Weekend runs

I wasn't sure how long I would take off after the 15K.   Thursday night Roger and I were on our way sell a piece of furniture via a FB yard sale site.  Not sure if that is any safer than Craigslist, but at least I can snoop around the buyer's FB page first.  I was really avoiding Craigslist as lately I've heard too many stories of people being beat up, robbed and murdered via transactions.  On our way, as I was driving, I actually felt the urge to run.  My legs wanted to run!  Who am I?  I'm surprised I felt that.

I was off work on Friday so that morning I went for a run.  A short 3 mile run.  I was hoping my knee wouldn't hurt, but it did.  And worse than usual. This is discouraging.  I'm trying to think back to a few of my treadmill runs before my race. I don't think my knee ever hurt on the treadmill.  I don't remember.  But I might suck it up and do 3 miles on the treadmill sometime soon to test out the theory.  This 3 miles was much harder than I thought it would be. 

I was discouraged by how much I slowed down, but I had no choice.  I probably should have walked. But I have good news!  The running dynamics from my heart rate monitor worked.  I didn't do anything differently.  But maybe I had it on upside down during my race.  I knew there was a right and wrong way.  But I have to admit the shape is similar to my Polar HR monitor and I always wore that one a certain way.  In this case, that is upside down for the Garmin.  So maybe in my nervous-early-morning-it's-freezing-cold-haze I put it on upside down.  Here are the stats from Friday's run:

and here is the information from Garmin's site about those stats. 

I always read that 180 spm is the *sweet* spot for running. I am surprised at how close I am.  I'm also surprised at my vertical oscillation.  Since it says taller runners usually have a higher oscillation.  Plus I'm just an all around sucky average runner.   I expected I'd be in a lower category for that and not in the top purple range!   We'll see how that balances out as I move forward. 

I took Saturday off and on Sunday morning I put on some old crappy shoes that I don't even remember owning.   It was wet and sloppy outside and I really want to try my Reebok ATVs for running (just once) but wasn't ready to get them messed up even in the slightest.   These shoes I wore were clearly NOT meant for running but I had to see what my knee would do.  It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't as bad.  Of course I only did 2 miles. So the verdict is undetermined. 

When I bought my Under Armour Cold Gear outfit I found a Nike shirt that I really wanted.  But gosh the clothing is so expensive I just couldn't justify another shirt.  And I really wanted a *matching* outfit.  So I didn't get it.  But as luck would have it I got it online on Black Friday from Sports Authority. 

I fell for the pink/grey combo.  I love both colors right now. I'm kind of obsessed with grey actually.  But I loved how the sleeves were different.  And I gotta say it's hard to take a selfie and get the sleeves in the photo! :)   This shirt is really tight.  Of course I heard that you want it to be really tight in the winter.  It might have been a bit too warm for the weather on Sunday.  I got a bit sweaty and I had to have my hubby help get the shirt off of me.   I was just stuck to the shirt.  Lol.   I hope we get some cold weather that works for my clothing cause this stuff isn't cheap!!!!

Oh and another score for the Garmin - it successfully uploaded my 2 mile run via wifi.  So maybe I am finally getting this thing configured correctly.   Whew.