-lap every mile, so I now have my splits down (times for each individual mile):

Mile 1, 9:39
Mile 2, 9:50
Mile 3, 10:33
Mile 4, 10:09
Mile 5, 9:49
Mile 6*, 9:22

Mile 6 was only .35 of a mile. 5.35 miles, 53:15, 9:57/mi average. 673 calories burned.

I was successful waking up early this morning! I was actually able to eat breakfast and get out the door by 6am. My first long run in, well, a long time. More than a month. I blame the Whitney prep, because instead of doing long runs on Saturdays I was either hiking or backpacking. One became more important than the other for what I was wanting to do.

Anyway, here's the Garmin:



13.3 miles! The longest I've ever run. I felt really good most of the time, but the last mile and half was HARD. Holy cow, my thighs were on fire. I ended up walking a little bit (2 or 3 minutes).



There's also a version of this on MotionBased

Here's something interesting: the applet for uploading data from devices on Garmin Connect has been switched from ActiveX to Flash, and the Flash plugin doesn't support the 305 any longer! It says, "Garmin Connect does not currently support this device." So it sounds like that's why you were unable to upload your runs to Garmin Connect, they changed it.

I stopped twice along the way, once to give directions to a lost truck driver, the other at the midway point to eat some Powerbar Gel. 2:30.40, average pace 11:19/mi. Average heart rate 150, 1684 calories burned.