Episode 19: Your Watch Is Being Dramatic: A Trail Runner’s Guide to Chill

If you have ever opened your Garmin or Coros app and immediately questioned your entire life, this episode is for you. Today we are talking about the data your watch throws at you. VO2 Max. HRV. Sleep scores. Training readiness. Whether it thinks you are productive or overreaching. And how most of it is distracting at best and harmful at worst.

This episode walks you through why so many of these metrics are unreliable and can hurt your trail running, how they mess with your confidence, and what actually matters for trail runners who are training on real life legs and a real life schedule.

You will hear about effort based training, what accurate testing really looks like, and how to stop letting your watch gaslight you into thinking you are not strong, fit, or capable.

Your watch is a tool. You are the athlete.

Listen in for some real talk, a little humor, and a reminder that your body knows way more than a gadget ever will.

In this episode we cover:

• Why watches and activity trackers are fun but not always accurate
• How metrics like VO2 Max, HRV, and training status can get in your head
• Why wrist based heart rate data is often wrong
• How these numbers create unnecessary stress for everyday athletes
• What to do if you actually want accurate metrics
• The role of lab testing and chest straps
• What data trail runners should pay attention to
• Why effort and consistency matter more than any algorithm
• How to rebuild trust in your own body

Who this episode is for:
Everyday runners who want to train smart without obsessing over numbers. Women juggling work, kids, pets, life, and still trying to feel strong on the trail. Anyone who has ever opened their Garmin app and thought… “wait, am I failing?”

Links & Resources for This Episode

• Andrew Schenk: Resilient Body Solutions - treat yourself to that massage
• Follow me on Instagram
• Visit my website: www.sunrisetrailscoaching.com
• Want to work together? Learn about 1:1 Coaching
• Free guide: What’s In My Pack? Download here

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to Dirt Nap Diaries. I'm your host, Brittany Olson, trailrunner, women's trailrunning coach, hypewoman, and professional overpacker of the mid-run snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner juggling at all, the kids looking for their shoes, laundry piles that are trying to unionize, slack pinging, the dog who needs eight goodbye pets, and the cat who waits until the second you're tying your shoes to puke in your running path. You're out here training trying to train on real life legs with a real life schedule and still have a little joy left in the tank. And today we're gonna talk about data, your watch data. Uh Garmin, Choros, Apple Watch, whatever you use, whatever you put on that wrist that claims to know everything about your life, your fitness, your sleep, your future, your destiny, and your ancestral lineage. Like, we're gonna talk about it all. So, um, first, personal update. Uh, I'm trying to think anything big here. I had a fantastic massage yesterday by um Drew. I am actually gonna link him in the show notes. Um, every time I go to him, I just feel better physically, mentally, emotionally, super, super relaxed. Uh, great environment. Uh, he's also a runner, um, so he he knows things. Um, but so got that yesterday, uh, which was fan freakin' tastic. And then this morning on my trail run, I fell 30 seconds into the run. And wondering if I undid all that work. But uh yeah, falls happen, even to the best of us, even when you're watching your foot feet. But uh sometimes in the dark with a headlamp, just tip those rocks. So yeah. But outside of that, things are just busy. The holidays are ramping up. I have almost all my holiday shopping done. So yeah, I hope you do too. But outside of that, let's just get into data. So, y'all, I coach a lot of women. Busy women, brilliant women, capable women. And one of the things that I hear that absolutely stresses them out, it's not necessarily their training or their long run or their fueling. Not that we don't talk about that though. It's the watch. It's the data that watch. So we're gonna go there. We're gonna get a little deep here, we're gonna get there kindly though, honestly, and with a little bit of my Britney Spice in there because uh the data on these uh watches can drive me bonkers. Um, not the data itself, but just having to explain like why they're not accurate, why we don't need to depend on them, and how to take it with a grain of salt if you still really want to use those data points. And if you want real data points, like what you should do to get them. So I'll give a few tips on that too. So, first of all, like why are we talking about this? I have not only athletes but friends who like bring me their VO2 Max or bring me their HRV data from their watch. Like it's it's a report card. Um, and every time I'm like, hey y'all, like this isn't accurate information, like just so you know, like this is why, like it is only on your wrist. It can't figure out everything that's going in your b on in your body by being on your wrist. It just doesn't have the capability. Um but also we're talking because people start to worry when you get those like training statuses that say like D-training or even when it says productive or peaking or recovering. Um, I'm trying to think what else they say. You're a piece of shit. No, it doesn't say that, but sometimes it feels like it. But they see these things, and when they see like D-training and they take one rest day, there's definitely a little bit of like panic feeling in there. Um, people will like freak out about those sleep scores too. Um, it tells you like how deep you're sleeping, your rim, all that stuff. And I'm not saying you can't use even other data outside of a baseline. Like, you can if you can like accept it as a baseline, but like it really doesn't know how you sleep either. It can give you some like, hey, this is how long you hard rim, but how do we know it's even accurate? It is on your wrist, you guys. It does not have anything else. It doesn't have anything like connected to your brain or to your breathing or anything. It is all on your wrist. Um, also, like a lot of people when they see their HRV drop, um, they suddenly think like they're broken or something's really going wrong. And sometimes the HRV drops on your watch because the watch has moved on your wrist when you're sleeping. Um, if you wear it when you're sleeping, obviously that's where that comes from. Or whenever it just could just slip on your wrist anytime, right? So, like, it's just not accurate, but people will really look at that HRV and be like, oh my gosh, like what's going on? What do I need to change? Blah, blah, blah. And a lot of times nothing needs to change for that. It's just simply not good data from your watch. Um, and I mentioned that, like the training