I dont know if times have changed but back in my day none of the top kids wore "real" watches. Some of us had a cheap $10 casio just to tell time and maybe a timer to see how long our runs were, but we were pretty exact to within +- 5 seconds of our pace.
Think there was a study done several years ago that people who never wore watches had much better race pacing than those that did.
If you don't know how fast youre running without a GPS telling you, well then you never trained seriously.
Watches are not meant to be constantly monitored. I use mine to make sure I don't go out too hard in interval workouts, races, tempos and easy runs. I also use it to record splits/distance/time for my training log. If I have someone giving me splits in a race, the I don't use a watch, but if am racing 1500 and don't have someone for splits, I will wear it and use it for the first part of the race to make sure I don't go out too hard, I just race the middle and end.
Dick Puke wrote:
You're probably the type of guy to complain that "Facebook wastes so much of my time, I never get anything done" instead of just not going on Facebook. There's a good handful of advantages to wearing a watch and not a single disadvantage.
uhhh... wrote:
You kinda contradict yourself here. You imply people should just get off facebook if it's a problem for them and they don't have control... but then they should just wear a watch and deal with it, even if they can't control themselves. Two different ideas.
Dick Puke wrote:
Uhhhhh.... No I don't, dummy.
Actually, you do. Your parallel is there being a good handful of advantages to going on FB and not a single disadvantage, but instead of that you advocate not going on FB, but wearing a watch and dealing with it.
Tom Waits wrote:
Dick Puke wrote:I HATE posts like this. "I won't run to my full potential unless I ditch the watch" "The watch makes me run too fast" "The watch will make me run a shorter route".
You, my friend, are the problem if you're letting the watch control you or the workout. You're probably the type of guy to complain that "Facebook wastes so much of my time, I never get anything done" instead of just not going on Facebook. There's a good handful of advantages to wearing a watch and not a single disadvantage.
I can think of at least 6 disadvantages to wearing a watch, but will only list the top 4 here:
1. Lack of vitamin D absorption in the wrist area.
2. Developing debilitating strength imbalances due to always wearing the watch on the same wrist.
3. Inability to control urges to make self-important posts on Strava.
4. Having meltdowns on Letsrun when people indicate their personal preference is going watch-less.
I have the remaining disadvantages stored in a manilla envelope - you can have them if you just pick up the phone.
I can attest to the validity of some of your concerns, on behalf of my mother. She used to get migraines all the time, but once she stopped wearing a watch, her vitamin D intake increased and they went away. She also had rotator cuff problems, which have since gone away since she stopped wearing a watch.
Beyond these concerns, another is the accursed watch tan. A friend of mine was single for years until he stopped wearing his watch. The watch tan must have been a huge turnoff. Don't wear a watch, kids.
Old Man Winter wrote:
Beyond these concerns, another is the accursed watch tan. A friend of mine was single for years until he stopped wearing his watch. The watch tan must have been a huge turnoff. Don't wear a watch, kids.
How exactly do people notice the watch tan if there's a watch covering it?
I never wore a watch during a run. Ran for 14 years. I only held one in my hand (not on my wrist) during interval sessions where I did not have a coach or someone else with me. Which was very very rare. Watches are useless. Sure sometimes long runs were way too fast, and sometimes a bit too slow, but your body tells you what's right for the day.
For me the watch was a huge detriment. i always wanted my easy run paces to be under 7min per mile, and if they weren't i'd get frustrated and either run harder, or just lost motivation because i wasn't feeling fit enough. it's a great feeling to not worry about stopping in the middle of a run to quick do stuff because you'll feel like you're cheating your overall pace by getting a break.
when i start doing workouts again I think mentally it'll be a lot easier to not let myself be controlled by my watch now that i stopped using it on easy days.
i won't always feel the need to go all out on workouts and i'll be able to recover better as a result.
People on here need to understand that for a certain (obsessive) personality type, a watch is a very very bad thing.
Things i think about when wearing a watch on runs:
- a truck/car made me slow down i should deduct a second from my pace
- i took a tangent (secant?) here i should maybe subtract time/distance from my run
- i only ran my first half mile in 3:38 and i felt pretty crappy i need to speed up
- i'm going 6min pace right now i wonder if i look fast to the person i just passed
- i only ran 7:30 for the last mile, i should be going faster
- i should run my last half mile hard on this run because i feel good and want to see what time i can hit.
i know some of these sound kind of nuts but it's just the way i am. and when i don't have a watch on these things don't pop into my head.
Agreed that you don't want a watch in short races. I'd say 800, 1500, mile, only bring a watch if the meet is poorly run/managed.
3000/2-mile on the track, it could be good to have a watch for your mile split, but if someone reliable can call it, that is better.
Sometimes, even in a 10K, if I'm really going after it, I look at mile or kilometer splits and do the math wrong in my head!
I've done that too. It's a reflex
old guy 70 wrote:
A few years ago I realized I was being controlled by my watch. I was running on a narrow trail when I tripped on a root. On my way down I stopped by watch.
As a young man, I'd always hear the splits in a mile race, but almost never noticed them in a half mile race. Go figure.