Stopping your watch on long runs

Stopping your watch on the long runs! We have all been there on a group run. A great water stop is set up, we pause our watch and gulp down all the water and start chatting away only to realize it’s been 3 min and we have to go back out and continue running! There may be other times we stop our watch as well. Maybe we just feel we need a quick second to recoup or catch our breath. We want to chat about this topic and go into details on how this may impact your training.

We have chatted on this topic before, and we are by no means pointing fingers or saying you can’t stop during your run, but we want to educate people on what happens physiologically when you do stop

For people who have aggressive time goals and want to reach their potential in the spot, the prolonged stopping of the watch my be giving you a false reading of your current fitness

What is the purpose of the long run?

What happens to your HR when you stop running?

How can you practice running through water stops?

Is it okay to have a few long runs where you stop a lot and just don't care?

Should you let your watch run instead of pausing it when you stop?

Can you still be in shape to run a marathon even if you take breaks?

What if it is super hot?

Is it okay to split up your long run into two runs?