status, like I mentioned, like, hey, how people start worrying about that detraining after a rest day, but it'll say they're peaking or overreaching, and there's really not a reason for it. What really sucks is like when it's like they t it tells you you're overreaching during a training block, and especially when I'm programming people because I can see what they're doing, it gets into the brain and it's like, wait, oh my gosh, like am I running too much? What's happening? And then if it shows that they're like peaking and they're not close to the race, again, that gets them a little anxious too. So, and then also at the same time, I get apologies when they bring it up too. So I'm talking about this because I don't need y'all to apologize to me when you bring up that watch data. Um, I'm not annoyed at you. I'm not annoyed like at any of my friends or my athletes ever. I'm annoyed that these devices are like messing with your confidence. I'm annoyed that these devices have all this data here and it's inaccurate. And they don't share that like right up forward. We all a lot of us know, even the people who take that data more seriously, we all know it's not accurate. Uh, but it still gets in our head. Um, and then also just a little like note here, uh, remember that like as things get older, especially watches, they're gonna get even less reliable. Like these watches do not last forever. I swear there's little like bugs in them that like explode whenever uh there are a certain amount of time mold, so you have to go buy a new one. But think about that too. If your watch is not brand new, it's even more inaccurate than what it was when it was brand new. So, yes, what do I use my watch for? I use it for time because I do run based on time. My athletes run based on time for the most part too. Um, I use it to see like what elevation I'm at, which I'll isn't always accurate because my GPS might not be um might not have the strongest signal it needs. I don't use it for pace actually, because I run by effort. So um I also, you know, have a navigation map on it too. If I'm going somewhere new, I like to put them, upload the map to it and then get some turn by turn in there. So do use it for some things, but this actual data that really like gets in pe under people's heads, in their skin, whatever you want to say, um, it's something we gotta work on. So let's think about what's the truth about this like wrist data here. Like it's it's come again, I keep calling it wrist-based because that's all it is. It's a wrist-based. You could have a heart rate strap or a heart rate. There's like a heart rate monitor now. I don't think I'll heart rate, but it's like on your arm. I know Koro sells one that's pretty popular. But like, even with that, wrist heart rate is notoriously inaccurate, especially on the trails. Um, even when you have a strap on, sometimes it can be, I said strap on in this podcast. Sorry, y'all. Uh now I'm laughing. Um, but it is like they they just aren't, it's not accurate. Uh at one point, the research, and they do more and more research on these things, y'all. Like at one point I know it's 37 beats per minute. Your heart could be off on that, whether it's high or low, or you know, it just it's just gonna be off. So you can't rely on heart rate. Um, I gave this tip in my heart rate versus RPE uh podcast, but like take it off your watch. Don't have heart rate on your watch. Really do not have it. Unless I am not a doctor and you medically need your heart rate there, then I hope you have some kind of special device on you that gets an accurate heart rate reading. But like outside of that, there is really no reason to have heart rate on your watch, especially on the trails. We do not heart rate train on the trails. That's a completely different like realm of things. So um, when you think about two heart rate, think about like just some of those spikes you can get in your heart rate. Sometimes it's like there's technical terrain where you're just super focused, and like your heart rate can actually go up because you're bracing, not because you're dying of something out there. Um also like as you're going up a hill, uh, it can tell you're going like uphill, like it changes like your watch can change, like it sees the elevation that you're going up, it sees all that stuff, but that doesn't mean like your heart rate is actually going up as high as it says it does, right? Downhill is the same way. Um, there is are also lagging measures when it comes to heart rate, too. So what do I mean by that? I talked about that in my heart rate versus RPE episode too. But all that means is like, especially like I noticed this with like my VO2 Max workouts, like I take off fast and I used to have my heart rate on my watch, and that heart rate didn't catch up for a while. Like it was not like, man, I'm my heart rate's up and like it's going. It it didn't even have it on there. So then by the time it did decide, I don't know if I say the watch decides, but by the time it actually did uh spike up, I mean it spikes up super high. Um, I took off my heart rate years ago on my watch, though, so it's been a minute, but like I test I've tested it in the past couple years because when I tell my athletes to take it off their watch, I'm like, ah, let me just test it out for funsies, and it's never, it's never right. Um so VO2 Max also on the watch. It's basically a guess based on a logarithms. There is no really actual like science science behind it when it comes to being on your watch. Um, I actually on my I have chorus now, by the way, but I had a garment and I the VO2 Max is on the face of it, and I took a picture of my watch once and put it on my Instagram story, and I had like three or four people reach out and were like, oh my gosh, wow, how do you get your VO2 max to whatever number it was? And I was like, I didn't even notice the data. I didn't even notice that was on my watch, but I was like, uh, like, I don't know. You guys see how I run. I share it on Instagram, but I was like, and I I even said I was like, hey, but it's not accurate. Like, it could be higher, it could be lower. This is just, you know, a thing on your watch that's based on the other data points that are also inaccurate that give you your VO2 max. So take that off your watch too. Like, and if you really want your VO2 max like measured to figure out where you're at, you gotta be hooked up to a bunch of stuff. You gotta get on a treadmill, you gotta be at like a specialist office. So there's a whole thing. So you can do that. You can and you can also find out where your different like um zones are, right? Your zones one through through five, like through through different testing, too. So if you want to do that, something you can do, but it's not something you can do from your watch. Also, like training readiness depends on things the watch can't see, right? Your stress, your hormones, your hydration, your grief, your