Playing in Traffic

First things first...Saturday I did a "long" run of 9 whole miles. It's my new "farthest I've ever run". 13.1, I'm coming for ya!

While I was on this run, I was feeling pretty charitable toward the human race as a whole. I was thinking how great it was to live in a city where the motorists really seem to respect runners and bikers (excluding city buses, of course. They'll hit you without thinking twice whether you're on foot or a tricycle...). Several times as I neared the curb to cross the street, a car would pause a beat longer so I wouldn't have to stop. Wydown Blvd. has a fabulous double-wide bike path on both sides of the street, and no one pulls the "I think I'll pass this slow car in the bike lane" bit. People turning right wait (as they should) to let the pedestrians use the walk sign before turning. I was pleasantly surprised that StL drivers (some of the dumbest in the world, in my opinion) seemed to be tacitly cheering me on with their motor vehicle kindness...

Fast forward to this morning. I went for a run that takes me (mostly on sidewalk) through this enormous condo complex. Usually drivers there are pretty decent. Not this morning. Old lady in the blue Civic, did you really swerve at me, seriously?? To the 7 cars waiting to turn right at the McCutchon light, it's customary to let the pedestrian cross when the little walk figure is blinking, and btw, USE YOUR BLINKERS!!! And, skeevy dude in the red truck, we've been over this before...it's absolutely unnecessary to honk at me. I know I look awesome w/ my pony tail tucked into my wicking beanie like it's a swim cap.

Lack of faith in humanity restored!

Positive note? I get to play volleyball for the first time in like 5 years tonight. I'm so excited it's ridiculous--and it's just a team practice. Imagine what I'll be like when it's game time!

Running w/ Garmin

Saturday was my first run with my new Garmin Forerunner 405 gps/hrm watch. Full disclosure: I spent a good two hours playing with the watch and trying out the functions detailed in the owner's manual earlier in the week. Since I started running in earnest back in March, I've worn a regular sports watch to track the time (You've seen how accurate that was in my estimated race times...) and used the map feature of MapMyRun.com to figure out distance. I had virtually no idea what my heart rate was. So, I was excited to know my stats for real and was hoping knowing what my pace was would inspire me to kick it up a notch!

Reviews I've read of Garmin watches said that sometimes it takes awhile to get GPS from the satellite. But, so far, I haven't had any problems. When I was first setting up the watch, the instructions said I'd have to go outside to get a satellite connection. Not so. I pressed the GPS button intending to look at the menu and go outside later. Seconds afterward, the GPS signal indicator showed up on the watch face. The two times I've been out with the watch, it's taken no more than a minute or so to get going. I haven't tried it out at the gym yet, but I'm hoping I can use the watch w/o having to order the foot pod.

The training mode features are amazing. Seriously, this watch does everything I've ever wanted to know during a workout. For my first run, I set up a Simple workout mode to run 6.5 miles. There's another mode, Interval, that you can use to set up your warm up and cool down walking portions as well as the run, but I couldn't remember exactly how to do that without breaking out the manual again. I was really excited to see that there was a setting for the watch to pause when I stop running. So, all those stop lights won't be screwing up my time anymore. That feature takes a few seconds to kick in and another few seconds to return to workout mode, but overall, it did a nice job.

I set the watch to scroll through my pace, time, and heart rate. The watch was already defaulted to include the "Virtual Running Partner". This screen shows two figures, you and your buddy, and shows how far ahead or behind you are depending on the pace set for the virtual partner. Apparently, my virtual partner was set to a much faster past, b/c he left me in the dust. In the future, I'll probably turn that feature off. But, overall, I loved knowing how many miles I'd gone and how fast I was moving. It really helped me keep a steady pace. That's something I'm having to work on: slowing down when I'm trying to run farther distances. I tend to start out too fast and get tired in the end.

I decided to try out the heart monitor on my first run as well. I've never worn one, and I was concerned that I wouldn't like the feeling of something strapped around my rib cage while I was running. But, it turned out to be pretty comfortable. Except for the time that it came unhooked when I yanked on my shirt, I didn't even know it was there. The read out seemed pretty accurate, based on heart rates I've taken myself at the gym. However, on Monday morning, I went for another run with the heart monitor on. I don't think I wetted the sensors good enough b/c the readouts during that run were really off. It said my average heart rate was 37...My resting is around 60, so I know those numbers were way off. I intend to try it again on my next run and see what happens.

Probably the most fun part of the watch is transferring the data to the Garmin Connect program. For each workout, I see a map of my path (and can even watch it as a video). I can see my overall calories burned, heart rate, speed, distance, etc. And I can also see the splits for each mile. I'm a nerd, and I love charting my progress, so this is a lot of fun.

Do you need a Garmin? It depends. I'm not sure I really "need" a Garmin. But, my goal is to be a "real runner" someday. And, I'm a perfectionist, so I want to be a good runner. The information I'm getting from this watch motivates me to improve, so in that way I'd recommend a Garmin for others with similar personalities. They're a little expensive, but if you look around (I got mine on Amazon), you can find some great deals. If you're a distance runner or competitive, a Garmin is the ultimate running accessory, second (in my opinion) only to an iPod.

Negative Reinforcement

Let's take a trip down memory lane to Psych 101...remember the rats who could be taught to perform a behavior for a food reward, or Pavlov's dogs who learned it was dinner time when they heard the bell? All positive reinforcements....

Lately, I'm more like the rats who were taught not to do something on pain of electric shock. For the last three weeks or so, since it's really gotten cold, after I get back from a run (and sometimes after an indoor cardio workout), I've been getting blinding headaches, sometimes full blown migraines. While I'm running I feel great. When I stop running and cool down, I feel great. Then half an hour to an hour later, I'm in tears b/c my head feels like someone drove a stake through my temple.

It could be allergy/sinus related b/c when I run, regardless of the temperature, my sinuses go nuts. But that wouldn't explain the migraines really. I think I'm well hydrated in general, and I drink a little water before I go out and drink when I get back. I don't usually eat anything before I run b/c I cramp if I do, but I eat within the hour of getting home. Not sure what else to do. Or, what to do differently.

I have a doctor's appt. in less than a month, so ideally I'll be able to hang on until then, but the migraine I had this morning made me two hours late for work, so I might have to suck it up and make an appt. sooner rather than later.

Any other runners out there have similar issues? What did you do to fix the problem?