Monday, March 7, 2011

A new Gadget!


Thank you all for the Birthday wishes! I had a great day and ate lots of cake!

Brian waited until Friday night to give me my gift! I tried to wait patiently all day but it was hard because I had an idea of what he was going to get me....



a GARMIN FORERUNNER 405!!!!
YAYYYY!!!

I immediately plugged it in to charge!  About 2 hours later, it was finally charged and ready for me to play with! The touch bezel was kind of hard to get used to in the beginning but I soon got the hang of it and set it up to go for my long run the next morning.

Saturday morning I was up at 5:30am and met up with the running group at 7am for the yearly "Around the Bay" Run where we literally ran around the bay - go figure!  I strapped on my old timex watch on my left wrist and my new garmin on my right wrist and I was off and running.

I tried not to glance at the screen every .2 seconds to see my pace but it was hard to resist!  Soon I got into the groove and was feeling pretty good.  I looked down and saw a strange number where the miles were supposed to be.  I soon realized that while I was playing with the watch the night before, I must have changed the miles to kilometers! Opps!  There was no way I was going to be able to do math while running so it was a good thing we were running a loop!

The planned route was 13 miles, which was 4 miles farther than I had run in a long time! The last time I ran 13 miles was the half marathon in September so I was a bit nervous.  I was running with my coach from running club and another teammate so we just talked as we ran along and before I knew it we were more than half way done and I was still feeling amazing.

I picked up the pace a bit the last few miles and just had the best run.  I hope I can feel this good on all my long runs because it was amazing! I was on a runners' high for the rest of the day!  Plus I got to analyze all the data from my garmin too!


Talk about some hills - that big one was mile 6 and into mile 7.  The best part was that awesome downhill at the end!  Now I know what I have been missing without having a garmin!  I don't really plan to use it on every run because for my easy/recovery runs I just need to know the time and I already have my standard routes set up but having the garmin for long runs and for interval workouts - like the Tuesday night one with my running club - will be great! I can't wait to use it this Tuesday for the mile repeats workout!

I guess I have crossed over to the dark side! Do you have a garmin??

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

great run! 4 miles longer than you've been doing recently? awesome!

and yay new toys. always fun and exciting :) sadly (?) i do not have one...i think i'd become wicked obsessed with numbers even more if i did!

Beth said...

Nice run! Having a Garmin can get so obsessive, but I love mine. Enjoy!

Nicole said...

I knew it!!!! :-) eeee!

Garmin twins! ;-)

Now you gotta name it!!!!!

Angie said...

NICE!!! That is a great watch! I have the Garmin 305 with HR monitor and I LOVE!! You will love yours too! :) Glad you had a good bday

justme said...

i have a garmin and i live and die for it

Anonymous said...

Yes..I'm on my 2nd one! Welcome to the "dark side"!!!

RoseRunner said...

I just got a garmin 305 as a gift in December -- and in just 3 months my running world has CHANGED SO MUCH.

I'm definitely running faster because of it, and with a whole new kind of spirit and motivation. It's very exciting. I am certain it will help me PR in my next two races (a half and a full) because I will finally know what my legs are doing instead of blindly guessing...

Lindsey said...

How awesome! I don't have one, but I need to get one as soon as possible! :)

Unknown said...

Oh I am so gald I saw this post. I got one for Christmas and still really havnt figured out how to use it. I just plugged it in to charge so I'm gonna play with it tomorrow. I am dying to start running with it. Happy Birthday!!!

Lauren @ Sassy Molassy said...

Ooh, awesome bday gift! I have the 305. It's great, but just too bulky for my liking. I'd love the 405. I don't upload my data to the computer just bc I know how I am and I appreciate it's at the moment information, but wouldn't want to spend the time uploading and analyzing regularly. But that's just me. Enjoy your new toy!

Unknown said...

congrats on the garmin! I have the 310xt and love it. I would never run without it! It's very handy for keeping my weekly and annual totals too. I have "avg pace" on my screen next to instant pace. Instant is really only super accurate if you have no trees or buildings overhead.
You'll have a lot of fun with it!
Happy Running!

Christine said...

YEAH for the GArmin, it's the best thing EVER!! I can not imagine running without it anymore. I LOVE the fact I just go out there and run and know how far I go. Before I spent hours with mapping the routes and still wasn't sure, how far I went. Plus it really helps to pace you during the race! You will LOVE it :)

Beth said...

awesome! I have the 305 but Ryan has the 405. I love training with the garmin! Glad you got one!!

Molly said...

great present, now you have to name it. I have the 305, and it does make running a whole new ballgame! Glad you had a great birthday!

Robin said...

Great run and congrats on the new gadget! Happy Birthday.

Chelsea said...

Cool b-day gift. I have a 305 and I loooove it.

Lisa said...

Yay! Great gift, and what a great fiance (except that he made you wait all day)! Great job on the run, too!

Marlene said...

I'm guessing it won't be long before you are using it ALL the time. :) Great gift!!!

Kim said...

YAY! Garmin! I am so excited you got one. We have had the 405 for two years and I feel like I am still learning cool stuff it does.

Holy hills! Woowza!

I love how running with a group makes those long runs fly by!

kaydi327 said...

How fun! What an awesome gift. I have the 305 and I love it!
happy belated bday :)

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

What an awesome gift! I have a Garmin 305 and I just LOVE it. It was definitely a great investment and I have more than gotten my money's worth out of it!

Little Miss Runshine said...

I LOVE MY GARMIN!!! I feel naked without it!! You are going to be obsessed with it! :)

Suzy said...

Wow, how exciting!! Enjoy your new running toy.

Anonymous said...

hooray! Garmin's are the best! You have crossed over to the dark side, but it is a wonderful dark side, full of running stats and data. hehe.

d.a.r. said...

So fun!! You will love it :)

Have you named it?!?!

Kellie said...

Congrats on the new gadget! I have the 310x and love it!

Allison said...

What a great birthday gift! I'm sure you will wonder how you ever ran without it (at least that's how I feel about mine). :)

Jeri said...

ahhh what a great gift. totally jelly you got the green one. I have the ugly black one. :(

The Laminator said...

What an awesome gift! Congrats!
Happy belated birthday J =)

Felice Devine said...

Bwa ha ha! Welcome to the dark side :-)

Thomas Farrell said...

I have a Garmin 305 which I love, love, love. The data you get is great and I love knowing how far I'm running when I'm just running with no clear route in mind. Brilliant.

Glenn Jones said...

You'll never run without it. Now go over to zonevifesoftware.com and download your (free) copy of Sportstracks.

Laura said...

I got my 405 a few years ago, but it's now become mostly replaced by CardioTrainer on my Android. I never did learn all the cool features of the 405 - hopefully you will post them as you discover them so we can learn too! I'd love to learn the tricks for making the 405 all it can be instead of just a basic watch/GPS, which is how I currently use it.