Keeping the Beat

Last night I reassembled a slightly broken Fitbit Charge HR that my sister had given me to fix and use. A little careful assembly and some superglue were all it needed really. I did have some difficulty getting it to synch up with my phone, but in the end it all worked out.

I immediately got curious about the heart rate monitor. My resting HR was about 47 bpm, as I was looking through the features of the app on my phone, but the thing insisted it was 60. Maybe it’s just getting calibrated, and sets 60 as an average resting heart rate to start for everyone. I am also looking forward to tracking my sleep patterns. The school year is almost upon me and I have the strong impression that I’m getting a lot less than 6 hours of sleep per night while school is in session. I’m just not sure how bad it is, and this will be a way to track it.

The Fitbit is sort of a transition piece of equipment for me. Aside from the fact that I can’t read it while running (because the text is too small, and shows up poorly in sunlight), I do want to get something more comprehensive. I’ve been looking at some of Garmin’s product line. I like the idea of the GPS tracking. It will free me up from running on the track. In some respects I’d rather be running in the Wissahickon Gorge, but the precision of the track appeals to me. It makes me feel like I can be more sure about progress that I am making (or not). It’s probably the scientist in me. Speaking of science, here are today’s results added to the workouts thus far:

1. (7/29) 10:06
2. (7/30) 10:02
3. (7/31) 9:56
4. (8/1) 10:02
5. (8/2) (day off)
6. (8/3) 10:03
7. (8/4) 10:18
8. (8/5) 11:02 –> 13:15 (2.4k)
9. (8/6) 9:56
10. (8/7) No run, played Pickleball
11. (8/8) 9:46
12. (8/9) (day off)
13. (8/10) 10:08
14. (8/11) (day off)
15. (8/12) 9:45
16. (8/13) (day off)
17. (8/14) (day off)
18. (8/15) 9:20 (with Kian and Brendan)
19. (8/16) (day off)
20. (8/17) 9:48 (Heart rate avg: 146; peak: 164)

It’s says something about the accuracy of the Fitbit when I can see the peak HR levels coincide with the last 200m when I started my kick, and there’s another bump when I started the fifth lap thinking, “I’ve got to make sure I keep pace.”

These mental reflections on my day are not the same as writing in a journal, but they are close. They are easier for me because I can go back and change sentences that don’t come out right the first time. That doesn’t work with ink and paper.