Totally Garmin-Less
If you read my previous blog about running naked, you know that it wasn't literally about running naked but about running without so much technology.
In particular, I was referring to running without my Garmin 205 GPS watch, which I was forced to do after I accidentally left it uncharged. It was a bit of an epiphany. I found that by running without GPS I was able to get in touch with a lot of parts of my running that I'd been overlooking.
In no particular order, I found that I'd reconnected with my sense of my breathing and my level of effort and my sense of pace, things that I'd lost touch with when I was wearing the satellite-watching watch. With the Garmin, I'd simply keep track of the numbers on the display showing my my pace in miles per minute. If it was too fast, I'd slow down, too slow, I'd speed up.
Runners often talk about how to tell how fast you're going based on whether or not you'd be able to hold a conversation while running. If you'd be able to talk fairly easily, that's an easy run. If you can talk but not without some effort, that's a regular run. And if you can't really talk at all, well that's a fast run, or, as they say, a tempo run. When I'm running by myself, it's almost always a tempo run. That's not necessarily a good idea, the experts say, because you need to "build a base" of miles at slower paces in order to make real progress. I've never tested the theory.
Until now, that is.
I returned my borrowed Garmin a few weeks back, and I've been trying to learn to run without it. (I have to admit that I've still been listening to music on my little mp3 player--Moldy Peaches, mostly, if you must know.)
And it hasn't been easy going without guidance from above. I find myself having no idea whatsover how fast I'm going. Is it 8:00 miles (really fast for me) or 9:30 miles (a crawl)? Am I keeping a fairly steady pace or am I speeding up a lot and then slowing down to compensate (not an efficient way to pace oneself).
But, as before, I've found that I'm hearing new things all the time, now that I'm listening for them. For instance, I've lately been acutely aware of how my running shoes feel, which led me to ditch my current pair, the pair I wore for the marathon in February, becasuse they seem to be hurting my right leg. A hurting leg is no fun for three miles. For 26.2 miles, it can be a nightmare. And who knows if my difficult time recovering from the race was due to the shoes. Could be.
In any case, I've got a new pair from a completely different shoe maker coming on Tuesday, We'll see how they work out. I'm hopeful.
And I'm trying to run more slowly, to build that base, though when I'm by myself, I guess I'll have to figure out how fast I'm running by using that talking trick. The only thing is, since I'll be to myself. I wonder what I'll have to say?
And I wonder if I'll be embarrassed about both us running at least partially naked.
In particular, I was referring to running without my Garmin 205 GPS watch, which I was forced to do after I accidentally left it uncharged. It was a bit of an epiphany. I found that by running without GPS I was able to get in touch with a lot of parts of my running that I'd been overlooking.
In no particular order, I found that I'd reconnected with my sense of my breathing and my level of effort and my sense of pace, things that I'd lost touch with when I was wearing the satellite-watching watch. With the Garmin, I'd simply keep track of the numbers on the display showing my my pace in miles per minute. If it was too fast, I'd slow down, too slow, I'd speed up.
Runners often talk about how to tell how fast you're going based on whether or not you'd be able to hold a conversation while running. If you'd be able to talk fairly easily, that's an easy run. If you can talk but not without some effort, that's a regular run. And if you can't really talk at all, well that's a fast run, or, as they say, a tempo run. When I'm running by myself, it's almost always a tempo run. That's not necessarily a good idea, the experts say, because you need to "build a base" of miles at slower paces in order to make real progress. I've never tested the theory.
Until now, that is.
I returned my borrowed Garmin a few weeks back, and I've been trying to learn to run without it. (I have to admit that I've still been listening to music on my little mp3 player--Moldy Peaches, mostly, if you must know.)
And it hasn't been easy going without guidance from above. I find myself having no idea whatsover how fast I'm going. Is it 8:00 miles (really fast for me) or 9:30 miles (a crawl)? Am I keeping a fairly steady pace or am I speeding up a lot and then slowing down to compensate (not an efficient way to pace oneself).
But, as before, I've found that I'm hearing new things all the time, now that I'm listening for them. For instance, I've lately been acutely aware of how my running shoes feel, which led me to ditch my current pair, the pair I wore for the marathon in February, becasuse they seem to be hurting my right leg. A hurting leg is no fun for three miles. For 26.2 miles, it can be a nightmare. And who knows if my difficult time recovering from the race was due to the shoes. Could be.
In any case, I've got a new pair from a completely different shoe maker coming on Tuesday, We'll see how they work out. I'm hopeful.
And I'm trying to run more slowly, to build that base, though when I'm by myself, I guess I'll have to figure out how fast I'm running by using that talking trick. The only thing is, since I'll be to myself. I wonder what I'll have to say?
And I wonder if I'll be embarrassed about both us running at least partially naked.
posted by Robert Goyer at
11:54 AM
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