Here’s Why You Should Run Without Fitness Watches Every So Often

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There are two things runners can’t seem to live without—running shoes and fitness watches. Fitness watches pace mileage, monitor heart rate, and track biometric progress, which can help runners beat their PRs (personal records).

We’ve gotten into the habit of tracking our steps, but emphasizing mileage can lead to burnout and injury. And while a good watch is important for runners to have, you should try going for a run without one every so often. Here’s why.

Better Recovery

When you’re trying to increase your mileage, a fitness watch can help motivate you. But on days when you need to take it slower and let your body recover, the ability to track your mileage and pace may push you instead of letting your body relax and rest.

Learning How to Pace

Running without a watch can help you tune into your racing skills. Because our bodies have internal clocks, when we rely on watches to track our speed, our pacing intuition becomes weaker.

Learning to Trust Your Speed

When you work out without a watch your body learns to pace itself from feeling what different efforts feel like. If you wear a watch, it’s hard to convince yourself to keep pushing when the split on your watch is faster than you thought it would be. By tracking your workouts without wearing a watch, you’ll rely on your body’s perceived efforts to hit your paces.