Truth be told, I had trained for the Ragnar SoCal relay completely naked. That is to say, I executed all of my training runs with no Garmin or GPS tracker, everything had been mapped out beforehand and all I focused on was my mileage. I had no idea what my pace was when I was training and thus took a head-first dive into naked running (sans Garmin or similar sports watch).

How, you ask, can it be possible for someone as self-competing as myself or any runner dedicated to self improvement for that matter, deal with such an idea as running without timing? For me, it was pretty simple – I had to do it out of necessity (I broke my Garmin in a tragic training incident). But, even well-known coaches like Jeff Galloway recognize the importance of forcing yourself to slow down for endurance training. Being rid of the watch made me focus more on the mileage increase instead of the pace which had most likely lead to a more relaxed pace (similar to Galloway’s suggested 2 minute slowing of normal pace).

Today I used Google Maps to figure out my route and used a stopwatch. I decided I’d try to time at least two of my runs a week (tempo runs) just as a check in so I know I’m on pace with my training (pun intended)… But why not just work with an iPhone app for running? My iPhone is a newborn infant that has no business with my sweat all over it.

In case you are wondering about the end result from my naked training for the relay: I PR’d my last 10K leg for the relay and hit my pace goals for each leg of the race (totaling a little over 18 miles for the day). In addition to hitting pace goals, I ran each leg at negative splits (my average pace per each leg of the relay was faster then the previous legs throughout the day). I haven’t made a final call on how I feel about naked running, even with the noticeable improvement in pace as soon as my Garmin was out of commission. I still ask myself if it was the real reason I hit my pace goals for this last Ragnar. For my piece of mind, I’m opting for half naked training till I fix or replace my Garmin.