Thread: Can you run without a watch?

in a race where the markers are acuratly placed you can use some of them, but I would not recomend to use all. for example in a 10k race you can use 2 or 3 markers like 5k and 9k. 9k you can check if you can still reach your goal.

We had a psychologist/hypnotists come to our club last night. She's done a lot of work in sport and I found it all veyr interesting. One thing she was very emphatic about was that when running you should not use a watch. This is because it detracts attention from the running, and enables the concious mind to slow you down when it's suprised at how well you're running. Most people found this quite a frightening prospect - me...

It makes sense to me. I find when running a familiar route checking the watch and seeing I'm at a particular landmark later than usual (or earlier than usual) has a detrimental effect. Without that distraction I can focus better on just giving best effort.

For years I ran without a watch and quite enjoyed it. Then I bought one only to use while timing mile repeats, which was very helpful. I only started wearing it consistently when I was doing more speed workouts and it became a necessity, but other than that I don't pay much attention to it, or I'll leave it at home for simple easy runs. Watches can be very helpful in races when you are trying to hit specific goal times, mostly...

I could run without my watch, but could I still keep my ipod, HR monitor and GPS? Generally I do not look at my watch enough for it to make a major difference. During training surely it is a good training aid?

Yeah - interesting, sometimes I feel I can get too hung up on the watch and I've had some lovely runs without it. I like training with it and for intervals it's kind of necessary - but maybe racing it should stay home. Still in some races I haven't seen mile markers for ages.. and if you're pacing a marathon it can be useful.

I often leave my watch at home while training, especially if I am recovering from injury or somesuch so that I don't beat myself up over not running fast enough. It is very 'freeing*' to run without a watch I find. I use a watch if I am doing speed training or track repeats - for this I think it is essential - I have a tendency to back off in these without realising it so having the watch tells me when I am going slower than I...

hahah yeah i get a rebellious little feeling of liberation when i run without a watch,which is totally silly but true,..so very institutionalised.. but i dont think its that much of a distraction for me.on my general runs i press start and thats about it, i look at the time again when i stop running and press the stop button.During longer races i find it really useful though to make myself keep a track of the minimum time i have set...

i probably ran for about my first year without a watch. just a cellphone in my camel pack to check what time it is every half hour or so. i think that lack of noticing time helped me really not concentrate on the time when i eventually got a watch. when i race with a watch, which i do always now, it can really make each mile seem really long since im doing the math in my head "ok 3 minutes since last water station so i got 3 minutes...

I always run with a watch, it dosen't feel right without it as I feel un-balanced a bit of a brain thing me thinks. On 'normal' training runs I press 'start' at the start & 'stop' at the finish other than that I ignore it. As with alot of other people I find it essential for races pace checks & interval training. Other than that I'm a geek & like looking at the data when I...