No sense of time

I consider myself a minimalist when it comes to training with gadgets. I do not use a heart rate monitor, GPS or a power meter. I've only recently bought myself a cycle computer with cadence, which I use only when I'm spinning on the wind trainer.

But I am a numbers geek when it comes to calculating my pace and training times. When cycling, I find myself tracking the distance against the elapsed time so that I can calculate my average speed, I do this every 10 minutes or so. When running, I glance at my watch nearly every 5 minutes. I call those my checkpoints, I have 6 checkpoints even on my 4.35km training loop! And I track my times at each checkpoint to the second, knowing that if I slow down on one, I need to increase the pace on the next to make the time. I even have checkpoints for swallowing saliva as it builds up in my mouth, which I normally do at about every 10 minutes!

However, lately I have been more carefree in terms of tracking time, especially with running. This has partly to do with the fact that I'm still easing into my runs and not wanting to put any undue pressure. The past few runs I did without the stopwatch but I did check the time before I start, and I did catch myself glancing occasionally at my watch to check how I was going.

Well, I cannot get rid of my watch completely when I run, it's just very unnatural for me. But I have to say, the past few runs without the stopwatch have been somewhat liberating for me!