Hello guys!!!! I am completely alive I swear. A couple of days ago I reached three months of no smoking. It feels really good. My life is so different now. It is a pretty great feeling. how is everyone doing? I am trying to catch up on post etc.. my running is not happening so much at the current moment due to a very tight busy schedule. but i am staying active and cant wait to start running again.

Hi all! Good to see you're still with us Drayz. Obie, you'll love that Garmin. Mine finally arrived yesterday and I felt like doing today's run yesterday as soon as it was charged! It's a huge motivator for me. It's helpful to see the # of calories burned and to see what your average pace is. It's nice to track the improvement over time. (DH was so glad that I don't have to use his anymore!) How's everyone else? Andy, how's the recovery process coming along? Are you still riding high from your awsome accomplishment? It's only 11 months till Disney! Sully, are you felling better yet? Are you still gonna try to complete your race? Where's Holo and Megs and Jenny? And anyone else I missed?

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been missing in action. Between work and family, it's been pretty hectic around here. And the snow... How come last year, when I wasn't running we had the warmest winter in YEARS with very little snow and now that I'm a runner, snow at least once a week. COME ON! The indoor track at the gym is nice but I really miss running outside. I just signed up for my 25K River Run in Grand Rapids. 25K?!?! What am I thinking?!? And still seriously considering Disney... Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I want a garmin. it has been pretty cold my way but i went out last night for about 20 minutes i am a little sick so my lungs were on fire, but it just feels good to tough out the cold and get a good run in. happy vday to all of you

Holo, Sorry to here about your slip-up. Don't worry. It happens to a lot of us. But you tossed the rest so that's good. Don't beat yurself up over it. You are human just like us. What do I like so much about my Garmin?? What don't I like? I have the 205 (no HR monitor) and it's blue, so there is no way I think it's ugly! Blue is my favorite-est! Since I have been doing run/walk intervals I like that I can program my interval times and it beeps to let me know when to switch. It has elevation so if I actually had some hills here I could see how I was doing with that (my elevation changes about 4 feet the whole run!). I can see my average pace for the whole session or by lap (lap is each interval session; a great way for me to assess how well I keep my pace; whether or not I start too fast and burn out or if I am maintaining pace). I have an exact distance I have covered which is important for both intervals by time (can compare my improvement time vs distance) and distance (long runs in training go by specific distance, not # of intervals). And the best part is I can see the number of calories burned!! I don't expect the calories burned is accurate (I entered Female, weight and age) but it's a nice close estimate. Sometimes I go a bit longer to get a specific # gone if I have plans for the evening. Helps plan my daily food intake. Also, I can download th eday's runs into th ecomputer program it comes with and see some neat looking charts and graphs. As I put more of them in it will be a great tool for assessing where I am and how I am improving. My running partner has a foot pod (she uses Nike+) and she has to calibrate fairly often. Right after calibration she's just about right on with the Garmin but after a number of runs she's .1 to .2 miles off of me. She finds it annoying.

Hi everyone! it's been a while! I got so busy with work and school and my husband and I are now buying our first home! We are set to close on March 13th! This is a very stressful time right now and I kinda stopped running since about December... just got so busy and you know once you stop it's hard to get back. BUT I'm signing up for a 5miler and I'm gonna finish! The race will be in my new hometown and it's at the end of March so it'll be just a few short weeks after we close on the house! I went back to doing the C25K program since I was having trouble building up on my own. I'm currently on W6D2 which I will run tonight! I haven't had a smoke in 13 months but I wanted one the other day! I think it was after we signed all the paperwork for the mortgage! we walked out the bank and someone was smoking and I said to DH, god I would love one right now, he looked at me and I said no your right it'll taste horrible and we left... but for the first time in a long time I had the urge. When we got home I went out running instead!