With all the technology out there today, most runners find themselves very reliant on their Garmin (or other GPS or non-GPS watch), heart rate monitor, and this, that or the other "necessary" item. Until recently, I would have had to raise my hand with the "guilty" party. I was addicted to my Garmin. I'd watch it incessantly through each and every one of my runs. And often, I'd let it get the best of me... telling me I was going to slow or too fast. On good days, it would hold me back - I'd look at it, see a pace I didn't think I could hold, and I'd back off to a slower pace. On bad days, it would just frustrate me to no end - telling me that I was going a lot slower than I should be. Of course, on those days, you can't really speed up based on what the watch says, so you just get upset with the run.
Over the past year, I've made myself learn to not rely on it nearly as much. Instead, I've learned to rely on how I feel... how my legs are feeling, how my lungs are feeling, etc, rather than how the watch tells me I should feel. In fact, though I do still wear my Garmin 410 for every run that I do, I don't look at it while I'm running. I hit start when I head out and the next time I look at the pace on it is after I've hit stop. I no longer run based on what a piece of technology tells me, because it can't tell me the most important piece of information... what I'm capable of on THAT PARTICULAR DAY!
Since I've learned to ignore that watch, I've set PRs in two half marathons, a 10k, a 5-miler and two 5k's. In fact, this past weekend, it payed off in huge amounts. I ran a time in a local 5k that I never would have thought possible. I finished this 5k (coming in at 3.12 miles on my Garmin) in 21:33... a 6:55 pace! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined running that fast. When I looked at my mile splits at the finish line, this is what I saw... 6:54, 7:01, 6:55 and 0:44 (6:19 pace). Had I seen any one of those splits pop up during the run, my reaction would have been to shut myself down, to slow up dramatically, since these are numbers I've never seen myself hold in anything but speed work.
Next stop... a sub-1:20 10-miler at runDisney's Tower of Terror 10-miler this coming weekend, and a sub-4 marathon at Rock N Roll St. Louis in just 4 short weeks!
Ever wonder what you could do if you just let yourself run? Give it a try - you might just surprise yourself.
Disney Fantasy Maiden Voyage
Through the porthole on the Fantasy with the Disney Magic in the background
I am in the middle of a similar blog post. I stopped wearing my Garmin this summer, cold turkey like a smoker quitting cigarettes. During races i found myself stressing out, checking my watch every few minutes worrying about staying on pace. Since i dropped the watch my times have more or less stayed the same but my enjoyment of running has shot way up again.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking fwd. to hearing about the tower of terror 10 miler it sounds like a blast.I won't be back to WDW until Wine and Dine 2013.