Move|To Get More From Your Run, Try This Training Strategy

Mary Johnson ran her first marathon in 2010, wearing a simple watch that only tracked the time. A couple years later, hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon, she started using a GPS watch, which allowed her to closely track her paces and other metrics.

She soon locked in on a training pace to meet her goal, but she often ran faster on many of her runs.

“I became consumed by the numbers on my watch,” said Ms. Johnson, 39. “Every run became a race, and all my easy runs were too fast.” While she did qualify for Boston, she also ended up with a stress fracture.

Ms. Johnson, who is now a running coach, said that by focusing too much on the data, she tuned out the signals from her body that could have told her she was overdoing it.

After returning from two injuries — and then two pregnancies — she dusted off her old watch and began training more simply again. She stayed healthier and met race goals, too, setting new personal bests in the 5K and 10K in the ensuing months.

Modern running watches and fitness trackers can be wonderful tools, making it easy to analyze metrics like pace, distance, heart rate and more. But all that data can lead some runners to fixate on their stats, which can be counterproductive.