First, my Garmin took forever to find a signal.
I didn't want to pre-map out a route. I wanted to freeball the whole thing. So, I waited for the signal.
Cooper watched sadly out the window, wondering why I wasn't walking him (I ran with him for the last 1.5 miles of my run, don't worry).
I took a picture of my butt for old time's sake.
I spent a stupid amount of time just staring at the watch, thankful I was standing in front of my house, and not on some running trail. Nothing is worse that standing on some running trail waiting for your stupid watch to pick up its stupid signal. This is why people run without this stuff.
Is this thing broken?
I tried to take a picture of tapping my foot, but for some reason that doesn't show up on camera.
Finally, it picked up a signal. Awesome. I was off. I ventured toward a local high school to scope out track access. There was none. Boo.
And then, 1.5 miles in to my run, my Garmin's battery died.
I hadn't been running in a straight line, but I did some mental math and figured out a route that would likely not short change me on distance and would still allow me to swing by my house and grab my dog.
I ended up, once I sat down and mapped it out afterward, hitting 5 miles. But they were nice, easy miles. The weather was perfect. My legs felt fine. Easy.
I learned a valuable lesson, though. I had been told I should keep my Garmin plugged in all the time, but I got lazy and stopped doing it. And the battery died midrun. I deserved that.
Tonight is quality time with my trainer, and tomorrow I'm doing track sprints. Well, I assume I'm doing track sprints. I haven't quite found a track I can use without breaking a few laws. We'll see how that goes.
I keep my Garmin plugged in all the time too. You know, for my long runs.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, it dies all the time if I don't! Annoying.
I only charge my garmin every few runs. I always make sure that it is charged up before a long run though. Maybe you need a new one?
ReplyDeleteI have a less fancy Garmin and the battery lasts forever. I don't use it on weekdays anyway because I ran the same stupid way every day. Stupid need to not push a stroller on the open road with cars.
ReplyDeleteI love the pic of your little furry friend waiting for his turn to run. :)
Back in my day (when we were running from Dinosaurs) we just ran! LOL.........
ReplyDeleteThe best part of track workouts is breaking a few laws. Learned the hard way not to jump a tall fence around a track - easy on the way in, brutal on the way out after a hard workout.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite thing about the Garmin is getting to freeball runs instead of sticking to the same boring route.
ReplyDeleteAs a technology professional, I can tell you that when you rely on technology it will fail you. always. Even the shit that I build. That's also one of the biggest reasons I hate the cars that have been built in the last 5 years. All of those cool new features (like a keyless start) will break by the time the cars are old enough for me to afford them. At least you still have a great ass.
ReplyDeleteThis guys seems completely obsessed with tracks, but, hey, at least he gives good information about the ones in California.
ReplyDeletehttp://trackinfo.org/tracks.html
Which ones suck, which ones are locked up, etc.
I ended up at CSUSM yesterday, finally seems like a track that is open to the public. After finding the community college near my house is sometimes open and sometimes locked. I don't like to plan my workouts, drive over, and find that they've locked it up.
I am paranoid about charging my Garmin, and so far, so good. I shouldn't even say that, since I would melt if it let me down for my race this weekend. Let's hope I'm not jinxing myself. :-)
ReplyDeleteLove your "I'm bored, waiting for my watch to start" pics
My Garmin has been taking FOREVER to link up the past few runs... wonder if it's all of this satellite/solar flare business they've been talking about.
ReplyDeleteI used to shut my Garmin off on rest days, but it always seemed to take forever to find a signal when I did.
ReplyDeleteI hate it when the Garmin trolls you when the black bar finally reaches the end... Then it jumps back!
Freeball obviously doesn't mean what I think it does.
ReplyDeleteWell.... maybe it does.
My Garmin died about a minute into a run once. I kid you not, I just decided not to run. I'm way too addicted to my Garmin!!
ReplyDelete