Say hello to my little friend

My goal of running 8.5 - 9 miles on Monday morning hit a snag this week.  I woke up Sunday morning with a stomach bug and spent the entire day in bed.  I felt a bit better on Monday morning (well enough to go to work) but I didn't even attempt a run.  I ended up running just over 3 miles on Tuesday morning and again on Wednesday morning but couldn't go any further because I still wasn't feeling great.  I took today off and hope to get in at least 6 miles tomorrow morning.  The reason I pushed through the pain Tuesday morning is because I was excited to try out my new friend: the Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch!

I left it at home this morning so I don't have a picture with it on my wrist (so you can see how big it is) but I'll try to add one next week.  Let me just say that I love this watch already.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be wearing it out on the town but it's not too ugly.  I love being able to see my average pace for the current lap.  Right now the lap length is set to 1 mile but I can change it to as low as 0.25 miles if I want.  One of the reasons I bought this watch is so I can see my current pace in order to try to sustain a constant pace throughout my long run.  Usually when I run I have no idea how fast, or slow, I'm going and sometimes start out too fast and then wear down later in the run.  Now I can monitor and adjust my pace as needed and it's much easier than trying to power on my phone, unlock it, and try to read the pace on the running app as my arm is swinging back and forth.

I have also found it to be more accurate.  I ran a 3.1 miles Tuesday morning with my 310XT along with my phone running the Map My Run app, and here were the results:

Time: 26:32 (Garmin) 26:32 (MMR)
Distance: 3.11 miles (Garmin) 3.16 miles (MMR)
Avg. Pace: 8:33 min/mile (Garmin) 8:23 (MMR)

When I mapped out my course on the USATF Map It website my route came to 3.11 miles; the same as reported by the Garmin.  I wanted to see why the Map My Run app showed me running an extra .05 miles so I opened up the maps on the Map My Run website as well as the Garmin Connect website.  These pictures (from one of the turns) show the difference:

Garmin Forerunner 310XT

Map My Run app

As you can see the Map My Run app really has me swinging out wide on the turns (which I was not doing) while the 310XT has it much closer to the route I actually followed.  Granted, this is not a huge difference but I like that the watch matched up exactly with the calculations on the USATF website.  I also like that the Garmin beeps/vibrates every lap (mile in my case) so I know I've reached a mile without having to look at my watch.  Of course I looked at my watch 56 times before that so I know I was at 2.98 miles 5 seconds before but it's still nice.

Now I no longer have to run with my phone and can use a smaller, lighter MP3 player like one of my iPods.  Oh, the watch also came with a heart rate monitor which I haven't tried using yet.  There are a lot more bells and whistles on the watch that I probably won't use or don't know about yet but I really like it so far.  Here's hoping for nice weather, and a non-queasy stomach for my run tomorrow morning.

Have a great Thursday!

Eight is Enough

Sorry for the lack of updates but I didn't spend much time in front of a computer while in Montana.    Our vacation was great although we got off to a rough start.  Our flight from Denver to Great Falls turned into flights from Denver to Billings, and Billings to Great Falls.  There was a huge thunderstorm in Great Falls that caused us to divert to Billings for over an hour to wait for the weather to clear up.  This wouldn't have been a big deal other than the fact that baby N can't sit still for more than 2 minutes.  I'll just put it this way; nobody told us how great our kids were once we finally deplaned in Great Falls.

L excited to take-off

Once we arrived in Great Falls and got loaded up in Grandma Valerie's minivan, we drove to Helena (avoiding a deer by about 6") and spent the night at Jeanne (Angie's sister) and Chad's house.  We drove to Flathead Lake the next day and stayed there until Monday morning.  The weather was perfect, the water wasn't too cold, and we had a great time (other than when I sucked up some rocks in the jet ski and dinged the impeller...oops!)  Fortunately Angie's family and extended family love to fix things so they took the jet ski apart, banged the impeller back into shape, and it was back in the water in a few hours.

Monday we said our goodbyes and started the 7+ hour drive to Angie's hometown of Turner.  I was riding with Papa Donnie in the motor home with L, Angie's grandma, aunt, and cousin.  Halfway into the drive I got a call from Angie saying that we needed to switch vehicles.  Why?  Because N was being a terror.  Donnie and I swapped vehicles with Angie and her mom and we drove the rest of the way home.

