Wednesday, July 29, 2009

There's something wrong with my Garmin!

Scheduled for today, was an ordinary brick workout which included a 1 hour bike ride and a 30 minute run. My garmin seemed to be working perfectly fine during the bike. I biked east ward and, of course, battled yet another headwind. My garmin told me I had a pace going about 15-16 mph on the flats and 12-14 mph on the up hills. At my turn around point, my speed increased to 20-23 mph with the most comforting tail wind. I ended up averaging a mere 16 mph for a one hour ride (those darn red and white octagon signs always slow my average down). In any case, my garmin seemed to be reading true. I had a good ride despite being chased by a sharpei/pit bull mix and almost falling down in the middle of an intersection with oncoming traffic. I couldn't get any momentum going after stopping at one of those red and white thing-a-ma-jobbers. I ended up retreating to safety after I realized I wouldn't make it across in time.

Anyhoo, I made it back home, quickly changed into my running shoes and switched my garmin to run mode. My garmin told me I was running a 10:00 minute pace right out the gate. Yeah, I always tend to run too fast right after a bike ride and then I usually slow down to my typical pace. Depending on how I feel, that could mean a 10:40/mi pace or a 12:00/mi pace. So I expected my trusted garmin to show me that my pace was decreasing (or my time was going up). [Did I say that right? I think you know what I meant.] After about 5 minutes into the run, my garmin displayed an average pace of 9:40/mi. "Ok, something is wrong with my garmin. How could I possibly be doing a 9:40/mi pace?" I have never been able to do that pace (ok, sure I have--but only when I am doing sprint intervals); I'm not kidding folks! This is not a normal pace for me. "Something must be wrong with my garmin".

I kept running and thinking, "ok, it won't last...there is no way I can hold this pace for 30 minutes. No way!" Every few minutes I checked my garmin...this just didn't seem right. It still showed a 9:40/mi pace and this was running into the wind! I didn't feel any faster, my legs felt like bricks and my heart rate was relatively high (mid 160's). I probably should have tried to back it down to get my heart rate down but I was too excited about the fact at running a sub 10 minute mile.

I turned around at the 1.5 mile mark and now headed back home with a cross/tail wind. My garmin was taunting me...it was now reading 9:38/mi pace. Could this really be true? OMG, I was keeping the pace! I was getting a little tired but there was no way I wasn't going to quit now. I finished with a 9:36/mi pace for 3 miles!!!!!! I truly amazed myself. Honestly, I'm not sure how long I could have held that pace, but I did it finished 3 miles!

I've come to the conclusion that there are two possible answers on how I achieved this today and no it has nothing to do with doping. Reason One: I'm running more and becoming more conditioned. Reason Two: Iron pills (this doesn't count as doping). Each day I feel as if I'm improving just a little bit more physically and I believe much of it has to do with supplementation of iron into my system.

Iron, where have you been all my life?

I am so relieved to finally feeling a little better with my run workouts; I'm not 100%, and actually, I'm not sure what 100% is right now. I think I could have been anemic for a long time. It would surely explain my training last year.

I've got my long run workout scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully, I didn't wear out my legs today. Cross your fingers....I'm hoping for a good run!

Side note: Wow, I just noticed my little counter on top of my blog space.... 100 days to Beach2Battleship! After today, we're down to double digits folks!

2 comments:

IronSnoopy said...

You are indeed down to double digits!

Ain't nuthin' wrong with your Garmin. ;) Awesome job on a training breakthrough.

I'm glad you're feeling better!!!

IronWaddler said...

WooHoo!! Great job on the sub 10!

Thanks so much for pointing out that we are under 100! OMG.