By Erica

For 5 years of my life, I was a year round rower.  I started rowing in high school after a dramatic decision to stop competitive swimming after 8 years (mean coaches and tears were involved).  My rowing career left me with a plethora of stories, both humorous—more than once I peed off the side of the boat right before a race—and harrowing.  But one unfortunate consequence of rowing is that I became terrified of numbers.  During the winter, and throughout the racing season, rowers work out on indoor rowing machines called ergs.  They simulate the movement of a racing shell and also allow you & your coach to see how strong and effective you are.  During a workout or a time trial, you stare at a small screen that tells you exactly how fast you’re going with every single stroke.  Feedback is helpful, but when your position on a boat depends on those numbers, you learn to dread them.

So when I quit rowing, I realized that to make exercising fun again, I had to separate myself from numbers.  I stopped wearing a watch when I went out for a run.  For my swim workouts, I barely looked at the clock. I focused on distances and total time rather than speed.  I think this was a really good decision for me, and I recommend it to all recovering retired college athletes.  

The success of my separation from numbers made me hesitant to accept the Christmas present I got from my parents this year: a Garmin GPS watch. They got me the Forerunner 110 for Women—although I think the only thing that makes it “for women” is the pink stripe down the side.  

Don’t get me started on the majority of athletic equipment marketed for women. Actually, get me started.  Why are women’s running shorts SO SHORT?  Why is it so hard to find a tank top that isn’t pink or designed to give you cleavage? I can’t even bring myself to walk into stores like Lulu Lemon because I know I’ll just get mad.

Anyway, I was excited to have a cool new gadget, but I was also terrified to be tied to numbers again.  Would being able to see my pace as I was running give me anxiety? Would it cause me to be unhealthily competitive with myself? Would it make it so that I relied on a computer to tell me how I was doing rather than my own body? After a few runs, I’ve figured out the best way for me to use the watch.  I put it on, but I don’t look at it during my run.  When I get back, I upload the data onto my computer, and the Garmin website creates some nifty tables and figures for me.  For example, I went on an 8.2 mile run this morning, and here are my “stats”:

I can look at my pace for each mile, see exactly what distance I ran, and check on the elevation throughout the loop.  Pretty cool, right?  It’s encouraging that I run at the pace that I thought I did and that I’m pretty consistant.  I’ll have to see where this goes, but I think I can incorporate numbers back into my workouts without adding any anxiety and without losing touch with my body.