The rest of the week was spent eating, visiting, napping, and watching movies.  Donnie and I took L out to the shop on the farm one day and L loved it.  She got to feed the kitties, sit on a tractor, sit in a semi and honk the horn, and get dirty.  We drove back to Great Falls Saturday morning and flew back to Denver.  N was still crazy but better than the flight out.  We got to see our new (and first) nephew on Sunday which was very exciting!  I'm so glad there is finally a baby Eckdahl boy on my Dad's side!

Dinner after seeing the baby boy

I managed to only skip 1 of my scheduled runs while on vacation and I think that's pretty good.  Running along Flathead Lake was nice because you've got to love this view:

Flathead Lake

I ran on the highway in Turner one day and, although it was only in the low 70s, it felt like 100 degrees.

I woke up this Monday morning to a rarity.  An overcast, misty, cool (temps in the 60s all day) morning in July.  I decided I had to take advantage of this weather and try for a long run even though I was fresh off of vacation.  I had planned on going 7 miles but as I was nearing the end of my run I decided I should push myself to go a bit further.  I ended up going 8.12 miles in 1 hour 17 minutes for an average pace of 9:29 min/mile (the time and distance were both personal highs!)  As with my 7 mile run my left ankle was killing me for the last 2 miles.  I'm not sure if this is due to my shoes, running style, or just the fact that I've never fun that far before.  I guess I'll find out as I continue to run longer distances but I'm thinking I should go to a running store and get fitted for a shoe that fits my running style.  I am currently running in Brooks Pure Flow 2s.

For the month of July I ended up running 60.64 miles in just under 9 hours and 16 minutes.  I'm still running just 3 days/week although all the half marathon training plans call for running 5 days/week.  I guess I need to try to add another day soon.  Maybe I can find some time on Saturdays or Sundays.

8-mile run

I just signed up for a 10k on 8/24 which will be my longest official run.  Fortunately it's in Erie and I don't have to travel far to get to the start line.  They are also doing a half marathon but I just don't think I'm ready for that distance yet.

Spoiler Alert!

**First let me mention that there are no actual spoilers in this blog posting**

I was very excited when I got the email from the Erie Library saying that the DVDs for Game of Thrones Season 1 were ready for me to pick up.  I've heard a lot of good things about this series so, along with the fact that there is no good TV on right now, I was ready to put the girls to bed at 7:00pm and start watching.  I should mention that I had heard a few spoilers about this show, specifically about season 1, and that the author (GoT was first a series of novels) loves killing off major characters so I was somewhat prepared.  (Don't worry, this isn't a spoiler, there are about 40 major characters.)  Angie didn't know anything at all about the show so it was going to be fun to watch her reaction to the surprises of the season.  Well, we didn't have to wait long as the big (at least I think it's the biggest one) shocking event happened in the first episode!  

Angie and I couldn't believe it until we went to watch episode 2 only to find out we had just watched episode 9!  Oops.  I had grabbed what I thought was the first DVD from the case and I actually grabbed the LAST DVD.  No wonder we didn't understand anything that was going on.  As we were watching the episode I kept thinking to myself that the producers didn't do a very good job of explaining the background stories.  Maybe they expected that people had read the books first.  Or, maybe they expected people to start on episode 1.  After we popped disc 1 in and watched episode 1 it turns out they do a great job of explaining background.  As of last night we have watched episodes 1-6 (and 9) and I really enjoy it.  There are plenty of twists and turns and shocking deaths.  If you don't know anything about this show it's like a sci-fi, fantasy, Gladiator meets Sopranos.  There is a lot of bad language and a lot of nudity so I can't "officially" recommend it but we are really enjoying it.

Have you ever started a movie or show at the wrong spot and ruined a surprise?

Do any of you watch GoT and if so do you like it?

Angie and I are getting tired of our usual shows, are there any that you recommend? 

Oh thank heaven...

