Garmin-free

Yesterday, I decided to do something radical for my run, and forced myself to leave my house without Garmin.

Literally had to force myself.

I've become really attached to Garmin. I have posted time and time again saying I don't really worry about pace, but now it's obvious I do. Used to be, I would look at Garmin only when the chime went off every mile - now, it seems I'm constantly looking down to check my pace. I think when I started getting a little bit faster, I was just so amazed. It would become a challenge to either speed up, or slow down. I guess it's not really a bad thing, but it does always keep me in a race-type mode. Of course, I'm not racing anyone, just myself, but it gets to where I always feel like I have to go hard. Even if I leave the house thinking I'm going to run a nice, easy 3 miles, I end up looking at Garmin and thinking I should be setting some sort of PR.

I'm still coming down from my half last weekend, and seriously entertaining the idea of a full marathon. Actually, I'm a little obsessed with it. Still scares me, makes for a nervous tummy, but I do think it's something I can do - or at least try. I'll never know unless I sign up and do one, right? Anyway, I don't want to always feel like I need to go hardcore while I'm not training for a race right now. I want to continue to enjoy running. Reading about marathon training, I understand it's a full committment and it's going to be hard - it doesn't scare me, but I'm looking at this fall or next spring. It's time to relax now. Still run, but relax.

So, I left my house yesterday feeling naked without Garmin. I ran a route I'm very familar with, and had to fight the urge to always look down and check mileage. I'm not going to lie - I felt anxious the first couple of miles. But then I relaxed, and let my mind wander. It was a good run. Felt weird that I didn't have any numbers to put into my training log...Maybe I'll try a Garmin-free run more often.