Running Without a Garmin

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:

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!