Garmin Forerunner Auto Pause Feature

Ever wonder how far you walk when you visit an amusement park or how far you run while playing a soccer game?  When I visited Sea World I measured me walking around 4 1/2 miles.  It wasn't an accurate measurement since I'd sometimes forget to click the start button after I'd stopped it while we were watching the Shamu or sea lion shows.

But now that I know about the Auto Pause function on the Garmin Forerunner GPS watches, my measurements can be more precise.

When in Auto Pause mode, the Garmin watch will automatically pause when you stop or go below a certain pace that you can customize.

To turn on this feature press the mode button.  On the menu that comes up select TRAINING then TRAINING OPTIONS then AUTO PAUSE. Once in the Auto Timer Pause window select "when stopped" or select your desired "custom pace".

Talents

What do you do when you're injured and can't run?  You take up learning something new!  It's now been 1 month since I've sidelined myself due to I.T. issues.  Since then I've taken up cycling, cardio kickboxing and...piano. 

Along with running a marathon, learning to read music and play an instrument is also on my bucket list.  Since I'm not running, I have a bit more pent up energy so I thought that now would be an excellent time to further my talents.

My self-taught piano lessons started this morning (I'm re-using my son's beginning piano books)  wish me luck!

Cardio Kickboxing

In my continual efforts to find an heart-pumping exercise to replace running while my injuries heal, I tried kickboxing today.

For Christmas we had bought a heavy weight bag.  For the most part it hangs idle in the basement so I thought I'd make use of it finally.  After reading internet articles and watching how-to videos on YouTube, I went down to give it a try.

Basically, kickboxing is made up of 4 punches (jab, straight, hook, and uppercut) and 3 kicks (roundhouse, side and front).  Keep your feet moving and keep moving around the bag throwing punches and kicks and you've got yourself a do-it-yourself cardio kickboxing workout.

I went for 10 minutes (after I'd done 10 miles on our stationary bike to warm up) and felt like that was a good workout that encompassed my whole body.

Overcoming Fears

As silly as it sounds, I'm scared to ride a bike.

It all stems from never having a bike of my own, never riding a bike that is adjusted to fit me which means that I've had lots of bad, embarrassing falls from bikes.

Two years ago when my husband and I were looking at getting a bike we could share, I tried to take it for a test spin.  At that time I hadn't ridden a bike in over 20 years.  The fear must've been flaring in my eyes because my husband took one look at me and told me to get off the bike.

Once again I'm riding a bike that's not exactly adjusted for me; however, we did buy a shorter seat post and a wider, softer seat for me.

It's taken a lot of effort but I'm getting more comfortable with riding a bike.  I rather like the wind in my face and being able to fly past the walkers and runners.  I'm still not secure enough to ride too much on streets with too many cars though.  Fortunately, we have a dirt road that runs for miles along an irrigation canal.   For this reason I was able to go for my longest bike ride ever:

miles.  I still had a bit of pain and discomfort with my left leg, but it was nice to get outside for fresh air and sunshine.

Cycling

My I.T. band is still bothering me so I came up with a new plan.

Plan B is to ride my bike instead of running during the week, then go on my scheduled long runs on the weekends so I can still run my marathon this October.

This morning was my first bike ride since buying a new seat (or saddle) for the bike that my husband, son, and I share.  This new seat has lots more padding and is wider then the previous one so I was hoping to not have such a "hurtin' hind end" at the end of my ride.  Unfortunately, I was still a little sore, but I'm gonna keep trying.  When I first started running I was sore all over but if I'd have stopped running  I wouldn't be where I am today.

The true test of my plan B will be this weekend when I go on my long run.  Cross your fingers for me.

Timpanogos Cave Hike

The photo is a little small but the sign up on the rocks reads: "Welcome to the Timpanogos Caves.  Elevation 6730."  The starting elevation for the hike to the caves was 5650 feet.  That's an elevation change of 1080 feet in 1.04 miles.  Yet my brother and nephew from southern California (elevation 1100' at their house) still lived through the hike and cave tour.

This summer hiking has definately been a great cross training exercise.  This is our family's 4th hike in 5 weeks and I'm still discovering "new" muscles - or rather muscles that aren't used for running but get discovered due to soreness after various other exercises.

Hike to the G

Our local high school has a large "G" up on the mountain.  We can see the G from our backyard and not so long ago my 4 year old realized that that's the same letter that her name begins with.  Ever since then we call it Gabriella mountain.  So what better summer hike then to go to the G on the mountain.

As you can see from the elevation graph below, it's a steep hike (rising 900 feet in 3/4 of a mile).  Thank goodness the kids have been running the track this summer.  If they hadn't been in decent shape we'd have never made it.  There are sections that are so steep you have to grab onto bush branches to help pull yourself up (my achilles tendon sure didn't like these parts).

It took almost an hour but we made it!  Hopefully it gave the kids a sense of accomplishment - not to mention bragging rights.  As for me and my husband, we counted it as a great cross training workout.