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Will a New Garmin Make Me Faster?

Friday afternoon Bill went out to run errands and came home with a new bike Garmin (affiliate link) for me! My old Garmin came within 2% of its battery dying when I rode the Reston Century and I was nervous that my entire ride wouldn’t record, and well, you’d have to be a runner or cyclist to understand how devastating that would be. LOL

My new Garmin has all of the bells and whistles. Not only does it have a much longer battery life, but it has more room on the screen for a variety of information – speed, distance, average speed, timer, grade %, total ascent (I loved watching this go up as I climbed those hills), time of day, and cadence.

With just a swipe of the finger I can change screens to see a map or any other statistics I set to display. I rode with it yesterday and loved what it was spitting out to me. What can I say? I’m a geek and love all that information!

 

Overview of the Week

Before discussing each day’s workouts, here’s an overview of my workouts from this past week. Scroll down for daily details…

 

Sunday

Bill and I decided to take a day off from biking so I decided to run instead. Even though I got up at 7 AM, I didn’t get motivated to head outside for my run until 2:30 PM. By then the sun was peeking through the overcast sky and the temperature had climbed to 83° with increased humidity. I stayed on the tree covered neighborhood trails and maintained a 9:49 average pace. Once home, I foam rolled and stretched for 10 minutes each.

 

Monday

I kept my workout to an hour of early morning strength training.

 

Tuesday

It was almost 7 AM by the time Bill and I headed out for our ride under a cloudy sky and 70° temperature (rising to 79° by the time we finished). We took a slightly different and more hilly route to the W&OD Trail, but once on the trail we did our usual weekday ride to Hamilton with a detour on a couple of less-traveled country roads and a side trip climbing Thomas Mill.

 

Wednesday

After waking up at 2:30 AM to severe thunder storms and heavy rain, I assumed the remnants of Hurricane Ida were upon us and was happy I hadn’t set my alarm for a 5 AM run. The rain had stopped by the time I got up at 5:30 and I could have easily fit in a run prior to seeing my early clients, but by now it was too late.

I lifted weights between clients and by the time I finished, Ida’s rain was upon us. By 4 PM the rain had mostly moved out and even though we were still under a tornado watch, I headed out for a run, staying closer to home and away from the trees on the trail. At 75° with the occasional light rain, it was a pretty good run and I averaged a 9:30 pace for my 5K. Afterward I rolled and stretched for 10 minutes each.

 

Thursday

Fall weather ushered out the remnants of Ida and we awoke to a breezy, crisp 59° morning. Since I wouldn’t be able to join the VeloPigs on Saturday, we opted to ride gravel, starting out on paved roads to get to western Loudoun’s network of gravel roads.

 

The recent rain had washed out the roads in places and cars/trucks driving too fast had created brain-jarring washboard on several long segments, but it’s the unpredictableness of the roads that makes gravel riding so fun. Well, that and the beauty of the countryside.

 

Friday

It was a typical Friday with an hour plus early morning full body strength training session followed by teaching my balance and stretching class at the 55+ community.

 

Saturday

Because I was teaching a fitness machines orientation class at the gym during the early afternoon, I chose to ride alone at 7:30 AM while keeping it somewhat local. I did an extended version of our weekday morning rides with an additional climb thrown in. It was perfect riding weather at 55° (climbing to 72°) for a great workout with 2,110 feet of elevation gain over 40 miles while maintaining a 14.8 MPH average speed.

I wore bibs for the first time and boy was that an adventure! I’ve owned the Pactimo jersey for a while, but had never gotten the full kit because it didn’t have matching shorts, just bibs. I broke down and bought the bibs, knowing full well that it would be a time consuming challenge at each porta potty stop. Anyone who has ever run or ridden with me knows that I have to stop at every porta potty. Taking off my jersey to pull down my bibs wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected and I see more kits getting completed with the matching bibs in my future!

 

If You Haven’t Checked in, Here’s What You Might Have Missed

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

 

 Questions:
  • • How was your weather this past week?
  • • Cyclists, do you wear bibs or shorts?
  • • Did you run in a race this weekend? If so, was it live or virtual?

 

And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!

 

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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.