W8r3 - ditch the watch

[serenlas]

Finished week 8 today with the best run of the week and I put it down to forgetting to put my watch on. For the first time in weeks I wasn't checking how much longer I had to keep going every few seconds. No wonder I thought I couldn't make it. No watch meant I was free just to run and when Laura said five minutes left I was still feeling good. When I got to the final 60 seconds I actually picked up my pace to a run rather than a jog and I think I could have carried on a bit longer.

So lesson learned: leave the watch at home and just follow Laura's instructions.

Roll on week 9!

[runningnearbeirut Graduate]

I agree - when I'm wearing my watch I'm forever checking the time or setting myself landmarks where I'll allow myself to check the time. When I just listen to Laura my mind wanders much more freely and I just run and let her tell me how I'm doing.

[Mazzero Graduate]

Read your post with interest. I tend to know how long and how far by landmarks. I wish I could switch off and just jog instead of this constant mental turmoil about how much longer or further to go. I will try some new strategies for my next run.

[nomoresloth Graduate in reply to Mazzero]

I tend to do the same after I run the same route several times (and that way know where the 1k mark etc are). If you can't run another route, just run it in the other direction, starting from where you usually stop. It "destroys" your rememberance of the landmarks completely and you can go more freely and with less stress about distance and/or time. At least it works for me...

[nomoresloth Graduate in reply to nomoresloth]

I should have mentioned that I use to have a route that is longer than I manage to do in the 30 minutes so I could go on if I'm faster than usual. Thus, my 5 minute cool down walk is longer than 5 minutes as I have to walk the rest of my route (it's not much, it's about 1k). When I do my 5 minute warm up walk (on a "backwards route"), I start running somewhere in the area where I'm usually doing my "rest-of-route-walk" so I really have no idea where the landmarks for the different kilometers are. Of course, you'll know them after a few times but then you can switch again to the route in the other direction. I tend to mix up the landmarks from the different directions which means I'm completely clueless until I map my run on the computer.

[serenlas Graduate in reply to nomoresloth]

Thanks everyone,

I agree with mixing up the routes. I've been running different routes in week 7 and 8 and using map my run to check distance after I get back.