In the past I would always have various ways of attempting to tweak my workouts. Since technology was either non-existent or very unreliable with Strava making very strange mistakes including having me magically run 18 km in a few seconds due to a network glitch, I had to resort to more archaic methods or measuring my progress. I chose a particular parcel of land and would routinely run that route, meagerly hoping to be able to improve on my time although some days would just be "impossible" despite the fact that it was literally the exact same thing I had done a few days ago.
I started to question my diet, my sleep schedule, what time of day it was, other things that might be motivating me, getting frustrated because I started out too strong and finished weak and other days I started out too slow and had tons of energy left that was unused at the finish. While doing this was better than doing nothing, for sure, I didn't really have any real way of determining of I was actually getting any better. Even worse, I couldn't control my fatigue and because of this some days I really felt like I was actually GETTING WORSE.
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The Garmin Vivoactive 4 came into my life initially by accident because a friend of mine let me borrow his while he was injured. I toyed around with it a bit but the results I got from it didn't make a lot of sense because as far as the watch was concerned there was a guy that is 4 inches taller than me and probably around 35 lbs lighter than me that is moving in a very different way that he was a week ago. So while I did enjoy the real-time output the watch was showing me, it wasn't tailor made to me specifically.
When it was time to give it back to him because he was all healed up, I had a talk with him an he kind of explained the benefits of having the watch "know who you are" and how the results will be a lot more meaningful once you get a month or so of activities logged. Then you will be able to see your improvement a lot more easy than you could if you were just timing yourself or even just using the free version of Strava.
one of the main things that I really enjoy about it is the fact that based on your age predominantly, it will know where the best spot for your heart rate to be is. This was something that I was unable to accurately get a read on with other such devices that I have owned because they were too poor of quality to ever be able to know your heart rate unless you stopped moving completely and held your arm steady. That was just me being too stingy because doing that completely defeats the purpose of doing exercise, right?
Well, the Garmin that I have isn't their most expensive one, but it is kind of upper-mid-range and I am ok with that. As far as I can tell the heart rate monitor seems to be fairly accurate and now, especially when I am cycling, I tend to not look at how far I have gone or even how fast I am going or how long I have been doing it. Instead, I look at my heart rate and try to keep it in the range of 145 BPM or higher.
This puts me in the sweet spot of just above "aerobic" exercise and is considered by many to be the "safe" place to be as far as your heart rate is concerned. If I go above 165 it is considered a bit dangerous, but this is just because of my age. Now I have only entered that area a few times since I got my Garmin, and this is because I was chasing a traffic light that was about to turn red. When I got to the other side of that light, I didn't need to look at my Garmin to realize that I had king of briefly pushed my body to the limit.
These days when I am doing some sort of cardio the only thing I really try to do is to keep my heart rate over 150 or so because based on my age, that is my ideal exercise area according to I guess a bunch of doctors and scientists and what not. I look down when cycling only to check my heart rate and keep it in that area.
Now here comes the fun part:
There is a circuit that I do on a regular basis. There are a number of factors that can slow me down such as traffic and the amount of people that are on the trail that particular day, but for the most part the conditions don't affect my ability to move along all that much.
I have noticed that the same route that I take each day, while only monitoring my heart rate...well, I am gradually doing the same stretch of land faster and more efficiently even after just a week of trying. This could be because I am getting stronger or better at cycling and if that is the case then I am excited about that.
As someone who has primarily been doing strength training my leg muscles are not necessarily adept at doing anything practical like riding a bike. Now they have no choice but to be.
So I am looking forward to seeing this same stretch of land being something that I progressively get faster at despite the fact that I am not working my body any harder. A fundamental truth about cardiovascular fitness is that as your body and muscles become more attuned to that particular exercise, the less hard your heart has to work to provide the fuel to your body in order to keep your moving parts.... well moving the way that you want and need them to.
This wasn't something I could have possibly measured before I had this watch and let's just add that to the list of things that I really like about this watch.
I know I started out griping about how complicated it was to set the damn thing up but now I am very happy that I stuck it through because now, well, exercise is just a lot more exciting and efficient with it.