Let Us Plan Your Travel
Our retreat, travel specialists can help you choose the right retreat and customize your retreat, package with add-ons, trip, extensions, and additional services.
The sound of running shoes crunching the soft pine needles lining the loamy trail lulls the runners into a relaxed rhythm. A forest thick with conifer tress hugs the trail, so all they can see is the well-worn trail ahead. There’s no sound of cars or traffic of any kind. Their inhalation and exhalation breath cycles fall into a similar rhythm. They’re not all running at the same pace, yet somehow are in a shared state of flow.
That is, until, a digital female voice says “workout paused.” “Workout resumed” the voice followed up.
“Ping” goes another watch from the back of the pack. “Beep, beep beep!” goes another device, its exact location indeterminate.
The group slows to a fast hike as the trail’s pitch kicks up a few notches. “Workout paused,” a sharp digital female voice declares.
Runners who chose to run without their devices reported feeling “liberated” and more relaxed throughout the retreat.
The group stops at point where the trees open to reveal a view of the valley below. Runners pull out their phones to take photos of a waterfall, while many also press the “pause” button on their GPS watches. A few reply to text messages flooding in thanks to the 4G connection randomly available on the (what had seemed like a remote) mountain trail.
The technology seems radically out of place in this serene natural environment. More than half their time standing at the lookout is spent looking at glowing screens. Not only are these runners seeing and experiencing less than they would without their devices, they are checking their time, mileage and pace-per-mile, even though, it could be argued, such metrics detract from their actual experience.
A running and wellness retreat is not only a journey to a beautiful new destination, one that offers scenery and cultural experiences you can savor and enjoy. It also offers space to be more mindful and present, if you make space for it. And our devices (watches, GPS, phones) don’t help that process in this setting. So how does this enhance running as a mindful experience?
Fitness writer and author of the book, Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success, Brad Stulberg, who experimented with gadget-less training, reported that he had some performance breakthroughs when he ran by feel (slowing when he felt tired, and speeding up when he felt strong) rather than by pace-per mile.
But more important, in my opinion, was what Noel Brick, a sports psychologist at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, told Stulberg in an interview: “Relying on a watch excessively can promote unhelpful thoughts and emotions, such as anxiety.” This anxiety can even occur on a subconscious level, fueling negative self-talk or judgement without you even realizing it’s happening.”
Another side effect of metrics-driven anxiety is physical tension. “In a recent study, Brick and his colleagues found that runners were a whopping 10 percent faster when they were focused on relaxing or the act of running itself versus external metrics like pace,” reports Stulberg.
Even though running faster isn’t a focus of the retreats, running more relaxed is in essence a mindful running practice that lowers stress as well as increases performance. This is why posture is the focus of the first mindful running clinic our retreat leaders offer at the start of each retreat. Practice the postural cues she offers and you may notice more flow and ease throughout each run.
With that in mind, Run Wild Retreats has introduced a Presence Policy for all its retreats that is designed to enhance runners’ personal experience, on and off the trails. We share this policy with all of our retreat participants prior to the retreat, and review as a group at the opening meeting.
The Presence Policy
Our retreat, travel specialists can help you choose the right retreat and customize your retreat, package with add-ons, trip, extensions, and additional services.