"[Heather MacLean, an Olympic 1,500-meter runner] realized her watch was draining the fun from her runs. It was especially apparent to her during a low-key stretch when she was simply trying to build fitness.
I hated that every run I went on, I felt like I had to check my pace and my distance and whatever else,” she said. “So I just decided that I was going to lay off it for a while and switch to a regular watch.”
She never went back. MacLean, 28, who now wears an Armitron Dragonfly that she said she picked up for $10 at Walmart, acknowledged that there were certain workouts when a GPS watch would come in handy, like when she did a tempo run by herself. (Tempo runs are faster than easy jogs, and frequently run at a prescribed pace.) But Mark Coogan, her coach, has long prioritized effort over pace, and MacLean logs her training in minutes rather than in miles.
“I know I’m at the elite level now, so not everything is going to be joyful,” MacLean said. “But when there are things that bring me a lot of joy, I’m going to invest in them. And one of those things is the ability to avoid focusing on my pace during my runs.”
Without the pressure of feeling as if she needs to account for every mile — or, perish the thought, post her workouts for public inspection on Strava, the exercise-tracking platform — MacLean has also gotten better about listening to her body. She has no qualms about bailing on an extra workout if she is feeling beat.
“And I’ll tell Mark that I’m going for a walk instead,” MacLean said. “And he’s like, ‘OK!’”
I guess that’s the problem, people hold onto stuff that they no longer love expecting changes will make it better.
Dont you think maybe moving onto another interest where you can continue tracking the stats you love along with it? You CAN have both you know….
I absolutely understand the angle you guys are coming from, maybe look at something from a different perspective once in a while.
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That’s not the people the article was talking about?
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Refuting them with a broader viewpoint.
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No… it’s that maybe don’t keep running just because you do running, maybe try another sport all together, but people don’t like restarting and trying something new, so they blame something easy. Metrics.
People hold onto things because they sunk time and money into it, that’s what holding them back, it’s not metrics, it’s trying to refind a lost love. Move on.
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I already explained I totally understand your viewpoint multiple times……
Why can’t you understand that maybe people don’t actually love running anymore? Is that not possible? It actually aligns perfectly with human nature, which is why very few people will realize it.