This Again?
We are once again in a “Claudia Gets Accused of Cheating” phase on the Garmin Connect app. So to reiterate it one more time:
I do not fake my walking/running data. Every step, every mile, every route is 100% real and done by me. I’m not on Garmin Connect to compete with anyone (I do join challenges, but I truly do not care where I place in them; I sign up for the badges but that’s usually the last thought I give them). I’m on there because it records my data in case I lose my other backups. I have literally no reason to fake my data.
Also (and I’ve mentioned this before as well): do you know how hard it would be to fake this? Not only would I have to find somebody or something I could attach my Garmin to to get the miles done for me, but they’d have to be somebody/something that did this consistently and consistently enough for it to look “real” AND they’d have to have been doing it since like 2018 (or whenever I got my first Garmin, I can’t remember). They’d also have to travel to Moscow when I’m in Moscow in order to show up at the right location, haha.
It’s to the point where faking the data would be as much (or more) work than just doing the distance.
AND ANOTHER THING: my Garmin isn’t the only thing I use to track this stuff. I use the iTreadmill app on my iPod, too.
The only person I would be cheating if I were to do so is myself, and I want to continue to proudly say that all my mileage is 100% real and 100% mine.
This is the only thing in this universe that I’m good at. SO SHUT THE HELL UP AND LET ME HAVE THIS.
Watch This!
It’s finally time to replace my old Garmin. He completely died on me on a run a month or so ago and so I implemented a “three strikes” rule. Three deaths during runs/walks = replacement.
And so after the third strike occurred, I decided to order a newer, slightly fancier Garmin: the Forerunner 165!
This thing has a touch screen, which is pretty wild, and a highly customizable watch face. This is what I currently have, but I’m sure I’ll change it like 200 times.
Hopefully he’ll last a long time!
Ultra
GUYS, I DID IT
I ran an ultra-marathon!*
50K (31.1 miles) to be exact. It took me five hours, but I did it. Got a badge on my Garmin, too.
Turns out breaking through that marathon barrier is much more mental than it is physical (though I kind of figured it would be).
Now…any other year, this distance would be sufficient. But because the Calgary Marathon is celebrating it’s 60th year next year, the ultra-marathon distance has been increased from 50K to 60K. So I need to tack on another 10K (6.2 miles) to what I ran today. That’s another hour-ish of running.
Can I do it?
I guess we’ll see!
It’s so nice, though, to have this distance accomplished.
*I guess any distance longer than a marathon is technically an ultra, but 50K is the generally accepted “shortest” ultra distance in most cases when it comes to actual races.
BURN IT DOWN
British Columbia is ON FIRE!
Spokane is ON FIRE!
But let’s pretend they’re not and check out the fact that I walked/ran the distance of the Appalachian Trail.
(It’s a lie, I earned this on the 19th, but didn’t sync until the 20th.)
TACTICAL GARMIN
Are you a spy?
Are you a sniper?
Do you want to pull an Ocean’s 11 but still want to be able to look at your wrist and see what time it is?
This thing is intense. Weather reports. A ton of navigation stuff and maps. A ballistics calculator. Golf. Green and white flashlights. Night vision. Stealth mode. Ways to save geo positions to find your way in future situations. Some doohickey to help you jump out of a plane without dying. A way to track something (someone?????) you’re hunting. A freaking kill switch in case you get caught and need to mind-erase the data from your Garmin.
ALL FOR THE LOW, LOW PRICE OF $1600!
(That actually doesn’t sound too bad for all you’re getting.)
I had no idea Garmin made such serious gear. Kinda dig it.
MAXIMUM
Ever since I started using a Garmin to record my walks/runs/etc., my VO2 max has maxed out (haha) at the top of the “excellent” range.
Today, however, I finally achieved SUPERIOR!
I know nobody cares. But I do. So HA.
New Garmin!
So I’ve had my Garmin Forerunner 35 since…2018 I think. A good amount of time, at least. And during that time, it’s been used a LOT and has been exposed to all sorts of very cold and reasonably hot temperatures.
As expected given how much I’ve used it, it’s starting to wear down, battery-wise. It’s getting harder to make it through a longer walk, and sometimes it just freezes up and needs to reset when I try to start a run/walk.
So my mom and I went to Best Buy and I got a (slight) upgrade!
Meet my new Garmin Forerunner 45. He unfortunately does not have the lime green band like my 35 did, but he’s got a color display and does a few extra things over my old version.
It was SO TEMPTING to get a bigger upgrade (and the Apple Watches were tempting as well, haha), but all I do is run in the city and thus can’t justify a fancier watch that has all the trail maps, etc. built in. Plus, this one really does do everything I need.
