Thursday, February 5, 2009

Garmin Geek

I love my Garmin. It totally motivates me to run and especially to run faster than last time. Lisa has to tell me to quit looking at it when we run. I like to have my stats laid out there before me, like Lindy, I almost always have a goal, and it shows me exactly where I'm at on the path to that goal, whether the goal is time, distance or speed. I also like coming home and looking over the info, comparing it to last week or even last years info.

So, I've had my Garmin for just over a year now and the only thing I've been disappointed in is that it doesn't show me my average pace on one of the main screens. Until yesterday! I was trying to set it up to do my interval run for this morning and happened on a setting where I was able to add average pace to one of my main screens. I cannot believe how excited I am about this! It has been a frustration (especially since I knew Lindy's Garmin had it so I was sure mine could do it) and I've tried to figure it out several times. In fact, I'm not sure I could figure out how to do it again. So on my run this morning it was all about average pace (which happened to be 10 minute miles today.) I love it!

4 comments:

  1. Yes, Garmins are so very handy . . . I've heard. I don't have one. Am I still considered a real runner? I think I would mostly like to know my pace and mileage. I usually just take my trusty watch and know that if I ran 60 minutes, I ran AT LEAST 6 miles. Probably more. Especially when it's cold outside and you're running fast to get warm.

    Did you notice I posted some of my previous race stats? First marathon - definitely hit the wall! And it was a big wall. Not sure if I could improve enough to ever qualify for Boston but I'm happy running local marathons for fun. And hopefully I'll improve a bit each time.

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  2. I sometimes think you are more of a runner without a Garmin. It shows that you love running without the gadgets, I think it took a gadget to get me to love it. I THINK I would still run without it, but it would be a tough adjustment.

    Thanks for posting your stats. Way to go. I'm hoping for under 2 hours for my next half, but it's a hilly course, and I'm not used to hills. So as long as I improve over last year I'm happy!

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  3. Cynthia Im so proud of you for figuring out how to get average pace right on your screen!

    The thing I loved the MOST about my Garmin, was pulling it out of the box, strapping it on, and take off- no configuring. But I feel that it is capable of so much more if I had a little technical savvy.

    Way to go!

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  4. I agree with Cynthia- there is something to be said for running for the pure love of how it feels, and not for the reward of immediate stat feedback.

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