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I havent run without a smartwatch on my wrist for many years.
Perhaps such slavish adherence to the numbers on my wrist isnt that healthy.
The 5000HS, which stands for ‘Heritage Series’, is designed to emulate the first G-Shocks iconic design.
I love this thing.
During my tenure as fitness and wearables editor, I’ve made no secret of loving digital watch aesthetics.
When I reviewed theGarminInstinct Crossover in 2023, I called it the smart Casio G-Shock of my dreams.
Im very keen on the way the G-Shock looks.
Essential to running by feel is understanding a runs purpose.
The result was educational.
At first, I felt like I was paying much more attention to my pace than I normally did.
I also glance at my watch probably every 30 seconds or so.
It felt strange to run without those crutches.
The only metric I was recording was my runs total time using the stopwatch function on my G-Shock.
Eventually, I realized this wasnt getting me anywhere and stopped looking at it.
Once that happened, something changed.
This resulted in more of what runners call energy return.
Active listening
When doing hard training runs, I like high-tempo music to keep my energy up.
However, when doing these relaxed, steady-state workouts, I enjoy listening to an audiobook or podcast.
I duly plugged in mybest running headphonesand flicked on my latest listen.
I was more engrossed in the run itself and hardly noticed the back 15 minutes fly by.
I actually enjoyed the run so much that I did the same circuit two days later.
(They even added the official Lucasfilm sound effects!)
I used the very reliable alarm instead of my phone to wake me up at 7:00 am each morning.
I was happy without push notifications on my wrist.
Just running without distance, plan, or heart rate information seems barmy to me.
Of course, there are plenty of screenless health tracking options if you want the best of both worlds.
TheWHOOP 4.0, a wristband without a screen offers stacks of workout data.
I usually opt for a smart ring.
Im currently testing theSamsung Galaxy Ringas the conduit for theSamsungGalaxy S25s AI health features.
These are all great options to track your health if you don’t want to use a smartwatch.
