I had a day off today for the funeral. Well, also because I needed a day off, but it worked best today.

But... I do have exciting running related news for you - I have in my hand a guaranteed entry form for the London marathon (through the club entry route). A nice end to a long and difficult day.

So it looks like more marathon training for me!

Helen, yay! I'm glad you got into the marathon! Have fun training, and let us know all about it! I enjoy learning from you...

midwife, were you able to get a few miles in?

Heather, I'm glad you got back to it!

I just HAD to do a bit of a longer run today, so I cancelled my haircut appointment (even though I desperately need a haircut) and went home right after school to put in 6 miles. I felt like I was going relatively fast, but it was about a 10:00 mile average. I'm trying to get that average down on my six-mile runs. Oh well, it wasn't bad considering I haven't been running much this week and I was tired as ****.

I'm hoping my husband got me that Garmin Forerunner for my birthday -- I'll find out tomorrow!

Hey, where is everyone?

I did an easy 2 miles today, but I was tired so it was kind of tough.

Oh yeah, my husband DID get me the Garmin Forerunner for my b-day! Woohoo!! It hasn't come in the mail yet but I'll get it by the weekend. I'm excited!

I reached a little milestone today, according to my running log. I passed the 800 mile point -- I've run 801.3 miles in 2007 so far!

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

I'm here. Still haven't gone out for that first short run since the stomach flu of '07, but I WILL! Tomorrow morning I am OFF work. I have a couple of things to do, but I am going to run....even if I can only carve out 20 minutes.

I was feeling a bit blah yesterday, so didn't run. I'm a bit better today, I managed half an hour of speedwork on the treadmill this morning, and fingers crossed I'll be running into work tomorrow if it isn't horrendously icy.

I ran! :-)

I'm not running at the moment - horrid sore throat and achey

Lisa - let us know how the Garmin is, and WHOOT on your 800+ miles this year!!

Midwife - good on ya!

Helen - how's your weather? Okay to run into work?

Heather

midwife -- yay! I'm glad you got out there!

Helen -- how's it going? I wish I could run to work but it's about 20 miles and I might not be able to teach when I got there. Plus, I'd have to leave home at about 2:00am, I guess!

Heather -- I'm sorry you're feeling sick. That's no good! Hope you feel better soon.

The Garmin is WONDERFUL so far. I haven't figured out all its little tricks yet, and I haven't used the heart rate monitor yet, but I'm just excited about the fact that I can head out and run anywhere I want and not worry about measuring out the route with my car. I'm one of those people who has to log every mile and time or I get antsy, so it's perfect for me.

My run yesterday was pretty good -- I liked being able to check my pace as I went with my Garmin, and it kind of helped me realize that I'm just sort of shuffling too much. When I make my stride longer, I'm much faster but more relaxed. The problem is that my legs start hurting more quickly that way. I need to figure all that out. Today's run was TOUGH because I'm super tired today. I went pretty fast for the first 1.6 and then I said screw it, I'm slowing down. I think I need to do more easy miles and stop thinking about pace for a while.

Hey all - still not running, but bumping the thread up

How are ya'll? Lisa, have you figured out that fabulous Garmin?

Lisa, I¨m really tempted to get a Garmin with my christmas money from my grandparents, so I´ll be interested in seeing what you think of it!

I´ve been in Spain for the past week staying with my parents (I still am), but have actually done a fair amount of running. I´ve been out pretty much every morning, and also done some more ambitious runs than my usual 1.5 miles along the seafront and back route which I usually do. Mind you, last time I was here it was the week after a marathon so I had an excuse - whereas today is officially the First Day of Marathon Training on my 16 week schedule!

Hi everyone!

I haven't checked in for a while...I ran a few times this past week, but I've had to stop for right now due to health reasons (I'll explain more later -- don't worry, I'm fine).

As for the Garmin, I LOVE it! It's killing me not to be able to run, because I love playing with my Garmin. I haven't even used the heart rate monitor and I haven't updated my runs in the software yet. I just love going out for a run and being able to look down and see my pace at any time, and heading back and knowing exactly how many miles I've run, regardless of whether I've mapped out the route or not. I highly recommend the Garmin to anyone who likes logging the numbers the way I do -- average pace, distance, etc. The Garmin logs it all for you anyway -- I believe it saves up to a year's worth of runs right in the gadget itself, so even if you don't use the software to log stuff, you've got it all saved anyway. It's lovely! It IS a bit large on my wrist, though. I went back into the fitness center at school one day after a run, and a student said "What's on your arm? A laptop?"

3 miles today. I haven't been consistent, but I have not quit!

I have a Nike ipod attachment that sounds kind of like your Garmin, Lisa. In some ways I like it and in some ways I don't. The mileage it "speaks" into my headphones is accurate but very different than what it "reads" on the ipod. But it is close enough for my purposes.

I'm always so jealous of your running locales, Helen!

Hi all!

Helen, Spain sounds glorious for running - lucky lucky you!
Lisa - let us know what's up with you when you're ready, chick!
Midwife - I did 3 miles yesterday too - as 'damage control' against my eating!!

SOOOOO glad to be back at it Hubby gave my new Nike running pants and socks for Christmas - it was very motivating! And bizarre... a year ago, I would neither have wanted this stuff, nor fit into it (okay, the SOCKS might have fit! )... and now, I was so excited, I thought I might cry. My life is so different now I still can't quite believe I can fit into 'regular' clothing - and sports clothing at that!

Have a great day all, and Happy Boxing Day from up here in the Great White North!

Heather

Ooh, I have a Garmin... I am planning to take it for a run in the morning, I'll let you know how I go on and how it compares to the footpod system I used to use.

Today was a rest day, tomorrow is the 5k time trial, then Sunday will hopefully be a long run.

Yay! I won the time trial again, faster than last time (22.31). I'm actually the first person to ever win it twice, and even if people can run it faster, no-one else can be the first to do it. I've been anxiously looking at the results while I was away over christmas just in case anyone beat me to it, but they didn't, so I was determined to make sure I did it this week. I got into the lead during the first lap (of 3), and after that just hung on as well as I could.

It was also the Garmin's first run out. I'm still getting used to it, where different options and features live, even silly stuff like the fact that the buttons need a firmer press than the ones on my polar, and the fact that I haven't been able to find a way to show the time prominently for when I'm travelling to the start and want to know what time it is. But looking at the data on the computer when I got in, it seems far more detailed than the Polar, and far easier to transfer everything by connecting it than manually entering it into the computer. I think I'll run with two running logs for a while - the one I usually use and the one that came with the Garmin, at least until I can work out a way to transfer the two years of historical data to the new log.