PMS, the heavy conversation you had last night, or the fact that your kid or your dog kept waking you up, right? So many different things. So training readiness has no idea what it is. It also doesn't even know your background that much, right? Yes, it has like your backlogs of the work you've done, but it doesn't know your background maybe as an athlete. I've been a lifelong athlete, which I think has really helped me with my recovery because I've been lifting for so long. All of these things, it doesn't know. I mean, how many of us laugh when we see we do a long run, it's like 72 hours to recovery? We're ultra runners. We're not recovering for 72 hours after a long run, more than likely, unless it was that race, right? So, and all of these metrics, they change for reasons that have nothing to do with fitness. So just keep it in mind. And listen, these these can be interesting, right? Like, it's funny. And a lot of us, like, especially the ones that take it with a grain of salt, like we can laugh about that recovery time, but there's even people who laugh about like the recovery time, and then they still get very nervous, not just not about the recovery time, but about other pieces of data. So just know, like, it's interesting, but it's not gospel. Not not anywhere close. Like, your watch doesn't even know what you feel like. Like, you know what your legs feel like, you know what your heart feels like when you're out there, you know you can feel your body. So we've gotta really ignore that. And knowing like the truth about that wrist data, how it's inaccurate, I hope that can help. But I know also what we need to see is like what it actually does. How does it impact our running? Like, how will it impact race day if we focus too much on this data? Um, so we're gonna split this into just a couple of sections here. We're gonna talk about intro run data, so what you see while you're running and how it impacts training. And then also we're gonna talk about that off-run data, like what you see when you're not running and how it impacts um training, but also your confidence too. And this can they really can impact impact your confidence during intro run training too, but I notice a lot more that that off-run data that people are looking at. So, but this, so first for intro run data, this is the stuff that messes with you in real-time running. Um, so we're just gonna go through like a few examples, you know, and you can see like, hey, I that does match what I'm thinking about, or hey, I hear a friend talk about this, like I need to help them out with this. Um, but let's think about like heart rate. And I mentioned that the most because that's what people get most like jacked up about, right? Like, I know I've explained several times, like we run by effort, we run by effort, we run by effort, but people still get in their minds about heart rate. Well, the heart rate is inaccurate. So think about this. Our wrist heart rate can spike on climbs, and I mentioned that earlier because of terrain, right? But also because of how your arm's swinging, maybe. It could be uh the tension that you're holding in your muscles. Like, it doesn't even just have to be like anything about how fast you're going. It could be your wrist is a little sweatier than normal, or it's a little bit colder, so your wrist is a little bit smaller, so the watch isn't fitting like it normally does. Um, so that could actually cause heart rate to drop too. Well, not heart rate, the actual heart rate data. But guess what? It's not an emergency. It's not. It's why we run by effort, it's why we need to know our bodies, it's why we need to know our legs, because that wrist heart rate is inaccurate. Period. Um also, I'd mention I don't run by pace. I don't even check my I do have my pace on my watch on one of the screens because I'm too lazy to remove it. But pace on trails can be pretty useless. Um, because again, we run by effort. We get faster by running and stronger by running, focusing on effort. Um, but some people sometimes we still chase it and we get frustrated. So let's think about that pace first of all. Like, this isn't always inaccurate, by the way. If you have a strong GPS signal, which a lot of us do at different times, um, it's probably pretty accurate data with how fast you're going. Um, however, if you are on a run that is supposed to be easy, but you're chasing a Strava segment, or um, you just you've done a certain route several times and you want to be a little bit faster this time, you can push yourself up into those higher effort levels that are not needed um for your easy run, right? We program easy runs to help you get faster, stronger, and recover better, right? And then we have other runs that are for speed, for um getting that VO2 max up, uh working on um the lactate threshold, those types of things. So your pace on trails, again, is useless in this instance because we need to focus on where our effort is. Because if we start looking at pace, like, wait, I want to beat my pace, let me go and do this, it's not helpful. It's just not helpful. And then you also have when your GPS signal is it's it's just off. Um there are places here in Phoenix that that happens. There's places like the Grand Canyon, it happens. There's races um like that Mogeon up in Pine. Like you're just not getting that much, that much signal. Um, so like your data is all, I don't know if you've been in the Grand Canyon with the with your Garmin or Koros or whatever you wear, it goes nuts in there, especially for me going up North Rem. Um, but it is highly, highly inaccurate. So if you are focusing on your pace when you're out there, um, that's where the data gets inaccurate whenever you don't have very good GPS signal. And sometimes you can go in and out of GPS signal. So keep it in mind. I don't mind if my athletes have pace on their watches, um, as long as that's not they're not using it as a determining factor. Now, I like when they break down their paces for me when they're doing certain things. I have several athletes who give me notes. I don't say several athletes who give me a lot of notes. I have a couple that give me a lot of notes, which I love. If anybody's wondering, I love them. Um, but like I do like to see it because if they are doing the same route, um, I have one in particular that I'm thinking of, hi Renee. I know I can say your name because we innered out together. Um, but like she'll be like, hey, I did this segment, and she's like, my effort was still easy. Here's what it felt like, here's what my paces were. Like, I love that breakdown because she had focused on what her effort was. She'll be like, this, and then if she goes to an endurance run, she does an endurance run, she's like, hey, like I did the exact same route as I did last time, um, to be race specific. You know, here's what it was last time, here was what it was this time. And that that kind of data I do like to look at because, first of