Techno Prisoners

Electric Eye by Judas Priest
A prescient slice of 80s metal foretelling the constant surveiilance of modern life, including using your fitness tech. Not that Rob Halford et al knew that at the time.

One of the things that keeps me going running now is being able to track what I'm doing. In the olden days, before the advent of Strava, smart tech and GPS, if you wanted to figure out how much you ran, you could only do it after the event with the aid of a map, a highlighter pen and a piece of string, give or take a pedometer. Apparently. I mean, as I only started seriously running about 5 years ago when I was able to use my phone to record my activity from day 1, I'm guessing. However, the thought of some emaciated hippy who was the first man to run the an ultra marathon in flip-flops working out the length of his training run with an unwound yoyo, a tape measure and shit-loads of swearing because he spilt lentil casserole on his OS map somehow makes me happy. 

GPS Satellites (Navstar, apparently)
Source: https://www.space.com/19794-navstar.html

The way we lean on this tech nowadays hit me after my long run this week. My usual ritual (and this is another blog post to come on the superstitions of people who do sport) is to start Spotify with a good playlist, start Strava on my phone and put in my earphones before tucking it into the rear pocket of my leggings (so much more convenient than the arm band phone holder I had) and also start my wrist tracker, and away I go. However, on this occasion I didn't quite manage to start Strava, which I only discovered when I got home. meaning I was restricted to using the data I obtained from my fitness tracker. The problem with my tracker is that it's a two year old Huawei Band 3 Pro which, although it has GPS, its output isn't compatible with Strava (and on the subject of compatibility, don't get me started on the closed shop, built-in obsolescence of Apple products). This is apparently something to do with Huawei's links to the Chinese government, meaning Strava can't know my location and VO₂ Max, but President Xi can. What the Leader of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the People's Republic would want to do with my fitness data, I have no idea. Anyway, besides not being compatible with Strava, the data is of a lesser quality, by which I mean that the distance recorded during a run by the Band 3 is usually less than that measured on my phone's Strava, so my performance stats are not as good. I know what you're thinking and the answer is no, I know the Strava data IS correct, because it's better! Results are typically about 14% lower on the Huawei which is a significant chunk. I believe this is a Chinese conspiracy to demoralise Westerners by making them think they are less fit than they actually are.

President Xi says "PULL MY FINGER!"
Actually, he's telling his cronies that I've just run my first km of a long run because he's watching my Huawei Band 4 Pro GPS feed
Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-president-xi-jinpings-critic-who-called-him-clown-over-coronavirus-is-missing-his-friends-say-2195103

It wasn't the end of the world. I am able to manually enter data on Strava, in terms of distance and time, but not the route or calories used (which can only be attached as a picture). This is a bit of a pain in the arse as it makes for a disjointed record with no continuity or cumulative stats, and doesn't show any segment results on runs. This is still better than what I can do for gym sessions that need to be recorded as miscellaneous activities, so I can record time spent working out, but the activity stats merely as a picture. If I get myself a bright and shiny Garmin or a fancier model of Fitbit, I can record different activities to include more metrics. Quite what I'd do with all this data, I don't know. It's not as if I'm that bothered about training to shave a few seconds off a 10K race time as I'm generally happy to get over the finish line with minimal jeffing and not be last.

One of my problems with most wearable fitness tech, especially watches, is that they're so fucking big. My wrists are quite thin, so I'd look like a bit of a twat wearing something the size of Big Ben that I'd have trouble getting a shirt sleeve over. I quite like my Band 3 Pro because it's quite discrete and looks almost like a bangle. I wear it on my right arm as I like to wear a regular watch on the left, and you'd look a double twat with a device the size of Big Ben on one wrist and a conventional watch on the other. That brings me to another thing that bugs me about running watches/fitness trackers: that you have to keep charging them up. I like the idea of a timepiece that keeps on going for literally years, no matter what you do to it. It's got to be waterproof so you can go snorkeling, and pretty robust so it can take knocks and bumps from scrambling over rocks, through jungles and over ruins. It feeds into my sense of adventure, especially when I'm travelling. All the better if it includes something like an alarm to ensure you don't sleep in when you've got an early flight to catch.

Now, I'm not saying fitness trackers are getting too big...
Source: https://www.mcbroom.biz/PMWF/Jaragar-sliderule-review.htm

My attitude to wearable fitness tech is a bit of a two edged thing. I like the idea of being a cyborg. There is no shortage of cyborgs in popular culture. I used to love the Six Million Dollar Man as a kid, although a fitness tracker is hardly going to enable you to run at 70 mph. They aren't going to turn you into a T-100 Terminator either ("I need you Garmin, your Vaporflys und your energy gels"). The sort of thing a fitness tracker or running watch does make you less a Terminator and more like Molly Millions from Willam Gibson novels who has various cybernetic implants that can monitor her movements and  a clock feeding directly into her optic nerve. The cyberpunk aspects of fitness tech do appeal to me, just don't think about who might be looking at your whereabouts (yes, President Xi, this means you).

William Gibson's cyberpunk icon, Molly Millions
Alive, alive-o, though less so than the guy ending up on the end of her scalpel finger implants
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/lizzychrome/art/Back-to-the-Sprawl-477902625

On the other hand, maybe I'm also a bit of a Luddite, in combination with being a bit of a tight-arse. I enjoy tracking my activities with some tech, but I'm not actually that bothered about drilling down to analyse all facets of the data, or things like being able to store and play music from my watch because I always have my phone. I'm certainly no fashion victim when it comes to having the latest gadgets either (see my comment above about Apple) and I've got quite simple needs and don't care if my gadgets are a couple of years old. In all, knowing how far you've run and how fast adds a video game element to running, giving you something to aim for. For example, last week I won a local Strava segment (first one ever, and probably the last) and things like this help make me just that little bit more than half-arsed.

This week's activities
Runs

Sunday: long run day >11.18 km (probably about 13km or more on Strava, >701 kcal, Shoes: New Balance WT410v6.0)

Spring is Sprung!
First run with short sleeves and ¾ bottoms without a base layer. Rocking the headband to control the lockdown hair

Long run route
It ain't no Strava, bro

Wednesday: Quick 5km trot, 5.22km (408 km, shoes: Asics Road Hawks)
Managed a wee run out round my original local 5K route.

A bit of semi-rural W Yorks en route
I really can't do decent selfies without looking like I'm in pain or asleep

Running was powered by Tikiboo and one of the tracks in my favourite playlists for running that really envelope you and keep you going forward is this fantastic piece of mid-90s German Trance by SASH! I don't know if it's actually techno, but it would fit the theme if it was.

Other stuff

Friday: Rest day (had intended to run, but the nefarious activities of a small boy meant I wasn't able to)

Saturday: Body Combat (BC United, 60 minutes,  463 kcal)

Monday: Body Combat (BC Extreme Cardio (sic), 45 minutes, 383 kcal)

Tuesday: Body Combat (BC 80, 45 minutes, 354 kcal)

Jumping knee still
If you ever wondered what a Minty Leopard looked like in mid leap, now you know

 
Thursday: Live Clubbercise (45 minutes, give or take a call from work. 230 kcal)

More Leopards
They look so great in UV