No GPS, No Computer, Still Running Though

I just realized that it's been 6 weeks since I updated my blog. Shortly after my last entry, my GPS Watch (the GARMIN 205) which I've had since October 2009 pooped out on me. It wasn't a real big deal as I have several running paths and their distances memorized. It does however, limit my running to the paths I know (if I want to accurately track my distance). I recently ordered a new GPS (the GARMIN 405CX) which I should have shortly. It's several models "old" (the newest Garmin GPS running watch is the "610"), but the price was right, and I liked its features. Shortly after my GPS watch stopped working, my computer crashed. Again not a big deal except for the fact that my running log was tracked on my computer. No, of course I didn't save it anywhere else, so everything from January 1, 2011 to July 3, 2011 was lost. I did remember that as of July 3 (the end of Week 26) I had run a total of 748.3 miles. This was a bit shy of the 750 miles I had hoped to get, but overall pretty good for the first half of the year. In the following 4 weeks I've added an additional 104.9 miles.

That makes my new total 853.2 miles.

As for the past 4 weeks:

Total Miles: 104.9

Total Runs Logged: 23

Total Time Spent Running: 14 hours, 4 minutes, 53 seconds

Average Pace: 8:03 (min/mile)

Before my computer/GPS "meltdown" I had an ongoing running average of around 7:44-7:48 minutes/mile. In the past 4 weeks, my run time has slowed down by nearly 20 seconds. I think there are two main reasons for my slower pace. First, is that I'm probably underestimating my mileage by a little because I want to be sure that I'm getting all my miles. The other reason is that I don't have a GPS watch which can give me my pace at any moment which tells me when I need to run faster. Without the GPS telling me how fast I'm running, I run how I feel, and apparently I've been feeling slow. It will be interesting to see what happens to my pace once I start running with a GPS again. I PROMISE to blog about it!