all, it does matter. It's like, you know what, you are using the exact same amount of effort, and your pace was faster. That's really cool, and that shows like improvement there. But just because you're slower sometimes also doesn't mean there's improvement. Sometimes you see like life has just thrown something at you, you're more tired, you're later in a training block, whatever that looks like. But there are certain times that that data is nice to have, like from a coaching standpoint and from an athlete standpoint to build that confidence, but it's not something to focus on. The focus is the effort, and then afterwards seeing what those splits actually were to compare them to. So again, this is during the run, so I'm saying, hey, look at your splits after the fact if you want to. If it's a route you do a lot and it felt really good out there, or maybe it's not summer anymore like it is here and it feels great. Go ahead and look at that data after the fact, though. Focus on effort when you're out there. Um, also the constant checking of your watch, it pulls you away from like that effort level. It put it pulls you out of the moment and puts you into like comparison land. Um, maybe you're comparing yourself to other people, maybe it's a run you've had in the past, maybe it's who you were five or ten or twenty years ago, right? But what it does is we are constantly checking. We're not in the moment. We're not focused on how our effort is, we're not focused on like how our legs feel, we're not focused on where like the next turn is or that rock is if we're gonna that's where we trip and fall. That's not what happened today. I just tripped and fall, fell. But like it is when you keep checking, it pulls away from from you being able to focus on your effort. Um, heart rate also. I mentioned this earlier because I got really excited. I can't when I start talking about these things, I know I think I've told you guys I have bullet points here, so a lot of times things get repeated, but also we need to hear things seven to fifteen times for it to stick in your noggins. So I'm gonna repeat it as much as I want, really. But HR does lag behind effort, which can cause an overcorrection and it can derail your workout if that's what you're focused on. Like, if you're like, okay, like if I am, this says I'm in this zone right now, okay, like I'm oh man, I need to run harder because like I am not in my zone three and all this stuff. I'm gonna let you know your zones in your garment or your chorus or Apple Watch, whatever it is, are not right unless you've went and got the right testing done to get you in the right zones, and you then you have to manually set them up in that um in your garment. That also said, again, your wrist is not going to capture your heart rate accurately. So even if you have the right zones, it's still not getting your heart rate right. So in conclusion, remove the heart rate from your watch. Unless, again, there's something medical, and I'm hoping you have something else that helps you measure your heart rate because of that. So data also distracts you from learning what you're trying to do out there. So maybe the learning is something, you know, um, like about terrain, like you're trying to run better downhill. But because you're thinking about the data, like how fa what's my pace? What's my heart doing? Instead of actually learning that skill, it's gonna take away from that. You're not gonna be able to improve as much because you're focused on the data right there. Um, also, if you are distracted by that, you could be in a race or just be in a on a new trail, and you're losing sight of where the heck you're at, even and like that's where it's like, oh my gosh, hold where'd this terrain come from? Whoa, there's there's this climb coming up. You're not in the moment seeing what's happening. So you don't want to be distracted from any of that. Um outside, you end up training for your watch instead of your race goals. So, what do I mean by that? You know, if you're looking at your watch and it says recovering and you're like, no, no, no, like I should be productive. Um, that's one of the statuses Garmin has. Um, but like, so you start training for your watch. So maybe you start pushing your runs a little bit harder. Maybe instead of running for 60 minutes, you decide to run for longer to maybe get those stats up. So when you're focused on all of that data, like while you're running, you're training for your watch. So you saw the you know recovery before your run, and in your run, you're seeing like, oh man, like this is where I'm at with my heart rate, this is where I'm at with my pain. You know what? I need to run faster because I need to make my watch tell me what I wanted to be told. And you're like, that can't be a thing. It is a thing. I hear it. I hear it often. So don't train for your watch. Think about your goals when you're out there. And if you are coached by a coach, like they should know your race goals. They should have your programming set up like that. But if you have questions, ask them. If you're one of my athletes listening this right now, ask me. Like, why are we doing this? What's this, what's this uh run for? Like, why? I'm focused on your goals and I'm not focused on your watch. Yes, do I look at data? I am a nerd like that, but I'm not looking at like all those little pieces that really don't have any impact because they're not accurate. Um also, easy days stop being easy, which I've kind of like pointed that out in every single bullet that I have here. But it's true. Like, if you are trying to do something, you're like, man, like I want the data to be this and I want it to be this. And maybe you're not saying data in your head. Maybe you're like, I want, I want to be like productive, or I want to be peeking, or like I want to be this fast on this trail because I run this trail a lot. Like you start pushing too hard and your easy runs aren't easy, and we need our easy runs. You know, we do those a lot. Uh moderate days can lose their purpose. Um, maybe uh you noticed your heart rate, it's like it looks like it's super high. So instead of running that endurance run at an endurance pace, you step back into that easy pace because your heart rate's telling you something. That's wrong, by the way. Um, but it loses its purpose. You're not doing the work you need to do to hit your goals. Um, and if you do this day-to-day, workout to workout, run to run, it builds a habit of like outsourcing that confidence to the watch. Like you are getting validation from an object that is giving you inaccurate measures. Um, so it's something to keep in mind, and it does. There are some people who I have talked to over and over about it, and they still come to me like, my watch says this, and I'm like, damn it, I know it does. But let's think about this, right? So, but now, if we're looking at all this, if we're seeing this data while we're running, like, how