Street running without giraffes

Giraffes would have made this run memorable.

Today's run (street): 4.2 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.2 miles

Happy Memorial Day weekend. So far, my running has been anything but memorable. Yesterday's run was awful from start to finish, with a combination of tired legs, low energy, sun, heat and humidity. I plodded my way through my neighborhood and frequently reminded myself that I was getting closer to home. I hoped that I was getting the bad stuff out of the way and that today's run would be better. It was not.

I tried to stack the deck in my favor this morning by putting on my lightest gear and getting out early. I didn't feel as fatigued as I did on Friday and the cooler temps got me off to a good start. My plan was to run over to a different neighborhood that's directly south of mine. I moved along at a steady pace. Make that slow and steady. Actually, just slow. Really slow. It wasn't Friday's torturous experience, but I didn't feel good about a mediocre run following a bad one.

The one good thing about today's run was the interesting route map that was created by my Garmin. I couldn't resist getting my AI robot buddy CaptionBot to weigh in on it. I definitely would have enjoyed this run more if I ran into giraffes along the way.

Monday's weather is supposed to be stormy, so I'm looking to get out of the neighborhood on Sunday. I may head to Stillwell if I'm up to the challenge or to Bethpage where the trails aren't as technical. I really hope that I'll break out of my current performance malaise soon. I'll be stringing four runs together in four days, something I haven't done in a month. Perhaps by Monday, I'll have made some positive progress.

One of these routes is not like the other

Post run relaxing

Today's run (street): 3.36 or 3.41 miles

It was another mid-high intensity run this morning. My heart rate (the only performance metric I'll view while on a run) was close to target, and I knew I'd be happy with my finish time. A quick look at the Garmin confirmed that I'd managed another good run. I cooled down by the pool when I finished and tried mapping my route using the Gmaps web app on my phone

I was pleased to see that the Android OS was finally supporting Gmap's functionality. That allowed me to record my distance and calculate my true pace. I liked what I saw: 9:05. Although I worked for it, getting there didn't feel as hard as I thought it would be. Looking a gift horse in the mouth, I mapped the run on my laptop after I'd finish showering and discovered a surprising disparity in distance.

Distance: Android version

Web version, same route

For some reason, the route on my laptop registered 5/100ths of a mile shorter than the exact same map on my phone. Weird and disappointing, because that small disparity meant my average pace was actually 9:12. Not bad, but not what I wanted to see. I remapped the route to see if I'd somehow missed a street, but the distance came up the same each time.

So what if the phone mapping is actually the correct measurement? That would be nice. But I use the web version as the standard, so I'll have to go with that. In the end, the difference is measurement is minimal. Unfortunately, the difference in pace is not.