Running Tech: Love It Or Hate It?

Now a days, it would prove difficult to find a runner who is not using tracking tech on their runs. Nearly impossible to find a runner not tracking their runs at all.

Wearable tracking devices have become commonplace in running and fitness communities. Social Fitness Apps like STRAVA and Garmin Connect have seen rapid user growth in recent years. In 2020 STRAVA reports averaging a staggering 1 million new users a month!

With this increasing reliance on running technology, could there be a downside to being plugged in while exercising?

Lets check out some pros and cons:

PROS

  • Immediate feedback: The feedback from these devices can be a crucial training component for athletes who need precise measurements of their performance. Even for the average runner, knowing your pace at any given time is a huge advantage when you are training to increase speed or endurance.

  • GPS: Tracking your route has been revolutionized by wearable tracking devices. No more sitting at the computer trying to figure out your 6 mile route for the day. No more guessing that you ran about 3 miles…ish. You have it all right there on your wrist. You can run wherever you want, and still know you got the miles.

  • Motivation: Some people find the social aspect of tracking and posting their run as very motivating! The technology that running watches have, enable us to immediately upload our workouts to social media and get the instant gratification of “likes or kudos” from our friends.

  • Helpful Extras: New watches are getting ever more advanced in tracking health. While they have had the ability to track calories and heart rate for a while, now they can use the heart rate to track things like sleep patterns, stress levels, respiration and possible overtraining.

CONS

  • Price: While there are still fairly cheap options to getting a fitness tracker, or even a GPS watch. The fancy watches with all the bells and whistles can be very expensive. Some even getting up to $500-$1000 range!

  • Obsession: Can all this tracking all the time be good for our mental health? “Though these devices don’t necessarily cause compulsive behavior, they can certainly be a potential vehicle for it. Obsessive health tracking is not unusual for people who have a tendency toward obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or anxiety.” - Gail Saltz, MD, PREVENTION

  • Stress: Though these devices are meant for convenience, the stress of needing to beat yourself on every run, or checking the watch every couple minutes to see if your pace has fallen, could be sucking the fun out of running.

Running tech has definitely made the every day runner level up. Helping to keep us accountable and pushing us to try a little harder every race. But there could be a sinister side of tracking every workout all the time. So try to be aware of how all this tracking could be effecting you. If you begin to feel burnout from you workouts maybe just leave the watch behind one day, and run for fun.

-See you on the road

Kenzie Bruns