Ha that's the way of things right. I used my garmin on that 50k a month ago for the course feature since it was unmarked. I still can't decide if knowing your distance and pace is better than not knowing? I seemed to be pleasantly surprised early on in the run about how fast the miles were going, but towards the end it was torture because 0.1 miles felt like an eternity. The 55k I guess was similar too, but when I hit that 40k aid station I swear we had run 45k. So who knows. I do like to track the distance on my phone with Strava but I never look at it mid run either, just for tracking sakes.
I can't bring myself to buy the washers so I'll probably overspend on a steel circle with numbers on it too. And mainly just for the numbers and to save a little time. How I have changed over the years.
I tried one yesterday with a kid in the pack on my back. Which is what made me think of them. I couldn't do a conventional deadlift without tipping him over the front so I tried a sumo and it worked since your torso stays so upright. I pulled 150k plus an additional 15k or so on my back and it felt easy. I seem to remember when I did them more frequently before its a go/no go type of lift. You either get it all the way up or can't break it off the floor. Next week I might do the 4/3/2 conventional and then do another top set of 2 sumo style just to work it in.
Yah, it was a lot of fun when I first got the Garmin and found out what the different paces I had read about felt like. Then it was also fun to map my routes, even though Google Maps does an adequate job of that most of the time, at least for my urban running. But then it got to be a drag worrying about whether I was running a certain pace or not, and I had established the distances for most of my route possibilities, so I ditched the Garmin and haven't missed it since. The gadgets can add or subtract from the experience, just depends on one's mental state I guess.
And now that I'm thinking about taking more of a 'training' approach to my weekday runs, it might be useful to set pace goals for, say, a one-mile tempo run around the local track. On the weekend long run, if and when I get back at it, I may still leave the gadget at home and just enjoy the run for what it is.
Still, overall, I think it's possible to run without numbers in a way that's simply not possible with weights.
Yeah, I used to pride myself on low-tech, low-cost solutions, but now I just fork over the money for ease and convenience. With kids and a non-native wife, and aging parents to take care of, I don't need to add any unnecessary errands or tasks. It's still bizarre that all of the fractional plates I looked at are in the $50-65 range though. I guess it's a lack of sales volume. Maybe gyms don't buy them because they're too easy to rip off?
Interesting about the sumo deadlifts. I'll definitely get around to trying them at some point, but I read in that article you posted or somewhere else that they're more quad dominant than conventional deadlifts, and at this point, I'm mainly trying to get a strong posterior chain and back. However, I am interested in eventually working in all the main variations of the barbell lifts. It would be good to get good at front squats too, at some point.
Your wife didn't complain about you lifting with the baby in tow?
Now that I'm running regularly again, my good sleeping days are no longer staggered. I sleep well pretty much every night again. Whenever I feel a little less motivated for a workout, I just remind myself of how well I'll be sleeping that night if I put in a good effort.
I'm tempted to go on an aerobic run this weekend, but I think I'll stick to hills until my doctor's appointment in two weeks. Wanna get the blood pressure down, and I think conditioning work is the best way. Of course, even if it's still a bit high and he wants to prescribe pills, I'll just ignore him. I know eventually the running will bring it back down. Wish I would've thought about running hills earlier, it's really helping my left big toe heal up while I get in some running anyway.
On the Texas Method and being an "intermediate" lifter:
http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/article/the_texas_method
Opps, I think I already linked to this in the T-Nation format.