Training Log Archive: RLShadow

Dog walk with our dog Hanna and with Teddy, our "grand-dog" (taking care of our son's dog while he and his girlfriend go to Lake Placid for the weekend).

Casey Park, Ontario. I messed up my goal of spending more time running than playing pickleball ...

A friend of many of us pickleball players, Michelle, was back in town so it was a chance to play with her, although I only had one game on the same court as her. But after most everyone else left, we did about 30-40 minutes of drilling which was very good, wish I could do that every week or two.

Rec Center. First pickleball played since last Thursday, so this past week I achieved my goal of more time spent running than playing pickleball, even though that amount was quite low.

Run on the trail along the Genesee River near Charlotte, with trailsnail. Mid 30's but pretty blustery.

Morning run, before the forecast rain and even higher winds came. Fairly pleasant -- around 40, windy, maybe 15 mph but tolerable given the warm temperature.

First actual run with the 910 GPS. I like it a lot, much more well-featured than the very simple FR10 I've used for the last several years.

Still having issues uploading to AP easily, but Ken is providing assistance and I'm sure he'll help me figure it out. As for now, I need to go into Garmin Express and then into Garmin Connect, and save a gpx file to my computer, then upload that to AP. Not a totally terrible process but something I'd like to avoid if possible.

Another thing I just noticed is that there seems to be some odd behavior in how AP analyzes the gpx data, where I had two road crossings. I had to wait for traffic so I stopped my GPS watch. The AP analysis basically ignored my watch stoppages, and kept the running time going. I manually changed the time of this workout to what Garmin Connect said it was.

Also tried out a running jacket that Cheryl got me for Christmas, and a gift from my daughter Andrea, which is a type of belt that is meant to hold things like a phone, iPod, keys, etc. I was skeptical about its claim that it wouldn't bounce, but I took my phone (which Cheryl has been bugging me to do, given my advanced age ...) and the belt held it very securely to the point that I was totally unaware of either the belt or the phone.

Dog walk, but more relevant to this posting, first trial with a new GPS (Garmin 910xt). Seemed to work OK although the trace of my path through the woods (which was identical coming and going) was off by more than I'd like to see. But it could be that it just hadn't completely acquired signals when I went through the woods the first time.

Also, it didn't upload directly to AP which was frustrating. I could download the gpx file to the computer and then upload to AP but I hope I can figure out how to get the GPS talking directly to AP.

Run from home, on roads. Not a bad day; mid 30's, modest breeze, roads probably 95% clear of snow and ice.

GPS wasn't cooperating. Did not acquire signals, waited at least several minutes at home, then started out walking, hoping satellites would finally be acquired. They weren't, so I started running, thinking that at some point things would synch. After at least a mile and a half, still no satellite acquisition, so I gave up. Tracked my route using gmap-pedometer:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6998350

Time is an estimate, but I did time my last mile using a house on DeWitt that I know to be a mile from home (from pre GPS days when I had some measured points). My last mile was around 8:45 but I know I wasn't going that fast most of the run.

Rec center.

With trailsnail, at Holy Sepulcre (sp?) and Riverside cemeteries off of Lake Ave. Roads were OK but not great in Holy Sep. but much better and wider in Riverside. Sidewalk between the two cemeteries was very sloppy, much worse than either one.

Very short treadmill run (although anything on a treadmill just feels like a long time) before pickleball.

Cold-weather training. 18 degrees with a modest wind from the west. My plan was to run on HJ trail for wind protection, but the footing was reasonably bad, so I bailed out to the roads. It was very pleasant going east, but when I turned south and then west, the wind and cold were more noticeable and annoying. I concluded that I need better running mittens. What I have are unlined Goretex mittens, which I recall from years ago are OK in very cold weather IF I wear something under them like thin light gloves, which I didn't have today. And I also recall it being a bit of a pain having two glove/mitten layers on, which maybe I can avoid if I had lined Goretex mittens. Possibly something for my Christmas list ...

Short run. Upper 20's, not much wind, snowing lightly.

GPS seemed to be 0.05 miles or so short, right from the beginning, as I have a 0.5 mile mark that I've measured on many occasions (by GPS) and it is almost always quite consistently right on. Also, looking at my trace, it's very clearly off as my starting point was exactly the same as my ending point.

Plus I know this loop is almost exactly 2 miles; thus I fudged the distance up a bit from the GPS reported distance.

Short treadmill run after pickleball.

HJ trail. Decided I needed to gradually get used to winter running, so today was a small step in that direction. Around 30 degrees, a moderate wind, and a dusting of snow. Pretty mild winter weather but I have to start somewhere. Cheryl and the dogs came along to do a walk while I was running. I ran into them and did the last half mile or so with Hanna.

Rec center.

"Long" run, by today's standards. Mostly on the HJ trail.

Short treadmill workout before an AARP tax related appt at the Rec center. Mainly to start getting me used to treadmill running, in case I need to resort to that at times this winter.

Ladder league. I won a game, for a change, and I don't move down. Still didn't play real well though. Won 11-7, lost 11-1, lost 11-9 (after being up 8-5).

Fitness room workout. Some calisthenics, then leg machine workouts, then sciatica related exercises.

Late afternoon/early evening run, mainly on the Rt 104 path, with trailsnail. Possibly the start of marathon training (!). We're pondering trying to do the Vermont City Marathon in late May.

Rec center.