New kit

If it hadn't been for the fact I have a shiny new Garmin 210 and a shiny pair of Evo Barefoot trail shoes to try out today I may not have gone for a run. When I woke up my throat was sore and I felt pretty lousy, but thankfully I'm a sucker for shiny new things so I put my running gear on, grabbed the dog, dropped Ruby off at school and headed down to the river.

I've been running in Inov8 shoes for about a year now and they are classed as minimalist but the Vivo Barefoot trail shoes are more like my Vibrams or my Merrell pace gloves i.e. very little between your feet and the ground, and I've not worn either of them running since the Summer, so I was cautious when I put the Vivos on today as you should really ease yourself into this type of shoe. They did feel strange initially while I was running along the High Street but as soom as I was on the trails they felt wonderful. I'm going to do a proper review of them once I've worn them a few more time, but so far so good.

My Garmin was also pretty wonderful, although I did eventually tuck it up my sleeve cause I kept looking at it and was at risk of falling flat on my face! I really like that it splits your pace into individual miles as it made me realise that I'm not a super slow runner but actually my average time (as displayed on an app like Map My Run) is just really slow because I stop and take pictures, and go on trails where it's sometimes hard to walk let alone run. But looking at the Garmin data I was pleased to see that 4 of my 6 miles were run in under 10 minutes, which for me is quite fast. That lifted my spirits! The data you get back from the watch is pretty amazing and I'm looking forward to playing with it over the coming weeks. I'm hoping I don't become a slave to it, as then the fun would be gone!

Nethy and I ran a nice loop that took us into Lennoxlove and as the mud is drying up nicely we strayed off the main path and into the woods. It was tough going in places due to some extremely jaggy gorse, and the fact that the foot bridge over the river had been almost completely destroyed, but it was nice being off the beaten track and it was good to see the big patches of snowdrops growing up through the leaves and the mud.

As we approached home I checked my Garmin only to find I'd done just short of 6 miles, so we ran past the house and did an extra wee loop to bring the tally up to just over 6! That's a new and rather exciting experience!

My legs are really tired this evening, but I'm hoping to get some more miles in this weekend. It's a bit of a special few days for me as I'm turning 40 on Sunday! It's only a number....