How do you look at garmin data?

I love my Forerunner 305. I love recording my heart rate, distance, and pace. I don't, however, love the Garmin Training Center software. I would like to take my data and tweak the graphs or even just copy and past the distance and pace columns into a blog post. Neither is possible with GTC. What's up with that? I mean really, no copy and paste function? Am I missing something?

I find the GTC software frustrating. I'd like to import the data into excel, but from what I've seen I'd need to create some sort of script to filter the data into a more readable and useful format. I've heard some people use SportTracks? It looks like the older version of the software is no longer supported and I'm not sure I really want to spend $35 on the newer version. (Especially when I'm not really sure what it does.)

What do you use to view your garmin data? I see many blogs posting the distance and paces of their half and full marathons. I'm guessing that you don't manually enter that data into a post. How are you copying and pasting data? Teach me please!

On to training...last week was a bit lackluster. I managed to get in the miles, but the recovery from my long run took longer than I expected. (Like all week.) My legs are finally feeling recovered, which is good because with only 5 weeks to go I need to start running speed workouts. I have another long run scheduled for the end of this week. I was planning to run another 3 hour and 20 minute run, but I'm tweaking the plan a bit. I honestly wasn't expecting that 3:20 would get me to 24 miles, and another 24 mile long run might not be what I need at this point. Now my plan is to run 22 miles or 3:20, whichever I get to first.

I ran my first speed workout yesterday. I find it challenging to follow the directions for many interval workouts. This workout was a 4 x 1 mile workout at 10k pace with 800 meter recovery jogs. Normally, I'd disregard the 10k pace and run the repeats at 5K pace (or faster), but since I'm trying hard not to get injured I decided I'd try to follow the directions...mostly. Using the Mcmillan running calculator, I looked up what my 10k pace should be based on my most recent half marathon time. Apparently, Mcmillan thinks I should be running 6:55 pace for a 10k, which seemed reasonable. I did the workout on the treadmill so I ran the first repeat at 8.6 mph or 6:58 pace at a 1% incline. Then I got a little faster for each mile (6:53, 6:49, 6:44). I also changed the recovery time. Rather than running a half mile between intervals, I ran 2 minutes. I ran the warm up and recovery jogs at 8:34 pace, and the cool down was at marathon pace. I was satisfied with the workout because I mostly managed to do what I was suppose to, but it didn't feel super challenging.

And I have to wonder what the interval run was meant to accomplish? I found it on a Runner's World marathon training schedule, but I've seen similar workouts on other marathon schedules as well. It's definitely not meant to be a VO2 max workout, or the pace would be 5K. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to run a tempo run at that pace? A few weeks before the half marathon I ran a 5 mile tempo run at 6:56 pace. Maybe tempo runs make you more likely to get injured? Anyone want to weigh in?

Marathon Training Week 6 (3/21 - 3/27)
Total Miles: 50
Total Time: 7:11
Average Pace: 8:37 min/mile

Marathon Training Week 5 (3/14 - 3/20)
Total Miles: 57.1
Total Time: 7:40
Average Pace: 8:03 min/mile

Marathon Training Week 4 (3/7 - 3/13)
Total Miles: 42
Total Time: 5:51
Average Pace: 8:21 min/mile

Marathon Training Week 3 (2/28 - 3/6)
Total Miles: 52.2
Total Time: 7:17
Average Pace: 8:22 min/mile

Marathon Training Week 2 (2/21 - 2/27)
Total Miles: 50.25
Total Time: 7:15
Average Pace: 8:39 min/mile

Marathon Training Week 1 (2/14 - 2/20)
Total Miles: 50
Total Time: 6:40
Average Pace: 8:00 min/mile