# The tyranny of the tracker!



## Northerner (Oct 1, 2018)

I only used to wear my Garmin watch when I went out on a run, but since moving up here to Harrogate I've found it very useful when going out on walks in the countryside because it records a map of your route as well as giving all the usual information about walking pace, calories, time etc. All that is great, but I've also been drawn into the daily 'step' and 'intensive minutes' goals  It has been encouraging me to have fewer (i.e. no) 'easy days', but I've found it can become a bit of an obsession  A couple of weeks ago my run of achieving my daily goals had reached 17 days and I was trying to aim for 30, but I failed by missing the 18th daily goal by about 30 steps!  So annoying!  Then I started concentrating more on the monthly steps goals. In September I walked 400k steps, and in the last week of the month I did 26 times my weekly goal of intensive minutes  I walked/ran about 130 miles in total - now I'm knackered!  

Anyone else become obsessed with their tracker?

Think I might give this a go for a few days...


(www.silversurfers.com)


----------



## Lanny (Oct 1, 2018)

Northerner said:


> I only used to wear my Garmin watch when I went out on a run, but since moving up here to Harrogate I've found it very useful when going out on walks in the countryside because it records a map of your route as well as giving all the usual information about walking pace, calories, time etc. All that is great, but I've also been drawn into the daily 'step' and 'intensive minutes' goals  It has been encouraging me to have fewer (i.e. no) 'easy days', but I've found it can become a bit of an obsession  A couple of weeks ago my run of achieving my daily goals had reached 17 days and I was trying to aim for 30, but I failed by missing the 18th daily goal by about 30 steps!  So annoying!  Then I started concentrating more on the monthly steps goals. In September I walked 400k steps, and in the last week of the month I did 26 times my weekly goal of intensive minutes  I walked/ran about 130 miles in total - now I'm knackered!
> 
> Anyone else become obsessed with their tracker?
> 
> ...



Ah! Just wait & you'll be looking at the ruddy thing after every few steps around the house. Then questioning the accuracy of the steps count from the living room to the kitchen fridge: that's MORE than 50 steps! I got VERY obsessive with the steps counter on the Health app when I bought my first smartphone the iPhone 6. I carried it everywhere with me just to keep counting the steps!

Now, with a tracker on my wrist, I'm much more relaxed & take the results as a general indication of my energy levels. If I have more energy I will automatically move more!


----------



## Matt Cycle (Oct 1, 2018)

How accurate are the steps counters?  I haven't got one but speaking to people at work who have them I'm yet to be convinced of their accuracy.  At least with the Garmin for routes it uses GPS so is accurate with distances and speeds.


----------



## Northerner (Oct 1, 2018)

Matt Cycle said:


> How accurate are the steps counters?  I haven't got one but speaking to people at work who have them I'm yet to be convinced of their accuracy.  At least with the Garmin for routes it uses GPS so is accurate with distances and speeds.


Actually my Garmin is quite accurate on the steps as when I do routes on it it calculates my stride length, which fits with the number of steps I do when not measuring a route (if you see what I mean!). I saw a feature on the TV once though where they compared trackers and some of them were way out


----------



## HOBIE (Oct 1, 2018)

Good stuff Northy.


----------



## Chris Hobson (Oct 2, 2018)

I tend not to obsess too much about mine. I just treat it as a bit of fun. When I'm training for a fairly big event all the little dials fill up pretty quickly anyway.


----------



## HOBIE (Oct 3, 2018)

Benny G said:


> My smartwatch has gps, google maps and a compass, so yes high accuracy. You can turn off the GPS and still have a pretty accurate step counter.


I had a GPS on my M/Bike Car & Van. If I put ne tyres on either it made a difference to speed & how far. All Garmins ?


----------



## Lisa66 (Oct 4, 2018)

I've had a Fitbit 1 for a couple of years or so and when I first had it I was fascinated, some may say slightly obsessed, with it. If we we going out for a long walk and 2 mins drive away I realised I'd forgotten to put it on, I would want to go back, even though husband would say that I will still have walked the x amount of miles. Not so bad now. Although we are away in a couple of weeks for a city break and I love to see how far we've walked at the end of the day. 

As far as accuracy, I do sometimes put my iPad , with fit bit page/thingy showing, on the treadmill in front of me while having a run and it seems to be spot on steps wise....that's a bit sad isn't it?


----------



## Drummer (Oct 5, 2018)

This brings to mind something I read long ago - 

Wherever you go whatever you do, remember Big Brother is watching you.


----------



## eggyg (Oct 7, 2018)

When I did the million steps for Diabetes UK a couple of years ago, I was obsesssd with my Fitbit, I wore it all the time and if I hadn’t done my target by bedtime I would walk up and down the garden with my PJs on until I hit it! Not so obsessed now, I just pop it on when we go out for a walk so it doesn’t count the numerous times I go up and down the stairs or when I hoover etc. I remember watching a Christmas episode ( I think) of Outnumbered, and the dad had got one for a present, as usual they had got into bother, car broke down I think it was and they were waiting in a pub for a lift and he was getting stressed. He was walking up and down tapping his Fitbit and proclaiming to everyone how high his blood pressure was and how many steps he had done etc. It made me laugh because when Mr Eggy first got his he was exactly the same, stopping and tapping and telling me every detail! Gets a bit wearing after a while!


----------



## Flower (Oct 7, 2018)

I am slightly obsessed with mine once I worked out that it doesn't make any difference using crutches, for a while I thought it was double counting every step with feet and crutches but it only counts once. I can't go to bed if I know I'm just a 100 steps off the next thousand so walk up and down the hall until it ticks over.  

I don't like it telling me that I've fallen asleep in the chair, it's like a spy!  -it always seems to be for 1 hr 2 mins- a very accurate sleeper! but it is useful for finding the part of the obviously fascinating tv programme I was watching before resting my eyes for just a moment


----------



## Northerner (Oct 7, 2018)

Flower said:


> I can't go to bed if I know I'm just a 100 steps off the next thousand so walk up and down the hall until it ticks over.


Hehe! I saw a runner today who was obviously running up the road a short way then running back in order to achieve some round number/PB  Not that I have ever done this....!  Well, maybe once or twice


----------

