trail fun

This morning I went and did my 8 mile run but I choose to do it on the Bridal trail 3.5 mile loop. Kyle let me barrow his garmin to see how if I liked running with it - since it is so bulky. I had to wear it over a sweatband so that it would just fit better and so it would not hurt my wrist. Anyway I left a bottle at the start for trh loop and started the garmin up and was off. I remembered to take a salt but not a gel so I was dragging a little so by mile 2 I ate a gel before my usual 3 to 4 miles. It helped some but my legs just felt kind of heavy and out of it - luckily Col had told me to go easy to moderate so I did not force it to much and just kept moving. I walked up the steeper hills so I could continue to breath. All the while I knew exactly how far into my run mileage I was thanks to the gps - which was wonderful motivation to keep going. I also knew that if I walked or what ever the garmin would know and show it so no cheating.
At the end of the first lap I grabbed some cytomax and a salt before heading out for lap 2. The second lap was no easier - my left knee got a bit tight but nothing to sharp so I just kept going. Again I walked the step hills and ate a gel around mile 2 into the lap. Somehow the time passed a little quicker even though I was not running any faster - but I'll take what I can get.
I finished the second loop and was up to 7 miles total so I turned around and ran back out the other direction on the trail - this is when the garmin came in very handy - I was able to go explore another trail for some variety all the while it told me how far I was and right at .5 miles I turned around and went back.
So in all I did 2 loops of the 3.5 mile loop then ran out half a mile and back for 8 miles which took me 1:19:46.

Now the fun part since I wore the garmin and its heart rate thing when I got home I was able to simply plug it into my trusty mac and with a really simple synch it filled out my training peaks and I could see my workout all graphed out. I love graphs so this is so much fun - I can see all the ups and downs of elevation, pace, heart rate and it even puts it on a map. check it out. The elevation looks a bit wonky since it shows a big decline once and I'm pretty sure I was on the same trail twice. But all in all I was surprised that it was not to uncomfortable and for all the things it does I feel like it could be a reasonable trade off. Though I still really wish they had a smaller version. Now I know I like it and would like having it to train with but the question is do I want it now or after IMC...