group run at Sweetwater

we had a good run today.  it was pretty cool when we started.   gloves were necessary but i shed mine after about 30 minutes.  christina had a bit of a rought start but fought off the frozen toes and sideache and finished strong.  the first 5 mile loop is pretty technical and rocky along the creek, but the hills are not too bad.  the 3 mile Yellow trail at the end is where the terrain really gets you.  there is a pretty massive hill over there that will gas you.  the legs and lungs were burning but i did manage to run to the top. 
today i used trailguru for the first time and it looks like it preformed pretty well as you can see here. Use the slider at the bottom and go to the right, then press the play button to see how we ran the course. Pretty cool.



i didn't listen to music today so i could not "lock" the iphone. trailguru doesn't have a locking feature, but maybe it will be added in an update. all these run tracking apps should have a screen lock feature like RunKeeper does.

it really put a drain on my battery as well. i guess that's because the screen stays on the whole time. but as you can see from the map it tracked us pretty well through the trees. i registered 7.99 miles. i was told it was 8 miles. and a guy with a forerunner clocked 7.7 but he started a little bit late. based on these i think the program performed pretty accurately.

running with christina

since christina is running the thanksgiving half-marathon here in atlanta i've been training with her. she's gotten remarkable better over the past couple of months and i've no doubt she will not only finish the race but finish strong and feeling great.
since i broke my original iPhone (don't get me started) and had to get the new 3G version with GPS i have been toying around a little bit with the running tracker programs. there are three free ones that i have downloaded:
iMapMyRun
Runkeeper
Trailguru
there is a 4th called "Runner" (i think) that costs $5 that provides audio feedback while you're running. i'm not too interested in that one right now. first i'll finish testing the free ones. i think the main features that i would like each program to perform are:
1- quickly lock in the GPS signal
2- accurately track where i have been
3- easy online analysis

i have used RunKeeper about 3 times now. i like how the program has a locking feature so that you don't accidentally stop recording while running. (this happened with iMMR) also, the UI on the website is very cool. the only problem is that i can't put them on the blog like with iMMR. it seems to be pretty accurate when running the streets of buckhead. i've yet to try it at kennesaw mountain.

iMapMyRun (iMMR) is the other one i've used a couple of times. the first time i used it something happened and the data was messed up. it stopped and started recorded randomly - i guess the screen was touched or something. i've since learned that as long as you have the iPod feature going on your iPhone you can go ahead and hit the top button and lock the phone. the tracking feature will still work so long as the ipod is going. if you don't have the ipod going and you lock the phone with the top button, then the GPS shuts off. it's a quirk, but since i know how it works now it's not a problem.

iMMR will also let you embed your runs to your blog or another website. i'll try to do that below for a run earlier this week.



well, what do you know, it actually worked! cool. so you can see where we ran on thursday morning.

24 Days to Vermont

with just a little over 3 weeks to go i am actually ready to run this race NOW. i've done the training. i've spent entire weekends away from my wife and friends and fun. now that i'm in the tapering portion of my training the anticipation is growing. i know the old body probably needs a few weeks to heal all the minor aches and pains before the actual start of the race. but the head is telling me something else. the head is telling me it's time to get this party started.

the past couple of weeks i've been meeting hank randall one or two days a week and we hike/run to the top of kennesaw mountain. my training in the past has primarily taken place on the southern end of the park between burnt hickory road and kolb farm. it's got some moderate hills, but i almost wish i had taken advantage of the mountain a little bit more.

since this is my first official post i wanted to mention an incident that happened a couple of weeks ago. i was attacked on the trail! literally. attacked not by a dog or a bear or something ferocious. i was actually attacked by a mama turkey. those weren't cute little baby ducks i saw crossing the trail just ahead of me with water nowhere in sight. they were turkeys and their mother was none too happy to see my dumb ass checking them out. she chased. i ran. i'm sure it would have been funny to see.