Jeremy Stangroom

Friends, I'm interested in the aspects of our lives that we quantify & keep a mental running tally of (& that make us panicky if we stop enumerating them). I keep mental account of my weight; miles i've run this week/month; money in/out; VO2 max; number of books i've read etc

An economist running friend of my used to track his training miles, weight, race times, training run times & calorie intake on a spreadsheet. It had an on-going regression analysis on it so he could see what made a difference!

He used to weigh in on a Saturday morning. In the end, he stopped the whole thing because he found that he was starving himself on the Friday just so he could meet his weight targets! Plus, it made him miserable generally speaking.

Yeah, I get worried about the panicky feeling that accompanies the prospect of *not* tracking things - and that’s sad. Why is it so hard to just, I dunno, improvise one’s way through?

I used to do it. Stopped suddenly. I'd spent a Fri/Sat beating myself up because I was 4 lbs over race weight - really down on myself - and then ran a pb at the race on the Sunday (despite still being up 4lbs). I literally haven't weighed myself since (used to be every day).

It wasn't a healthy habit for me - or my friend. But I know other people who quite happily chart all their various metrics, and don't seem fussed by it. Runners do tend to be obsessed with numbers (at least that's my experience).

yes, I think road running especially really lends itself to metrics. I do wonder how different my experience would be if I took my watch off for a race - it's actually quite difficult to imagine