Tech Time Out: Enjoying Your Body

1:31 PM
OMG!  I'm off pace.  My splits are terrible.  My performance metric score is in the toilet.  Damn Damn Damn!!!!

Despite my confessions of initially being an angry runner, running is my adult time out.

My time to recenter.  To get away from it all.  To spend time with myself.  To listen to my body bitch, complain, and surprise me with what it is capable of.

In a world full of distractions through crafting an imaginary self image through social media lenses, things can get a little overwhelming.

And as an avid self proclaimed average endurance ultra couch runner, I obsess over the details.  Every little detail.  The tightness of a shoe string can destroy a longish run.  That grain of sand that you thought you felt at mile 1 will drive you fucking crazy at mile 20.

Not to mention that seconds can equal hours when you're at it for 12+ hours.

These details now come in the form of statistical data that is available and other numerous gadgets that we carry with us on every run.

Garmin, Suunto, Fitbit, Tom-Tom, Strava, Nike, Runkeeper, Training Peaks, Map My Run....  Oh &@^(!!!!

My Garmin watch provides more real time data than human should have at their disposal at any given time!

I'm not saying that run data analytics aren't important.  What I'm saying is, sometimes we can get so lost in the metrics that we forget the wonder of the sport.

Case in point.  The best run I've had recently was the Vertigo Night Run that I DID NOT FINISH (DNF).  That's correct.  I didn't finish the run, but it was simply a blast!

I snapped off a few pictures pre-race and initially out the gate.  Then the tech all disappeared.  I glanced at my watch while coming up on the completion of the first lap.

I found myself in awe of the night sky.  Even when I came across a rattle snake in the middle of the tail, I didn't yank out the camera.  I was in love with the experience.

The simple thought of the fact that I was out in the trails, AT NIGHT, took me to a special place.  This was something I was DOING that was foreign to me just a few years ago.  Here I was under the stars.  Healthy.  Heart not trying to escape the prison of my rib cage.  Even though my hamstring and achilles tendon was tightening up, I was there!

Another run I had recently, I sat out not wanting to run at all.  Then I knocked out 5 miles.  During those five miles, I spent four of them in awe of how my body was feeling.  How it was reacting to movement.  Foot placement.  My breathing.  It was all in harmony that had my mind on the sidelines just going "wow".

It's easy to forget why I started running.  Why I continued to run.  And why I continue to challenge myself in more unique and strange masochist ways.

I've seen people at the end of a race glance down at their watches to totally explode as they cross the finish because of this, that, or whatever the fuck!  Loosing sight of the sheer awesomeness of what their body just accomplished.

Regardless of what you've set out for yourself.  Completing a 5K.  Running 3 times a week.  Or simply just moving because you've just started your journey.  The metrics are a tool you can use to help you achieve specific goals as you up your running game.  But don't shoot yourself in the foot obsessing over the metrics.

Let's be honest.  Most of you are not going to make the Olympics.  So whatever goal you got set in your head that have you loosing your shit over a number on a watch or a spreadsheet, you're loosing sight of the beauty of what's really going on.  Your body is transforming and is not beholden to numbers on a device.

A hard effort one day, maybe easy as heck the following day.  The magical goal of it all is learning to listen to your body.  Training plans can be altered, Races will come and go, but you only get one body to live within.  Learn to take a tech time out and simply enjoy your body on the run, regardless of the metrics.

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