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- Identifying Who I Am As an Athlete: P. Mark Version 3.0
- Renewing Your Love for the Run
- Race Report: Atlanta Fat Ass 50K
- Ironman Louisville 2017 Race Report
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- Opinions Requested:Should I include traditional training plans in my newest book on running?
- How to Run Faster**
- How I Improved from 5:35 to 3:27 in the Marathon in 18 months
- How to Make an Effective New Year’s Resolution (Goal)
- Progress Report on Revising and Expanding My Book
- What Runners Do: Courage and Encourage
- The Gift of Running – a reflection on my first book about running
- 26.2 Miles of Joy: Race Report for St. Jude’s Memphis Marathon 2016
- Chasing a Seventeen-Year-Old Me (updated 11/30/2016)
- Updating Soon!
- 10 Days Before the Marathon
- 2014 Progress Report on My Own Training & Performance
- Wear a Wise Running Shirt to Your Next Race!
- Assessing Progress: Keeping Race Results In Perspective
- Experimental Training: Staying the Course
- Boston 2014: My Race Report
- Defining “Boston Strong”
- The Toughest Days on the Schedule [a rest day]
- Strength Training to Cure IT Band Pain
- Seeking Greatness as a Masters Runner: A Non-traditional Approach
- Checkpoint 1: P. Mark’s Stats as of January 15, 2014
- Do Not Try This at Home, Kids: Experimental Training
- Getting Into the Best Shape of My Life
- Looking Back and Moving Forward: A Reflection on My Training
- Running 101: Steps Towards Proficiency in Endurance Sports
- Because Today is Tomorrow
- Running in Cold and Icy Weather
- Cross-training as Marathon Training: An Experiment
- Race Report: Indianapolis Marathon 2013
- How Running Makes Us Happy
- Going to Your Happy Place – Finding the Joy in Running
- My Unreasonable Running Goals for the Next 5 Years (don’t judge me)
- Wise Running: Thoughts on Running and Life (2nd book)
- Slaying the Specter of a Bad Run
- Wise Running: Fighting the Complacency Monster
- Running Naked: The Effects of Watchless Running
- Wise Running: More on Motivation
- My Running Form: In Pictures 7/25/2013
- Wise Running: Models of Motivation
- Putting the Stopwatch Away: Running Bliss
- Wise Running: What to Think During a Race
- Wise Running: The Truth About Cramps
- The Gift of Running: A Book for Runners and Future Runners
- The Pieces of the Running Puzzle
- 50 Pounds Lighter: Why, When, and How?
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I always wear my watch, as I like to have data to parse later. But I have broken the addiction of constantly looking at it while running. I pace 100% by feel these days.
That sounds smart, Joe. I just haven’t learned how to not look at the watch. Perhaps I will try it again after a while…
Great post. I agree; hard to enjoy running while worrying about time. Even running by feel was hard for me because I’d feel great at the start of a long run then be dying by the end because I started too fast. Then I got a heart rate monitor. Now I just glance at it occasionally and make sure I’m staying around my target for the whole run and its great!
With the watch and age groups we are always competing, we forget that we run for the run, not the medals or glory. I like my GPS app so I have a better idea of how far I run (at least a reasonable idea) and the only place in my life that I like to delve into statistics is running. I enjoy knowing how much time it takes me to run a certain distance. This knowledge doesn’t rule my running, but enhances it. At some point for us all the time becomes less important than just being able run and enjoy it.
Nice post! In the beginning I needed the small pat on the back that the stopwatch can give as motivation. After wearing a GPS and heart monitor for a season, you get to know how your body feels at different speeds. I don’t look at the HRM any more as I know my HR within a few beats. I also don’t sweat the stopwatch because it can be very distracting. My battery died and was forced to do the marathon by feel and I PR’ed. Anyway, I agree we should let loose and enjoy running, but lets not forget the struggles when we started out running. It wasn’t ‘fun’ for me until I could run at least two miles.
… now that’s my kinda post. No time. No pressure. One foot in front of the other and breathe… enjoy! :0) :0)
“Enjoy the run and the results will come.” That’s a great running mantra. If you don’t mind, I’m going to quote it on my blog post about matras. Just found your blog, can’t wait to read more posts!
That was me this weekend. I needed to get in 12 miles and I was SOOOO not wanting to go out. The weather was cold and rainy, I didn’t feel 100% and I was setting myself up for failure by saying the run would suck before I even put on my shoes. I decided to go out with no timing abilities whatsoever. I knew my route so I knew I’d hit 12 miles on the nose. I left my Garmin home and didn’t start any apps other than music on my phone. The run went great. I walked when I felt like walking, but still mostly ran. I enjoyed the changing leaves and the crisp fall day. I sang along to my music. I ran into a girl on the trail who was doing her last 12 mile run before her first half in 2 weeks (the same half that was my first) and it felt great to encourage her along. I hit my farthest run since getting injured and finished with a smile on my face. It was exactly what I needed.
I don’t know that I’ll do all my long runs watch-free. But I might. It was so freeing to not look at my wrist every 2 minutes and be stressed that I wasn’t running fast enough.