week of 15 December

I'm out of town and can't seem to download the Garmin drivers to install on my laptop. http://www8.garmin.com/software/USBDrivers_221.exe hasn't worked for two days. What is the deal with Garmin? They have great hardware and the rest... not so much. Anyway, I've read the following off the 305 screen.

Mo - 6.45 @8:58 - easy
Tu - 7.00 @~8:40 - moderate including 1 x Rock Circuit
We - 10.26 @8:15 - moderate w/ 20'' alternating 5k/5k+60''
Th - 5.52 @9:08 - easy
Fr - 10.00 @ 8:32 - moderate including 3 x ABCs, 8 x 15'' hill sprints, and 5 x strides
Sa - travel to Atlanta for Christmas, no running
Su - 14.80 @ 7:59 - moderate + 8 @ 7:31, 7:25, 7:04, 6:52, 6:55, 6:46, 6:57, 6:54
Wk - 54 - wow, I need to do something about that

The Sunday run was intended to be 4+ moderate out to the 1-mile loop of leg-forgiving finely crushed gravel and then 7:40 for the first mile, cutting down 10 sec/mile with the 8th as fast as I liked. Then come home via the 2+ mile route.

Well, I hit the first at 7:31, but my garmin said it was 7:41 pace. So far, so good. Next was 7:25. Too slow. Ramp it up, to try and hit 7:10 -- 7:04. OK, I'll shoot for 7:00 and get back on track. 6:52. A little fast. I'll try for 6:50. 6:55 and this is getting hard. Shoot for 6:40. 6:46 and I wasn't sure I could race two more at that pace. Backed off to 6:57 on the next and then ran as hard as I felt like and only manage 6:54.

It's a little worse than this because after running a number of laps there, I believe the loop is about 5 seconds short of a mile based on my garmin. On the other hand, I used gmap-pedometer (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2450759 ) and found it .9978.

I have to make some excuses. Even though the loop has a perfect running surface and is 5 seconds short of a mile, it is not exactly flat. You can see from the link above that the high point is about 35 feet higher than the low. That sounds plausible. You gain than in a couple of tenths, which is a pretty good grade. The other excuse is the wind. The weather said it was 22 gusting to 30 as I walked out the door. Based on the kids kite that was about to be ripped off the string, I'd agree.

Anyway, that was a tough run and I held up pretty well. Even though I don't think I could have raced the last laps faster, the heart rates weren't at all crazy. and my heart rate splits were 162, 162, 170, 173, 176, 179, 177, and 178. I've averaged somewhere around 178-180 for a half marathon and 180-184 for a 10 miler.

The mileage is very week and I've learned by examing my mid-section that my weight is inversely proportional to weekly mileage. Ugh. Off to a good start this week. 6.17 yesterday and 12.65 + 4.17 today. I need another good day tomorrow before I take a zero on Christmas.