How to Ditch Your Smartwatch and Run Like 1982
I remember the first time I heard about fitness trackers that could give me my running stats. A friend lent me what was probably an early generation Garmin, and I was stunned to learn that he could tell me my exact pace at a moment ‘s notice. Hey, look, I’m running a mile in 10 minutes! Now look, I sped up a bit and it says 8:00! Before that, the only way I knew to know my mile pace was to run a mile and see how long it took.
It was somewhere in the early 2000s. Since then, running watches have come down in price, smartphones have become commonplace, and phones and watches have combined to give us gadgets like the Apple Watch.
Running has now become synonymous with running data collection. You wouldn’t go out for a run without a fitness tracker or at least a phone, right? And then you’re obviously going to check your pace and mileage, and maybe even calories burned. If you choose to follow a program like the 5K Couch , you will be indebted to an app-based timer that will tell you when to walk and when to run.
Having survived both eras, I have seen the pros and cons of working both with and without technology. I bought my own Garmin after trying it from a friend of mine and I have been using it for years. But these days, I also prefer to do most of my runs without any technique at all—just like in the old days.
How to know the distance traveled without a fitness watch
This is what running looked like in the old days. For me, it would have been the late 90s or early 2000s, but the same principles have been applied to decades of previous runners, starting with the 1970s jogging craze .
First, find some running routes. This is handy if it’s a known distance, but it’s also okay if you don’t know exactly what their length is. A high school near you probably has a standard track (one lap is about a quarter mile), so this is one of the easy options. Maybe there is a park near you with a mile-marked jogging track. (Look around – both are still common today, although mile markers may be in disrepair.)
You can also create your own running routes. Get out your door and run around the neighborhood until you’re happy with how long you’ve been away, then head home. At some point, you may drive this route in your car and use the odometer to figure out how many miles it is. A bike with a newfangled “bicycle computer” could also cope with this task. (And if you go that far, yes, you can also run it with your fitness tracker for the first time.)
Now you can monitor the running program. If your program calls for a three-mile run, do twelve laps on a school track or 1.5 miles round trip on a park track. Or you can run for about half an hour in your area. No need to waste time on the latter; just leave at 9am and if you get back sometime around 9:30am you know you’re in the right stadium.
This approach works just as well as any fancy fitness tracker based running program because most runs should be easy where your speed doesn’t matter as long as you maintain an easy level of effort. You can also do fartleks (improvising fast and slow intervals) or uphill reps (running uphill over and over again).
How to run with an old fashioned digital watch
If you want to be fashionable, you can buy a watch – a “stupid” watch. Grab a $19 Casio or similar and check out the stopwatch feature.
You don’t need your watch for easy runs, but it can be useful for interval runs on the track to determine your fastest mile or your fastest 400 (one lap is 400 meters or about a quarter mile). Track workouts by aiming for specific times at specific distances; your progress will signal that you are getting faster overall. From time to time you can run one of your regular routes with your watch to see if it takes you 30 minutes to run three miles or if you’re getting faster.
When you run, take your watch with you to see how fast you are running. Press the “Start” button when you cross the start line and don’t forget to press “Stop” within a few seconds of crossing the finish line. Usually miles on a race track will be marked, so you can check your watch (or use the lap function if you’re good at it) to get an idea of how you’re moving. In a big race like a marathon, you can set your target time for each mile and have it written on your arm, or even get a temporary tattoo that’s all pre-timed.
Benefits of low-tech running
Running without a GPS watch or fitness tracker has a number of advantages. Most importantly, it lets you decide which stats are really worth tracking. If you care about your mileage, you can run measured routes. If you just want to go out for a run every morning, you can just walk out the door and be happy that you did just that.
You can also choose when to measure this indicator. Not every day is a race day, so you don’t have to over-analyze your pace on every practice run. Slow running will help you build an aerobic base that will allow you to run faster . Just because your tracker tells you how fast you ran doesn’t mean it matters how fast you run. My runs often go best when I start out with a brisk walk and transition into a jog around the first half mile; when I use the tracker, I am tempted to hurry up with the warm-up.
Finally, untracked running helps you remember why you’re doing it in the first place. It may seem like a run “doesn’t count” if it’s not shown in your app, but it does count for your body. You add cardio to your weekly total to improve your health; you’re also developing your aerobic capacity to run faster, or keep up with your friends on hikes, or whatever the reason you started running. Fitness trackers are not needed and you do not need to gamify your health ; the real record of what you did lives in your body.