Daily Chatter

Saturday, April 17, 2010

A Garminless Girl



Having lived in the same place my entire life, I don't really need a Garmin to know my distances since I am running the same dozen courses repeatedly.  For the rare times when I do run a "new route" I simply use Map My Run and get pretty close to total distance and pretty close is good enough for a training run.

The problem with not having a Garmin is that I use a "feels like" or perceived pace most of my runs.  I wear a watch to get my over all pace at the end of my run.  I also use benchmark locations to know if I am running fast or slow throughout the run.  But I am not a great watch watcher.  I am busy looking where I want to go.  Looking at the hawks in the trees.  Looking at the farmers busy in the fields.  You get the picture.  Everywhere but my watch.

Friday morning I noticed something.  After months of mainly jogger pushing runs, my feels like speedometer needs reset.  Due to the extra effort of pushing the jogger what used to feel like an 7:30/7:45 minute mile and BE an 7:30/7:45 minute mile is now closer to an 8:00 minute mile. 

I do not obess over pace (much).  I am a distance girl.  When I go run I am looking for that feeling I get long after the warm up and settling in phases.  I am looking for that feeling of "I could run all day."  When you've been running long enough and the rhythm of your footfalls is perfect and seemly effortless.  That's what I find in running distance.  BUT.  All that happiness can be lessened when I finish a run only to find that what I felt was going to be 8:30 pace turns out to be a 9:30 pace. 
Neither pace is good or bad. 
I am talking about the expectation of finishing at a certain pace due to the effort I felt I was giving. 
I often run paces anywhere from 7:30 - 10:00 min/miles. 
For me it's not about speed.  It's about knowing what I am giving. 

Does anyone else use a perceived pace method over using a Garmin? 

EricaH is hosting a Thorlo Experia Merino Wool/Silk
sock giveaway! 
Don't let those summer sweaty feet miss out!


3 Changes Challenge

April 16th - Friday

1. h2o/non-caffeinated - 67oz - Success

2. Destress - Prayed this morning, stretched after my run/turned off over-thinking brain, prayed before bed - Success

3. Xtrain - Stretched after a.m. run, I do need to do that more often!  Did situps after the kiddos went to bed.  Still not what I want out of this goal so I will HAVE to get it in this weekend to make my 2 days goal! - needs improvement

9 comments:

  1. We all know I am a speed girl over distance. For my first year or so of running I used a stop watch and mapped out my routes. I always thought I was speedier than I actually was. Once I got my Garmin I realized that most of my route were short on distance. That was kind of like a kick in the face for me. Honestly, I wish I didn't care so much and could just go out and run ...

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  2. How about this. I use perceived pace *and* I use a Garmin. I don't use the Garmin to pace myself, I use during a run only for distance and time when needed. I do analyze it later on, but I pace myself by feel.

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  3. I'm a garmin girl, but unless I'm either specifically doing speedwork or doing a 15+ mile run, I tend to just run what feels good. Some days that's 8:40, some days that's 10:30. I just like the info at the end. And yeah, sometimes I'm disappointed because I felt like I was pushing hard and running fast and I wasn't.

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  4. I don't use a Garmin either. In fact, I try not to get too fixated on speed at all myself. (Of course, I'm a lot slower than you! :-) )

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  5. I'm currently Garmin-less and am experiencing the difficulty of determining my perceived "feels like" pace. It's tough running without one!

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  6. I have lately been wearing my garmin on all my runs. I just like to know my pace at all times...a bit obsessive I know. I run without it when I am just in the mood to get out for a run and relax. It is definitely a nice change when I run without it.

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  7. I'm garminless too and am using Daily Mile to map my runs (I like it better than Mapmyrun). However, I'm thinking that I should invest in a garmin as it might help bring down my time a bit. They are so expensive and I've been hearing about some problems that a few people are having so I'm even more cautious.

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  8. I can't spend the money on a Garmin but I look at my watch so much. It's not a good thing. But my problem is {or is it a problem?} that I don't know a good time vs. a bad time. I gather my time is probably not the best {hence my expression of herd of worms to write of my running}. I will probably never be fast - I'm not built for speed. I'm ok with that. It's the journey that matters. Although I wish I wouldn't watch my watch all the time.

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  9. I am a bit of a slave to the Garmin, but mostly because I like having my precise stats... not so much to govern how I run. Does that make sense??

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