Why do we make it so complicated? (Read 1728 times)

People get so wrapped in criticizing how everyone else runs, and criticizing which gadgets they use. Why do we make it so complicated? Why can't just celebrate the fact that lots of people are running, and quit whining that we don't like what they do or how many gadgets they carry, or that they wear running skirts? Heh.

I think the gadget part of the original post will attract the most attention, so I'll comment on the other. I love my intervals. I love my tempo runs. Hills are great. I have the base to handle them. I also know this from years of experience being me. If all I did was 'go out and run' every day, I'd run 6 days a week of easy runs and on race day, I'd run a x : xx race. By doing some speedwork... again, with a big base to support it, I run a race where x : xx is substantially smaller. Yes, KISS is nice. I just happen to be one of those "train slow, race slow" people. I gotta do my speed work so that I can be "train with a mix, race less slow". Besides, running different kinds of workouts keeps it interesting.

If all I did was 'go out and run' every day, I'd run 6 days a week of easy runs and on race day, I'd run a x : xx race.

If all I did was run when I actually feel like running I would have bailed on this marathon training thing months ago...like when I first had knee issues. Now the knee issues have mostly cleared, but I am exhausted 14.5 weeks into my plan (1 week to taper, YES!) and want to do nothing more than go back to bed. Sometimes it needs to be "complex" in order to reach a goal. And sometimes it's the gadgets and #s that give us that little extra bit of motivation necessary to get us out the door. I can't count all the times when I have looked down at my Garmin and realized that if I ran just .2 of a mile I'd hit an arbitrary # for the week. At the end of a year all those fractions of a mile add up AND put that much more distance between me and the Pace Bunny.

Sometimes it feels good to run long, sometimes it feels good to run fast. That isn't complicated. I don't look at my Garmin much during a run, but I am pretty obsessive about logging my runs. I was that way before there were GPS watches, I just found other ways to measure my runs.

I don't think I criticized anybody. Nor was I whining. I asked a simple question. Perhaps you should look a little deeper within yourself to try and see why it hit such a raw nerve with you.

Perhaps you should look a little deeper within yourself to try and see why it hit such a raw nerve with you.

Hehehe -- it didn't hit a nerve at all, I just find it funny how people whine so much about "too many gadgets, it's toooo complex, why won't people just run"--I find all that whining pretty funny. I assume you people enjoy the whining, and it is part of what you like about posting, and that's ok with me. There is a whole 2000mile forum which is *hilarious* and full of people whining all the time about how they hate people who use gadgets, and hate everybody else's systems, and they're always arguing about systems. Lots of insulting, and most of them are just playing crazy characters for fun, and pretending to be crotchety as hell for entertainment value. It's great fun -- I recommend it heartily -- well, as long as you are a person who is in a good mood and enjoys the crazy things people post, like I do. if you get your feelings hurt easily -- and it sounds like you might be one of those people - then take it really slowly and build up your endurance, until you can find yourself able to enjoy more and more posts per week. Later, after you have built a good base of being able to read posts without getting your feelings hurt, you can work up to intervals (reading particularly sarcastic and funny things over, to enjoy them again), and speedwork (reading long threads really fast) - that is for advanced forum users. First you need to build a good base though, then you'll be ready to advance later on.

Hehehe -- it didn't hit a nerve at all, I just find it funny how people whine so much about "too many gadgets, it's toooo complex, why won't people just run"--I find all that whining pretty funny. I assume you people enjoy the whining, and it is part of what you like about posting, and that's ok with me. There is a whole 2000mile forum which is *hilarious* and full of people whining all the time about how they hate people who use gadgets, and hate everybody else's systems, and they're always arguing about systems. Lots of insulting, and most of them are just playing crazy characters for fun, and pretending to be crotchety as hell for entertainment value. It's great fun -- I recommend it heartily -- well, as long as you are a person who is in a good mood and enjoys the crazy things people post, like I do. if you get your feelings hurt easily -- and it sounds like you might be one of those people - then take it really slowly and build up your endurance, until you can find yourself able to enjoy more and more posts per week. Later, after you have built a good base of being able to read posts without getting your feelings hurt, you can work up to intervals (reading particularly sarcastic and funny things over, to enjoy them again), and speedwork (reading long threads really fast) - that is for advanced forum users. First you need to build a good base though, then you'll be ready to advance later on.

POTD!