Finding my Stride

I could not have had a more perfect day for a run.

I could not have had a more disappointing run.

My biggest frustration right now is that I can only sustain a pace that feels good to me for about a minute until my Garmin yells at me.

Whatever happened to this guy? Why isn't he running for president?

So then I have to walk for another minute to bring it down, and then I'll get jogging again, and then I get yelled at again, and the cycle goes on and on until I just want to throw my HRM into the ocean.

About two miles into my run, I stopped to change my watch settings because I realized I was stressing myself out about my pace. Every time I'd look down when my watch alerted me my heart rate was too high, I'd see just how slowly I was going and feel like crying. I'm sure that wasn't helping my heart rate at all, so I changed the watch face to only show me the timer and my heart rate.

At about three miles into my run, I also ended up shutting my iPhone off. I run with it for music and emergencies, but I had that nuisance problem of my phone taking photos of the inside of my pocket. I know when it's happening because after so many photos are taken, the music just cuts off. I was just not in the mood to fight with technology today.

These little adjustments made a difference, albeit minimal, for the rest of the run. But I was still irritated anytime my Garmin beeped. During one of my "slow-downs" around mile 4, I passed a guy sitting on a bench who yelled at me to keep running.

I gave him the dirtiest look I could.

Had I had the time or inclination, perhaps I would have sat down and politely explained to him that I would have loved NOTHING MORE than to keep running, or run faster even, but my watch told me no. 63 days left.

Today's Exercise: 8 mile outdoor run:

M1: 15:21
M2: 15:11
M3: 15:38
M4: 15:29
M5: 14:55
M6: 14:32
M7: 15:13
M8: 15:27