Our Lives

Sean and I have recently adopted a new member of the family…. a Garmin Forerunner! (No, not a dog like you might have been expecting – and certainly no babies in our near future!) After reading so many blogs where people were able to document there mile splits, exact mileage and so on with such accuracy, we decided that it was time we checked it out. We decided on the Forerunner after trying it on at Best Buy. Had to make sure it wasn’t too bulky or uncomfortable!

Sunday was our first attempt at using it while we ran. We were in Columbia for MU Homecoming so we went to the Katy Trail – a little piece of heaven on earth! We decided that we would run 4 miles and begin slow – a 10:30 pace and then speed it up from there. The plan was great in all, but turns out that my normal speed is more like a 12 minute mile so the 10:30 pace felt like a sprint! That was a blow to the self-esteem! On top of that, the Forerunner is not instant – ie after about 30 seconds you get a true reading of your pace not right away. We didn’t really know that so we were slowing down and speeding up faster than the Forerunner could handle. It is comical now but definitely was not at the time. We did end up completing 4 miles, but it was not pretty and only slightly enjoyable.

Last night we decided to give the Forerunner another chance. We spent some time setting up an interval program – 4 min run: 1 min walk. Let me tell you – this little guy is a champ! We pressed start and it told us everything we needed to know. Run for 4:00! Speed up! In Desired Zone! Slow Down! It was like running with a personal trainer. I absolutely loved it. We did 2.66 miles in 30 min! We average a 11:16 mile and got up to a 9:54 pace for the last 4 min run. It was such a great experience. A far cry from the torture that was our Sunday run!

Happy Wednesday!

- Veronica