EP59: If You Say You Can't, Maybe You Should | The Naked Running Experiment & the Data Debate

EP59: If You Say You Can't, Maybe You Should | The Naked Running Experiment & the Data Debate

From Clean Break Chats by Andy Delderfield and Richard Casement

June 20, 2026 · 1h 7m · Episode 59

About this episode

Rich discusses his experience of training for a marathon without any data, exploring the implications of removing performance metrics.

Rich has ditched his watch. Not just for one run - for the entire Yorkshire Marathon training block. No Garmin, no heart rate monitor, no Strava, no data of any kind. Just running to feel, a whiteboard on the wall, and 20 years of experience to go on. He's calling it the naked running experiment, and it's already producing results he didn't expect. Two weeks in, he ran Leeds 10K without a watch and took 90 seconds off his PB. His average pace was 4:02 per kilometre - faster than he believes he would have allowed himself to run if the watch had been telling him otherwise. No data, no limiting belief, no ceiling. This week, Rich and Andy dig into what that actually means. Why does removing the data feel so uncomfortable to so many people? Why do we use our watches to confirm what we already know, but also to cap what we think we're capable of? Andy's Garmin has been telling him he can run a 4-hour marathon for years. His PB is 3:30-something. At what point does the data stop being useful and start being a ceiling? And then Andy makes the connection that stops the conversation in its tracks. When Rich says people keep telling him "I couldn't do that" about running without a watch…

People in this episode

Host: Andy

Guest: Rich

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Garmin, Strava

Places: Yorkshire, Leeds

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