Day 20 of London to Brighton Training: In which I bring modern technology to bear.

Day 20 of London to Brighton Training: In which I bring modern technology to bear.

I work in technology.  Specifically in computer software and, although I’m a semi-geek (or semi-real person, depending on your viewpoint), I am a man and, as such, LURVE a gadget, so it seemed natural that I should seek to deploy technology to aid me in my preparation for this challenge and my quest for fitness.

When I was young, the closest thing to technology in fitness was a drinking fountain. Putting your thumb over the nozzle as people walked past was a sure way of encouraging them to run faster, so I was intrigued to see how things had moved on.  I’m not talking about the development in machines at the gym or even the fact that training shoes now seem to employ technology that would have been the preserve of the space program the last time I ran for ‘fun’, but rather the proliferation of hi tech aids to support the budding athlete in their quest for performance.

Some years ago, I bought a heart-rate monitor watch. This was a mistake.  Actually, this was in fact TWO mistakes.  The first mistake was that I hadn’t actually realised it was a heart-rate monitor watch at the outset.  I merely needed a watch, ideally waterproof so that I could swim in it and this one seemed to be a good deal, plus had images of people doing all sorts of athletic feats on their athletic feet and importantly, judging by their expressions, enjoying them.  If a watch could do this for me, then it certainly seemed worth the investment.  I then realised that this had the advantage of telling me how strong my heart was beating, and I was sold.  I don’t know if you’re familiar with these devices, but basically they consist of a digital watch, combined with a strap that secures around your chest with Velcro.

Important tip: – if you have a hairy chest, ensure you get the Velcro the right way round.

This strap contains a sensor which, when positioned over your heart, transmits a signal to the watch, which then displays your heart rate on the watch display – assuming of course that:

1)      It can measure something with a rate measured in MHz

2)      That the display on the watch can handle numbers that large.

Which was my second mistake.  These watches may be ideal for athletes who are using them to monitor their heart rate as the train, aiming for specific target rates at key points in their workout.  What they are not designed to do recognise that the mere act of giving yourself a depilation worthy of a Chippendale - the dancer not the cabinet (although some would say I move like one) –by misuse of Velcro is enough to raise your heart rate to that of a 4-minute-miler. I was fully expecting the numbers on the watch face to disappear and be replaced by the words “I think you should go and sit down somewhere quiet, and wait for the ambulance”.  Besides, the last thing I need when exercising is something that provides a tight feeling across my chest.  Nature does that for me free of charge.

So when the chest strap went missing and the battery died, the watch was consigned to one of those drawers which exist solely for the accumulation of things that you don’t throw away “because it may be useful one day”.  I’m surprised Ikea don’t do a complete range of furniture just for these items.  They could call it Yooshlessstufinboxen.   Perhaps I should suggest it?

However, this experience has done nothing to diminish my love of gadgets or my determination to deploy them in to good use in this endeavour and those of you who may have read any of these posts of Facebook may be aware of periodic posts made from my phone, using one of the ‘Apps’ specifically designed to monitor and improve your training and the one I am using is called ‘Runkeeper’.  There are a great many of these applications available, each with their own specific strengths, weaknesses and functions, sometimes geared towards a specific form of training.  I selected this one on the basis that someone said “Hey you’re walking you should get Runkeeper it’s really cool”.

I am of an age where I remember the Fonz, so am a sucker for ‘Cool’.

You enter personal information such as height and weight, select the relevant type of exercise and the phone uses its GPS functionality to track where you’ve been, your pace, the amount of calories you’ve used and many, many more functions.  It is, allegedly, possible to set up training plans and if you don’t exercise it sends you an email reminding you that you haven’t kept your promise to it, but the last thing I need is yet another conscience, particularly one that I can’t have a rational argument with. I’m not totally convinced about the accuracy of some of its calculations – on a  recent walk it calculated the calories burned, which seemed to equate to around 240 bags of crisps.  Naturally I took this with a pinch – or rather a little blue bag – of salt and did not eat all 240. 

Look up little blue bag of salt if you’re too young to understand.

