It's true that in the past, I have occasionally waxed ineloquent about the potential evils of technology, particularly phones with the Internet, often grabbing our attention from the people right in front of us.
I do not retract any statements.
However, when it comes to exercise, I've gone all starry-eyed with the technology at my fingertips. You see, I'm a results person. I don't get out there and sweat for an hour in the Colorado heat on the odd chance that it might do something good for me. I want to know things about what I just did, specific things.
Here are some things my phone tells me as I run:
1) Runkeeper app (free) keeps track of my distance via GPS.
2) Runkeeper keeps track of my pace and tells me at the end how my average pace compared to previous runs. For instance, yesterday I completed my fastest 4-6 mile run ever. I like to know this stuff! It also tells me my current pace as I'm running, which makes me pick up my pace, especially at the end. Did you know that when people run these 100 miles ultra marathons they have a pacer who runs next to them at the end to help them with their pace so they don't burn out? Well, well, well, I may not have a personal pacer, but I have a pacer in my pocket. It's very handy!
3) Fitbit keeps track of my heart rate during the entire run and when I'm done, I look at a graph of my heart rate and compare it with other runs.
4) I get to listen to the one year Bible and free audio books downloaded from the library the entire time I run. It's like reading and exercising at the same time. And it makes the miles fly by.
5) And of course, as I've mentioned before and just can't help mentioning again, there's the resting heart rate measure on the Fitbit app. I exercise because I like the results, and seeing my resting heart rate drop by 30 beats per minutes is downright amazing to see. Amazing. That'll keep me running!
6) I may sound like a living, breathing Fitbit commercial but I'm just so crazy about it, so one more thing. When setting up the app on your phone (which was suprisingly simple and intuitive) you can enter in your weight, age, and gender. Based on these facts plus the number of steps you've taken in a day and the kind of exercise, the app calculates the total number of calories you've burned. Now here's the cool part. You enter in a weight loss goal, as in, I'd like to lose 1 lb a week, and it calculates at each meal how much you should eat based on how much you want to lose and how much you've exercised that day. Say you get to dinner time and you only have 100 calories left for the day to stay within you goal. Well then, you take a few turns around the block and it allots you some more calories. I often enter food in before I eat. You can also manually track sports like basketball for a half hour, skating, swimming, etc.
Some people like to get out there and sweat for the pure joy of it all. Well good for them. Others get a Fitbit. I would say it was some of the best money I ever spent, except it was given to me. A pretty good gift. You should get one.
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