Tiger balm rocks my socks

Today has been a good day. Tonight has been a good night. 


I opted to work from home today and got a zillion tasks accomplished, which is always a good thing. The dogs weren't *too* barky, and I even tried out the outdoors office. 

Can't beat the view.

Tonight, I treated myself at Elements Therapeutic Massage (Elm Grove, WI) and it was freakin' wonderful. While I haven't been too sore from the half marathon from hell, it was nice to have a relaxing, hurts-so-good deep tissue massage. Surprisingly, my legs didn't need the most work... my neck and shoulders did. Gwen the awesome masseuse spent extra time there, and even busted out the Tiger Balm, which felt nothing short of amazing. 


I have no idea what's in this stuff (tigers? transdermal crack?), but I want to get some and have it with me always. Have you tried it before?

And no, I don't mean tiger blood.

Gross.

Getting back on track... Thanks for all of your kind words on the half. I can't tell you all enough how wonderful it is to have your support and camaraderie. Your comments are like a giant bear hug, and you're all so eloquently spoken (written?) and have such interesting things to say and contribute. Y'all are the best!


For tonight's post, I thought it'd be fun to look at some stats. If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now - I love my Garmin Forerunner 405. I'm not a gadgety girl by any means, but this thing has helped me wrap my brain around running. I just wear the watch and heart rate monitor, choose my workout on the screen, use the little side ticker thing to start and end the workout, and then plug in the little stick to upload the workout. I especially love the heart rate monitor function, which has proved that when I feel I'm busting ass, I am indeed busting ass (at up to 100% of my max heart rate). And I love Garmin Connect, it takes all of the data from the watch and shows me what I did. Check it:

I would be nothing without a place to write funny comments.

Oh, and did I mention that on top of all of the issues the race had, the course was also too long? Some runners reported it was up to .20 mile too long. I started my watch before I was at the start line, but that was maybe 150 yards away. Could this race get anything right?

How in the eff was I running at an 8:14 min/mi pace at one point? Must have been near the finish line.

Yup, it was near the finish line.

What the Garmin doesn't show is at which mile I was singing along with "America, F*ck Yeah!" (mile 11) or where I had that epic life-stands-still moment on the bridge (mile 2). These things I have to make a note of on my own.


You do the talking: Do you use a sports watch or heart rate monitor? Which one? Love it / hate it? My only complaint about the Forerunner 405 is that it's not very idiot-friendly. I've had to visit their website frequently for tutorials. Also, if I don't lock the bezels, I often somehow stop the workouts on accident. 


Another question for ya - any cool new music I should look into for Sound Bites tomorrow? So far I've featured new music links from Mumford & Sons, and Wilco / The Rapture / Bandana Splits. Is there any genre of music you'd like me to include as part of this feature?