Woo!
Press X to Doubt
So Garmin has these little online challenge thingies that you can do through its app where you’re competing with other people for things like highest monthly step count, most monthly running miles, most miles cycled in a given amount of time, etc. Every once and a while I get in a challenge where someone gets accused of cheating and faking their data.
This week, that someone was me.
So a few things.
1) It should go without saying, but I do not fake my data. Anyone who knows me knows that my walking/running/steps are legit. I’m just putting that out there.
2) There are almost definitely people who fake their data in one way or another. It’s inevitable on something like this (even though the only real “reward” you get from winning these challenges is bragging rights I guess?). However, everyone else I’ve ever seen accused of cheating does not share their individual activities – only their totals (miles, steps, whatev). I share my activities. You can see every walk and run I log and you can even look at the map and see exactly where I went. That would be hard to fake unless I was giving someone else my Garmin and having them do the miles for me.
3) The amount of effort that would be required to fake this data is just not worth it, especially for as long as I’ve had my Garmin (fall 2018 I think?). It’s probably less effort to just do the actual steps, honestly.
I mean, I guess I could be flattered by the fact that people think I’m faking the amount of steps I’m taking, but it’s more annoying than anything.
Anyway.
VO2-The-Max!
Aloha. Let’s talk about my VO2 max.
According to this site, “VO2 max, also known as maximal oxygen uptake, is the measurement of the maximum amount of oxygen a person can utilize during intense exercise. It is a common measurement used to establish the aerobic endurance of an athlete prior to or during the course of training. It is one of several tests used to determine an athlete’s cardiovascular fitness and performance capacity.”
Typically, the more endurance sports/activities you do, you are more likely to have higher VO2 max scores. And of course, correlation does not equal causation, but there does tend to be, you know, correlation between these two things.
So what have my VO2 max scores been since the start of the year? Let’s see.
Ohhhh, okay. Random. Cool.
Note that there’s a break in the graph because I had to stitch together two different display screens from my Garmin app.
Of course, another disclaimer here is that I’m not getting my VO2 max professionally measured here; these readings are coming from my Garmin. But I would think any measurement error would be somewhat consistent across time, right?
I just find it weird that there seems to be no pattern whatsoever, and I bet if you looked at this you couldn’t be able to tell if I’d started seriously running at any point during the year and if I’d stopped seriously running at any point during the year.
(Serious 13+ mile runs twice a week started around the end of April I think; I have kept those up ever since, so there hasn’t been a stopping point.)
And like…I am very consistent with the type of exercise I do as well as the duration. It’s not like I’m doing dramatically different exercises on these days. I’m either a) running 14 miles or b) walking 16 miles. That’s basically it.
I also find it weird that I think my circulation has gotten worse since I started running, but that’s whatev.
Body, you’re strange.
Somebody’s Got a Tan
Hint: It’s me.
At least on my arms. You can see where I normally wear my Garmin, haha.
Also, ignore how hairy my arms are. I am a yeti.
THE COLD, IT BURNS
There are few things quite like the sweet, sweet pain of losing all feeling in your toes, fingers, lips, and nose while you’re out walking for four hours in weather that’s way too cold. But hey, -15 feels tropical compared to that -30s nonsense we’ve had for the past few days, so I took leave of whatever modicum of common sense I have this morning and braved the cold for an outside walk.
It hurt. It hurt good.
(Except for those 10 minutes I spent shivering uncontrollably in the bathroom by the side of the path which subsequently and unexpectedly turned into a panic attack? That wasn’t very fun. But when I was done with that nonsense, the sun had come out, so the rest of the walk was fine.)
Edit: ha, my Garmin picked up the panic attack. Heart rate spike around 1 hour 40 minutes or so.
Garmin Forerunner 35
So today is my first day wearing my new Garmin Forerunner 35 as opposed to my Fitbit, which is slowly falling apart.
The Garmin has GPS (which my Fitbit does not), so I can finally get an accurate assessment of my walking distance.
Let’s give ‘er a roll and see how she does.
Edit: OH MY GOD THIS GIVES YOU SO MUCH COOL INFORMATION.
In GPS mode, it gives you a map of your activity.
It also gives you a plot of your pace. I always wondered how consistent my pace was on a 15-mile walk. Turns out it’s pretty damn consistent.
Heart rate! It was all over the place here. To be fair, though, my route was relatively up and down and had a decent number of stops at lights.
Elevation change!
This is freaking awesome. I love it.
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