Due to a family yard sale in Bedford, Va., I spent the night at my mother's house last night. My plan was to get up early this morning and just go out for a nice long run somewhere different. My goal was about 6 miles. Well, about a half mile into my run, my battery died on my Garmin Forerunner. I've become hooked on my GPS watch, so I immediately thought about just running Bedford's "loop" (click here for more details on the loop) and nothing more. What happened though was one of the most independent-feeling runs I've had a while and may be the start of something new. (You can click here for the route I took today.) In the end, the less-stressful run was surprisingly right at 6 miles.
I think runners often get too addicted to their watches and get too focused on their times and mileages, but it's soooo hard to break away from having a watch on. I'll be the first to admit to that. So maybe, just maybe, I'll start going out once a week without the watch and see where the path takes me. Like today, maybe I'll continue to be surprised at how great it feels.
2023 Races Recap
3 months ago
3 comments:
Running without that watch is freeing. You'll be amazed how much more you observe instead of anticipating a split, squinting to read it before it disappears, trying to make adjust (actually or in your mind) for time. If you really want to try to liberate yourself, trying going really slow on a scheduled easy day and you'll be surprised how good you then feel on a day when you want to run faster. Keep up the great work.
I haven't yet reached the point where I can run without a watch. I'm too anal I think. But, I now keep track of everything with my ipod so I don't even look at the time until I'm done with the run.
I stopped wearing a watch to work first and then on my runs. Both is wonderful! I find that I run better without being constantly reminded of my slowness. :} Now, running without my tunes...yeah - that's not good.
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