I’m going to give it to you straight: I’m old school.
No fancy equipment.
No GPS-tracking.
Not even headphones.
Just me and my thoughts.
There are incredible benefits of running without technology, if you’ll just give it a chance!
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Purchasing via these links gives me a small commission at no cost to you. Please see my privacy policy for more information.
Running Without Technology: The Olden Days
As a lifelong runner, I got hooked on the sport long before technology came along to ‘improve’ it. Running has always been runner-against-the-clock, and it’s exactly that simplicity of running that is so appealing.
When I started racing in local events as a child in 1980, race results were determined by giving each runner a sequentially-numbered popsicle stick as they came through the chute. A helpful volunteer with a clipboard would then retrieve the stick in finish order and ask for the runner’s name. Seriously. That was it. No race bibs necessary.
In bigger races, volunteers would pull tags off the bottom of number bibs and keep them in finisher order to match up later. I have memories of working finish chutes at races in Dallas as an adolescent, and I felt the pressure to do my job correctly so results would be accurate.
How old am I? I even ran my first marathon (Austin, 1998) before chip timing.
But it’s not (only) old lady crotcheyness that keeps me running without all the newfangled gadgetry. Ditching the crutches of technology can improve your running.
Running Without GPS: Running by Feel
Your body will run at its natural pace, and your brain will learn what number to assign to that pace. Running without your GPS—or even a watch—forces you to pay attention to your body and your effort level.
You are able to tune in to yourself without the external chatter of your technology telling you how you should be feeling. You can listen to your body’s cues and alter your pace accordingly. This biofeedback is what running by feel is all about.
Learning to run by feel means that you develop an internal sense of both pace and effort. Longtime runners will tell you that they can accurately estimate their pace, even without a GPS watch. The body has learned and internalized what different paces feel like.
My PR at 10K was run on a course with no mile markers or split times in pre-GPS watch days. I was having a good day, the weather was great, and the course was fast. I listened to my body, ran by feel, and got a PR.
Running without technology worked to my advantage: had I had a GPS watch that told me how fast I was going, I would have slowed down. I would have told myself “I can’t run that fast!” and been afraid of bonking.
(Read this article for an in-depth but easy-to-understand explanation about how often GPS from running watches is inaccurate and why.)
I still wear the same basic Timex Ironman Watch now as I have for decades. It offers split timing for 50 laps and easy-to-use interval timers, so it’s a great companion for both training and racing. You still get data about your run so you can track your progress over time.
- Lightweight Performance Design
If you’re picking a marathon training plan, pay attention to how many runs are done at tempo or pace and how many offer training days where you can run without GPS.
Running Without Headphones
For a lot of beginner runners, the idea of running without headphones is really scary! How are you supposed to distract yourself from the pain without your tunes?
Just like learning to run without constant GPS feedback regarding your pace, running without headphones offers you the opportunity to tune in to the messages your body is sending. You may find that listening to your body’s cues actually helps you improve your gait and avoid injury.
There’s also the safety argument for running without headphones: don’t tune out the world so much that you can’t hear what’s going on around you. If you are desperate to run with headphones, try bone conduction headphones that allow you hear your tunes as well as traffic and other pedestrians.
- Rebranding Update - Aftershokz Aeropex has been renamed as Shokz OpenRun. Welcome to SHOKZ!
In our hyper-connected, always online world, going analog feels a bit rebellious. To embrace running without technology– either GPS or headphones– is to recognize that our brains need a break from the constant barrage of information. Going for a “naked” run is a great way to recalibrate your nervous system.
Running Without Technology: Paper Training Logs
I’m also old school in tracking my training. I still log my runs on paper, despite reviewing and recommending fitness and tracking apps. Nothing beats a pile of papers I can flip through.
I take comfort in going back through my logs—over 20 years of them at this point—and seeing my handwriting, reading the comments, and revisiting the feelings I had as I moved through the highs and lows of my life. While I don’t get fancy charts and graphs like in a digital training log, I wouldn’t trade my handwritten data for anything!
Running is therapy, and my log books are the journals demonstrate my progress.
Running Without Technology: Level the Playing Field
There’s also a democracy of running that keeps me loyal to the sport. How many other sports have elite athletes and regular folks competing in the same event on the same course (field, court, pitch) at the same time?
To be able to participate in such a unifying way is quite remarkable in our increasingly-stratified society. And when I remember that I can strip away everything but me and the movement, the simplicity and purity of running is real joy.
My experience running Comrades Marathon highlights the democracy of running; it is a race in which the winners are often laborers with no access to private coaching or running technology.
And the reality is, every runner gets to decide if the joy of running is in the data or in the feeling of running itself.