Up next.....

Tomorrow is the Christmas Present 5k.  It's a mostly trail race located in Independence Oaks, an Oakland County park.  The event is put on by the Runnin' Gear Store owner and......it's FREE!  Yes, they put on a 5k for free for runners that e-mail them and sign up.  How awesome!

Independence Oaks County Park map - SOURCE

I've never been out to Independence Oaks so it should be a nice run.  I'll give you a full report next week but it is a free race so you cannot have the same expectations as a race that you pay an entry fee for.  Regardless, I'm still looking forward to it.  If you want details on it, you will need to do it today and it's posted on RunMichigan.

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Map per Garmin - Paint Creek Trail

Today's run was cold!  It was 19 degrees with a 12 degrees wind chill at the start.  Fortunately, after a few miles, I was able to warm up and ended with a pretty good run today.  Today was faster than my usual pace but then we all need to push ourselves once in awhile.  Trieu, Kevin and I met a new runner, George, and he ran the full 10 miles with us today.  Kevin ran long yesterday so he was in for 4 miles today with us.  It was nice getting to know a new runner who's new to the area.

This was also my first run with my new Garmin 220.  I love it!  I've never run with a heart rate monitor so I was a little nervous starting with a long run but I figured what the heck.  I've heard many of stories about chafing with it but I used the DCrainmaker method and had no chafing.  It worked perfect.

Not only can I now get the typical pace, distance and splits on my Garmin, but this adds my heart rate into the picture as well as running cadence.  Considering a 180 or higher cadence is good, it looks like I'm doing just fine for that.

Pace/elevation per Garmin

Summary report per Garmin

This is the one summary I'm excited about.  The heart rate and cadence views.  Keep in mind the cadence is from the watch so I must have moved my hands differently on the down spikes.  I will say that the heart rate seems very accurate.  The spike around 18 minutes is when I was trying to catch up to Trieu and George after Kevin finished and the low spike in the middle is when we stopped to turn around.  I liked running with it so far.

The cadence is interesting to see how I'm actually running and if it's a proper cadence.  Seems about right but I need to use it more.

Heart Rate/Cadence per Garmin

Splits per Garmin

Of course, that was just my first run with the 220 but it's a good start.  I'll continue to use it over the next month and update you with a detailed review.  Right now, I'd say I'm happy I bought this.  I'm sure I would have liked the 620 model but it was $100+ more and, at least for now, the extra running dynamics are still to be determined how you train with that information.

Have a great day and....Keep Running!!!!