does it affect the race goal, right? Also, before we even move on to that, I have seen people, and I didn't realize what the hell they were doing when I went when I raced, uh, one of my like, I think it was a half marathon, but there was a couple people that tape over their watch face. Um, and it's so they can't see the data. Um, so it's like you can remove as much as you want, but some people don't even want to look at it on race day. Um, so they just put tape over it because they have already trained, they have done the training they needed, and they don't need to look at their watch because it's race day. So I actually think that's a really cool thing to do. You can do that in training too, like if you want to put tape over it. Um, but you don't have to. I'm saying for races, it's a super interesting thing to do because those people know they've done the work beforehand, and now it's race day, and I'm just gonna go and I'm gonna go by feel. And that's what we do, right? Especially in trail running. We're going by feel, we're going by effort. So um, so how does it affect the race goal? Sorry, that was my little tangent about taping. Um uh ultra do ultras require like that internal pacing, that internal feeling that I've been talking about, that effort level. We have to know what we're doing out there, and the training should get us there. But if you never build that into training, race day can feel a little bit more chaotic. It can feel a little worse. We're constantly questioning, are we doing the right thing? Because we didn't focus right in our training. We are gonna be questioning too much. And it's not like when you do an ultra, you're never gonna question your life decisions because we all do. But if you're questioning every piece of your training or a lot of your training, which is messing with your confidence, it's not a good thing. So you gotta stop paying attention to that data in your training for sure. Um, chasing pace or heart rate early on race day is a great way to blow up too. Um, some people are like, okay, here's the flat, here's this, here's what I'm doing, here's what I'm doing. Like, if you would ever listen to any of my like pre-race consults with my athletes, we normally talk about what effort level they're gonna start at. And then we talk about like when should we start pushing? When should we get into these RPs of this and that and all that? It depends on the race, right? With depends where the flats are, where the hills are, where the downhills are, how technical it is. It depends on so many things. So I can't just give you the conversation that's had. But we talk about effort over chasing pace, and we don't talk about heart rate at all. We have a time goal, by the way. So, like, but I don't know if any of you how many of you like have ran longer trail races that are listening right now, but pace, it will vary throughout a race, especially the longer it gets, especially the more mountainous mountainous it gets, the terrain can change, like I just mentioned. So, like, we are not focusing on pace the entire time. We might have a time goal, but it's we work on that time goal in training. Um, also, like, you don't want to look at your heart rate again. You just don't, it's inaccurate. It does, but if you find yourself continuously looking at it, and you might actually slow yourself down too much on race day because you're like, oh my god, my heart's here. Okay, ah. And just so you know, a lot of times your excitement alone on race day will spike that heart rate up, especially in the beginning, right? There's a little bit of adrenaline. Even if you go out at the effort you had planned on, you can still get that heart rate spike because we have like our emotions and our and our and our mental state does like mess with our heart rate. So, and a watch-dependent runner can panic when they see that or can't be like, ah, what's going on? So you got it, ignore it, right? What this interrun obsession creates is athletes who don't trust themselves. They're not trusting their training, they're not trusting the process. And if again, you if you look at like your pace after the fact and all that stuff, no big deal. But when you are when it is messing with your head during the run, you're not allowed to learn how to trust yourself and trust your legs and trust your lungs and trust your heart and trust all the things that we need for running. And on race day, if you're still watching all that data, just gonna keep messing with you even more. This is your big day, and you don't want to spend it looking at that data on your watch. You want to spend it taking pictures, chatting with other runners, you know, doing your thing out there. So remember, that's the name of the article, that's the name of this like uh episode, right? Like your watch is being dramatic and you're just trying to run your own race. So run your own race there. Don't listen to the watch drama, don't see that watch drama out there. So for that, so during the run, I mean the big data is it's that heart rate, and it's really the pace that a lot of people look at there. So don't look at it. And if it really fucks you up so much, if it gets in your head too much, take it off your watch. I mean, literally just take it off. It's a pretty easy setting thing to do. So uh DM me if you have questions on that. Okay, so off-run data. So, everything you see when you're not running, whether it's the stuff you look at with coffee, when you're in bed, after you're logging a run, whatever it is, how can it affect your mindset more than your fitness? And what can that like cause to happen for like races um and your race goals? So there are so many things on these watches, by the way, y'all. Um, maybe some of you don't even know them all, but there's HRV, there's sleep score, there's body battery, there's readiness, there's VO2 max trends, there's training status labels. There are so many things, and they're all inaccurate. Yeah, I've said in that inaccurate word the most I've ever said in my life today. Um these numbers will shift um your mood even before you lace up or after you've had a great run and you're taking off those shoes and you're looking at the numbers and it gets you down. Again, I mentioned Renee earlier who like she looks at her data from like a really good point of view where, you know, she's not during the run, it's all about effort. It's all about these things. And afterwards she looks and she just likes to compare the run before because there's some days where she's like, man, I felt really bad. I didn't feel great today, but like I still put the best effort I could, and then she ended up having like the same kind of run, or even a little bit better run, or maybe a little bit worse, but seeing that does help with that confidence. She's like, man, I wasn't feeling the best today, but I still did it, and like that's you know, those numbers were cool. So there are ways to use it. So I don't