When Coach Zach read my post last week about how running had been hard and miserable and just wasn't fun for me anymore, he immediately g-chatted me with a possible solution.

Here's how the conversation went down:

Coach Z: Yo dummy, listen up.
Jess: Good morning to you too.
Coach Z: Yea, thanks I guess. What's with the running nonsense?
Jess: I don't know. It's really hard to like running when it hurts all the time.
Coach Z: Yea, been there. What I'm about to propose might sound scary to you...
Jess: Well, let's hear it.
Coach Z: Ditch the Garmin.



I think I actually cringed when I read his message. I love running data so much. I love knowing how far I went, how fast I went, average pace, fastest pace, all the wonderful data that Garmin spits out.

But I know I also get into a trap of spending the whole run staring at my wrist, worrying about my pace, wondering why even though I feel like I'm working so hard my pace is slower than slow.

So last week, I started taking Coach Zach's advice. Garmin stayed at home on my runs.

At first, I thought maybe I'd turn Runtastic on so that I would still have the data and just mute her little voice coming through the headphones. But then I realized that sort of defeated the purpose.

I was supposed to be running just for the sake of running.



And will say, I did feel a little bit freer on my runs. I looked up and noticed the trees. I explored new parts of a trail I sometimes run on. I tried to embrace running just for the sake of running.

(Confession though, I did still map out my runs on MapMyRun after the fact, just so I could see how far I went.)

But it all made running a little more fun again. I still think I have a bit of a ways to go before my slump is completely broken, but there's something to be said for just going out to run and not worrying about any of the other stuff.