Your lights are on, but you're not home
Your mind is not your own
Your heart sweats, your body shakes
Another look is what it takes
You can't sleep, you can't eat
Theres no doubt, you're in deep
Your throat is tight, you can't breathe
Another glance is all you need
Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the garmin,
oh Yeah
It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough,
you know you're
Gonna have to face it, you're addicted to time*
Are you, dear friends, addicted to time? To timing your splits? To keeping track of every single minute of every single run?
I can relate. I used to be one of you.
Until Number One Daughter's BF—you know, the future Olympian rower—suggested I toss the watch. He gave me some mumbo jumbo about how checking the watch was messing with my psychological functions. (How could he tell?)
His theory is that when I see how long I've run, it makes me more tired and I lose my will.
Plus, he pointed out that it's not like I'm an elite athlete who needs to know every detail of every run.
And FINALLY, he said he thought my addiction to the watch was interfering with me ever having any fun while running.
My trusty $35 Ironman quit on me shortly after this speech. So I didn't replace it. Hence, I've been running sans watch for several weeks.
And I have this to say: I love it.
I KNOW this is purely psychological, but curiously, without a watch, I haven't had to walk once. Not even on my LONG 6 mile run. I have no idea how slow I am but my goal at the moment is just to finish without walking and without plodding.
I think I'm doing both.
Now I'm lucky enough to run on a trail with mile markers, so I can at least track my distance. And I don't own a garmin and wouldn't know what to do with one if I did have one. And one day —soon, like really, really soon, I promise!—I'm going to need to hit the track. And there I'll probably need a watch. Maybe.
But based on my experiment of one, I'm claiming that running without timing miles is a success!
The proof, of course, will be in the Blue-Gray Half on December 10, when I drag my sad and sorry butt over the finish line. But until then, I'm addicted to running NEKKED.
Now for your viewing pleasure, let's all take a trip on the wayback machine:
I bet those girls are really good musicians!
*Apologies to Robert Palmer, R.I.P.
11 comments:
It is nice to occasionally run without a watch. Sometimes I'll run with the watch, but then turn it over on my wrist and simply not look at it until I get back. That's kinda the best of both worlds - you get the splits for later, and it doesn't 'drive' you during the run.
Interestingly, I've found I run best without looking at the watch.
Robert Palmer - RIP.
If anyone wants to take away my Garmin they will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. Unless you PR in which case I might reconsider.
Whatever works for you, but please don't take the NEKKED thing too far.
I remember when the Robert Palmer video came out. Some people were in uproar because they said it was denigrating to women. Palmer was complete taken aback by that; he hated doing videos, and that was a way to do it quickly and cheaply, no statement intended.
Bravo, Jeanne! You are a wonder!
running with a time piece or a garmin is wussy--i think you should run with a blancmange (dessert, not band). then i'd be impressed. oh, and in a latex dress with a guitar. and humpmehard red lippy.
i'm addicted to chewy sweethearts. i have no love.
i pretty much trained for new york sans garmin . . . and it was wonderful.
hmmmm I am off the splits and running more on Heart Rate. You know my amazingly low resting HR. lol What I love about Garmin is the quick entry into my log book. For me it's duration of workout and HR now.
Robert Palmer is dead? I had no idea.
I can live without a Garmin, iPod, or any other form of distraction, but I have to have my watch. I'm curious about that not needing to walk thing though. I've often realized that when I hit a certain time limit, I allow myself to walk. I'm sure I can go farther, but the watch says walk. I'll have to try it, but it will be hard! Oh, and the Blue and Gray? I TOTALLY forgot about another commitment that weekend, and now a bunch of bloggers are going to be doing a virtual race, which I plan to do now to make up for not making it to the half mary.
Welcome to the world of Zen running, Jeanne. Have you noticed your daughter's generation don't wear watches in general? It's true, they know that time is all around them (on their computers, gadgets, cars, stores, classes, etc.) Someone just brought the generational gap to my attention.
I was addicted those fine musicians back in the day. If the video played, I was dropping evrything. Hot.
Oh; yes. Running timelessly. What ever winds your watch, I always say. Mine never stops. How am I going to know if I'm better? Pilots in an out of control plane think they're correcting to the wild blue yonder when actually they're senses are all screwed up and they're diving to ground. Not pretty.
I'm still addicted to my watch, but I don't peek at it until close to the end - so I know if I need to turn on the jets to still finish in decent time!
Post a Comment