Sierre-Zinal weekend
These runners still resist the call of connected watches
The technology has taken possession of the wrists of the vast majority of runners. The latest rebels are rare. But why do they resist?
Alex Gay has always run without a watch. The Morgian flourishes in a simple practice, listening to his sensations.
Chantal Dervey
- Connected watches have attracted most runners, not just participants in Sierre-Zinal.
- Running without technology offers a purer experience and pleasant surprises, argue the last to have taken the plunge.
- Some are leading a real fight that sometimes crosses the borders of sport.
Alex fored his last marathon. An explosion in good and due to the mid-race, pushing him to start a painful pain in the finish line. But Alex is one of the runners too humble to blame the weather or the pebble in his shoe. He knows where the problem spoke that day. Of him. More precisely: he let himself be fooled by the diktat of the time.
As usual, this dashing fifties had presented itself at the start without a watch. Except that a time of time trotted him somewhere: why not aim at less than four hours? “This is where the problems started. I have not stopped asking people around me what appear we would run or for how long we had left. If I had trusted my sensations, as usual, I would have quickly felt that the pace was far too fast. ” But the figures have swallowed up his sensations. Until it is too late.
Departing from Sierre-Zinal On Saturday hand, rare were the wrists without a device adorned to benefit its bearer of a multitude of data live. Chrono, kilometers traveled and heart rate (which is often random) for the most basic. Ascending speed, percentage of the slope and latest encouragement messages for more advanced models.
Running without technology, a militant act
Calling runners calling the connected watch are not only in the minority. They hardly exist anymore. “If you say I’m an alien, that suits me,” says Alex. I consider the race without a watch as a fight. Because beyond what it brings us, technology tends to lock us up. ” His approach goes further. The Morgian has never set foot on social networks. At the time, he even tried to make his smartphone against an old Nokia 3310. Before backtracking a few months later.
At this point, you will find additional external content. If you accept that cookies are placed by external suppliers and that personal data are transmitted to them, you must allow all cookies and directly display external content.
Smart phones were right for him. But not sports watches. Their merits are however praised when it comes to tracking down its personal progress or ensuring to respect calibrated looks for its profile. Today, they even try to tell you if you are in great shape or in the hollow of the wave.
It happened in Florian during a recent outing at the Salève. Finally, not him directly: Florian runs well with a watch on the wrist, but it is an old Flik Flak just good to give the time. “During this training, the watch of a friend told her Texto:” You are in great shape, take advantage! ” It will not last. ” I put myself in its place if the reverse occurs. It’s super demoralizing. “
Connected watches remove the surprise
Like Alex, Florian does not exist on social networks. More generally, this Genevan in his thirties wonders about his relationship to technology. Connected watches are a useful and effective tool for sharpening its performance. But at what price?
Listening to his sensations more than beeps on his wrist when he gallops, Alex discovered himself, over time, a certain talent to estimate his speed. He knows it thanks to this colleague with whom he shares his training on his noon breaks. He has a watch. “When I try to guess what look we just browsed the last kilometer, I often fall close to the truth,” he laughs.
A long-standing runner, who started to attack the Sierre-Zinal myth in 2018, the Vaudois noticed other benefits linked to the sobriety of his practice over time. The first is in these little things that the data steal us in real time. “My best result at the 20 km of Lausanne dates from 2017. I discovered that I broke my five -minute record, crossing the finish line. The surprise effect was added to the beauty of the moment. ”
His way of running does not prevent him from being inhabited by a competitive spirit. This also applies to Florian, who recently tried to go under the symbolic bar of the three hours to complete an Olympic triathlon. In 2017, the Vaudoise Simone Troxler had finished 3e of his first marathon, in Lausanne. Without watch on the wrist.
“We can quickly turn into a burned head when it comes to competition,” says Alex. But when you don’t wear a watch, you come off the time. It amounts to listening to, so not to go too fast. ” To run for what we are worth, rather than what we would like to be worth. A great lesson in humility on the part of these runners.
Did you find an error? Please report it to us.
