wired for speed!

this week marks a couple of firsts with regard to training:  

• it's my first week working with my coach's prescribed schedule
• it's my first series of runs using the garmin forerunner 305.

i'm really taking to this whole coaching thing - it has a ton to do with my coach and his attitude and encouragement, and in some small way is all about simply having a coach who's accessible.  just two days ago i was able to get together with my coach to run track intervals - and while knowing the plan was critical, what was of even more benefit and value to me was having him there to encourage me with "you're bang on" and "one more lap".  honestly, i felt like i was running for more than just myself. 

as for the garmin 305, so far the review is mixed - in part because i'm still getting the hang of this watch.  i'm not 100% sure that i'm settled on my data field settings (you have at least three screens that you can configure with multiple data readouts - from pace to distance to heartrate and beyond), even after having read several other users' preferred arrangements.  also, the pace alert (a feature that i've been anxious to use) may or may not be working well - i'll need a few more tempo runs under my belt with the 305 before i can say for sure.  and finally the garmin GPS threw me off when running my track intervals this week, beeping the 1km alert when i hadn't quite fully completed the 2-1/2 laps (there's a great article here that compares the performance of various GPS timepieces in varying run conditions).  so it wanted to fool me into letting up before i should have, and wound up telling me that i was booking it faster than i actually was.

however, all that being said, it helped me to have a solid, consistent tempo run yesterday - and i love crunching all the data that it spits out.  the readout size is great, and i haven't found the size of the unit to be obtrusive (although it reminds me of the casio wristwatch calculators from back in the day).

so it's still a great add to my training regime, and i'm sure that i'll get to tweaking it to just how it can be of the most help to me.

wired for speed!