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I first got serious about running while I was in college. At the time, I was also not serious about wearing a watch: any timepiece I wore usual got lost or broken within a few weeks. So usually when I went for a run, I would pretty much catch the time on the microwave before stepping out and catch it again when I come back in. I didn't care about mileage or time or any of that stuff. I think it was one summer, when working at the Y as a Duty Officer, when keeping the pool schedule going was critical, I bought a watch and wore it all the time. And this was great for running, because now I could keep track of my running time and compare it.
The thing is, I didn't want to bother with that DURING the run. I just wanted to run by feel, and then after the fact, see how I had done. I began keeping a spreadsheet with my times. So how would I keep track of time, but not do on-the-run analysis? Basically, I got into the habit of starting my watch's stopwatch, and immediately switching to the time of day display, but not looking at it. This way, midway through the run I could see what time it was, but without knowing when I started, I was clueless as to how long I had been running. Since, you know, it's so hard to press that little MODE button to switch to the stopwatch (actually, I did often have to resist the temptation). Nowadays, my mentality of running is so different - meditative, cathartic, whatever - I keep the time display open all the time because I just DON'T get anxious about it.
Why am I writing that history? Well, because now I've gone and purchased a Garmin GPS watch. And now I'm face with a similar problem. The watch is great because now I have more precise measurement of my runs and my pace, and a lot of other cool data. The thing is I still just want to run by effort, and not constantly fret about about some pace. So I'm taking a similar approach. I set the watch so that I'm not looking at the "pace screen." All I see is the stopwatch/time of day. As long as I resist changing to the pace setting, I just see all that data afterwards (which, is very cool). And at some point, maybe I'll get the point where I can look at that data without a care.
I've just been having a good couple of days. My foot problem has resolved fairly well. After another week with reduced-mileage, I'm hitting the road and trail pretty well. I've modified my pace on the days when I run right after going to Crossfit, and I think it's been helping not to be overzealous. The Crossfit is fun and there's a nice community around the gym.
Soundtrack:
Shadow by Red
Earthquake by Family Force 5
