Saturday, June 4, 2011

Technology Can't Motivate Like Friends Can

I'm almost ready to run a half marathon that I have been training for since April.  I did 19kms last weekend.  Turns out I was a little ahead of my training schedule because we were still on 17km but since I wasn't running with my group the past few weekends, I just went.  I had my sister and sister-in-law on their bicycles as my trainers on these last two runs and they were great motivation.  Mostly because they just talked away and I didn't have to partake in the conversation much and it was good to have them there for company.  I probably wouldn't have gone if they weren't coming with me.

I keep telling myself that I have a goal to run a 2hr half marathon one day but I'm not ready to hit that this time.  If I can bring my time down to a 2:10 half marathon, that's still going to be a personal best. My very first ever running event was a half marathon, which I would not recommend to anyone.  Start with a nice 5k event somewhere.  Anyway, my time for that run was 2:24 and change.  My second half marathon wasn't until almost 10 years later and my time was 2:14 and change.  I ran my 19k training last weekend in about 2:04 and that's including a talk break with a friend and her dog in the village, a pee break in the trees, and a bunch of walk breaks.  I say that it was about 2 hours and 4 minutes because we left my mother's place at 6:45 pm and when I stopped running it was 8:49 pm.

I was using my iPhone stopwatch as my timer and it even does laps but when we stopped to talk with a friend and her dog, I eventually remembered that my time was still running and I stopped the watch.  When we took off again, I started the stopwatch again but must have touched the reset button and it erased all of the previous time.  It was at about 42 minutes, I think.  When I finally made it to my imaginary finish line, the watch was at 1:21:40.6 but the actual time was 8:49 pm.

This weekend I'll run with my running group and use my Garmin for distance and time accuracy.  For whatever reason, I couldn't get the MapMyRun app on my iPhone to work properly and do all of the things that the Garmin does.  I think it's going to work tomorrow but that means I have to carry it again.  I will just because I want to know that it works and then I don't have to re-do the whole thing on the computer when I get back.

Well, it's time to stop drinking tea and start hydrating for the morning.  I should also think about a pasta dinner for some energy.  I need to charge my phone, my watch, and myself,  and then go meet my friends at 7 in the morning.

Until next time, have a great day.

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