Julia Frankenstein, psychologist with Germany’s University of Freiburg, wrote an interesting editorial in the New York Times. In her piece, she wonders aloud if GPS navigation is preventing us from developing mental maps. Dr. Frankenstein contends that using these electronic gadgets dulls our ability to navigate in the raw, so to speak.
“Navigating, keeping track of one’s position and building up a mental map by experience is a very challenging process for our brains, involving memory (remembering landmarks, for instance) as well as complex cognitive processes (like calculating distances, rotating angles, approximating spatial relations). Stop doing these things, and it’ll be harder to pick them back up later.”
So, that got me to thinking, has that occurred with runners and other endurance athletes? Has the use of GPS watches, power meters for bikes, etc. dulled our sense to self-regulate our paces and efforts?
The first marathon I ran was Chicago in 2004 and I did all non-treadmill training with one of the first Garmin watches. I have since had a few “free” runs without my newest Garmin watch and truth be told, I found it quite liberating. But, I always seem to come back to Mr. Garmin . . . it helps my effort/pace, it helps me keep track of my runs, and let’s be honest, this map and its associated data is pretty cool!
After reading her article, I will give an honest effort to go without my Garmin for some runs (don’t want to overly dull that mental map!) . . . unfortunately, I think I’m a bit too nerdy to quit altogether!