Opinion | Running or cycling without tech: the joys of ditching data and being left to your own devices
- Using gadgets and stats to measure performance has captured the imagination, but perhaps at the exclusion of a sense of adventure
- Rather than obsessing about devices, apps and the data they generate, it may be healthier for non-elite athletes to use them more sparingly
When you glance down at the handlebar “cockpit” of many cyclists, it’s like looking at a mini computer terminal or the flight deck of a small fighter plane.
These devices and their data can be useful tools for some. They can help you to monitor and gauge your performance and progress, and to find your way home – but is that what it’s really all about?
Mind over data
People have different reasoning depending on their goals and lifestyle, yet it could be argued that we risk losing the unpredictable elements of adventure and exploration, which is slightly at odds with a world steered by devices and stats – things that we all get more than enough of in our everyday lives.
If it’s not on Strava then it didn’t happen, right? Plenty of people these days are obsessed with the fitness-tracking app and its KOM or QOM (King/Queen of the Mountain) crowns, and often base their rides or runs around them. If that is what works for you then great, but there is so much more to be gained out there than those titles, especially in the mental health department.
