Thanks JosephTree

#21
Yup, good article. That's pretty much how I run most of the time. I go nearly entirely by how I'm feeling, though that's modified most week days by how much time I have until I have to pick up a kid or some such. For races I've never even worn a watch. Too much going on to waste time looking at a watch.

I ran an easy 6.5 miles BF at Valley Forge National Park this PM and just tried to focus on how nice it felt to be cruisin' and enjoying the running. I wanted to sort of capture that feeling so I can bring it back for Sunday's 13.1 race in Allentown, PA.
 
#22
JosephTree said:
My wife's a Librarian and she recently brought me a stack of old, about to be discarded Runners Worlds,2009 vintage. I'd never seen them or any more recent for that matter, and went through the whole stack in two nights. I guess they corrupted me. Thanks for reminding me of my tendency to techlessness. Whew! That was close!
Click to expand...

So it seems that the only tech you use is toenail polish, which begs the question: What color? (or colour, if you're in the UK).

I just responded to a blog post that since I converted over to min/barefoot, I no longer engage in any of the obsessive data tracking that I used to (distance, time, rate, calories, mileage on shoes, etc...)...now the only reason I even look at miles is for TMTS avoidance...
 
#23
If you want to know your miles without having to carrying any gear, you can use Google Maps, at least in areas of human settlement. Just punch in 'get directions' and some reference points. Make sure you click the walking icon too. That's what I do when I plot routes. It's a pretty good approximation.
 
#24
The iPhone hrm does work but I have to say avoid the Garmin ant + adapter for it. The software that goes with it truly sucks. I spoke to a Garmin rep at a race expo and he said that they had been forced to release the product but were never going to really develop the software as it only cost $2.

I only use it on the treadmill. I use my iPhone for its gps functions on most runs but not for music. My winter treadmill runs are when I play with technology.
 
#25
Bare Lee, have you ever tried MapMyRun? Using it I can go back and lay out my runs in excellent detail if I feel so inclined. Maybe it wouldn't work so well if it were all back country trails, but for local stuff it serves me just fine.
 
#26
JosephTree said:
Bare Lee, have you ever tried MapMyRun? Using it I can go back and lay out my runs in excellent detail if I feel so inclined. Maybe it wouldn't work so well if it were all back country trails, but for local stuff it serves me just fine.
Click to expand...

For off road/back country trails, MapMyRun has an iPhone and Android app that uses the phones onboard GPS - in short, you run the app while you're running and it will track it all: Time, distance, elevation, etc... It does drain the battery a bit due to the GPS. For that matter, it also has a function that allows others to follow your progress real-time (though I haven't played with that) - might be a handy function if you're going off into unchartered territory...
 
#28
SaraLord said:
Hey Nick, I should have known it was you when I started reading your post (I usually read first THEN see who wrote . . ). I really love this. It's so easy to get caught up in some system, not just with running but with most of life. For everyone who uses a HRM and it works for you, good on you and I really mean it.

I have been thinking lately I needed one of these gadgets and went so far as to price them out, uggh, not cheap. Then I remembered why I run, and it isn't just to look and feel like the human I really am; it's for the No Mind, which would be pretty elusive if I complicate a very simple activity.

No, you won't likely be as fast as you used to be, so what. At 46 and essentially a beginner after so many years sidelined for one silly injury or another, I'm embracing Forest Gump's credo, "I just felt like running".

You do however, NEED, your foam roller. . .
Click to expand...

All this modern tech may be the things that kept us away from developing a healthy body good for running . From early on as a child we sit in the car, bus, classroom, couch in fron t of TV, if you live in the city air pollution will make you sick / prevent you from running outside. If a human body is not conditioned for running early on it just take time and luck to bring it back to what is natural. Even the stuff we put in our feet affects our natural movement, I find it hard to believe after 20 years in running shoes. I'm still lucky discovering barefoot / sandals running 8 years ago, very lucky for discovering commute running, it gives a whole new meaning / purpose for natural movement.
 
#29
The over-arching point made by another: If said gadget(s) keep you motivated then use them! Absolutely. The goal is to keep moving.

I used a HRM many years ago. I didn't like it mostly because of discomfort with the monitor itself - I'd have to adjust it while running, etc. I almost always ran with music and when I started working on form and discovered the importance of cadence I went to all sorts of extremes to get a 180 bpm cadence on my iPod. I even would take a playlist and intersperse 180 bpm segments in the middle so I could check my cadence a few times during a run.

A guy I was working with said one day "Leave the iPod at home. Focus on the form" I haven't been able to run with one since. I keep so focused on the form - am I pushing off, etc. - that the music would be a distraction. It's like a Zen thing for me.

The other thing I've found is that now, as I'm returning to running following a stress reaction, I'm controlling my ramp-up based on the amount of time run - not distance. Normally I watch my watch very frequently and then I realize I have "so many more minutes to go". But I know about how far I need to go. "Check your watch in two blocks - that's about your time limit." Focusing on just settling into a run and checking the watch less frequently has made it much more enjoyable.

Jim
 
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#30
First- Hey, Jim's back, and running! Woohoo for you!

Second; I gave up running with music over a year ago and don't currently use a hrm, preferring to run by how i feel. my garmin gps watch for tracking distance and routes? That you'll have to pry from my cold dead wrist. I am way too much of a nerd data tracker to go without. Before i had it I would google map (with mixed success) or have to drive my routes to know how far i went. My ADD keeps me from running the same routes very often, outside my baseline test route i use when trying new things like seeing if i can handle barefoot, or huarache tying styles, or shoes. Using the GPS makes my obsessive tracking (which I enjoy) much faster and easier.
 
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#31
Yes, welcome back, Hasel. Good to know you're back in the game. :)
 
#33
That's great. No twinges, like some experience after returning?
 
#34
I've had a few minor things, but nothing severe enough to cause me to stall - at least not yet. As if we don't know it - but rigid orthotics are evil. My doc and PT are convinced my calves were so amazingly messed up after so many years of rigid orthotics that the basic suspension system was allowing the heel to get slammed to the ground too hard. To be fair - I'm also not yet doing full-on BF, but that's on my radar.

Jim
 
#35
Now figure that. Orthotics, evil. Whodathunk? ;)
 
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