Measuring the Unmeasurable

The advancing technological world is something to marvel at. We see new gizmos, gadgets and apps being developed and released almost every week now. Promising and sometimes delivering on that promise making our lives more stream lined, convenient and simplified. This applies well to the world of sport. Thinking back to my runs prior to the use of GPS watches, one would measure just the time and perceived effort and heart rate with a big clunky HR monitor. If you wanted to go online to map out the runs to find out the distance you could. The smart gps watches opened things up, giving calculations of distance, speed, time at particular heart rate zones. It began to incorporate stress scores and fatigue rates, now the systems even offer optimal pacing in particular zones for a the participant to achieve their best result. This is all fnie and dandy, however we must be aware of one thing. The fact that all is gadgetry can be helpful, but there must be an end. An end where the gadgetry takes away from the essence of sport , whatever that essence maybe for you. The end where appeasing the watch and the parameters is no longer the main goal of the sport, it is the sport itself. It is important to remember this because what keeps you coming back to participate is the feeling of the run, pushing past limits, working towards the goal, feeling bad an then maybe feeling good. The gadget is a tool to facilitate this , not the main source of it. Sometimes it is healthier to leave the watch at home.