...I made it seven!  That's right, I finally got over the seven mile plateau and ran for more than an hour for the first time ever.  I figured this would be my shot at getting over the six mile mark because the weather was actually going to be cool and we leave for vacation Wednesday afternoon and it's hard to find time to run while on vacation.  Anyway, my stomach wasn't feeling the greatest this morning so I wasn't quite sure how my run would go.  The first mile went fine but by the second and third mile I was really considering heading back to the office.  The fact that I was still 2+ miles away from work convinced me that I should just keep going on my course.  I started feeling better by mile 5 but then my left knee/ankle started bugging me.  (I know I'm a big complainer...sorry.)  Any thoughts of stopping early were pushed aside because you can't run the seventh mile without running the first six right?  It would have been a waste to quit when I was so close to running longer and farther than I ever have before.  Plus now I can say that I've done more than half of a half marathon (a quarter marathon for those math majors out there.)  

My splits were (remember I don't start intervals until the start of the second mile and I didn't walk at the start of the seventh mile):

8:58 min/mile, 9:29, 9:41, 9:55, 9:51, 9:57, 9:49, and 8:47 (0.3 miles) for a total average pace of 9:41 min/mile, a total distance of 7.3 miles, and a total time of 1:10:39.

I'm very happy with this average pace and hope I can keep it this consistent for the next 6 miles.  

The Hill

You all know a hill like this.  The hill where you'll end up at 60 mph at the bottom if you don't hit the breaks on the way down.  The hill where cops love to sit at the bottom because the speed limit is 40 mph and you can't see them until it's too late.  The hill where people tailgate you if you try to go 45 mph to avoid a ticket.  The hill that makes you consider another way to work when it get icy.  The hill that makes you actually feel bad for the people biking or running it.

I ran that hill this morning.  I hear so much about "hill training" during half/full marathon training that I decided I should at least try it once.  I also wanted to run it so that 1) I could say I ran it, and 2) I could use my GPS running app (Map My Run...highly recommended) to see what the elevation change is.  It turns out the elevation gain is 197 feet (186 of it in a 1-mile span.)  Looking at the numbers now it doesn't seem too bad, and I know this is nothing for those of you that run trails in the mountains, but it was pretty brutal this morning.  Of course the 83 degree weather (at 9am!) didn't help much.  Anyway, as bad as it was to run up it was just as nice to run down.  I ended up going a total of 3.4 miles today in 32:55 for an average pace of 9:41 min/mile which isn't too bad considering my pace up the hill was anywhere from 9 to 11 min/mile.

Here's the elevation chart for my run this morning compared to my typical route:

For the week I ran 13.42 miles and I'm up to 25.63 miles in July.  I need to start upping the distance of my "long run" for the week.  So far my longest run has been 6.23 miles so I need to get up to 7 or 8 by the end of the month.  The problem I'm having is that it's hard to find 1.5 hours to go for a run when it's not 90+ degrees.  I guess I'm going to have to get up at 5:00am some morning and knock it out.  Ideally that would be on a weekend because after running for that long I'll be down for the count.

We're going to Montana next week for the annual Van Voast family reunion at Flathead Lake.  We'll see if I'm able to get some running in while we're on vacation for 10 days.

OK, it's time to get interactive.  Please feel free to add comments/questions/thoughts.  Here's a few questions to get things started:

Do you have plans for a summer vacation?  If so where are you going?
Do you have a speed trap hill that you have to drive on a lot?  Have you ever received a speeding ticket there?

You got a break

Three weeks after injuring my hand playing softball I finally decided to go to the doctor last Wednesday.  The injury originally occurred on June 12 when I dove to catch a line drive in the outfield (I did make the catch and doubled a guy off first base...I shouldn't mention that we lost by 10 runs) and my glove got caught up in the grass and bent my hand backward.  Initially I thought it was just a sprain but after the swelling went down I noticed a small bulge on the top of my hand.  I still had full use of my hand/fingers but my whenever I put any pressure on my ring finger, or pushed down with my ring finger, I felt a jolt of pain in the top of my hand.

Fast forward to last Wednesday, I went into the room to get my x-rays and the x-ray technician (xrt) had me hold my hand three different ways for x-rays.  After the last one the xrt and I have the following exchange of words:

xrt: Are you right or left handed?

me: Right handed.

xrt: You got a break.  OK head back to your room and the doctor will be in to see you soon.

