How to Run Faster

The downsides of GPS watches and how you can become a quicker, more resilient runner.

Jul 08, 2024

Post summary

Tracking your runs with GPS has benefits, but it also comes with drawbacks.
More coaches are advising runners to leave their GPS technology at home.
You’ll learn:
- Some upsides and downsides of GPS.
- The benefits of running without technology.
- Four methods that can help you run faster, reduce your risk of injury, and improve your enjoyment of running.

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The post

A handful of years ago, Women’s Health magazine commissioned me to write a story about running with a GPS watch.

What I found changed how I run forever.

Most runners use GPS. Researchers in Canada wrote:

Over 75% of runners use wearable technology and/or running-related apps for training optimization and distance recording on a consistent basis.

GPS watches of course have benefits: They make it easier to calculate the distance we ran and how fast we ran it.and speed we ran.

But they can also hold you back and change the nature of your runs.

Running by numbers

The problem largely comes from the mismatch between what we think we’re capable of and what we’re actually capable of.

For example, let’s say you aim to finish a half marathon in under two hours. So you wear a GPS during the race, and it helps you stay at a roughly 9-minute/mile pace. You finish in 1:58 and reach your goal.

But, a question: did you run your fastest race?

Did you truly burn the ships and leave every ounce of effort on the course? Or were you running by a predetermined, arbitrary time broadcasted onto your wrist?

If you’d ditched the data and run as fast as you could, would you have finished in 1:50 or 1:45. Or even 1:35?

“We see all the time in races a runner will feel fantastic and could run faster, but stays ‘on pace,’” Alec Blenis, a distance running coach told me. “Or they’ll be running faster than their goal pace, then they’ll check their watch and slow down to be ‘on pace,’ hurting their finishing time.”

The pros and cons of GPS

Section summary: GPS can help new runners understand what a pace feels like. But over-relying on the devices can lead to robotic, slower running that’s less fun.

You need to measure if you want to know how far or fast you ran.

“GPS data can be very helpful, especially for helping beginning runners figure out what a certain pace feels like,” Blenis told me.

You can also measure time and distance using free and simple methods. For example, a clock and Google Maps1.

But a GPS watch makes measuring easier. The devices also display your pace in real-time, allowing you to experiment with different paces to see how they feel. That can be a great teacher.

But Blenis and other coaches argue we should treat GPS watches like training wheels.

The goal is to evolve to a point where you make calculated decisions based on internal data, like your rate of perceived exertion, rather than a number on your wrist. That makes you a faster, more resilient, and more adaptable runner.

GPS measurements are crude

They account for only time and distance.

They don’t consider the many factors that impact your performance. For example, weather, hills, hydration, how much you slept the night before, etc.

A study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that the best runners don’t run robotically, by numbers alone. They adapt their effort to their environment and internal cues.

Tech can make the run less fun

Running connected to your body rather than the cloud may make running more enjoyable. This applies whether you’re a hard-core marathoner or a more of a casual runner like me.

A study in the Journal of Health Psychology reports that runners who paid attention to their body and surroundings reported more gratification, which is associated with sticking to a fitness routine for the long haul.

“Running is one of the purest sports,” Larry Shapiro, Ph.D. and author of Zen and the Art of Running, told me. “You just need sneakers. I think lugging along complicated electronics can take away from the experience.”

Numbers can be anxiety-inducing

If you tend to obsess over pace and mileage, unconnected running may remove a source of anxiety.

That might sound wacky, but a review in Sports Medicine found that a surprising percentage of runners face mental health issues.

“There are so many areas in life where we have to be concerned with success… deadlines and performance outcomes we have to hit,” says Shapiro. “Why treat running like one of those activities?”

Why, indeed. Fitness goals can help us improve, but if we’re not getting paid for a sport, we need to put them in the greater context of life.

Four ways to run free

1. Download your data after the run

Section summary: Hide your GPS watch from view. Analyze the data later.

The catch-22 with GPS watches:

GPS data can be useful for helping runners determine what a pace “feels like.”
But it can also distract you from “feeling” the important physiological cues around a given pace.

To balance data and feel, more coaches are having their intermediate and advanced athletes wear a GPS tracker—but hidden from view with a “no look” policy.

“We view the data after the run,” Blenis told me. Place a piece of tape over your watch face, or put your phone in a pocket. Don’t check the data until you’re done running.

When you analyze the numbers, consider how you felt on your run, and factors like sleep, nutrition, and life stress that may have caused you to run faster or slower than you aimed for.

2. Time Your Breath

Section summary: Pairing your steps to your breath can be a better pacer than GPS.

We tend to breathe during a run like we breathe during everything else: unconsciously. We don’t think about it; we just let our body shuttle oxygen in and out however it will.

But Blenis explained that your breath, if you get conscious about it, can be the perfect pacer.

“Most people settle on a two-two breathing rhythm regardless of speed,” he said.

He means that most runners take two steps as they breathe in, and two steps as they breathe out.

Instead, he advises runners to tweak that rhythm based on how fast they’d like to run.

For very low-intensity runs: take 5 steps on the in breath and 4 steps on the out breath.
For low-intensity runs: take 4 steps on the in breath and 3 steps on the out breath.
For moderate-intensity runs: 3 steps on the in breath and 2 on the out.
For fast runs: 2 on the in and 1 on the out.

Run as fast as you can while comfortably sustaining one of those patterns.

If you can’t, you’re going too hard or too slow. (The first few times you try this, you can wear a tracker to know the pace corresponding to each breathing pattern.)

The method does something no GPS can do: It automatically adjusts your speed to the tougher uphills and easier downhills. You have to slow down if you can’t sustain the breathing pattern.

“It also helps prevent injuries,” says Blenis. That’s because your frame absorbs the most impact on the first step of your exhale. Because of that, runners tend to develop injuries on that one side.

An even-odd breathing pattern alternates which side receives the stress, helping you naturally prevent imbalances.

3. Outthink Fatigue

Section summary: Time and pace impact our thoughts, altering our performance.

The numbers on your watch might get in your head and slow you down. That’s according to Kim Jones, a pioneer in women’s marathoning. She ran a 2:26:40 marathon in Boston in 1991 and now coaches runners.

She recalls clients who convince themselves that a certain time on their wrist is “hard,” making the pace feel more difficult.

Her observation is backed up by a study in Frontiers in Physiology. It found fatigue is often all in your mind.

Shapiro told me this:

“Don’t assign a pace a negative valence. Instead, think about what’s happening to you internally, how the pace is affecting your breathing, how your legs feel. There are so many other things to pay attention to, you don’t have to think about feeling exhausted.”

4. Make running a moving meditation

Section summary: Running can be a powerful exercise in mindfulness if you do it right.

When you run with a watch, you likely check it repeatedly and concentrate on the end goal—finishing in a specific time—rather than the sights, smells, and sensations of the world around you.

You miss many benefits of an outdoor run: nature, bodily sensations, where your mind goes when you’re uncomfortable, and more. That’s according to Sakyong Mipham, a leader in Buddhism and author of Running with The Mind of Meditation.

“When you remove the distraction of devices, you can begin to ask yourself, ‘What do my feet feel like on the earth?’ ‘How does the air feel on my skin?’” he said. “You begin to open up to the world and tune in to your surroundings.”

This type of awareness in nature can help reduce your stress, according to a study in Psychological science. This focus, timed with the breathing exercise, makes running a moving meditation.

Have fun, don’t die, run free.

-Michael