If life can be divided into those who count and those who do
not, I am a dedicated counter. I love my Fitbit, jump on the scale every
morning (not more than that, promise) and prefer Flywheel, the spin studio that gives
you stats, versus Soul. So, it only makes sense given my inclination to
count that running would involve a state of the art GPS watch providing me with
pace, distance and everything else one would like to know about a workout.
However, you may recall I was
burned by my Garmin GPS watch. In a marathon in a semi-remote location, my Garmin didn’t get
signal. It wasn’t a great race for a number of reasons but any normal person
would go to plan B and run based on perceived exertion but I was lost. I had relinquished any sense of what a certain pace felt like as I relied on my ex-friend Garmin
to tell me if I needed to speed up or slow down. I also lost a lot of the
pleasure that comes from running. I always wanted to be one of those people who
ran a race and yet stopped to take photos but thought, “how are they
sacrificing those precious minutes?” As if I were an Olympian and minutes made
any difference.
This summer I look a different approach. Marc and I are
signed up for a race that basically involves running up and down a mountain;
one doesn’t do this type of terrain for time. And in a major departure, I’ve
been running without a watch. I’ll go out for an hour or two hours without concerning myself about pace or exact distance.
When you’re not fixated on your watch you start to look
around
I am by no means defecting into the no-count camp. I’m
wearing my Fitbit as I type this and will get on the scale this morning. I tell clients to
take a break from weighing themselves when they are scale prisoners. When
numbers cause you to be in a bad mood or zap pleasure from an activity or
day, it’s time to make a change. Now, I need to get over carrying my phone to take pictures as I
run…
Are you a counter or a
non-counter? What do you count? Has your counting ever crossed the line? Do you
run with a watch?
I am innately a non counter (shocker), but with the help of the fitbit / fitbit scale and nike gps app that has changed big time recently... its so easy/fun to see #s and i love getting a mid day "get up and get more steps" email. it has absolutely made me run farther and walk more. I run more for mileage than time but i think a little self-competition is a GREAT thing.
ReplyDeleteI am both. Love the numbers, train with numbers, analyze all the data and race using numbers. But when training and racing are all done, I love to just go for the fun of it. I know how many miles, or time but just for orientation. It brings the joy back to the activities and provides the much needed balance or I would most definitely quit triathlon. I have embraced my fitbit again during my "off season", but also for the fun of it.
ReplyDeleteLast year I also learned there is a real time and place to stop looking at the watch. During a race, I could not get my HR under control, which led to panic and walking. I would have been better off with RPE. Every race, or training, things can go wrong, Plan B is always needed.
I love numbers and I love lists. When I reach 10,000 steps, I cross it off my list. My problem is counting in my head while walking, drives me crazy!
ReplyDeleteI am absolutely a counter! I track stuff all the time and I have spreadsheets for everything from vacation itineraries to oil consumption. I use my phone for tracking my bike rides (distance, time, speed), and my son likes that too because he enjoys seeing how far he went and how fast he went. I also wear a heart rate monitor some of the time and during a spin class it's great to be able to watch it and see how high your heart rate goes during interval training, etc. It also tracks calories burned which is great (it's reasonably accurate because it's personalized and has a lot of user-entered data). I used it during bikram yoga (it connects to my phone, which was outside the room) and burned 750 calories in the 90 minutes. Pleasantly surprised!
ReplyDeleteThe Garmin was instrumental in helping me qualify for Boston. Yet, it also the Garmin that pushed me to do too much, too hard and to become overtrained this winter. I have been running without a watch for a few weeks now, and I am re-discovering the sheer joy that comes with the activity... It is all about the fine art of goal setting - a work in progress for me ;-). Full disclosure: I am not completely stat-free, since I now wear my FitBit religiously...
ReplyDeleteAh Boston, you're amazing. Maybe the key is stepping back every so often to see if the Fitbit is fun (I say yes!) or if there is joy and a feeling of accomplishment from running or spinning. I adored my Garmin for a while but running "free" is fantastic now.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's any doubt which camp you are in. Funny you mentioned spreadsheet, I was going to add in the post that I'm a counter when it comes to fun things (versus meaningful things like $ etc)
ReplyDeleteFunny, as well as I know you I wouldn't think of you as miss numbers. Interesting. And what goes on in our heads is a whole other post...stay tuned for Lauren meditating...maybe.
ReplyDeletewait, not sure which carolyn this is. If I don't know you, I'm so sorry.
ReplyDeleteYes, plan B and common sense are sometimes harder to get to for some (ok for me). Interesting that you can go from county to less count-oriented and enjoy each of those. I find when I am getting numbers oriented for a race etc I feel I'm missing something when I don't do it. Only now, having not raced for a while or "trained" formally could I come back to this new way of running.
ReplyDeleteso funny, see my comment above, I thought you were carolyn #1 and was shocked you were a numbers girl. I think Fitbit does a great job of keeping the fun factor. Who else says "way to go"?
ReplyDeletei am a total numbers person...in HS my swim coach always said your biggest competition is the clock. so i was fixated on times, numbers, etc. my first spin experience was at Flywheel, which gave me stats on everything and I knew what # i should strive to beat. I then walked into soulcycle (with no numbers) and let's just say I was not trying very hard and kept asking myself "how am i doing, how am i doing." I love the competition and goal setting aspect of trackers but sometimes I do think that it's nice to just go and be proud regardless of how far or how fast. Easy to say but hard for numbers lady like me to do...
ReplyDeletegood points. perhaps counters need to make efforts to count less and non counters need a little more numerical action, hadn't thought of it that way. And it seems our most tedious counting we all do is with sports (not to mention calorie counting belch)
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely into counting when it comes to activity (steps, calories burned, etc). I only weigh myself twice a month, though—I feel like it would drive me too crazy to do it more than that.
ReplyDelete