Christmas Run

Merry Christmas!
I hope that you are enjoying this holiday time of year and can spend time with your friends and family.

I have to admit my training has taken a little bit of a break more so because of icy road conditions for running, laziness (and travel) for biking and pool is closed for swimming until January.  But, life is happening too and I realize my training has to roll with it too.  I have done a little strength training and stretching inside, but nothing rigorous.

So I have to share what I received for Christmas...  A Garmin Forerunner 310xt with heart-rate strap!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
Do I need it... NO.  Am I totally geeked, YES!!! It is intended for triathletes so I can use it for running, biking and swimming! So, now, I'm learning how to use it and all it's capabilities.

So, far I've paired the heart rate strap, set-up my Garmin connect account and paired the watch to my account so it will upload my data through ANT+ technology.  This is the same protocall that Roger is researching for the Moxy Monitor and we hope that some day Garmin will pick up the muscle oxygen reading SmO2 and display it on their watches.

Because of traveling and celebrating Christmas, my first chance to do a run was Christmas morning! I'm not sure why the watch was displaying "Saturday 10:17PM" but I'll figure that out later...

...Everything else is right.  Nice 4.15 mile run averaging 9:22 min/mile.
I also got to try out my Mother-in-law's Yak Trax.  She saw my post on face book and asked me if I wanted to try them.  Cool!  So, here is a picture of them.

They are really easy to put on.  The loop indicates the back. You just put the toe of your shoe in the front and pulling the loop in the back pull it onto your shoe.

I've heard mixed reviews. So I was anxious to try them and see how they felt.
It was so beautiful that morning! It was funny running in the country. Long straight roads. First, I spooked some cows.

You can't really tell by the picture because it took me so long to pull it out while running, but the cows were all grouped together by the fence and then bolted to the other side of the pasture when I came running by.
Then there were dogs.  Yep, every farm I think has a dog and the dogs are outside left to run.  YIKES! My first experience where I didn't know if I was going to have a leg after running by one of the farms.  Definitely could use some advise here.  Do you yell at them, ignore them, eye contact or no? Stop? Run faster?

Well, I got past OK and at the end of my route I came to Lidtke Mill on the Upper IA River.
And here is a picture of my favorite silo.  I love this color brick and think silo's and barns build with this brick are so beautiful.

You can't really tell by the picture, and it didn't really dawn on me until I was at the Lidtke mill, but I was going downhill most of my run out and had to go uphill most of the way back.

I definitely liked the Yak Trax, but realize their limited use.  You really will only use them on snowy paths and roads.  They were awesome for fully snow covered areas and for running on the gravel roads where I was.  But as soon as you encounter bare pavement with nothing to "sink" into they provide a weird feeling for landing and actually slip a little with nothing to "grip."  I also don't think these would help in my glare ice conditions on my circle at home, but I don't have far to get to gravel where I live, so something for me to consider.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have safe and happy running!