Are you surgically attached to your Garmin? Feel you couldn’ t possibly head for a run without analysing the stats afterwards? Then it might be time to leave the sports watch at home (at least once in a while), says Claire Chamberlain

“THE HUMAN BODY WAS DESIGNED FOR RUNNING LONG BEFORE GPS AND HEART-RATE MONITORING WAS DEVELOPED”

While in days gone by all you needed to run was an appropriate pair of shoes and a high-impact sports bra, more often than not modern-day runners count one other item as a must-have: their tech. From GPS sports watches to the latest apps, these days it’s rare to see a runner heading out of the door with a naked wrist, or without a phone strapped to their arm.

Of course, embracing running tech can be fantastic: being able to check your on-the-go stats can be immensely helpful and motivating, and Strava is the presentday equivalent of runners racing home after a session to note everything down in their training log. But with devices that now tell us everything, including the paces we ‘should’ be nailing, have we begun to lose the art of inner awareness? Are we so reliant on technology that we’ve forgotten how to be aware of our muscles and breathing rate to track our effort levels? In short, have we become too dependent on technology?