No need for Garmin envy

Would you believe it? I've managed to lose the wrist piece for my brand new Garmin.
How does that happen, I hear you ask. Well, it's a long story and hopefully it will have a happy ending.

I decided to run to Dragon Boating today. I figured it was about 4.5 km from my place, and I had an early finish from work this afternoon, so I had the time. It was a chance to try out my running skirt and my running backpack and to play with my new Garmin. I was also keen to see if I could run two days in a row. I don't think I've done that before.

As it was 4:00 pm rather than 6:30 am, the temperature was a lot higher than I usually run in. I figured I'd need water so I went looking for my fuel belt. Clearly, it is in a safe place as I wasn't able to find it. I tossed a couple of the water bottles in my backpack. When I went to use them about half way through the run, I discovered they were frozen! It seems I have them too close to the freezer.

Before I get into the run itself, here's a quick update on the skirt and backpack. The running skirt felt a bit odd. I liked running in it, however I'm glad I tested it out before using it at SiS as I think I would have had a chafing problem. I'll have to wear running shorts underneath it as the inbuilt shorts aren't quite long enough for comfort. The backpack also took a bit of getting used to, but it was much better than running with a normal backpack. Once I get the straps sorted, I'm sure it will be fine. My keys didn't jangle, I had room for some warm clothes and my water, and my phone was handily located within reach. I think it's going to be a real winner for running to work.

Once I got myself organised I headed off towards the yacht club. It took ages for my Garmin to locate the satellites. I walked down to the bike path and eventually started running as I was tired of waiting. I think I'd covered about half a km before the satellites kicked in. I walked most of that though, checking my wrist every few houses, before running out of patience.

My pace was all over the place. I can see that having the Garmin is going to help me be a lot more consistent. I managed to run most of the way, stopping for lights and to drink my water. After a couple of kms I could feel that my left knee was tired but it didn't hurt so I kept running. I've put a lot of work into that knee to make it strong and I love that it's all paid off. After Friday's lunges and the jogalong, to have it feeling tired today rather than hurting is pretty fantastic.

I was tempted to stop as soon as I reached the grounds of the yacht club, but I decided to run all the way to the yacht club building. I surged towards the end, just to see if I could. Our dragon boat team is wearing pink. Well, I was bright pink. Thank goodness I looked at the readout before I lost my Garmin. I made it to the yacht club in 30:40. The distance was 4.02 km. It was a little slower than I'd hoped, as I was aiming for 7 min/km but on reflection I probably lost the 2:40 at the various traffic lights around town. I felt really proud of myself for running instead of catching the bus or riding my bike.

I took my Garmin wristpiece off and put it in my backpack so that it wouldn't get wet when we were dragon boating. The dragon boating was heaps of fun again. We were practising racing today. We even have a race plan. To get the boat moving, we do a "monster stroke" followed by four really big strokes. We then do 20 strokes fast, at a rate of about 80 per minute. We follow this with 25 strokes at a slightly slower pace (about 60 per min) and then 10 fast strokes to finish. Yes, the race is going to be about 60 strokes long. We'll cover 190 metres, which is apparently quite a short race. Our coach had been going to get us to do the 25 strokes more slowly, but he realised from watching us practise that we have the cardio fitness to go faster. It was good to hear him say that as I'd been thinking we could probably go faster. Well, I knew that I could, and I figured that if I could the others would be able to.

I managed to get soaked tonight. One time I paddled a bucket of water right into my lap. It was a warm evening, but it didn't feel that warm when I was wet. We did get to see a lovely sunset over the mountains from the middle of the lake, which is certainly something new for me. Canberra is a beautiful place.

The big news for the dragon boat racing is the "pink theme" and the "party food". We're all raring to go. We got the "hydrate well" speech from the coach, which may have put a little burst in our pink bubbles. We'll have to save them until after the finals. We're determined to make the finals. Hey, and if we don't, we get to have the bubbles earlier so it's all good.

I got a ride home from the dragon boating with one of the gym staff. On the way from picking up my backpack from Jess's car, I started to get my jacket out, which is when the infamous Garmin wrist piece misplacing incident may have taken place. I did have to pick up some stuff from the floor well of the car when I was getting out, so I'm hoping hard that the wrist piece is still on the floor of the car. I left a phone message at the gym, but I haven't heard whether or not it was in the car.

I was feeling a bit frantic about the wrist piece being in the car park, and was wondering who I could call to take me back to the Yacht club when I remembered my trusty bicycle. I quickly changed from my wet running gear into bike gear, pumped up my tyres and headed off in the dark towards the Yacht club. I'm so glad I know the path, as it wasn't at all well lit in some places. I searched the car park, but wasn't able to find my wrist piece. I also called into the club to ask if it had been found. I will have to phone them tomorrow as I didn't have a lot of confidence in the person to whom I reported my loss. On the bright side, at least the wrist piece wasn't shattered on the ground.

So, if the wrist piece has been handed in at the Yacht Club, or is in the floor well of the car, I am in luck. If it hasn't, thank goodness I bought it on e-Bay as I'll have to replace it. On my ride back from the Yacht Club I reminded myself that at least it was something I could afford to lose. I was thinking that I was having a JoJo moment though.

As for my day's exercise, I was pretty pleased with myself. I walked 20 mins to and from a work course today, then ran 4 km, did dragon boat training for however long it was, then rode my bike 9 km in the dark. Ok, on the downside I managed to lose my Garmin, but there's hope that it will be recovered.

Pool running in the morning, yoga tomorrow night. Keep your fingers crossed for me that my Garmin will turn up.