Pace: 7:45 min./per mile avg. Weather: Cloudy with Lite Rain, 64°F, 87% Humidity
Course: Castaway’s 4.8 Mile Jaunt
"I'm hip about time."~Wyatt, Easy Rider
I noticed at the cross-country meet on last Friday evening that the race officials told runners to make sure that they were not wearing any watch. Apparently watches and jewelry (including the popular Livestrong type bracelets) are prohibited. It got me thinking, “If students aren’t allowed to wear watches when they compete, why do hey wear them to train?”The obvious answer, and the one my daughter shared with me when I asked her the same question, is that they (watches) are necessary for keeping track of time over training runs. “You know,” Jordyn, my daughter said, “like when the coach says ‘do a ten minute run.’”
Still, why not run without the watches, have someone else time your splits, and grow accustomed to (and eventually internalize) your pace? This morning I tried to minimize the number of times I looked at my watch… I really did… but still felt beholden to the timepiece. What I am keeping track of is, in the big picture, really pretty inconsequential and could be addressed in other ways less confining:
My overall time run could be kept with the kitchen clock at home, the time in general could be checked using the cell phone I carry with me on my ever-present hydration belt, and my spilts could be determined later using the general time and distance…
As I move forward with my running, despite all the doctrine around training, it may be time to move beyond simply keeping time.
Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!
2 comments:
Very interesting post. Funny how training can make us all time-obsessed. ;-) I struggle with this issue too.
That's the first I've heard of banning stopwatches at cross-country meets. I don't think we had this provision during my track & field days (of many years past!). It's actually rather weird that they won't let runners wear stopwatches during cross country meets, because the mere knowledge of your pace doesn't necessarily mean that you will run any faster! After all, ability, strength & stamina are factors which must be established well before a track meet occurs! ;-)
thanks for stopping by and commenting... although I ran x-country in highschool, I can't recall if this rule existed then... it may, after all, be a "rule" established by New York and not other states, so it's very possible that whatever state you ran in doesn't adhere to the same guidelines. I would say that I do run "slower" without one, but the reality is I probably won't be qualifying for the Olympics with (or without) it ;)
cheers!
Mr. Scott
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