Garmin Forerunner Troubles

My awesome dad gave me a really great present for Christmas that I was really, really excited to get: A Garmin Forerunner! This handy dandy watch tracks your heart rate, your speed, your mileage, calorie burn and lots of other goodies. (Calorie burn is much more accurate since it monitors your heart rate too.)

I was super excited to try it out and it was torture waiting until Christmas to open it since I already knew what I was getting.

I went on my first run at my mom's and was super bummed because I didn't know how to start it correctly, and I basically missed the first almost half mile of my run, which I ran really well. Bummer.

But since I've been home I've been really disappointed using it. There seems to be an almost 1/4 mile different between the app I used on my iPhone (Map My Hike) and the watch. This meant that all of those great runs I had been doing were actually not accurate- I wasn't really running a mile (I was running .75 of a mile) and that 11:54 minute run I had done last week didn't really happen.

Hence why I haven't written about my fabulous watch. Basically it broke my little heart with it's nasty tales of 17 minute miles. (Insert "Ugly Cry Face" here)

I have been sort of dreading my runs ever since and have been going only every other day. Not that that's not great, I just sort of lost  heart thinking I was doing so badly. Also I just felt like I was running so long, and how could it be longer for a mile? My timed run at my moms seemed mostly consistent with what I had been running, so I was pretty confused as to why that time was fine and the ones since have sucked.

I remembered on another blog she had mentioned that her watch needed to be calibrated, and with hope I wondered if perhaps my watch was off, and not the phone. I googled and googled and didn't really find anything. I couldn't find that post from the other gal's blog and just felt stumped.

So I logged into my data tracker for the Garmin and started looking at things.

This is the map I got from my Garmin.

Um... that's not right.

This is my map of my run from my phone app. (I'm still running both simultaneously because the phone announces my time of each mile and my collective time audibly, and I've also been using the app for almost a year so it's keeping a running tally- basically I'm emotionally attached and can't give it up. You know, normal stuff.)

Um, those don't match.

And I know where I walked, obviously I know my own street.  This is how the Garmin should have looked:

I started my walk where the star is. The blue line is where I ran. I'm pretty confused to say the least. The only reason I noticed this was because one of the other maps I looked at showed the same thing and I just thought it was a fluke. (I also usually follow the street around the corner (straight up 49th), but today I had to cut in because there was a loose dog.

Looking at that weird map, it's also puzzling to me because the Garmin line, to me, looks longer than my actual walk, but it's registering as shorter. Suffice to say, I'm pretty sure it's the Garmin that's wrong and not my phone. Also, it's randomly registering 1 and 3 minute mile paces on the route. As in, "Your fastest pace was 1:15 minute mile!!" Usually this seems to be where I stopped the watch while the dog peed, and while I tried to re start it standing in the same spot, I must not be. I just think it's very strange.

I don't think this watch itself is broken or needs to be returned, but it does probably need some adjustment in my behavior. Maybe I should turn it on and search for satellites while standing across the street or something. It's obviously having trouble finding me at my starting point. It obviously has me okay on the way back, but not when I start.

Any other suggestions?

Garmin left, phone app right

Those are so wildly different, I had no idea what my pace is. And, there's  not even proportional differences. (Look at mile 2 for each compared with mile one).  Interestingly, since I ran the phone app the whole time (no pauses/stops for dog peeing) it recorded over a minute of extra time  beyond what the Garmin did, and still gave me faster splits. (Yes I know I run super wild positive splits, but the first mile and the last mile are my only flat terrain, and I usually walk the last bit home)

Also I gained three pounds this week. I'm not really sure how that happened, but I was not very happy this morning.