want to say, hey, guys, if you're looking at that stuff, it's bad. But you've got to be able to take it for what it is. So um also uh a low, so when we think about like the actual data pieces, I'm gonna mention the ones that I really hear the most about. Um so low sleep score is what I hear um quite a bit. So many people and granted, if you are feeling super tired and your sleep score's low, you're probably tired, right? You're probably not getting the best sleep. Maybe you're not getting enough quality sleep, whatever it is. But a low sleep uh sleep sleep score doesn't mean you're doomed. Like it could mean you're fine. Um, I don't I don't know about you, but in the cold especially, like I've noticed that like my my wrists definitely like are not as big as normal. Um I have actually taken off my watch a couple times in my sleep, so I don't know what that's about, but the watch isn't even like where it needs to be. But how the hell is a watch gonna know if you're in REM sleep and for how long? Like, tell I mean literally you can you can you can email me and and and tell me why because I have looked into this and it doesn't. That doesn't, it can't catch your breathing patterns. There are no, it's not like a sleep study where you have like little wires attached to your brain, which I don't understand how you could sleep through anyway. My friend Dave just had a sleep study and it didn't go well because he couldn't sleep with all the wires in his head. But so either way, that low sleep score is not accurate either. So if you're feeling fine, if you're feeling rested, you gotta throw that sleep score out the door anyway. But just like if you can take it as a baseline and like you're like, oh man, I slept really good, and it says I had a sleep score of this. It's a good sleep score, great. Okay, but just know, like, you gotta go with how you're feeling. Like, if you are tired constantly, you're not getting enough sleep. If you have energy all day long, if you have energy all day long, I want your secrets by the way. But like, you're probably fine when it comes to sleep. Okay. Um, so uh, I do hear about HRV a little bit. I am not gonna get into all about what HRV is, heart rate variability, by the way. So uh do a little chat GPT, Google that just to get a little more information around it. But it dips from so much stuff from stress, from hormones, or random life things that have nothing to do with training at all. Um, so you do want a higher number, just so you know that's what I'm talking about when it dips. So it can dip and be inaccurate, completely inaccurate. Um so if it goes up too, that could be wrong as well, right? We just don't know. So HRV is something that I had didn't even look into until about probably three years ago, because like, what is this number? I've seen this number and I don't even know what it means. Um so like I said, just look it up if you're really, really interested in it. But again, to get an accurate reading, it can't be done by a wrist-based device. When your training status, oh yes, with this, remember, this is when you're not running, says D-training after a rest day. It can create guilt. Um, people hate when they're training for something to get that D-training piece. Um, it's not fun, but guess what? It's also not accurate. Yay! Um, but like we just don't like to see. I don't know how many times I've got a picture of a race, a race, a watch face, and it's like, it says I'm detraining, like, look, like what am I doing wrong? And like, you're not doing anything wrong. Like, I go and look at your program, I look at the I look at the stats that are in there, I see what runs you've done, um, and all of that. And it's like, no, that's just your watch not knowing who the hell you are, and being able to measure things accurately. So don't let those those training statuses like create guilt around anything. So um when your VO2 max goes up or goes down um on your watch, uh, when it goes down, especially I hear more about it. Cause they're like, oh my god, like you know, what what why? Like I I've done like I've done this and like I we did all I did all my VO2 max workouts and it and it went down like a couple points. Watch doesn't know ya. Watch the watch can't get an accurate thing. Again, if you want to do get your true VO2 max, um, you need to go and get tested, period. If you want to get a kind of VO2 max, you can do a Cooper test, which I did a couple weeks ago. It's running as far as you can for 12 minutes on a flat road, typically. I think you can do on a treadmill too, but it doesn't get the same data because you can like bump it. Like it's not as true because you can bump up the speed as much as you want your legs to have to keep up with it. So it is preferred to do it on a flat road. Um, that's the best way to do it. I'm giving you this tip just so you know. So it's 12 minutes. Um, you should do a warm-up in there, even do a few strides in there to get the legs warmed up and then like go into the workout. So it's called a Cooper test. You can look that up too. But you run as far as you can for 12 minutes. Um, and then whatever your uh minute per mile or kilometer per mile, however you guys are, um, will give you like a kind of I call it uh a kind of VO2 max thing. It's not exact, but it gives you a good baseline. And it also kind of helps you know where like that RPE of like nine is for you too. So for me, it helps me know where my effort level is when I'm at a nine. Um and then it's also a baseline for me when I do that test, um, to know, okay, I'm at this pace, I'm at a 715 minute per mile right now in those 12 minutes, by the way. If I would do that again after doing a VO2 max like four-week block, um, I would like to see that number drop, which would let me know at least my VO2 Max has gone up. So just a pro tip right there. Um, questions about that, you can look up Cooper test. You can also obviously ask me too. Um, but coming back to it, all of these metrics become identity markers instead of just data points, right? You start seeing yourself in these, in these metrics, and that's not a good place to be because then like either you start dreading your run or you start questioning the process, and it's okay to question, like, have questions for your coach, even have questions for yourself if you if you plan for yourself too. But you don't want to make these like your identity. Um, because again, inaccurate, but they are just data. Like, you need so much data to put it all together to really figure out like where you are as a runner, and this these risk-based things are not the way to do it. So, how does all this impact like racing, especially when it's not looking, you're not looking at an intro run, you're looking at it when you're not running, whether it's before or after, on a rest day. Um, it does mess with your confidence for real. Like, confidence and ultra running, especially. I mean, any kind of running too. Like, I