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This Real Mom

This Real Mom

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Home / GEAR / Running Without a Garmin

Running Without a Garmin

GEAR, RACING

You may have noticed a few changes to this blog. Yesterday, I moved by blog to a new host and am now self-hosted. What this means is that I can offer a lot more cool features on the blog, and I now own all of my content. I guess you could say I am now the true boss of the blog!

Okay, so now for the fun part. Today’s post is actually inspired by my race last Sunday. Running without a Garmin got me to thinking about how many of us have become slaves to our GPS watches. It’s hard for many to imagine going for a training run, let alone a race, sans Garmin. How will you know how fast or how far you are running? There are some great reasons for reducing your dependence on your Garmin:

Garmin Forerunner 305
Don’t become a slave to your Garmin!
  1. It is very important to know what it “feels” like to run at a certain pace. For example, what does an 8:00 minute pace feel like in relation to your breathing? Can you hold  a conversation at 9:30 minute miles? Learning to train and race by feel will allow you to be successful if your Garmin happens to break/die mid-race or if God forbid, you forget it at home!
  2. It is liberating to not be glancing at your wrist every 5 seconds. How many times do you catch yourself looking down to check your pace? If you are spending too much time glancing at the Garmin, you are probably missing out on a lot going on in your surroundings.
  3. You need to be able adjust for less than ideal racing and training environments. If you are running a half-marathon and the temperature is in the 80s and humid, it’s more than likely that trying to see the same numbers on the Garmin that you would in ideal conditions could be seriously detrimental to your health. Listen to your body and let it be your guide.
  4. You might actually push yourself a little more by learning to run by feel and not by your Garmin. Consider this, have you ever slowed yourself down to stay on pace even though you feel like you could maintain the pace your at? By listening to your body, you might actually run a faster race!

 

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December 8, 2011 · 4 Comments

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  1. Christine Roosa says

    December 9, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    Running with my Garmin has helped me a lot. I notice I tend to look at it far too often, and wish I could stop, but I tend to just glance and then not make a change in my pace.

    I like having it to track intervals and mile times.

    I also need it to prove to myself that I am improving, even though I feel like I could never go any faster or any further. I need to know that I’m doing better than I did last week, or 2 weeks ago, or a month ago.

    Reply
    • Anonymous says

      December 9, 2011 at 6:22 pm

      I agree that the Garmin is a very valuable tool for training. It’s funny how it does become addicting!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Learning to Pace Yourself says:
    July 9, 2014 at 7:15 am

    […] will help keep you in a physically safe (and probably mentally too!) zone. You will learn to focus less on your watch and much more on your body’s internal […]

    Reply
  2. Test: Garmin Forerunner 225 | says:
    March 4, 2016 at 7:24 am

    […] also recommend that you take the time to run without a Garmin. Well, not literally, because you’re a data freak like me and you want to keep all this good […]

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