A Swedish Christmas in Oregon

Me, my dog Charlie Brown, Toulouse the cat and Amelia the cat all piled in the car yesterday and drove  a couple hours north to my mom's house for the holidays. It's been a little dramatic since Charlie is afraid of other dogs and my mom has a 120 pound Golden Retriever but it hasn't been too awful... Charlie has only dove for Buck's jugular a couple of times and howled until his voice was hoarse... So you know, not too bad. ;)

This is still only my third sub-14 mile, so I'm still happy with that first mile, even though it's not close or consistent with my PR from Sunday.  I will take what I can get!

I went for a run today around my mom's neighborhood, but I had trouble finding enough mileage. I don't really like doing out and backs, I prefer a loop, and I strive for hills so I can keep building up the muscle on my inner thighs to help support my knee caps. We ended up doing as many hills as I could find, and then struggling dying going up a super steep hill which totally killed any sort of pace I had. I still can't run a straight mile, I have to run-walk, but I've been encouraged to go faster when I am running (when I ran in law school I'd run super slow so I could maintain a running pace longer and not burn out, but I honestly feel this contributed to my knee issues since my stride was so short) and I think it's helping my endurance. All I can do is try my best and see what happens!


Tonight we had a traditional Swedish Smorgasbord, Fruktsoppa, rice pudding and Swedish meatballs with cream gravy. All super delcious and made by my great mom! Tomorrow I'm cooking the traditional American turkey, stuffing potatoes schpele. Also, Santa will be bringing my Garmin- YAY!

Exercise!

About 5 years ago I started running the Couch to 5k program and lost some weight, but ended up with a really bad knee injury that just wouldn't heal. I was actually banned by my doctor to ever run again.

There isn't a local dog park where my beagle and I could go hang out so we started walking around the neighborhood. First a mile, then two... four.... One day I jogged up one of the hills on our walk out of sheer impatience. Then I started jogging all of the hills. My knee hasn't bothered me at ALL! I started with walking 22-23 minute miles. Today, I ran 11:54!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of myself! I heard from Santa I'm getting a Garmin for Christmas (I've been using my iPhone) so I'm super excited to see where this goes! :)

I had lost a little over 10 pounds just before the move, but the process of moving, and starting school I gained a total of 16 pounds. I got food poisoning and lost over 10 pounds, but after about a month it creeped back on. (Super disappointing, as being sick was realy, really awful. I felt like I deserved to keep those pounds off!) Right now I am 3 pounds lower than my highest this year. Sucky, but I am proud of what I have been doing fitness wise!

This is from parts of our new neighborhood walk. Very woodsy with some water- this froze solid after the storm!

 Snow hit our neighborhood (almost a foot!) but that didn't stop us! I didn't score any PR's during the snow and I slowed down a TON, mostly walking, but it was still fun and different! I've never really been in snow. (Sadly it's gone now.)

 I had no idea my time today was so good until I heard the phone beep so I didn't get the screen shot in time, but close! My best time before this was a 13:54minute mile.

 I try to catch the 5k's (3.1 miles) because I'm trying to get a PR. My official race time from the Petaluma Clo-Cow Race was in the 40's somewhere, I'm just not sure if it was above or below the 45 minute mark so I'm not sure if I have PR'd yet on a 5k.  I'm still proud!

(Unfortunately I have since discovered that all of these records are wrong! MMH doesn't have a good GPA signal at my house, so it says I've gone probably a 1/3 of a mile further than I actually have. HUGE bummer.)

Fall 2013 Grades

I finished my second term! I had worked really hard and hoped for straight A's, but one teacher, I had a 90% before he graded me on participation, so he must have graded me down. I am pretty pissed as I do not think that was deserved. I also think he just doesn't like me. I'm not sure what I'll do about it, if anything, but it's hard to get excited for my other grades with that hanging over my head.

That said, this is my best report card since first grade and my highest GPA ever, (except for summer, when I took just one class.)

On another note, I had hoped to go to Oxford for a fellowship and study abroad program over spring break. I wasn't picked. (I cried, I wanted it so bad.) But I'm supposed to have a good shot at next year, so that's something.