Chip'n'Dale Runner: Go Nuts!

The year so far has been a weird one in terms of weather – a record 30″ of snow (IN ONE DAY!), followed a few weeks later by a massive rain event… temperatures all over the place… last week, the temps creeped into the 60’s, which made for nice outdoor running weather. I’ve made a commitment to try and get a mile in every day, either walking or running. Surprisingly, I’ve only missed two days so far… still got the mile in overall but didn’t officially record it. Over the last 3 weeks, I’ve averaged 12 miles per week… trying to get back to a stable base to build from. A nice 4 miler earlier today started to feel good again. With the spring race season about to begin in April for me (Philly Hot Chocolate 15K), I’m hoping to ramp up close to 20 miles per week heading in the St. Luke’s Half and then followed up by Tinkerbell Weekend.

The Runner’s World IronStrength workout is having an effect as well. I noticed improved leg strength when running – easier strides, and just an overall feeling of being stronger when running. Hopefully this continues!

Looking at my mileage totals for this past week, I surprised myself with a solid 15. Add the 5 I did today in the beautiful mid-50’s weather (February in northeastern US), and I’m off to a great start. I’ve settled on a combination of running and walking to reach the mileage, with an IronStrength workout tossed in for core development. I think the hard part is not to overtrain, but to get myself in decent shape for the spring races… which looks like that will kick off April 2nd with the Philadelphia Hot Chocolate 15K, a race I’ve wanted to run. I’ll follow that up on April 24th with the St. Luke’s Half Marathon, and then two weeks later, head out to California for runDisney’s Tinkerbell Half Marathon Weekend. I told myself 2016 would be the year of improving my time, running efficiency, and core strength. So far, so good… here’s praying for an injury free season!

While using the Vivoactive for a couple of light workouts, one thing that’s continuing to drive me nuts is being able to automatically sync workouts to MapMyRun. So far, I’ve had to export the workout data in TCX format from Garmin Connect, then into into MMR. A few back and forth emails with Garmin and MMR Support, and hopefully we’re moving towards a resolution.

No GPS… No Problem! The Garmin Foot Pod

In the meantime, I got the second part of the runner tracking transformation in the mail – a Garmin Foot Pod. One of the challenges with the GPS watch is when you’re inside on a treadmill or track and don’t have the ability to get a GPS lock. Enter the foot pod, a clever little battery powered device that uses the ANT+ protocol to communicate with the Vivoactive (much like Bluetooth). When the GPS has a lock, that’s what the watch uses… when it doesn’t, the foot pod kicks in providing cadence, speed, and allowing the watch to calculate distance. The actual pod clips onto my sneaker and I don’t even know it’s there. Going to have to take it for a test run on the treadmill in the next few days… after a brutal cold spell, some ice earlier this morning, and then drenching rain all day, the weather looks to be improving for some outdoor runs.

Earlier today, I tackled the full IronStrength workout. Up until this point, I did portions of the workout in the hopes of gradually easing into it. Well, I’m here to say, there’s no “easing” into this thing. It’s a full-blown, kick your butt workout. You know it’s bad when the Dr. Jordan Metzl mentions pretty early on that he takes full responsibility if one of the “actors” doing the workout with him dies. Yes, let that sink in!

Runner’s World IronStrength Workout

The actual workout itself takes around 50 minutes if you follow along with the DVD. All that’s needed is a padded/carpeted area and a pair of dumbbells (preferably the hexagonal ones). Much like other DVD workouts, Dr. Metzl leads you though the routine, with the two other actors demonstrating variations. One of the actors is a former dancer, the other a sub-3 hour marathoner. Suffice it to say, everyone (including me) was drenched in sweat by about the 15 minute mark. The entire workout hits every major muscle group of your body… it does focus on core and legs, but it hits everything else.

I’m sure I’ll feel the effects tomorrow morning, as I’m already sore a few hours later. Dr. Metzl even states along the way not to run tomorrow, but to take a day for active recovery, and then go for an easy run the day after. I’ve done P90X before and felt sore the next day… this is the first time I’m really felt it hit a few hours later. I’ll post some more updates in a few days once I see how my body responds. This workout is only recommended once or twice a week, and I can clearly see why!

Since I starting this crazy running hobby back in 2013, I’ve been a faithful MapMyRun MVP user. It’s a nice little app that works on my iPhone, has GPS capabilities, and a bunch of other nice tracking features. However, with recent releases, I’ve come to find it isn’t as accurate as I’d like it to be, and battery life on my phone won’t last a whole marathon! (Yes, I actually take a spare battery along for 26.2’s!) If I’m going to continue this kind of training, it’s time for a GPS-enabled watch.

Welcome the Garmin Vivoactive!

Garmin VivoActive GPS-enabled Smart Watch

It’s considered a smartwatch, though it doesn’t have all the little bells and whistles of an Apple Watch. It DOES however have built-in GPS and a very simplistic interface making it very easy to use when working out. This beauty came in the mail today, after I scored a sweet deal on a refurbished unit off of eBay (including manufacturer warranty). Out of the box, and connected to the computer within 5 minutes. I decided to upload a new watch face right off the bat, to give me something to play around with. Now, I’ll trade this on my wrist with the Citizen Ecodrive I’ve been wearing for the last decade. Stay tuned for more updates on how the Vivoactive works with my training.