I have come to realize that the Garmin 305 is definitely designed to be worn while running or biking only. The first clue is that despite it’s light weight it is the size of 3 normal watches. It is quite literally huge. The second and somewhat less obvious clue is that no matter what you do to reconfigure the display… it never actually shows you the current time. It knows the time. Down to the GPS inspired second. It won’t tell you though unless you go into the configuration menu and look at the super tiny display down at the bottom. That doesn’t matter though.

I went for my run today at what in retrospect was the absolute worst time of the day. The middle of August in Dallas in the middle of a day with no cloud cover. Wow it was hot. I went over to a local school to get started… but there was no shade. I had planned to try the new watch out and measure their running track at the same time.

So to beat the heat, I ended up running over into the neighborhood around the school and managed to stay under shade trees most of the time. Whew!

Even though I wrote about my new gear (shoes) just a couple days ago, I have actually owned them for a while. The delay in posting is due to the fact that the blog didn’t actually exist when I first started. I had a visit with Dr. Von Bergen this morning though for various problems and we ended up narrowing it down to a bone being out in my right foot. Luckily I had worn my new running shoes to the visit on purpose and when he tested me on them they were definitely not good for me.

I’m worried about shin splints. As mentioned in my last post I’ve been having problems with my lower legs. It’s not really serious but of course I told my coworkers about it. One of them … yes of course it was the guy who is significantly more overweight than I am and hasn’t actually done any physical exercise for the last 15 years since he graduated from high school … told me that shin splints are so horrible and I won’t be able to train once they really set in like during those days when he was a pro soccer star.

Finished my run for today. The run went well except that I started off with too aggressive a pace and had to cut my initial 10 minute run short. So I ended up running 8 minute, walking 5, running 12, walking 8. The goal was 30 minutes but I ended up 3 minutes walk from home so that’s why there’s extra. According to google maps I ended up moving 2.1 miles total.

Mom sent over her xls training log called aaa Running plan.xls along with this email:

Hi,
I attached a copy of my running spreadsheet. Dad told me to do this.
I am excited about the family activity.

The only reason it is called aaa is because I wanted it to be at the
top of my files so I don’t have to scroll down to find it.

Love,
Mom

So I uploaded it straight to google docs and sent her an invitation as a collaborator. Maybe she’ll edit it online so we can compare. I’m guessing maybe not though. Google docs could suck on dialup.

So one of the first things my book talks about is getting new gear. Fortunately in the case of running there isn’t exactly a lot that you really need to get started. Basically it comes down to this: A pair of good shoes. The rest can come later… like the nipple lube. Yes. Nipple lube.

The book talks about all the various types of shoes and things like overpronation, stability, motion control and cushioning. Aaaah… Cushioning… One I recognize. That’s like the Nike Air bubble… Right?

So I’m running. Training in fact. I’m going to run a marathon at some point…but a half-marathon to start. The White Rock is in December and I need to get ready.

Running is not something I have ever done very well, preferring things like cycling. Mostly because I’m kinda fat now and it takes a lot of extra energy to bounce around which a nice smooth bike ride doesn’t require. Sure I have to push all that extra weight up hills but I’d have to do that when running anyway.