don't want to take a runner, any runner out of this. It is a training skill. And whether you're running a 5K for the first time or running a hundred miler for the eighth time, like you've gotta have that confidence to be able to do it. And that is that you you can learn you learn that out there. And focusing on these these numbers and this data is not the way to do it. Um, if you constantly doubt yourself because of a number, the confidence starts to erode, right? If you are, and I mentioned this during race, if you start looking at these numbers, but if you are constantly doubting this, like the confidence is going away. Like you're thinking, why did I sign up for the race this race? Can I even do this race? I can't keep up with that person. So many doubts, right? And then whenever you go into the race, well, first of all, if you decide to actually start the race, you go into it already without confidence, already doubting uh the work you've done. Um, off-run data creates a my watch me knows my watch knows me better than I do mindset. Um, I don't think I have to explain that one too much, but it's saying like instead of you focusing on your effort and all of that stuff, like that you've already put in, instead of like realizing like I'm doing the work I'm supposed to be doing, you're like, well, my watch does this, so like they know me better and I need to do something different, even if you don't need to. Um race A requires belief in yourself, your body, your training, and your ability to adjust. If you are not working on those things, if you're too focused on data during your training runs and you're not focused on your body, your training, and your ability to adjust during those runs, like you're not gonna be able to um handle it during the race. So how does this impact you? Like, you see this, you see these data, this data, and you've been like, you've been running for we'll say like 24 weeks for this this race, and you don't have that belief in your body and your training and your ability because you're believing the data over everything you've done to get here. The scores here, they can sabotage that belief long before you even reach a start line, which is not a good thing if you're wondering. So the data isn't just like some background white noise. It can mess with the belief you need to run strong on race day. And strong during normal runs too. But it's not just that white noise, right? Um, so when you're doing whether it's your you're whether it's during a run, whether it's after before a run, whether it's on a rest day, you can't let that really get into your head too much, right? You've got to just take that data with a grain of salt. If you can remove it, don't go in and analyze all your stuff. Um just do the running, do the work, focus on the effort, all of those things. Alright, so what can you actually do if you really want to want that accurate data, right? Um, so I've already mentioned like getting some VO2 max testing. You can get lactate threshold testing, you can get stress testing with the doctor too. So there are things you can do, but you have to go to a lab to get ac uh accurate numbers. Um, and I would say I have no idea how much they cost or anything like that. I have not got any of these done before in the past. Um, I just feel like running by effort has always been good enough for me. If I had started having some kind of health issues or like wheezing, you know, something going on that didn't feel right, obviously, I would get testing, but I don't I don't do it for anything. I'm not an elite runner, so I just don't feel the need for me to do that. However, if it's something you're interested in, if you really want that accurate data, go to go to the lab. Go to a lab and get tested, go to your doctor, like see what they can do. I don't, again, don't know how much they cost. Uh, don't know how much health insurance would cover if you have health insurance, all that stuff, but you can get more accurate numbers from that. Also, I mentioned this earlier, like chest straps, they've got the arm straps now too, which I haven't researched as much. They seem to be getting more popular. Um, that's you can get truly closer to the data that you want, but those also have a level of inaccuracy too. Um, they can slide around, you might not be wearing them in the right spot. Um, and they can they can still like they don't know our, especially for women like our hormones, um, menopausal, postmenopausal, uh, perimenopausal, like when we're on our cycle, all of those things. It, but it does get us closer. So if you would like something closer. Um, also, if you the closer you want to get, the more money you're gonna have to spend on these things. Like if you find a heart rate strap for like five bucks somewhere, it's probably not gonna be as accurate as another um uh device. So you can also talk um if you have a sports doc um who is on board with how much you run, not all sports docs are, but they might have some suggestions too on the best type of devices to get the most accurate measures. And again, if you do have heart issues, lung issues, or any any kind of issue that would impact, I do say, like, hey, get with your doctor, figure out what you need to be able to track accurate, accurately whatever it is you need to be tracked, because that is very important. Um, so don't just be like, hey, my coach had to run by effort, but yet I, you know, need a pacemaker. I have a pacemaker. Like, make sure you have what you need for that. Um, again, these aren't required for most people. Uh, there's, you know, some elites who get it done. I don't even know if all the elites can done, especially on the trails. I know roadrunners are a little more into it because it's a little bit different. Um, but it is for data lovers or people that have certain specific goals and they feel like they're just right on the edge and they can't quite get it, and they just want to get those accurate numbers. Nothing wrong with that. Go get it done. Like your money, your time, you get to do what you want. And if if that's what matters to you, go do it. So, um also, I'm just gonna say this again so I don't get myself in trouble. I am not a doctor. If you have heart conditions or concerns, please listen to your provider. Uh wrist devices are not medical tools. So, as you know, they're inaccurate. Uh, I hope you remember that. But I mean, watches are great. Like, they're great for distance, you know, normally, unless your GPS signal is not good. They are really great for time, uh, but you can get a time max for that. Uh, that is something else you can do. If you do not have to have all the data, if you don't care if shit gets uploaded anywhere, you can use a dimex or, you know, any kind of watch, right? That just has the time. You don't have to have all of that. Um, I don't know too many people who do that, but like it's actually pretty cool. It can just let you like run and you just know how