Ok, I admit it. I’ve been lying to my Garmin a lot recently. It’s been so hot, and so humid, that I’ve been taking a lot more walking breaks during my runs than I care to admit. You can barely catch your breath out there standing still in this heat wave, let alone running! So I run for half a mile, I hit the stop button on my watch and rest for thirty to sixty seconds, hit the start button, and run some more.
The nice thing about this method is that I know how fast I’m running when I’m running. The negative side is that on race day in September, they’re not going to stop the clock for me every time I need a break. So when I come home and upload my Garmin and pat myself on the back for running my seven miles in sub ten minute miles, I’m lying to my watch and I’m lying to myself. Because if I took five minutes of breaks in that seven mile run, my overall race pace would be substantially slower.
Hitting the stop button on the watch also removes any sense of urgency to take fewer or shorter breaks. If anything, it adds incentive to take breaks, because then the running I do is faster and my Garmin times make me feel more awesome when I get home…. except for that little voice in my head that is starting to feel like I can’t do this without taking breaks, and I’m not really running those long runs as well as I’d like.
Yes, it’s hot. Yes, runners should take breaks if they’re feeling dizzy and just be careful in general not to push so hard they get heat stroke. But how am I going to have a good idea of my goal half marathon time if I keep stopping the clock?
From now on, the watch stays running on those long runs. If I need a break, I can do a fast walk, and then run again as soon as I’m able to. Every run is going to be a race against the clock to complete the miles as quickly as I can… no more lying to my Garmin. If my thirty second water stop means I ran a 10:40 mile during mile three, I want to know about it, so I have more incentive to keep going longer next time.
The heat can’t be an excuse, because I’m running the half marathon in Virginia… which could be as hot in September as Massachusetts can be in July! I should be grateful for the opportunity to train in challenging conditions, and I should be honest with myself about what I can do without stopping the clock.
Wish me luck…
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| This is a recent Garmin read from a long run. I ran 7.02 miles and averaged 9:50 pace. GREAT, right? Well actually, if you factor in the breaks I took to get water, take some photos of the scenery, etc., my calculated pace with the elapsed time of 1:28:12 for that many miles puts me at a 12 minute and 33 second pace. That’s a big difference when you think about the fact that the clock won’t stop for water and photo breaks on race day. Yikes. |