Naked running
Aahhhh, Easter! A four day break for many, time to relax and time to take a little timeout.
I asked some runners during the week how they ran their last 600m rep. One nodded, said they hit their pace, happy. Another shrugged his shoulders, said it felt pretty good, but didn’t bother to look at the pace, and might look at it later. The third, well, she wasn’t even wearing a watch, and was also very happy with how she ran. All three are strong experienced runners, and on that day, had a different way of measuring success.
Some people thrive on data, some care little for it.
There’s no right or wrong of course.
But there are times when running “naked” (aka sans watch) is totally appropriate. There’s something liberating when you run without thinking about time, pace, heart rate, cadence, vertical oscillation and the strava feed....
A good day to leave your watch at home is on your easy days. These are recovery runs, it’s meant to be slow and relaxed. Enjoy just being out there, take note of any sore spots, focus on what you need to correct or work on. Just breathe.
A lot of us have stress filled days, we are accountable to a clock, a boss, a family, a schedule. On those days, it’s really nice to come home, chuck the runners on and head out. Switching off the watch means switching off from the day, gives you time to process, be on your own, in your own space, away from distractions and something telling you what you need to do.
When coming back from an injury or a break, patience is needed, body awareness is critical. Not having the watch when you come back helps you avoid anxiety-inducing comparisons of where you are at versus when you were fully fit. You can decrease the risk of re-injury because you’ll run within yourself, rather than push too hard too early.
There are a lot of runners who have ditched the watch on race day, and ran big PB’s. I know of others who have relied too heavily on the watch on race day, felt too anxious about hitting and missing benchmarks and messed the whole experience up ()...
So this Easter give yourself a data break by ditching the watch and run to feel.