One thing is always certain when Jimmy and Allen get together to run; there will be the give-and-take discussion/debate over Garmins/running watches. It's always hard to say who starts it, and even harder to divine the purpose. Fact is, it's been going on for so long I can't remember a run in a long time where it wasn't brought up.
It's not like anyone is changing anyone's mind. You either wear one or you don't. There are people that take anything to the extreme, and though I can be one of those people, in this case I'm fairly neutral. I see Garmins as a tool with a purpose, but certainly not the infallible end-all/be-all of running neophytes tend to believe them to be. Truth is usually in the middle in most cases, and I think this is certainly one of those times.
I will note, however... those without Garmins can't seem to shut up about them. Playing upon a similar psychological phenomena, let me just dub this practice here and now as "Garmin Envy". More, those without seem to be engaged in more than a little "overcompensation". ;)
We did do our tempo tonight, "we" being Allen, Jimmy, John T., Rand, and myself. This was a bit more organized than last week, and if I do say so myself, a bit more "tempo-ey". This was 2 miles instead of 1, the time taken more closely approximating a true tempo duration. 2.5 miles might be the perfect distance for us time-wise, though I'm not sure that's a can of worms I wish to open just yet.
I wanted to let Jimmy set the pace. He and John T. settled on 7:10, and we started together. Allen took off early (as usual), and Rand did his thing. We were bunched fairly closely until traffic on darkening roads strung us out a bit. Our quarter-mile checkpoint had us a little up, so we started to adjust. Too much, because before long I saw 7:15 pace on my Garmin. I picked it up after calling the pace, but Jimmy wasn't having it. The last thing I heard him say before I pulled away was, "Okay, that was 7:20 pace". He'd just seen their half-mile split.
Dropping down Industrial I just let gravity work. The result was a faster than planned 6:44 pace. This is much slower than last week, and it was in no way difficult. I pressed up the incline heading into mile 2. this mile went fine as well, other than congestion in my throat beginning to choke me. I suppressed the gag reflex and finished the mile smoothly at a 6:36 pace. Somehow Garmin turned this into a 6:39 pace for 2 miles, I won't argue this way or that. Let Jimmy and Allen do that.
John T. and Jimmy were something like 7:05 - 6:58, Allen 7:29 - 7:28, and I never heard Rand's times. Perhaps I should call him "Mysterious Rand", because getting this type of information from his is usually very difficult. Of course tonight maybe I just didn't hear him.
We run from Jimmy's tomorrow at 5:15.
It's not like anyone is changing anyone's mind. You either wear one or you don't. There are people that take anything to the extreme, and though I can be one of those people, in this case I'm fairly neutral. I see Garmins as a tool with a purpose, but certainly not the infallible end-all/be-all of running neophytes tend to believe them to be. Truth is usually in the middle in most cases, and I think this is certainly one of those times.
I will note, however... those without Garmins can't seem to shut up about them. Playing upon a similar psychological phenomena, let me just dub this practice here and now as "Garmin Envy". More, those without seem to be engaged in more than a little "overcompensation". ;)
We did do our tempo tonight, "we" being Allen, Jimmy, John T., Rand, and myself. This was a bit more organized than last week, and if I do say so myself, a bit more "tempo-ey". This was 2 miles instead of 1, the time taken more closely approximating a true tempo duration. 2.5 miles might be the perfect distance for us time-wise, though I'm not sure that's a can of worms I wish to open just yet.
I wanted to let Jimmy set the pace. He and John T. settled on 7:10, and we started together. Allen took off early (as usual), and Rand did his thing. We were bunched fairly closely until traffic on darkening roads strung us out a bit. Our quarter-mile checkpoint had us a little up, so we started to adjust. Too much, because before long I saw 7:15 pace on my Garmin. I picked it up after calling the pace, but Jimmy wasn't having it. The last thing I heard him say before I pulled away was, "Okay, that was 7:20 pace". He'd just seen their half-mile split.
Dropping down Industrial I just let gravity work. The result was a faster than planned 6:44 pace. This is much slower than last week, and it was in no way difficult. I pressed up the incline heading into mile 2. this mile went fine as well, other than congestion in my throat beginning to choke me. I suppressed the gag reflex and finished the mile smoothly at a 6:36 pace. Somehow Garmin turned this into a 6:39 pace for 2 miles, I won't argue this way or that. Let Jimmy and Allen do that.
John T. and Jimmy were something like 7:05 - 6:58, Allen 7:29 - 7:28, and I never heard Rand's times. Perhaps I should call him "Mysterious Rand", because getting this type of information from his is usually very difficult. Of course tonight maybe I just didn't hear him.
We run from Jimmy's tomorrow at 5:15.
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