There the hardest day of the week is now over. You know that day where you have on the calendar an optional rest day, that is used when the body is telling you it needs a day off.

The day off gave me time to sit down and think about how my technology usage has changed over the past month or so, since I stopped and took a close look at what I am doing.

Well getting back to part two of how my technology downsizing has been going. You can read about my Facebook feelings in part 1 at this link: https://runnah.blog/2019/10/03/facebook-keep-it-or-leave-it-oct-2019/.

The biggest choice for me has been how to effectively use Garmin GPS/Smart watch technology to meet my pretty basic needs, not all the fluff and stuff that is thrust at us in each new release. You know all that extra functionality that seemingly gets in the way of just using the watch, that seems to be more and more a part of the smarter watch experience.

I have finally come to a very happy medium with the Garmin style technology that I have in the house.

I learned that I do like the ability to get notifications of who is calling/texting me visible with a quick look on my wrist…especially with Maine’s new law prohibiting using a handheld smart phone while driving. It is a good law, but if I have an emergency call/text, I can still know who/what is going on, whether I need make the call/text and do it legally.

Also I do like to know the approximate distance I have run, just by looking at the watch. It makes things a lot easier with maintaining my running log. So I will wear a GPS watch most of the time.

One area where I have learned that going old school is better than GPS though is the track. GPS has not gotten it close yet this Summer/Fall and I am pretty certain that the track distances are spot on over at Colby College. So I while I have recently started just using the Garmin for running time and using my Timex Ironman to time the distances I am running, then totaling them up and using that distance in the running log, with the running time total.

Convoluted, but works for me and yeah, I know I am a bit weird. 😉

However, all the other activity tracking, heart rate monitoring and other great features that my Garmin 35 has or the activity tracking of my Garmin 230 are turned off or ignored.

It works for me.

I almost went back to my FR10, which is pretty basic but it takes too damn long to get signal compared to my 230, so I imagine that will go away at some point and the FR 310 is a monstrosity, which feels like it weighs a ton. I don’t know how I used it for so long and never really complained about the weight or anything. It really is a beast.

The reality is that

I thought that I would be getting back to only using the Timex Ironman for most of my running, but I forgot how much easier it is to track your running by GPS and not have to go through multiple steps, websites or attempt to drive a course to figure out how far you ran.

Yeah, GPS does make that a LOT easier.

However, much of the other stuff is not really all that necessary for me and eventually becomes a distraction to how I am running. During most runs I don’t pay too much attention to the watch other than my mile splits, just to see where I am in a general way.

While I have got my GPS/Smart watch use figured out completely, I feel much more comfortable than I did before. While I still use them, it is at a much reduced level than previously and I am not nearly as worried about the “stat” that the watches provide and that I feel like I always have to try just a bit harder, because I will be seeing all those wonderful charts.

I am getting back to worrying more about how I feel when I am running, which is much more important than all those squiggley little lines on a computer screen.