Monday, July 19, 2010

1st run with Garmin Forerunner 305!

Oh my gosh, this thing is cool!!

Okay, so I can't write a detailed, fair review until I've used it a few times more, but so far I love it! I set up the watch to do 8 repetitions of 5:1 intervals. (I have to keep reminding myself that I don't NEED to run constantly with no walking breaks. I'm still a beginner runner! Walking to recover is perfectly fine!)

My goal was to run 4 miles today, and I figured that would be about the time it would take to do it (48 minutes). Actually, I figured I'd be just under the goal when I was finished, considering I was "supposed" to run slowly today, focusing on distance rather than time.

My only complaint so far, and this could be because I'm still learning to use the watch, was that while it was timing my intervals, I couldn't figure out a way to see my distance/time so far. I couldn't see my pace or how far I'd gotten. I could only see how many more intervals I had to do. Hm... I'd like to be able to at least see my pace during intervals! I know my sister's 405 lets her see the distance, so maybe I'm just missing something.

So when my watch beeped after the last walking interval, I was shocked to see that I had done 4.05 miles! I went over my goal for the day! Yippee! I did 4.05 miles in 48 minutes, which I'm pretty proud of, especially considering I felt like I was going really slow today.

It was fun to not set a route before I went out! Usually I'm using mapping programs and trying to figure out an easy route that takes me the distance I'm looking for that day. It was fun to just go out and run, choosing streets when I felt like it. My town has crazy hills, though, so I ended up walking a lot of my last running interval as it was a pretty steep uphill.

I can't tell you how cool it is to come home and upload my run to my Garmin Training Center! It tells me my pace (the first three miles were all 9:28! I slipped to 11:58 by the last mile, though), elevation, distance, speed, etc. Very cool!

I think my new watch will be a very valuable tool for my training! I'm very happy with it so far, and I can't wait to figure out how to use all of its functions!

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