Garmin Forerunner 305, my new addition

I got myself a Garmin Forerunner 305 a few weeks ago and I think that I'm in love. The Forerunner 305 is billed as a multisport unit. I ordered it to prepare for the half marathon that I signed up for thinking that if I'm going to run a 13.1 mile course it would kind of be handy to know how far I am running in my training. Right away fellow runners suggested that I get SportTracks. I downloaded it and got a few of the recommended plugins and I was all set.

Although I originally bought the Forerunner for running, I quickly decided that I could carry on my love affair with the Garmin by using it on my bike. Most of my cycling friends have the Garmin Edge 705 which looks really neat and can give turn by turn directions.

I managed to get about every add on for the Forerunner. The cadence sensor allows me to use the Forerunner when my bike is on the trainer and the foot pod allows me to use the Forerunner on the treadmill. Both will allow the Forerunner to function if GPS signal is lost. When I asked Garmin technical support about the foot pod, they replied, "If the watch loses the GPS connection, the foot pod will then record the distance and speed if you should have it paired up." I have read that this is also the case for the cadence sensor.

For more information, you might want to take a look at CoolRunning. There's a nice discussion of the 305 vs the 405 there.

Plans for spring

After much deliberation, I have made some pretty firm plans for spring. After a 100 mile bike ride on February 28, I will do a few running events in March, a duathlon in April and several cycling events in May.

February 28 - Frostbite Tour 100 miler
March 8 - St. Patty's Run Green 8k
March 14 - St. Patrick's Day Lo tide Run at Carolina Beach
April 5 - Carrboro Classic Endurance Sports Festival (Super Sprint Duathlon)
May 3 - Raven Rock Ramble 100 miler
May 23 - Skirt Chaser 5k
May 30 - Three Mountain Madness, 75 miles with 9,280 feet of climbing
June 6-7 - Tour de Cure (75 miles each day or 100 miles each day, currently under discussion)

Groundhog's Day at the Arboretum

Today at lunch I walked through the NCSU Arboretum to see what was going on.

The holly trees were still sporting their winter berries  and the February Gold daffodils were not yet golden

The miniature daffodils were just starting to poke out of the ground and the lenten roses were in bloom.

The winter flowering iris was in bloom and the winter honeysuckle was just starting to flower but the fragrence was already heavy in the air around it.

Making plans for spring

This year I am really struggling with my plans for March and April. I want to keep up with my cycling and improve my speed a bit this year. Hills continue to need work as well. I want to do more running and I'm also interested in doing a dualthon or two. I signed up for the Disney half marathon next January and I need to run a 10k between now and then -- preferably by November -- for corral placement. If I don't do that, I will be put in a corral in the back. This would not be tragic but I think that it would be nice to start the run with a group that should be going more or less the same pace that I am. I have a few cycling events coming up but they really start in May. I have been planning to do the St. Patty's Run Green but it's an 8k and not a 10k. There's a local dualthon in April.

What I wonder is whether or not it is reasonable (challenging is fine, insane is not) to do running event(s) in March, duathlon event(s) in April and cycling events starting in May (Raven Rock is Ramble May 3)?

March running events
(these are just options that I found, I'd pick 1 or 2)

• WakeMed Cary Distance Festival 10k on March 7
• St. Patty's Run Green 8k on March 8
  
• St. Patrick's Day Lotide Run at Carolina Beach on March 14
• Run for the Oaks 10k 5k in Raleigh on March 14
  
• Fort Bragg Around the World 10k March 21
  
• Cary Road Race 10k April 4

Note: I did sign up for the 8k on March 8 but sometimes that's just how it goes .

So maybe the 8k on March 8 and 10k on March 14 but that means two weekends with one day of cycling gone and is that a good idea with Raven Rock coming up?

April Duathlon events
(again, just pick 1-2)

I have some additional worries about the duathlon thing. I have never done a du before and I'm not sure how the training bricks (cycle-run or run-cycle-run) will fit into my schedule time wise. The training would happen in February and March so it would be mostly indoors due to early darkness on weekdays. Also, as silly as it sounds, I'm a bit concerned about what to wear. I know to get triathlon shorts but it's going to be too cool for a tri tank top and I haven't seen any women's tri gear with sleeves.

• Carrboro Classic Endurance Sports Festival on April 5 (Super Sprint Duathlon: 2.4 mi run - 12 mi bike - 1.2 mi run)
• National Duathlon Festival on April 26
  

Of course if we wanted to invade March there's the du in Cary on March 21 (5 mile, 31 mile, 5 mile) That's a lot of running for me right now, it's certainly less travel. With seven weeks to train it's an outside possibility.

Powerman Alabama is on April 19. I looked at the results from last year and I'd have probably finished towards the back of the pack and 9 hours is a long way to drive for that. My running is not that fast now and it looks like I could make up some time in the cycling but not that much. I'm a little leery of putting myself into that position. I'm not planning on doing this one.

May events, mostly cycling
But then we are on to more of a cycling focus:

May 3 - Raven Rock Ramble 100 miler
May 23 - Skirt Chaser 5k
May 30 - Three Mountain Madness, 75 miles with 9,280 feet of climbing
June 6-7 Tour de Cure (75 miles each day or 100 miles each day, currently under discussion)

Just to reiterate, my main cycling goals are (1) keep up better/contribute more in group rides, (2) better on the hills and (3) gain a little bit (.2 mph?) of speed by NC.

This and that

I haven't blogged in a while since I've really been just doing a little of this and a little of that. I haven't had any particularly good blog fodder as a result.

I got a good bit of riding in during the holiday break, including the annual New Year's Day ride, but had a rainout that required a long time on the trainer. It looks like we may have a freeze out which will probably result in more time on the trainer this weekend. I've looked into the options available from Redbox for distraction purposes.

I've also been doing some planning and entered some events. I registered for two 100 miler rides this spring: Frostbite Tour and Raven Rock Ramble.

The big news is that I've entered the Wald Disney World half marathon in January 2010. Yes, I will be running, not cycling! The course starts -- complete with fireworks -- outside Epcot and goes through the Magic Kingdom.

I'm also planning to run my first ever duathlon, a run-bike-run event, in April.

I think that will keep me out of trouble!