NEW YEAR, NEW WATCH

I've had a few runs now to test my new Garmin Forerunner 220 watch my parents bought me for Christmas. It was a gift I was excited to receive and I'm glad to say it hasn't disappointed!

My phone was sufficient for most runs but the watch make things a lot easier. No longer do I have a phone clanking around in my pocket (especially since I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S3 from a much smaller phone) and I don't have to stop, unlock my phone, and then hit pause at a stoplight. So on most my runs it eliminates the annoying hassles the phone presents.

A huge "pro" that I haven't really been able to use yet is the ability to glance at it for distance/pace updates. It will be so nice to be able to look at my watch and see how far I am along and also my average pace to that point. I also have it displaying current mile pace, so I know if I am slacking off a bit during a mile, especially since once you are a few miles in the average pace takes a while to reflect that. Can't wait to race with it, although I hope I don't start checking it neurotically... the phone was a pain in the ass to check so I just relied on intuition for the most part.

It also puts out some cool stats, like cadence and an accurate elevation chart (Endo was spotty there). I'll still be uploading my runs to both Endomondo and RunningAhead for tracking/social purposes, but that is easy because you can just upload the .fit file directly from the watch. Would be nice if Garmin Connect could automatically push to other websites, but oh well.

On Monday I absolutely crushed my run at PRC group. I did the seven mile hilly route and three miles in I decided to really challenge myself. So during the last four hilly miles I clocked in at 8:01, 7:36, 7:11, and 7:11. I felt great the entire time too. I was really pushing it and my body responded so well. I don't know why made me feel so great that run, but I wish I could capture it in a bottle to drink. Normally I just try to survive the hilly route at like 9:00/mile, Monday I killed it.

The only thing I wish the watch had was some sort of "night" mode, because you can't see it in the dark unless you hit the backlight button. Small nitpick though, since constantly having it backlit would drain the battery. Anyways, for most of that run on Monday I just waited until the mile beeps before seeing my times, which was kind of fun, especially since they weren't depressing me like they normally might.