Thursday, May 8, 2008

Warming up....

First of all, I just wanted to say thanks again to all that participated in the May Classic 5k. We all had a great time..... and we are already planning for the next one. It looks as though the Tower of Terror 13k in October is going to be the next challenge for us. That is not official yet, but I will keep everyone posted. BTW, we are starting an email group for people that are interested in the fitness events (primarily running) that Renewal Rehab will be doing. If you want to be notified of upcoming events, please email me in the comments section of the blog.
This week has been a relatively good week of running for me. As I said last week, the paces are getting more challenging, but so far I have been able to handle it. Over the next month or two, the workouts will become even more manageable, and I will have to challenge myself even more. The only thing is that I won't see as quick of improvements until the fall, because of the weather... it's getting very warm... actually its hot!!!

My Sunday run was pretty tough, because it seems as though the temps are starting to be around 4-6 degrees higher than what I am used to. I had to shorten up the run to 8 miles instead of 10 that I was going to do. I was dehydrated, and felt extremely sluggish for the entire day. By Sunday night I was ok, and Monday morning I had a very good speedwork session before I went to work. Wednesday was a very good session also, as I was able to run 5 miles around a 7:00/mile pace. It was extremely challenging, but I got a second wind at the 5th mile. I felt as though I could of probably pulled out another mile or two at that pace. The ironic thing about my run is that I finished a little over 9 miles, with 5 of the miles at a fast pace and 4 of the miles very slow (warmup and cooldown)in around 1 hr and 11 min. Earlier this year, I completed the Gasparilla 15k in 1:09:04, which was my best race before the 5k I did 2 weeks ago. So I know I definitely have a much better time ahead of me for my 15k and half marathon. So that's very exciting!!!!
This morning I did a 12 miler, and luckily I brought some gatorade with me. I needed it, because it is just so warm out there... When running at a slow pace, I usually feel quite fresh at the end, but not today. I was kinda happy that I just had to do 12 miles... could've done a few more, but wasn't really looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, I can't post my runs today like I usually do, because I have switched over to a new website to monitor my runs. It is called connect.garmin.com. It is taking over for Motion Based, and I have yet to figure out how to post it on the blog. I'm working on it though...maybe I can figure it out later today.

So, you all know I am a techie geek (or a wannabe techie geek)... Garmin has just released the Forerunner 405, which is a new GPS watch that does all the things that the Forerunner 305 does, but looks like a watch (a big watch for that matter). It also has a bezel screen that switches through different menus like how you do it on your Ipod....way cool!!!! I'm figuring out more things about it, so I will post all the cool features on it as I learn more... here is a pic. With that said, I have my Forerunner 305 that I could sell to someone for a very reasonable price.... you just have to promise me that you are going to use it a lot!!!!