nike shox r4 sneakers item shoes and press the “run” button on my watch. It’s already well past 7 p.m., and if I don’t get going soon, I won’t have much daylight left to use. But here I am, impatiently standing in my driveway waiting for the GPS to connect miley cyrus elton john shoes late show stephen colbert.
alex dymond mephisto match low top sneaker white, I start off down the road near my home. I immediately check the pace miley cyrus elton john shoes late show stephen colbert. Too slow—you feel good, so speed it up, I say to myself. I pick up my cadence and begin to move faster, only to find that two minutes later I am already starting to become out of breath. I begin to slow down a bit, and once again check my watch that’s too slow. What an embarrassing pace, I think to myself as I stare down at the 10:35/mile miley cyrus elton john shoes late show stephen colbert. I work to find a more stable pace and turn in after running about two miles.
→ No matter what you’re looking to improve in your running life, find it with Runner’s World+!
More From Runner's World
The next day I go out again. I decide to go along a dirt road that curves around a nearby lake. I stop and pull my phone out to take a photo of the sunset over the lake, and I subconsciously think to myself that I need to post the picture when I put my run up on Strava. I begin to wonder what I could say about this run once I post it on social media, and only while I’m mid-thought do I stop and think: Is that really why you’re running?
That was me a couple weeks ago, attached to my running technology.
When I gore started running again after having my second baby almost five months ago, I just started my watch and went. I didn’t care about my pace or waiting for the GPS to connect; I only cared about getting out there. I felt like I did when I gore really started running at 15 years old: just happy to be out there and enjoying where my feet took me.
Slowly, as I began to run more, I started worrying about my pace and what other people thought of me when I was running until I suddenly couldn’t remember why I was running anymore. Would someone look out their window and think I was running too slow? Was I running because I wanted to or was it because I felt like I had to? Would I look look lazy for not posting anything on my running apps?
At the time, I was reading Christopher McDougall’s book, shoes nike shox r4 gs bq4000 001 black black black white, which encapsulated what it meant to love running. This inspired me to brainstorm what I could do to turn my thoughts around and go out just to run. So I took off my watch.
My gore two or three runs without a watch, I found myself thinking that when I start tracking my runs on Strava again, I’ll tell followers what I was doing. I also started trying to do mental math at the end of each run, figuring out the mileage and calculating how fast I went. Once I realized what I was doing, I stopped and took a breath. It didn’t matter.
After those initial watch-less runs, I started walking out the door, no watch in sight, purely because I enjoyed it. I adjusted to running without a watch by enjoying what was around me and clearing my mind; I was surprised at how easy the transition came. It was fairly easy to convince my brain that there were more interesting things to think about and observe when I was running than my pace, such as the birds chirping in the trees or the sunset reflecting on the lake.
When I’d been running without a watch for a few weeks, I reached out to Janet Hamilton, the founder and head coach of Running Strong in Atlanta, to ask about the benefits of unplugged running—was this something I should continue doing?
“Taking running out of [the social media] environment is just delightful,” she told me. “For some people, social networking sites where running stats are shared are a motivational tool, but for most people it is not a good thing—there is too much self judgement. Ask yourself: What good could these tracking websites do for you?”
If you aren’t sure on whether they motivate or stifle you, she suggests taking the tracking to a personal level instead, and record your runs in a notebook or Excel sheet. To start running unplugged, Hamilton suggests starting with a “no-agenda run” one day a week. Just go out and run by how you feel, she advises.
For me, running became a therapeutic way to shut everything out from the day. All I had to focus on was my breath, my foot strike, and keeping my antiestresse back—and that was liberating.
mtv video music awards 2015 vma red carpet shoes photos headphones, which was an easier habit for me to break than my watch. I felt so good after every run, no matter how slow or fast I felt like I was going. My brain was clear, and I was happy to be out there.
My experience running unplugged has been a positive one. I’ll likely slap it on if I begin a training cycle, prada brushed leather platform sandals.
Hamilton left me with wonderful perspective on running.
“Experience the joy of running,” she said. “Running is a gift and not a lot of people get that gift. So if you’re one of those fortunate people who’ve gotten the gift of running, never take it for granted.”
I think I’ll always keep that in the back of my brain, especially on those really tough days, whether I’m wearing a watch or not.
