18.The Sport of Concentration Every day, it seems, a new gadget (设备) promises to help me increase the distance and pace I run, or the number of hours I sleep, or the rate of my heartbeats. It will make me a "better me," or so the story goes.
Maybe some of them actually help to do these things, but nonetheless, I still decided to sell all of my sports gadgets a few months ago and simply record my running times with a pen and a notepad. Soon after, I began to train for a marathon the old-fashioned way, without something on my wrist telling me my pace and current heart rate. As it turned out, running without knowing all that information was a great pleasure.
In the past, whenever I was running slower than my smartwatch said I should be, I'd force myself to speed up, even if it was clear that my body didn't want to. But this time, I ran the way I wanted to.
On more than a few occasions, when I'd look at my notepad following key workouts (锻炼), I was shocked to see that I'd had some real breakthroughs (突破), running much faster than I thought I could. I was so shocked about these numbers and thought that if I'd seen them during the workout itself, I would have probably slowed down. Yet, because I was blind to them, I just kept on running.
Another positive thing about getting rid of all my running gadgets is that it's helping me concentrate (集中注意力) more on the running itself. Since I no longer feel like I need technology to run well, I can go out and run without worrying about whether everything has enough battery power.
So, what's the lesson here?Well, we could very easily replace the example of running with writing, studying, or anything else. No matter what it is the more time we spend worrying about how to make ourselves better at something, the more our performance is affected.
Should you stop using technology to "improve" your performance? Of course, that's up to you. However, if I were to be asked that question, I'd certainly say that I'm better off without it.