Are you using your watch data in a helpful or harmful way?
I love data. I love my Garmin watch. I love Strava. I love recovery tech. I love it all. However, I use it all extremely cautiously and don’t let it dictate my training, my feelings, or my recovery. I use all this data as one tool in my gigantic toolbox of training. While I’m no expert in the field, I’ve observed quite a few interesting takes over the years of experimenting and using different gadgets in different ways. Here are some of my takeaways.
The Backstory:
I started running in 2009 at the age of 16 and I used little-to-no technology. I always ran with my Mom, who mapped out the distance of our runs by using a paper map and a string with Sharpie kilometer markings on it. Eventually she got a Garmin watch that was more than half the size of her forearm (who remembers that era of watches?), which was a handy tool to reaffirm to us that we were in fact running approximately the distances that we thought we were. As I “aged” and moved out, I got myself a Casio stopwatch so I could at least know how long I was out without my Mother’s support. This is how I trained for my first full marathon (granted I still did most of my long runs with my Mom and her gigantic Garmin).
Present day:
Fast forward what seems like a million years and I’ve gone through a few generations of Suunto and Garmin watches. I signed up for Strava and love geeking out on numbers after every run with my partner, who is also an avid runner. I’ve gone through phases of caring more or less about the data and I’ll be the first to admit there have definitely been times where I’ve overanalyzed certain things that it’s had a negative effect on me to some extent. However, in the big picture I tend to not get too caught up in what the numbers are trying to tell me but purely find them an interesting conversation starter at the dinner table. Okay, probably more than just a conversation starter; I do like to look at trends over the big picture and try to see any area that I might be able to improve on.
The Good:
There’s no doubt about it that there are lots of amazing features that fancy watches provide us. If they didn’t, would we spend that much money on them? Probably not. Here are a few ways I love to use the numbers from my watch:
Overall weekly mileage tracking: While mileage certainly isn’t everything, I do like to look at consistency over the long haul and having a watch that tracks everything makes this extremely convenient.
Pace: I rarely run by pace, but if I’m training for a specific time for a “fast and flat” road race, I definitely cling onto certain paces for some key workouts to give me confidence for what I might be able to run on race day. I love having this feature on my watch for those days!
Maps: My watch model has a mapping feature which has proven to be incredibly useful in some mountain objectives that I may or may not have gotten lost in. It’s also an incredibly nice back up to have routes of trail races on your watch in case you get confused at a junction or if the course isn’t marked sufficiently enough for whatever reason.
The not-so-good:
Everyone’s opinions will vary widely and my opinions are just that - opinions based on my own preferences and observations. I recognize these will be totally different for everyone, but here are a few things I would personally recommend “taking with a grain of salt” from you watch data:
Sleep score: I’ve gone through periods of extreme insomnia where I know for sure that I’m awake for most of the night but my watch tells me otherwise. I think it’s because I’m laying there so still while I attempt to meditate myself back to sleep, but I know for sure that the sleep data has rarely been accurate. I’ve gone through phases of wearing my watch 24/7 to try and get the most out of all the data that the watch has to offer, but overall, I appreciate only wearing my watch for running.
Training status: Please send me an email if you’ve ever had a successful “productive” streak for more than a few weeks… (IYKYK). Okay so I wasn’t too fussed about this (I’m still not) but I made an interesting observation recently when I went from wearing my watch 24/7 back to wearing it just running. When I wore my watch 24/7, it basically always told me I was maintaining (classic). Occasionally I got a few days of strained or overreaching, which to be fair was probably completely true during those times because I was also wearing my watch to work, which saw me hiking ~60-70km per week with a chainsaw on my back. Try to train for an ultramarathon on top of that and yes, you’re right Garmin, I was probably overreaching a little. However, now that I’ve only been wearing my watch for running, I’ve had a lot longer of a “productive” streak than I’ve ever seen before (see cover photo for this post). This tells me that my watch thinks my training stats are sufficient, but it doesn’t think I recover enough? I suppose now that it doesn’t know how I sleep or what I do in between runs, it assumes the best. Thanks, Garmin!
Heart rate zones: Heart rate zones from your watch are not accurate. The only way to truly know your heart rate zones is by getting it tested in a lab with fancy equipment and tests. I suggest running by feel and gauging if you could have a conversation or not, rather than hyper fixating on what zone your watch tells you you’re in. See my previous blog post which dives deeper into heart rate training.
Race time predictors: I actually think that for a watch these aren’t too inaccurate as a whole. I’ve seen mine be within ~10-15 minutes of my marathon time, so I actually think that’s decent. However, the day after I ran a 2:58 marathon, it still predicted that my marathon time was 3:10! Again, not completely off, but I had just recorded a 2:58 marathon on that watch, so you’d think it would be able to clue in? I suppose not.
I could go on about the nuances of how I like and dislike certain aspects of data and technology, but I think you get the picture: use it as a tool, don’t let it dictate your training (that’s why you have a coach!). One thing to note is that I do a lot of trail running with a lot of elevation and technical terrain. The watch can’t tell how technical the terrain is, so it just thinks I ran a 30 minute mile because of my fitness level. I do think that running in this variety of terrain skews the data to an extent.
It’s neat to see the evolution of watches and technology over the years and how it’s been able to help improve our training, but don’t ever forget the simplicity of what running is: right foot, left foot, repeat.