Please Don't Squeeze the Garmin !

Just came back from my run and wanted to post a small revelation . , while its still fresh in my head, somewhat accurate.

For the last 2 years I've had a Garmin. I only use it once in a while as its the older model thats a little on the bulky side.

Until todays run, I wasn't sure about its usefullness.

SO what happened that made me change my mind you ask ? I figured out how to run faster !

Hot Damn !!!!!

It turns out its the ideal form tool. Towards the end of my run which was an easy 8 mile jog, I had 2 miles to go and it was pancake flat. I decided to pick up the pace and monitored my speed. At first I was striking at about 85 fspm ( foot strikes per min ) landing mid-foot like I always do. During which I was working hard to avg 9:20's.

I then decided to make my stride shorter and higher cadence but followed thru every foot stike and rolled in and out of the landing instead of just mid-foot, IOW, keep the hang time to almost zero. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on the Garmin. 8:30's at the same effort as the 9:20's w/ 3 bpm less on my HR.

I'm beside myself in excitement. I finally get it. I had my first Ah Ha moment in running.

My fast friends have always mentioned this in the past, but I had no clue what they meant. They always said that once you run long enough, you'll eventually have one.

Its like poppin' your cherry baaby !

Tomorrow is a planned easy 4 mile day, so I can't dip into this pace again, but my long run is Sunday , so I will once again put this to a test and see how well I cover my route.

I can't wait. I really try to curb my enthusiasm on this blog, but this one was a bit big so I apologize in advance.

So a big thanks to the folks at Garmin. I'm now a huge fan and happy customer.

Total today= 9.6 miles