NEW THINGS

First of all, thank you to everyone who commented on my last post and is sending me positive happy vibes for Saturday. Mentally, I am feeling much better. I even decided to go for a run last night. The workout called for 5 to 7 miles at a relaxed effort. Since nothing is relaxed anymore with my knee problem, I decided four would probably be okay.

Mostly, I was eager to get out and try my new gear! I used to be a Garmin 305 owner. Technically, I still am but Vans now uses it. I loved my 305 (still do). It is by far the best Garmin out there yet I was drawn to the new technology and the fancy look of the Garmin 405CX. Yeah, not just the 405, the 405CX. The CX comes with interchangeable bands. A long time ago, Vans bought me the regular 405 as an anniversary gift (the man knows the way to my heart I tell ya) but I didn't like the way it felt on my wrist and we returned it. It was built for a man. Now I am not a tiny woman but for some reason, I have extremely bony/tiny wrists and long bony fingers. No, I don't play the piano although I probably should with these lengthy digits.

Back in November I purchased the 405CX from REI. I'll be honest, it took a lot of getting used to intially but I loved the way it felt on my wrist. It's almost like a watch vs the 305 taking up my entire arm. I had no problems with the 405 until a few weeks ago on our (Not) Western States Training Run when after 3.5 hours my 405 started beeping "battery low." At first I thought it was talking about MY internal battery running out of energy and I thought "man that is one crazy good watch!" It survived the whole run but beeped the entire last hour. Same thing happened on our 24 mile training run. Now, I am a gadget freak and quickly jumped online to look at the 405CX manual and it said "battery length = 8 hours" . . . um, yeah I don't think so. So, again, because I am a big freak, I immediately emailed Garmin (the company, not my friend Garmin) and told them the situation. I thought that maybe because I was out in the middle of Timbuck Too that the 405 was fighting so hard to find a GPS signal that it was eating the battery power. Well, according to the techy folks at Garmin, my battery sounded like it was defective. They wanted me to mail it back to them for $79 so they could refurbish is and find out the problem. I said "no go, my race is in a week. I can't run without my Garmin" . . . so what next? I talked to my friend Mr. REI who said "just bring it back to us and I'll see if we have another one for you." YES! I love REI and I love their stand by their product policy. Sure enough, I returned my 405CX and got a brand new one. Last night was my first run with my new 405. I had to make sure I set it up exactly the way my old one was and change the bands so it fit my wrist. Hopefully, this battery will last and will not start beeping at me during Way Too Cool on Saturday! So that my friends,  was "new item" number uno.

"New item" number duo I purchased on Sunday from the Fleet Feet Roseville Store. I've been toying with this for a while now and decided I might as well give it a shot as I have nothing really to lose, well, except $17. I bought this:

(no, that is not my leg)

I figured I would see if it helped with my knee pain. If you want more information about the Iliotibial Band Compression Strap go here. Last night was the first time I put it on for a run. Considering I had been in pain from just walking around at work all day, it was nice to go out for a run and have no pain for the first 3 miles. Then, the pain started again albeit a bit dull. If I can run WTC with the dull pain I'll take it. Yet after my run the pain came on full force for the rest of the evening and today. Sigh.

"New item" number three? Well, not really a new item per se more of a new beginning in the trailmomma house. Last night while I was struggling putting the Peanut to bed (fyi it is never an easy task in our house), I was beginning to think last night would be a repeat of Sunday's marathon going to bed routine (um, 5 am anyone?). When all of a sudden, after a few bouts of crying and being stubborn (ahem, not just the Peanut here), the Peanut stands up and tells me "pee pee momma!" Of course I think she's totally using this technique to avoid having to go to sleep. But she tells me again and then she tells me she has to go "poo poo" too. I asked if she HAD GONE and she said no. So I asked if she wanted to use the potty and she said yes. I said "you know this means you have to take off your Monkey Jammies right?" (which is a mortal sin when it comes to the Peanut) and she said "yeah, monkey jammies off" . . . well enter new item number three . . . the Peanut went potty all by herself on the big potty! Of course she didn't use the fancy smancy princess potty I bought months ago but who cares! One small victory!

from this morning . . .

"It ain't no thang ma! I'm a big girl now!"