I'm not nearly as much of a fitness data nerd as you are, in fact I'm usually repulsed by this amount of data tracking and metric collection.. but there's something so meta and self-improvement-oriented about tracking personal insights that I appreciate. I respect anyone who can look inward and see their current state in life as an inflection point in a long journey of growth. With any other discipline, be it product design or accounting or construction, we need quantifiable metrics that improve the quality of things - ie: ux research, LEED ratings, etc.
But the other side of that coin is where people become too dissolved in the self-improvement game, where grwoth is the only positive metric, and contentment is gone to the wind. And you're right, this works for a certain personality type, where the obsession results in a constant 'not good enough' mentality supplemented with 75-hards, self-help books, and unrealistic standards. I can be that guy, at times. But most of the time, I'm good with the bliss that comes with ignorance.
as a former triathlon coach, looking at what you are doing now, I would suffer death by numbers/data, in the age of power meters, lactate testing, and heart rate zone, too few coach the art of honing your own perceived effort, I know you love the numbers and the science my friend
I also like to pretend I'm a professional athlete even though it's becoming more and more clear that I'm not.
Thanks for sharing Dan's post on pre-updating on sleep trackers. I've worn a garmin watch for years, and find myself agreeing almost wholesale with his post. I can almost predict what my HRV score is going to be based on if I feel tired or like I have a sickness coming on. At that point, what is really the point of the watch? I feel like it was useful in getting me to pay more attention to my body in the first place, but now that I'm calibrated, it feels less useful.
I still wear the watch, mostly for the ability to track mileage of runs/bikes or for routefinding, but I recently instated a rule that I don't look at my sleep score for the previous night until after noon.
I like that rule. My watch has suckered me into thinking that I'm more tired than I actually am — a reminder of how easily my mind/body can fooled by a chart.
I'm not nearly as much of a fitness data nerd as you are, in fact I'm usually repulsed by this amount of data tracking and metric collection.. but there's something so meta and self-improvement-oriented about tracking personal insights that I appreciate. I respect anyone who can look inward and see their current state in life as an inflection point in a long journey of growth. With any other discipline, be it product design or accounting or construction, we need quantifiable metrics that improve the quality of things - ie: ux research, LEED ratings, etc.
But the other side of that coin is where people become too dissolved in the self-improvement game, where grwoth is the only positive metric, and contentment is gone to the wind. And you're right, this works for a certain personality type, where the obsession results in a constant 'not good enough' mentality supplemented with 75-hards, self-help books, and unrealistic standards. I can be that guy, at times. But most of the time, I'm good with the bliss that comes with ignorance.
Well put. It’s wonderful when trend lines lead to genuine self-discovery, but more often than not they’re an obsessive compulsive illusion of control.
*smh* own up that you are a data fitness nerd
as a former triathlon coach, looking at what you are doing now, I would suffer death by numbers/data, in the age of power meters, lactate testing, and heart rate zone, too few coach the art of honing your own perceived effort, I know you love the numbers and the science my friend
I also like to pretend I'm a professional athlete even though it's becoming more and more clear that I'm not.
Thanks for sharing Dan's post on pre-updating on sleep trackers. I've worn a garmin watch for years, and find myself agreeing almost wholesale with his post. I can almost predict what my HRV score is going to be based on if I feel tired or like I have a sickness coming on. At that point, what is really the point of the watch? I feel like it was useful in getting me to pay more attention to my body in the first place, but now that I'm calibrated, it feels less useful.
I still wear the watch, mostly for the ability to track mileage of runs/bikes or for routefinding, but I recently instated a rule that I don't look at my sleep score for the previous night until after noon.
I like that rule. My watch has suckered me into thinking that I'm more tired than I actually am — a reminder of how easily my mind/body can fooled by a chart.