Tracking What How Where When Why?

Overview

I started my last blog post with a specific point in mind then proceeded to write about something else. What I had intended to cover was this, the information regarding what fitness aspects I'm currently tracking, how I'm tracking each aspect, where the information is being logged, when and why.
I wanted to blog this as recently I'd changed the way I gathered some of the data.

Data Gathering

Weight

Measured every day as I wake up using Renpho BlueTooth scales. The weight is recorded directly to Google Fit and every night a script runs to pull the data from Google Fit and write it into a Google spreadsheet. While the scales also measures body fat this data isn't currently exported from the Renpho application (something to investigate). Weight measurement is also manually entered into the Virgin Pulse fitness application.

Sleep

Measured every night via a Garmin Vivofit. One of the benefits of the Vivofit is that it uses standard watch batteries which allow the device to measure steps and sleep for months without need to charge or change the batteries. As the fitness strap runs on limited power it's functions are also limited, it's a balance of features against battery life. Sleep data is automatically recorded into the Garmin 

Steps

Measured constantly with Garmin Vivofit, backed up with Android step count on either the phone or watch. Step count is recorded in Garmin Connect from the Vivofit, Google Fit for Android steps and then both are recorded in Virgin Pulse. Only cadence is recorded in Strava when activities are started manually.

Workouts

Currently limited to runs and walks, recorded with Strava app either on Wear OS for running or phone for walks. Workout data from Strava automatically populates to Virgin Pulse. This has recently changed as I was manually adding workout data from Strava into Garmin connect, this would then populate Virgin Pulse. With the old method I was getting duplicate workout recordings as the Garmin Vivofit was automatically generating a workout after 15 minutes of what it recognised as "running". I've disabled workout auto detect on the Vivofit, this stops the duplicate recordings. While this does mean that Garmin connect no longer has workouts recorded this information is still held in both Strava and Virgin Pulse. Workouts are also synchronised into Google Fit from Strava.

Distance timings

Times for 400m, 1/2mile, 1km, 1Mile, 2km, 5km, 10km, 15km, 10Miles, half marathon, 30km, marathon and 50km are recorded when a workout is manually triggered in Strava. Once a week I use the web site https://stravabestefforts.com to export all the timings for each workout and record them into a Google spreadsheet. The free account on the web site displays the past 180 days of data. Typically it's only runs which record the times. 

Segment timings

In Strava, repeated runs are broken down into segments and timings for these segments are recorded. With the free version of Strava only a limited record of the recent segment times is displayed. Segment times, while a motivator, are not recorded outside of Strava.

Hardware

TicWatch Pro

This is a watch runs Wear OS. What's unusual is that the watch has a dual screen function in that most of the time the display is monochromatic showing just time, date, step count and battery level, on awakening the watch shows a full colour OLED display.

Renpho ES-20M BlueTooth Scales

These scales measure weight as well as rudimentary body fat via pads on the scale. Once measured the scales store the results and can send them to it's own app on a mobile phone. The Renpho app automatically feeds in to Google Fit. 

Garmin VivoFit

The VivoFit is a sports band which is only able to measure movement so is used to record step counts and sleep. What makes this specific band unusual is that it is powered by standard watch batteries. To minimise the power consumption the band only connects to the phone app when a button is held. The screen is low power LCD and there is no backlight. With a long battery life this is ideal for monitoring 24x7.

Programs

The main tools I'm using are, Google fit, Garmin Connect, Strava and Virgin Pulse.

Mobvoi

The app provided for use with the TicWatch Pro. Rarely touched as the data collected is already reflected in other apps.

Google Fit

Google fit records a lot of information from the phone an Wear OS watch however the data is only visible through the phone app, because of this I tend to use Google Fit as a storage system and as a way to link the other tools.

Garmin Connect

Garmin Connect is the interface for the Vivofit sports band. The site is quite comprehensive with history data, badges, challenges and social interaction. If I were using a Garmin device with more features I'd possibly make more use of the site. Customisation is very good allowing dashboard configuration. Other than the limited information I'm able to provide to the site from the sports band the other reason I'm dialling back my use of the site is that the social media side is not as popular as Strava.

Strava

Strava gathers data via Android and Wear OS apps which measure steps, heart monitor and use GPS data. Strava is very popular and acts as a stand alone social media platform as well as interacting with other platforms. Features such as "kudos" and "fly by" along with challenges between members make the platform very popular. 

Virgin Pulse

Virgin Pulse is a fitness application provided by my work. The system pulls data from Strava, Google Fit and Garmin. Social interaction on Virgin Pulse is limited to within the company I work for but all the same is quite active. The Virgin Pulse program offers benefits for accruing credits which are gained by completing specific tasks. Current tasks that give credits are:

• Create a Personal challenge 5 Credits
• Join personal challenge 5 Credits
• Track 10000 steps 20 days in a month 5 Credits
• Track 7000 steps 20 days in a month 5 Credits
• Track steps or active min 20 days in a month 5 Credits

Google Sheets

While each of the applications has their own levels of history data, graphs and various different ways to show data it's sometimes helpful to have figures in a straight spreadsheet. I have used Google Sheets and the scripting capability within Google Sheet to pull data from Google Fit. Currently I manually add more detail from Strava, this could possibly be automated too at some point. Should one of the systems stop supporting a specific measure there's capability to get that information from another source and still maintain the spreadsheet.

Still Going

I found out last week that the points on my Virgin Active account, which is a fitness tracking system funded from work, pays for points. It's not a hell of a lot and because I wasn't aware of this feature I'd not really put in much effort. I was able to claim £26 for the points I had collected over the past 18 months (?). Coincidentally one of the points earners is to register 20 days in a month of over 10,000 steps, a feat I was just able to make on the last day of May.
First day of June and I'm hopefully switching now to a 5km run every other day, stepping up from the previous 3km, intending to intersperse with 5k walks, aiming again to register 20 days of 10,000 steps, only this way not cutting it so close to the wire.