Watches

I've been a little running-watch deficient lately since my trust Timex Ironman went kaput a few weeks ago. Sadie gave me that watch for our first Christmas together . It's the first watch I had that I could store my workouts in so that I didn't have to erase them each day. I got in the habit of keeping my previous marathon mile splits in it until I ran the next one.

I wore it pretty much every day until a few weeks ago when the strap finally broke. I thought it would be an easy fix until I realized that the strap and watch were basically all one piece. You can't just go out and buy the replacement strap. You have to mail it off to Timex and have them replace it for you. I managed to hold it together for a couple months with a combination of dental floss, super glue, and electrical tape, but it all finally came apart. At about the same time, the watch started acting up when I got sweaty during a run. I had recently changed the battery and I guess it must not be sealed perfectly. I took that to mean that it was time for a new one.

For my birthday, Sadie gave me a sweet new Garmin 405. It's a cool new toy to train and run with, especially on long or easy runs, but it doesn't quite work well on some of our track workouts. Mac has us do a lot of workouts where we stop for our recovery. A lot of the time my Garmin goes into sleep mode because it's inactive for too long. Then I have to restart it and acquire the satelites again before I run. It works, but it's just a little easier to have a standard watch on those runs. Plus, I can't really wear my Garmin to work. I have a couple dress watches that I don't like to wear to work either, so I really needed a new Timex.

Check out my new watch. It's the same model as before, but it has the regular brushed chrome case instead of the blue one. 150 lap memory and hopefully an improved band.

Entering A New Age Group

Dang, it's been a long time since I posted anything.

Well, today is my 35th birthday, so it should be an eventful weekend. I just had lunch with Sadie, my mom and my boss, Larry at the Iron Cactus. This evening Sadie and I are going to dinner with my Dad and Marta. Tomorrow we may go downtown to see the annual fireworks show the city has every year in my honor. On Saturday we're going up to the winery and out to dinner again in Marble Falls.

Here's a list of things that change now that I'm 35:

1. I'll be in a new age group in all my races.
2. My Boston qualifying time is now 3:15 instead of 3:10.
3. I can now run for President.
4. I'm closer to my 40's than my 20's.
5. If I was in the NFL, NBA or MLB I would be a grizzled veteran.
6. If I was on the PGA Tour I would be entering my prime.