Long Run 3

Originally posted August 3, 2008:

This morning was my scheduled long run. I planned to do 10 miles. And, I failed. J/K. The main reason for me writing in this area is that I have some accountability. I would think I might to be ashamed to write about not completing a run (unless I got injured, which I'm still a bit worried about). :)

Well, I wanted to get out of the door at 7am, but it was about 7:20am before I left with my new Garmin. It was actually my second new Garmin. For a little while there it seemed like I might not have one.

I went out on Friday and bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 405 so that I can know how far I am running. Last week, I ended up .2 short of 9 miles (my goal) because of a wrong turn.

As I mentioned, I bought one on Friday (left work for about an hour, don't tell anyone). When I got home, I played with it for a little while. Since I had to charge the battery first, I did not get much time to fuss with it on Friday. So Sat. I turned my attention to it. Well I could not register it. Time after time, I tried, but could not. After about two hours I gave up and returned it. I assumed that the one I purchased was a returned and the prior owner had registered it. Instead of trying to deal with customer service, I thought I would just exchange it for another one.

So I went to REI to exchange it and they did not have another one. They told me I could hold onto it and talk to customer service for Garmin to determine if they could fix the registration. If I wanted to talk to customer service, I doubt I would have drove 20 minutes to exchange it. I did not want to sit on the phone dealing with it so I just returned it. Then I drove to the REI in San Carlos (about 20-30 minutes away from the first REI) and purchased one.

Then, I get home and try to install the software. Well now there is a problem with the software. It is focused on my old Garmin (the one I returned) and is not recognizing my new one. I'm ready to give up and just return this one as well. I was a bit sad because I was so excited when I bought the first Garmin.

I was thinking about seeing the Dark Knight in the afternoon, but I have to get the Garmin to work so that I could use it on my long run. I'm not sure how long I installed, removed, and reinstalled the software, along with reading the troubleshooting webpages. It was long enough that my thought of seeing the Dark Knight was gone.

Finally . . . and I don't know how . . . I was about to have the program recognize my new Garmin (which means the training can be downloaded from the watch to the computer). It was a long and frustrating process. It took most of my Sat (with fussing with the first Garmin, returning it, buying a new one at a location many miles away, fussing with the second one). So I had to test it. I could not go for a run since I planned to use Sat to rest my legs (I worked out the prior four nights and needed an "off" day before my long run). So, I took Jake and Jenny for a 2 mile walk. It was hot!

Then I came home and hoped that the software would work (download the details of my walk to the computer). It worked! Yeah!

So to end the long and boring story . . . I have my Garmin and could use it for my long run.

It's 7:20am and off I go with my Garmin. Nothing too much exciting about the run. I ran up to Steven's Creek Trail, ran about 2 miles of the Trail, and then headed back home. It was long, hot and I was tried. But, I did it. And, I ended up with 11 miles. The Garmin watch came into good use as I got near my home I was at 10.8 miles so I forced myself to jog up and down the block until I hit 11 miles. The watch says I lost nearly 1400 calories. I started off with a good pace, but really slowed down. Yet, I reached and exceeded my goal.

So on to next week . . . 12 miles.

And, the High School Reunion.

And, the Santa Monica Speech. Going to be tough to find time for the 12 miles, but I got to do it.