Gotta Run Now

I bought some black tights with a gray paisley design at Marshall's for $7 and cut off the toes and the top section. I'll probably hem the edges later, if I'm not too lazy. ; )

It was a rainy and cold 50* this morning so I slid my arm warmers on, took a picture and was off down the road for an 11 mile run.

My arm warmers worked great. I slid them down over my hands at first. Brr... I slid them up high when I was warm and I slid them off and tied them around my waist when I was hot. They stayed in place on my arms the whole time and I don't think I sweat any more than I do when I wear my running gloves which are probably made with a special fabric, especially since I took them off when I warmed up.

Seven mile tempo run today... I didn't set my Garmin right (still learning!), so I don't know my mile splits, but that's okay. The point was to warm-up, run 4 hard miles, run for 5 minutes easy, run 3 miles hard and cool-down. And that I did!

Updated on 11/10/10…

I'm not anti-ear phones, but I'm thinking about running my next marathon without them - for the extra challenge. Yeah, just running a marathon is not enough of a challenge! ; ) Anyway, I ran 20 miles a couple of weeks ago sans music. It really wasn't any harder, but I had to slowly wean myself off of the music.

And there's the sweat in my ears. After very long, hot runs, my ears fill up with sweat making it hard to hear. I could do without that. After races, to stretch your body in all sorts of crazy ways - that's normal, but to shake your head hard to one side to get the sweat out of your ears - kind of funny. ; )

Today I was running down the street behind a walker who was wearing ear phones when she started walking into the middle of the street. I had to tell her three times that there was a car behind us before she heard me and got out of the way, shocked to see the car right behind her.

Today's accomplishments: Ran 9 miles at a 9:06/mi. average and saved one l…

Yesterday I finally ran a six mile tempo run at 10K pace - in the form of a race. I ran my first 10K, the Houston 17th Annual 2009 Sheltering Arms Turkey Trot! The race results can be found here. I'm bib number 2033.

Before the race, I ran easy for ten minutes. It felt good to run because I was cold - it was 46*. At the beginning of the race, there wasn't any problem with going out too fast because it was too crowded for speed. I didn't even get up to an 8:00 pace until the 0.3 mile mark. I stayed steady for the first five miles and then sped up a bit in the sixth mile.
It was in the sixth mile that one runner said something about pumpkin pie (Happy Thanksgiving!), but the thought of eating anything sounded anything but good at that point. Another runner encouraged me with "Go, Green!" (thanks to my green shirt). One runner yelled out "Push!" long and loud as he and the rest of us were closing in on the finish line. With that, I forgot how tired I was an…

There's my new Garmin Forerunner 310XT! That's how I wear it when I run - backwards. Besides, you could see photos of the front of it all over the net, but how many folks show you the back of it?! ; )

My Garmin 205 wasn't working right. Memories of the January 2008 marathon ran through my head and there weren't any sugar plum fairies floating around - just my Garmin 205 that said my pace was great when it really wasn't.
So Monday when I was at Luke's Locker for the 10K race sign up, they showed me some new Garmin watches. I liked the way the 310XT fit on my small wrist. With the 310XT, you can view four data fields on one screen in easy-to-read numbers and there's a vibration alert for mile markers (or any distance you like) - helpful during a noisy race. There's a $50 rebate on it.
Unfortunately, the 405 didn't fit my wrist as well as the 310XT. I probably would have had to put my Velcro strap on.
Tuesday I went back and bought myself a Christmas pre…

I ran 16 1/4 miles or so today. My Garmin Forerunner 205 lost the satellites numerous times, showed my pace was crazy fast and crazy slow and finally stopped adding miles even though I was still running. I was able to figure out my distance because I ran a route I'm used to. I had a goal of running 16 miles. The last four were supposed to be faster. I can only hope!

I reset my Garmin and updated the software. I'll see how it acts tomorrow. Hopefully, it was only a fluke.

If not, I'm looking at the 310XT (I like the four data fields at one time) or maybe the 305, but I don't know. I wonder if the 305 gets better satellite reception than the 205, which I have.

I think I took a Powerbar gel around mile 4, 8 and 11 (meant to take one at 12, but my Garmin said 12 when I hadn't run 12 yet, and I didn't figure it out in time). Bad Garmin! It also told me I ran a 6:57 mile.

Silly Garmin! If you're gonna lie to me to make me feel fast, you're gonna have to make …