Incidentally, following a talk at A’s studio last month, I have forsworn crisps in some sort of training equivalent of Lent.  Everyone had to give up something and it was that or, in truth, Brighton. The talk discussed techniques such as “EFT” (Emotional Freedom Technique) which involves tapping yourself on various points on the head as you repeat positive and negative reinforcement statements.

I’m told it’s very powerful and effective.

But then I’m told by our ruling elite that “we’re all in this together” and I don’t see THEM giving up crisps.  I listened and tried tapping, but being honest, I don’t think I was really trying very hard.  I did find myself repeating a word, but as it wasn’t a very complimentary one, I won’t mention it here.  I am sure that there IS a way that tapping me on the head would help dissuade me from crisps, but it would take more than my finger. 

 

However I do know people who say it’s very effective, so please don’t let me dissuade you from trying this rub…. interesting technique, if you feel you want to try it.

One issue with Runkeeper, apart from its tendency to announce exactly how you’re doing in a loud American accent, is that it relies on a GPS signal to work.  This means that it neither works in the gym – much like me – and also that it tends to get through batteries the way I used to get through crisps.  This means that the already rather paltry battery life of an iPhone is reduced to something even more pitiful, which is not ideal when contemplating walks of many hours.  Of course, being a geek, I have an assortment of external batteries and charging options, but one does not really want to carry 3Kg of additional weight, just to be able to see how many steps one is taking in 15 minutes.  I’m trying hard to take LESS weight with me on walks, not more!

Which led me to my next impulse purchase, which is a fitness monitor.  These come in a range of types, some of which you wear on your belt, round your neck or indeed fixed to your trainer (the shoe, not the lycra-clad terrorist one employs at certain gyms). Some connect wirelessly to your phone, others have dedicated displays built in.  Think of them as the Pedometer for the iPod generation.

The one I selected is called an ‘Up’ band.  I’m not sure if the name influenced me, but I thought it somewhat ironic, given that one of the features that interested me was that it claimed to monitor your sleep patterns as well as exercise.  The idea is that, just before bed, you press the button in a particular sequence and it then monitors your movements, presenting you the following morning with a graphical analysis of your sleep, divided into ‘deep’ and ‘light’ sleep.

This is heaven for the geek.

It also allows you to log how you’re feeling, so this can be correlated with your sleep patterns and used to identify any trends.  You will be astounded to learn that less sleep = feeling tired and grumpy.  OK, I had begun to suspect this, but as any teenager can vouch for, in this day and age something isn’t true until it’s displayed on your phone screen.  It also has a ‘Power Nap’ feature, allowing it to be set to wake you up at the most opportune point in a short sleep cycle, which is does by vibrating.  I used this feature.  Quite a lot actually.

Unlike some of its competitors, it’s not actually unattractive, which means it’s with you all the time and, being based on movements of your body rather than GPS, it works indoors as well as outside.  This is also useful because it can be set to vibrate if you’re sedentary for more than a certain period.  The idea is that, if it vibrates, you get up from your desk and do some exercise, thus avoiding your chair from becoming permanently grafted to your you-know-what.  It can also be calibrated to measure the distance you walk which was actually surprisingly accurate, and only suggested I should eat 174 packets of crisps, which is wholly more realistic.

So all in all, a highly practical and useful aid to my training.  Or it would be if the flipping thing worked for more than a few weeks.  The first one was rapidly becoming my gadget of the year, when for no apparent reason, the battery refused to charge.  Oh well, these things happen and the nice gentleman at Tesco Direct replaced it without a quibble (another word right up there with Addendum).  The second one seemed fine, right up until it too, refused to charge.  So now I am faced with a double quandary: Do I replace this with a third and hope that I have simply been unlucky, or do I replace it with one of its competitors which, whilst offering the possibility of greater quality control, somehow have an air of ‘sports’ about them.

I think it’s the rubber.

 Perhaps I should see if I can buy a good old-fashioned, mechanical pedometer online and give the replacement UP band they have offered me to someone else as a present.

 So you never know, you could find yourself being given one of these wondrous gadgets by me.  But, in the words of Virgil:

 Beware of Geeks bearing gifts.

 (If you’ve enjoyed this post and  you’re feeling generous, you can sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/Richard-Stanton2 - doesn’t matter how much, every penny is really gratefully received.  Thank you.)