I love my Garmin

Well it's official, I love my Garmin.

It's amazing how much faster you will run when you can see what speed you're running. I'm not a fast runner, I usually run at one pace (with the odd exception) and that's usually around 9.5-10 minute miles. I always complain that it takes me ages to warm up too, so my splits always get faster the further I go.

My new Garmin just blew everything out of the water. Because I could see the speed I was going, I knew I could go faster. It wasn't until I was powering up a hill at sub-8 that I realised just how fast... I ran the first 3 miles at an average 8.49 minute pace, and while I know 5k is slightly longer than 3 miles, it still ended up the fastest 5k I've ever done. That was also minus a warm up and the route contained 2 large hills!!

I then slowed it down and felt like I jogged the last mile home. My total time for 4.12 miles? 37 minutes 12 seconds at an average 9.02 minute mile pace. I've been flagging of late and my usual training runs have easily been over a minute slower per mile.

It's funny that without that visual stimulus, I couldn't get any faster. Now there's nowhere to hide. No more excuses. This might just be the thing I need to start really improving. Best early Christmas present ever!

Today's run: 4 miles
August running mileage: 108 miles
2013 running mileage: 756 miles