Running Without Numbers
The move from New York City to Boulder, CO has been a big life change . In terms of my mental and physical health it has been a success. A big part of my new life out here is trail running.
I go running fiver or more times a week and often with friends from various running groups in the area. It is a great way to connect with people, spend time on trail, and see some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. I am still surprised that I get to live in all of this beauty. I wonder if one day I will take it for granted.
Exercise and outdoor activity are not just a way of life here, but can become an obsession. Many of the people in the groups I run with compete in 100 mile ultra races. I think this might be one of the few places in the world where a doctor would advise running less in order to improve health outcomes.
Not surprisingly the Strava App is very popular here. It is not only a useful measurement tool for physical activity, it has also become my primary social media platform. I often check my phone to see what types of exercise my friends are doing and give them “kudos” for their outings. The posted photos and the GPS tracks give you a good sense of what everyone is up to.
People here put a lot of focus on stats and measurement. They record their heart rate, track food intake, calculate vertical gain and distance traveled, compute pace and much more. In fact there are a plethora of products that you can purchase to explore your exercise stats and other stats about your life.
As a science person it makes a lot of sense to me to perform some measurement and analysis. Why not use mathematical tools for self-improvement. It has certainly been a key innovation for professional athletes. In fact I remember when I was running half marathons in New York there was a time when I focused on setting a new personal record. I converted my regular runs into Fartlek training. I would sprint for 4 minutes and then jog for 4 minutes repetitively for ten cycles. I did this multiple times per week. This training dramatically improved my running speed.
But then one morning I woke up and did not feel like going out for a run. I started making excuses and sleeping in. This was strange because the joy of running has always been my super power. I usually feel so alive when I am out on a run. Somehow the desire for improvement was getting in the way of my love of running. So I stopped the training program and probably did not reach my full race speed potential. But here I am at 50 years old running up mountains, so I must have done something right.
I am starting to look differently at measurement and exercise. In fact I think this applies beyond just exercise to many aspects of life. I think there is value in being precise and looking at the data. The human brain is a biased mechanism. The same distance run can feel long or short depending on a variety of factors. Measurement can be a good way to check assumptions and get insights that are not readily apparent to our brains. So I use Stava to see how far I go and how fast I am running. The app is more accurate for these things than perception.
But there is also a danger in measurement. The reason I run, the reason I exercise, the reason I go into the mountains, is to be healthy, to have a good life, and find inner peace. I do this by developing awareness of my body and my exercise experience. I try to be in tune with my hydration level, the condition of my muscles, and the capabilities of my cardiovascular system as I engage in trail running.
Running is a form of meditation for me. When people meditate they are not trying to get precise measurements on the duration of the experience, or the depth of ones breath. The point of meditation is to be in tune with your experience and be aware of what is happening in your body, with your feelings and your thoughts.
I worry that the types of measurements we make on exercise sometimes interfere with that connection. When we focus on the speed, duration or other statistical measure of an experience we become less connected to that experience. We have less of a sense of what was actually going in our bodies and minds.
Sometimes it seems like people focus more on their pace or other stats after completing a run rather than asking themselves how did it feel? How am I doing? What was my experience on the run? How is this run contributing to my life? Is it possible that we are focusing on the wrong things?
When I woke up that morning in NYC and decided not to go for a run I think my body or mind was telling me that being faster was not the most important thing. What is important is the joy I get from being out there. That is not something that a GPS watch, or Strava, or any of the products available can give me insight into.
I worry that the same thing happens with other measurement such as quantity of sleep, grades in school, performance at a job, etc. There is a place for measurement and calculation for sure. I am not saying that we should eliminate it from our lives. But maybe we need to spend more time being with ourselves and noticing what there is to notice. Maybe there are things that the measurements can’t tell us. And I worry that sometimes the act of measurement gets in the way of our mental health, physical health and happiness.
I think I am going to head out on a run now and not take my GPS watch, or my phone. I am just going to be out there in the mountains noticing my breaths, feeling the sun on my skin and being at one with the landscape.
