Long Run

Distance: 9.75 (Land Park loop)

Time: 01:21:39

Pace: 8:22/mi

Temp: 80 (warm because I ran at 10 AM)

Quality: 6/10

First things first, I want to thank Abby Darrah for making this run possible. The girl's mom is out of town and I did not want to impose on my parents. Abby volunteered to come over and take the girls while I went for the run. THANK YOU.

About the run. In general, it was a good run. I used my hydration pack and filled it with 40 oz. of a combination of HEED and Hammer Gel to give me some fuel. The only downside was my right nipple rubbed RAW so I had to stop and take off my shirt at the 8 mile mark. Right in front of Fairytale town...upon reflection, not the best place to start stripping. Ooopsie.

Watch report. I'm having problems getting the active sync to work (to the tune of me going to bed cursing at 2:00 am). So I was a little grumpy about Garmin this morning. But it picked up a signal and worked like a champ. In no time I was watching the mileage increase and the time fly by. It was great to actually know how far I was into the run. Before, in my runs, I guessed where each mile mark was (e.g. the third light pole in from the edge of the park, the fifth driveway on the way back from Land Park, etc.)  I set the Autolap feature to 1 mile and had all of my laps captured at the right moment. It was great. However, the pace feature sucked! My first two miles were 8:05 pace because the pace kept telling me I was running everything from 7:35 - 11:30/mile. At about 5.5 miles I decide that I was not going to keep the 405 if this is the best it could do. My intuition and a Timex had gotten me this far. Why change now? Not more than 100 meters after making this decision, a guy crossed Freeport onto the park just in front of me Wearing a Garmin 205. I picked up the pace and started to talk with him about how he liked the 205...he loves it. It turns out he's John Blue. A local ultra running stud. He got 27th this year on the AR 50. Anyhow, he informed me that I needed to change pace setting from instant pace to "lap pace" in order to get an accurate reading. He also told me that the lap pace is the primary feature he uses during his races. Thank you John. Garmin gets a repreave.