running watchless

What's the advantage to not wearing a watch?

as i see it, there are pros and cons for example being able to see your splits may prevent you from running to your full potential because you're holding yourself or you can push yourself and know when to adjust pace

trust me. The watch holds you back in short races. You'll see your pace and back off.

so for 5k and less is ok? what about 10k?

How about the training like 5x1000 for example how would you know if your pace is slowish and you can push it or you are going too fast or what?

wanderer of roads wrote:How about the training like 5x1000 for example how would you know if your pace is slowish and you can push it or you are going too fast or what?

Uhm...ever heard of perceived effort?

Huminy wrote:

What's the advantage to not wearing a watch?

Some poeple would be better off even on intervals. Mainly becasue they are following some program from a book or the internet telling them what pace to run. From my experience people tend to run under their capability. Especially if you thing of average club level or recreational athletes. Guys I trained with used to do their reps a fast as they could as long as they were consistent. Back then you would be 40th in a race of 200 with a 33 min 10km. Now you can win some races with 500 in 36. There are other reasons of course

Generally though I would use them on intervals to measure progress but people seem obsessed by pace even on slow runs. I sued to find it offputting to keep checking my watch in races. I'd set the stop watch but try and avoid looking it at until later in the race. If I'd seen some of my splits it would have put me off and I@ would have slowed down. For example you go through 1 milei na 5km too fast. Its too late by then you can't re-run it and usually end up overcompensating. Of course you can see constant pace on Garmin but it does not see seem to work accuarately to me and like I said if it did it would just do my head in

I ditched the watch a few years ago. I mostly train for mid-range trail races (half to full marathon) so I have little need for it unless it's a very long run where I need to refuel at regular intervals.

I couldn't go back to wearing a watch. I love the freedom of just heading out the door with only a vague plan of what the run is going to be. Sometimes I feel like crap and I jog 4 miles, sometimes I feel effortless and go for 15-20.

A few years ago I began to ditch the Garmin and wear a simple digital watch on most regular runs, and I prefer it greatly. Too easy to monitor your pace and run only what you thought you should run. Unless you're elite or laser focused on your training, it's a relief to just run for general time on your average run. I grab the Garmin for races and tempo and progressive runs. Even most intervals I skip the Garmin. I wouldn't run without a watch completely though because it's nice to know the general time/distance.

I wear my Garmin but don't look at what pace I ran until after I finish.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Maybe the problem IS them and it DOES get in their head. That is exactly WHY those people shouldn't wear one! Isn't that knowing yourself and acting accordingly? Isn't that basically the advice you just gave about Facebook applied to the watch?

Personally, I like to run without a watch on easy days. Just go by feel. Helps make sure I don't get caught up in time and push too hard but instead listen to my body. But on workout days (tempos, intervals, etc) I prefer to have the watch. But everyone is different.

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.

Just go with a cheap watch that you can use to time your typical easy runs. If you go by miles rather than time, then don't even wear one.

The same goes for a lot of different types of workouts. For tempo runs, it pays to not have a watch so that you can trust your body and run by feel. Who cares what your times are? The same can go for intervals to an extent. Just hop on the track, and run repeats at whatever effort you ought to be running, and take a jogging rest in between of some distance. Probably the only time you might "need" a watch is for time trials or race pace work. Any other timed stuff is just a lot of guess work in my opinion.

'Maybe the problem IS them and it DOES get in their head. That is exactly WHY those people shouldn't wear one! '

So true, Steve Cram once said he got so bad he would even time himself taking a piss!

It would be nice to be perfect but most of us are not

Back to distadvantages. When i coach sone of the runners miss the start of track intervals or hill reps while they are messing around with their garmin.

The main disadvantage is fro easy runs for a recreational runner. They are 90% obsessed with pace even on easy runs. I go running to get away from all that crap. Its like being at work when you should be out enjoying the countryside not staring at a watch

I believe my most effective season of interval running was when I ran watchless.

When I moved to from flatland to high altitude (7,000 feet), I started running my workouts watchless, to keep myself from the futility of constantly comparing my old and new times. Once I settled into that rhythm, my favorite workouts were the step-down intervals I did on a field near my house. By focusing in on my breathing and everything else, rather than splits, I learned to push myself to the edge and stay there for a long time, unlike lots of interval workouts where my goal times would send me over the edge and I couldn't recover.

I did carry a watch with me to the field, and I allowed myself one timed measurement: my heartrate at the close of the workout, as soon as the last lap was over. It was consistently 52-54 beats per 15 secs at the close of these workouts. I never was able to reach that level when I ran intervals based on time, and I felt this difference in short races that year . . . my capacity for sustained hard breathing, etc. was just higher.

I've done the exact same thing. Maybe I should consider a change.

Uhhhhh.... No I don't, dummy.

5. adds excessive weight to the body, increasing energy cost;

6. makes the body lopsided.