It's Like Sending a Kid Off to College....

.... I'd imagine anyway.

It all started last week when my Garmin was d-e-a-d before a run.  Silly me, I must've forgot to charge that puppy.  No worries, just an easy-paced run.  I have my mile markers memorized (oooh alliteration!).  Nbd. 

After charging all night and most of the rest of the next day I brought him along on my 9 mile run with new running pal.  Once the first mile passed and Mile 1 : x:xx popped up on my wrist, all hell broke loose.  My watch continued to try to lap, unsuccessfully every 2 seconds, causing a fun chirp! chirp! chirp! every 2 seconds.  Uh yeah... sorry new running buddy, I swear I'm not a dumb-dumb....  I quickly set the watch off the autolap function and figured I could just keep track of the total mileage and time and go from there.  And then it started randomly restarting itself.  Neat.

That night I set to work trying to fix the ol' G-man.  Because I'm a sweat monster, I've had quite a few problems with my watch.  Most of them are probably stemmed from the fact that I sweat a lot and I live in a very humid area (in the summer).  After taking on the 95 degree day a couple of weeks back, my watch had condensation behind the screen.  Oh nooooooooooooooos.

I tried a soft reset and downloading all the new updated firmware, as that typically does the trick.  For some reason the master reset wasn't working, and I was getting frustrated, so I called it a night.

I decided to take it out on my bike ride with Aaron on Friday.  Roughly one mile in it started it's fun lap error chirpage.  Even better, a few miles later it started chirping double time!  Because we were on a busy road, I didn't feel comfortable stopping to shut it up, so we had to deal with it.... for far too long.  Hey, at least it was still spitting out HR data!  (silver lining... there she be....)

A lovely twitter pal recommended putting it in a bag of rice to dry out the moisture inside.  Genius I tell you, genius!  I brought it to the gym to keep time for my interval run, and it wouldn't even allow me to use the lap button to record my splits.  It also couldn't be bothered to keep time in seconds, it would only do every other second.  As in, 5:50, 5:52, 5:54.  We don't deal with odd numbered seconds here folks!

Finally this morning I made one final attempt at a master reset after a 60+ hour stay in the Rice Bag Hotel, and had no luck.  I called up Garmin, explained my thoroughness in at-home trouble-shooting, and they said I'd done all I could and to send him in. 

To be honest, the details of the transaction are somewhat hazy.  It's my understanding that for $40 (what is normally $80) I will be getting a brand new watch to replace my brokey watch.  However, after doing some more digging around that kind of seems to good to be true.  Maybe I'm getting a brand new watch while they fix my watch?  I'm ok with dropping 40 bones for either option, to be honest.

So before work I marched (drove really, but marched sounds more assertive and final) to the post office to give my garmin my final (maybe??) goodbye.  We've had some good times, Garmin the Martian.  You got me through training for my first marathon.  And through 2 more suckfest 26.2s and countless races and PRs in between.  RIP (maybe?) little buddy.
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I ran 4 miles with my new running buddy Rachel this morning in 39:20.  See that, in the MORNING.  Winner winner!

That felt more like swimming than running.

The weather lied to me when I checked it yesterday prior to packing my running clothes to stay the night at Tay's.....thunderstorms in the morning, etc.  I take that to mean cool weather, so I pack running tights and a tee.  More like 65 with 100% humidity (seriously, that's what it's showing at 5:45am) with hardly a breeze.  I stopped to stretch at .75 since my legs were still feeling tight from my long run Sunday, and I already had huge sweat spots on my shirt.  I tried to roll my capri-length tights up to be more short like, but yowsers, it was sweltering out there!  I've never been so glad to be done with a run.  THIS is why I'm running in the morning, imagine how miserable it'll be this evening with some heat thrown in to that humidity!  (Damn it, there better be some heat with humidity this afternoon or I'm going to be MAD!)  :)

Anyway, I did an easy 3 miler, which my legs took a while to warm up to, but after they did it was swell.  Total time was 27:22 for a 9:07 pace.

1.  9:19

2.  9:09

3.  8:57

Since there is NO FOOD at the boy's place and I'm borderline starvation mode, I think I'm going to hustle up and treat myself to some Starbucks for breakfast.  YUMMY.

Also, I was given this awesome blog award by J at Morning Runner!!!  She's had many great suggestions (along with a lot of the rest of you!) on the whole morning running transformation, and I appreciate the award.  :)

The instructions are to post this award and then give it to two others that you have started reading.

Amy at Will Run For Fun.  Her blog is very entertaining and she's a ridiculously awesome runner.  Just reading her splits makes me break into a sweat!

Amanda at Adventures in our Funny Farm.  She seems like the most genuinely sweet gal EVER, and I always look forward to her comments on my blog and her own posts.

Again, thanks for the honor J!  :)

Guys I hate to say this, but I think I might actually be a morning runner.  :s

morning runner?

I don't know how many times I've said, "Gosh, I should really get up in the morning and run." Yet I don't. The rare times I have (mostly on weekend long runs because I have something going on that evening) have sucked. But now, more and more the morning run seems to entice me. What do I do when I need to make a LIFE ALTERING (ha) decision? Pros and cons list, duh.

Pro Morning Running

• Taylor works at 5:30am, so he has to get up at 4:30-4:45am. Because I'm a light sleeper, I'm also up until he leaves at 5am-ish.
  
• I could go to bed at the same time as him and get up and go when he does. Genius.
  
• It could make me more successful in races because races are in the morning, therefore training in the morning should make me a machine. :)
  
• It's going to get hot. I've gotten in the habit of running after work 5-6pm during the weeks, and that is not going to fly. Today's forecast is 90 degrees at 5pm. Holy meltage.
  
• By running in the morning, I would have more time after work to hang with friends/boyfriend.

Con Morning Running

• Ugh. 4:30am is EARLY.
  
• Going to bed at 9:30pm is LAME. (sorry Tay).
  
• Past morning runs have suuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.
  
• I'm starving in the morning, but can't eat more than an hour or so before my run or my stomach is upset. Therefore, I starve on the run or have intense side crampage.
  
• Part of the reason I eat so healthy all day long is knowing that what I put in is fueling my body for my run in the evening. Running in the morning would throw this out the window.
  
• I've always been an evening worker-outer. In high school, we had practice right after school, or games in the evening. In college, I had intramurals after supper and went to the gym after that.
  
• I'd have to shower at Taylor's most mornings (EEEEW). He's not eew, but he has a roommate, and I know how often that shower has been cleaned=zero.

With this being said, I think I need to give morning running a try. Most of the cons are whiney Jeri. And the pros are pretty legit. For the first two weeks of June (Drumroll please) I will become a morning runner (said with a thunderous clap in the background). Is anyone else imagining a super hero version of myself, hands on hips, with a cape billowing behind me with an old school alarm clock and sunrise? No? Only me...ok then.

Either way I'm going to have to switch up my routine, by running later 9ish, or butt @$$ crack of dawn. If two weeks is horrendous, I'll quit and go back to the evening runs. Although I do know from past experience, I am a lot more likely to "skip" runs in the evening. Oh who am I kidding, last falls half marathon training I was likely to skip all runs. Eek.

Are you a morning runner? Were you ever as anti-morning runner as me? Any awesome motivating factors?

This daisy is going on 2 weeks and is just the prettiest thing in my apartment right now. :)