What I'm loving on Saturday - Garmin Forerunner 305

The Garmin Forerunner 305


Now that it's spring and the weather is warming up (despite what seems to be a never-ending cycle of hellacious winds...), I am so excited to be taking my workouts outdoors. Not that my indoor exercises have been ineffective, I've just been itching to get out in the sunshine and move around in an area that is a bit wider than 8'x8'.


This spring, I'm all about getting serious about my running. A couple years ago, before I moved to Milwaukee, I was training for a half marathon. Well, with the move, the excitement of a new city and a new job and new friends, my running went off track, so to speak, and it never really got back on. But I'm determined by the end of the summer to be hitting double-digits in my running outings. Gotta get to 10 miles in one run by September. I think this is a fairly attainable goal, seeing as though today I am shooting for about 6 miles.


To help me with the training, I recently purchased the Garmin Forerunner 305.This little gadget gets sparkling reviews across the board, and I ended up getting an amazing deal on one on Amazon, for just over 50% the original price. I've taken it out on a couple runs and can I just say... I am in love.


This is all the training partner you need. I love tracking exactly how many miles I've run while I'm running them. I track heart rate and calorie burn, and I love that it tells me what pace I'm on, in case I feel like kicking that pace's ass. It pushes me to run farther than I normally would without it, and it also pushes me to run faster (which rules, because I'm focusing on improving both my endurance AND my speed this summer). 


With the help of this little baby, I clocked my first trial 5k run at 25:40 and it gave me my "base pace" that I am going to work on beating every run from here on out. I'm running the Klement's Sausage 5k race at the end of July, and I'm shooting to finish in 23:30. I fully believe that training using my Garmin is going to get me there.


No matter what level of runner you are, I definitely recommend investing in a Garmin. I can't say enough good things about it. It's not the cutest-looking thing you'll ever attach to your wrist, but tracking your training process is fun, and it's really the best way to improve. As soon as I get home from any run, I immediately plug this in to see my stats all on one page. I study my split times and pinpoint exactly where I need to push a little harder. I have no doubt it'll get me to my 5k goal time and to a half marathon in no time :)