As I was walking back to my room I started to think, did she mean I got a break that I injured my non-dominant hand or that I broke my hand?  Of course I had to sit in the room for another 10 minutes trying to figure what she meant before the doctor came in and told me that I had in fact broken the fourth metacarpal bone on my left hand.  Immediately I had visions of a large cast on my left hand/arm that would pretty much ruin any chance to swim at Flathead Lake, make running in the heat miserable, and make life challenging overall.  I was pleasantly surprised when the doctor pulled out a Galveston Metacarpal Brace that can easily be adjusted and removed whenever necessary.  I didn't get to see the x-ray so I don't know exactly where or which direction it was broken but based on the bump on my hand and the description by the doctor the bone broke up (as opposed to sideways) and this brace should push it back into place while it heals.  I was a little skeptical at first but after a week it's already feeling better and is not very sensitive to pressure anymore.  Although I need to wear it as much as possible I think I'll still get to do a little swimming when we're in Montana next weekend.

Last weekend was my sister's wedding!  It's hard to believe that my baby (25-year old) sister is married!  The wedding was a lot of fun and we're happy to welcome Mickey to the family.  Thank goodness he goes by Mickey because I can't imagine how confusing it would be to have three Mikes in the immediate family!  I'm a little sad that they are only going to be around for another month and a half before they move out of the country but I'm excited for them.  Our two girls, along with Mike's three girls, were flower girls in the wedding and I'm proud to say they did a great job!  

Firecracker 4...completed

Angie and I woke up around 6:45am on Thursday to a cloudy, cool morning.  By race time (8am) the clouds were gone and the temp was already in the low to mid 70s.  The 4 milers were released first and I was near the end of the group.  I tried not to pay attention to how fast (or slow) people were going around me and run at my pace and ended up doing just that and ran the first mile in 8:32.  The second mile was a bit more uphill and I ran it a bit slower, 8:45.  The third mile felt like it was never going to end and it was on a trail far removed from any trees or shade.  I got it done in 8:50 and started wishing my race was a 5k (3.1 miles) rather than a 4 mile.  I was getting pretty tired during that last mile until the strategically placed "Gonna Fly Now" started playing in my ears.  In case you don't know the song by the title is is also known as the theme from Rocky.  I defy you to listen to this song and not want to alternate punching your arms in boxing motions.  Anyway, the song came on and gave me a boost and I pushed hard the last half mile and ended up doing the last mile in 8:18.  Unfortunately when my running app (Map My Run...which I love by the way) told me I had completed my fourth mile, I noticed that there was no finish line and no fans cheering me on.  As I had suspected (because I mapped the course last week) the race was actually 4.13 miles and not 4 miles as advertised.  I guess the "Erie Firecracker 4k/4.13" just doesn't have the same ring to it.  Anyway, I sprinted as fast as my tired legs would carry me for the last .13 miles and finished with a total time of 35:20.  This put me on an average pace of 8:34 which I am very happy with.  My time was probably 5 - 10 seconds faster but the race used a gun start (as opposed to a chip start) and I didn't bring my stopwatch to get an accurate time.  Either way, I finished under my goal of 37 minutes.  I finished last place in the "Male 30 - 39" group although that doesn't mean anything to me because the 1st place (24:51) and second place (25:14) finishers were in my group.  My overall finish was 18/39 which means I didn't finish last!

After I crossed the finish line I grabbed a water and chatted with my parents (who came over to watch us finish) for a minute and then headed back out on the course to finish with Angie and the girls.  I didn't have to go too far as Angie was coming up the hill that was near the finish line.  I grabbed the stroller from her and we ran to the finish line.  Angie ended up finishing up in 39:01 for the 2.48 miles which was well below her projected finish time of 45 - 50 minutes.  Again, her time was probably 10 - 20 seconds faster due to the gun start.  She finished 94/107 which I think is great considering she was pushing the two little monkeys, stopped to get a drink (and give the girls drinks) at the water stop, and isn't able to run much because of her knees.  Great job Angie!

I lot more happened this weekend but I'll write about that in a separate post tomorrow.