A Viking, running

ORN:  Today, I ran a tough 8x800 workout.  It was one of those interval workouts where I say to myself, "I'm going into my sixth one. Does that mean I have three to go, or two?"  "Aren't I done yet?"  "Why am I doing this?"  The whole workout was 7.15 miles and took me 1:08'32".  My splits were OK; only one was on-target.  Most were consistent, which is good.  Obviously, I died at the end.

My struggle this morning was only slightly lessened by the glee I feel with the addition of the latest member of my entourage: Rudy, my new Garmin Forerunner 305.  Thanks to the untimely death of my unnamed Polar RS200, and a steep drop in Garmin prices over the last few months, I was finally able to join the cult of Garmin.  I squealed with geek-lust when I opened the box and saw the beautiful, untouched gadget inside, waiting to be filled with my precious, precious data.  [That sentence was a little more ribald than I intended.]

 

Rudy was the first name I came up with, and it works for me for several reasons.  First, Rudy derives from Rude Boy and the titles of countless ska songs: "Rudy's Got Soul," "A Message to You Rudy," "Rudy Can't Fail."  Second, Rudy was the mack daddy of the Cosby Kids, playing an actual electric guitar in their junkyard band.  Russell always said he had no class, but he was just a playa-hatin'.  Plus, I have never known anybody with the name of Rudy, and as Jimmy Stewart says in Harvey, "Maybe that's why I always had such hopes for it."

 

My first impression of Rudy is love at first sight, but I have to get used to his quirks.  Frankly, there's so much data to view while I am running, I am unsure what I want to see and when.  It was overwhelming.  That'll get ironed out as our relationship develops. 

 

But one thing I can already say that I love, without qualification, is it's pace-warning function.  With the Polar RS200, which was based on a shoe pod accelerometer, I was beeped at constantly, even when I felt like I was running smoothly and consistently.  "You're going too fast.  Now, you're going too slow.  Too slow!  TOO SL-...  Now you're going too fast!"  My solution to that problem was to shut the thing up by widening the range of the pace zone I wanted to stay in, but that was a poor solution since the whole point was to train myself to run at specific paces.  Widening the ranges just permitted more variance from my target pace.  Thus, with the RS200, I was never on-pace.  Rudy gives me much less harassment and much better coaching.  I locked into my pace zone, and so long as I ran evenly and on-pace, he left me alone.  He beeped at me, sure, but I knew why when it happened.  I felt myself slowing down, and then within seconds, Rudy would complain. 

 

Another thing I like is the history interface.  I like the way Rudy scrolls through laps -- much easier than with the RS200. 

 

Looking ahead on my schedule, I have a tempo run on Thursday.  I'm kinda looking forward to that since it's only five miles.  Ten mile tempo runs were getting old.  Of course, this and all my remaining workouts until the marathon have been programmed and scheduled into Rudy.  Workout planning and scheduling?  You bet I love that, too.

 

One last thing.  Commit this number to memory: 30787.  If you see a guy in the Chicago Marathon finish area with that bib number, buy him a beer immediately.  Something good, too.  Nothing mass-market or lager-y.