My Garmin is back!

Yea! My Garmin is finally back and running properly! As I noted in my last bog entry (yeah - I know I'm behind), I had received my Garmin Forerunner 305 back from Garmin. I hooked it up to my computer and was having the same problem as before - a USB device malfunction error. The device itself was working - i just couldn't communicate with my computer. I got back on the phone with Garmin on Tuesday. We eliminated all of the hardware in place with one exception - the docking cradle. They agreed to send a new cradle before we went into the depths of software hell to figure out what wasn't running right on my computer. Yesterday the cradle showed up. This morning I plugged it in. Guess what? Success! Turns out that there was something in the cradle that was causing the problem.

I have a bunch of other things to write about. Hopefully I can spend some time this weekend and over the week catching up. Runs went well during the week. Nothing earth shattering or of special importance to talk about. Short runs are now 45 minutes each. Long run this weekend is 16 miles. The only problem is that it's supposed to be 85 degrees here today - so I think I'll carry extra liquids and drop my pace a bit to deal with the heat. I'll post when I get back.

Back to normal

I'm back to my normal running schedule. Yesterday 40 minutes easy, 4.1 miles. Nothing real exciting. Took the lower back bay trail so that I could do the hill at the end of the run. Overall nothing of any real interest to talk about.

Today I think I'll do some cross training in the afternoon. Perhaps a light row and some time in the weight room.

One piece of good news - yesterday Garmin finally gave me an RMA and offered to take my Forerunner under warranty. So I packaged up my 305 and sent it away yesterday. It's going to be 10 to 14 days until it is repaired and returned. Until then, it's running with my Polar and pacing the old way....

My Garmin is dead!

Well, not actually - it does work, but it can't communicate with anything. It all started a couple of weeks ago after a run. I started getting "USB Device Not Recognized" errors on my computer. The problem seemed to solve by just reseating the device on it's little cradle, so I didn't think much of it. A few days later though, just reseating the device did not take care of the issue. No problem I thought - I'll just reinstall the software (I use a Vista computer, so naturally I blame Microsoft for all of my software problems). I reinstalled Garmin Training Center and the USB drivers. Everything seemed to work again so I was happy!

But, after my Thursday run last week, I tried to upload watch data, and I received an error message. I spend a few hours trying to uninstall and reinstall software to no avail. I finally gave up and contacted Garmin on Friday. They indicated that there could be a hardware problem. This of course was from their software support people.They sent me a list of a few more things to try. Well, I tried them all, and I still can't communicate with my device. I'm now waiting for an RMA from Garmin so that I can return it for repair.

One word of advice for anyone with a Garmin Forerunner - hang onto that receipt! That is your proof of purchase. As it is, I'll need to pay $99 to get mine fixed.....

Saturday Long Run and a new way to use my Garmin

Well folks, I'm back after a couple of days off - of blogging that is. I had a productive weekend of running. If you recall, a for the past couple of weeks I've been having trouble maintaining my pace on long runs, often running out of gas the last mile or two. I know that this is a problem of going out too fast and not having enough in the tank to finish. Having done this exact thing at the OC Half Marathon, I want to start practicing the art of pacing *now*.

This weekend, I decided I would try to use my Garmin 305 to maintain pace on my long run. I have always used my Garmin in "workout" mode - using Training Center to create a workout that I would transfer to the Forerunner. While this is great for normal workouts, it doesn't make pacing an easy thing to check. First off, you need to make sure that all of the screens displaying pace display Average Pace and not Current Pace. Several times I have put myself on the wrong data screen and used Average Pace where I was looking for Current Pace and vice versa. Secondly, this method tells you that you are off your pace - but it doesn't tell you what you need to do to either catch up or back off. So, this weekend, based on the suggestions from the Runner's World Forums, I decided to try the "virtual partner" feature on the Garmin.

I haven't used the virtual partner in the past because the feature does not work with a programmed workout. The virtual partner only works on preset courses and quick workouts - neither of which I had used before. So, for my Saturday long run (9 miles), I used a Quick Workout by setting distance and pace (9 miles, 10:00 per mile). The Virtual Partner display then provides some easy to see feedback - if the Virtual Partner is ahead of you, the screen is black with the distance that VP is ahead of you in white. If you are ahead of VP, your screen is white with distance in black. So, Saturday's exercise became a matter of trying to keep the distance close to 0. I found that this was an easy way to maintain pace. In fact, I missed my target pace by one second (probably had something to do with the potty stop) and had plenty left at the end of my run.

Back to running

Well, yesterday was a standard running day. My training plan has me doing 40 minutes a day, three times a week. At 40 minutes, I'm able to cover about 4.1 miles without pushing real hard. At first I was a little bothered by the fact that despite all of my training, I'm still so slow. But last night, I went back and checked my history as I was training for the OC half. Back then, I was good to do a 10:30 to 11:00 mile on a long run these days I'm at least one minute faster, so I guess I shouldn't complain. It still means that my marathon time will be in the 4:30 to 4:40 range, but for a first timer that's not too bad. I know - patience. One year ago I wasn't even running.

My next little project here is going to be figuring out how to program my Forerunner 305 as an electronic pace wristband. I'm sure it can be done - I just haven't spent the time to figure it out. I have some feelers out on a couple of forums. I'll get it figured out by Spirit Run this Sunday.