long you've been out there. Um, it can also be good uh for pace and vert if you have GPS signal again. Okay. Not um it's not good for medical diagnosis, or it's not good for any of that, but it is good. So but the only thing it's 100% accurate on is Time. And I don't know. I don't even know what's accurate for actual time time all the time. So, like the actual countdown on your watch where it goes like if you're running for 60 minutes, that's always accurate. But I don't know if you don't have GPS if it has the right like time of day. Hmm. Didn't think about that before I started talking out loud. But anyway, whatever the time that's running off or running forward, that's gonna be accurate. It's everything else, especially if you don't have GPS for the other pieces, not gonna be accurate. It just is what it is. Alright. What data matters for you? Let's do that. Yay! Um all right, y'all. Having a little bit of technical difficulties. My microphone keeps uh un not unplugging, but not working and going off then going back on. Anyway, all right, so why did what data actually matters for y'all, you trail runners? Like, what do I need to know? Alright, mention it. Effort. Always effort. RPE is queen, right? Rate of perceived exertion. That's what that is. I've talked about it before. I can link a chart in the show in the show notes here. Um, but if you look up RPE chart, there's so many out there. Some are sillier pictures than others. Um, but it's very helpful to see. So you're always focusing on effort. Basically, what are you focusing on? This is gonna be about things you can control, just so you know. If you're wondering what's gonna come out of the mouth, it's things you can control. Consistency. Not perfection, consistency, hitting your runs, running consistently at easy, running consistently for your VO2 max, running consistently in your long runs, whatever that consistency looks like for you. Uh, that also includes strength training, by the way. Um, but being consistent and also giving yourself a little grace when you have to miss a run for whatever reason it is. Fueling, fueling matters. Um, I have my athletes, uh especially those who have races like that are, you know, that are to train for right now, uh, I have them put their fueling into Final Surge, which is the program I use with my athletes. I put my own fueling in my coach's uh app so she can see my stuff. Um, because it does matter. Like fueling, we have to get you fueled properly to be able to do these longer distances. Um, so that's what I do. So fueling is super, super important for you. So, and that is a data point, right? You uh go 60 to 90 grams per hour if we can. That's always the goal. Um, and then uh hydration too, on top of that. So I'm not gonna tell you how much exact sodium to take in because I don't know that. And again, I don't, I it's that's a very individual thing, but make sure you're taking in um some kind of electrolytes too. Recovery is very, very important and something you can control. And recovery means what you're feeling, not what you can read um from the data on your watch. So if you first of all, like we have recovery runs in general, right? Like easier runs to do. We also have rest days, which can help with recovery. But there are some times where you are ultra fatigued, ultra, hmm, but you are fatigued. It might not even have to do with running, it could have to do with life, it could have to do with the really shitty sleep schedule, could have to do with work, whatever it is. Um, but sometimes you need to take an extra day off from running. Um, sometimes you have just a little bit of like a soreness that won't go away and it's really bothering you, and you need that extra day off too. But recovery is very important, and that is something you should keep track of and you should be doing. Uh, what else? Terrain specificity. Um, and not just terrain, but like, you know, climbing and descending. As you get closer to race day, especially, you should be focusing on being as specific as possible to your race if you can get on course even better. But that is something you want to keep in mind. Um, one thing I have my athletes do is I I typically do the math for them when we're discussing when we're, you know, talking about it and I put it into final surge. But it's like, how much vert per mile are you getting? And all that is is is taking the race, um, how long the race is, and then how many feet of vert it is, doing some division, and then getting that uh feet per mile to or to uh no or meter, meter per kilometer. But like that way you know how much vert to try to get because that can simulate what the race is like. But that is something that you should look into. That is data you can have. That way you can make sure you get on terrain that you need to get on. You can get the vert you need, you can get the downhill you need. All the things you need is something you should really look at instead of that heart rate on that watch. Uh, time on feet. That's what I like to talk about, but how much time on feet are you getting? That matters. Uh, I already mentioned strength training because I got ahead of myself with consistency. I can't help it. And my bullet points apparently don't always matter to me. Um listening to your actual body signals. Um, what is it saying? Hey, are is it your time of the month? You know, what do I need for that? Um, did I do I have a week of travel for work? Like, do I need to have a recovery week this week? Like, what does this look like? Was I sick for four days? Like, what does that look like? But listening to your actual body for signals and not worrying about what the data says out there. Like, listening, like, oh my god, my watch says I didn't sleep very well, but I feel great. Or man, my watch says I slept really well, but I feel like shit. Like, so actually listening to those cues. Super important and something that's very, very controllable. Um, and then really like not panicking because a screen told you something. Uh, that's it. Like, just don't just see it and like just take it with a grain of salt. I feel like a lot of my athletes now definitely are on that where it's like, yeah, they're like, okay, my watch says this, but I'm not worried about it. So, like, that's okay for me to hear. The data is still there. We are still humans, we still see the numbers, we're still like, ah, right, a little bit. But like, don't panic. It's just a it's just a device, it's just a tool. Like, the watch is the tool, you are the athlete. And what you're feeling, what you're doing, what you can control is what really, really matters here. So, um, so just a little bit. I'm I promise I won't talk till an hour. I don't know, maybe I will. Who knows? But how can you change that relationship with data? So I've kind of weaved in and out as I've been talking, but notice when the watch is adding stress instead of clarity. Like if you are seeing something, it's saying, I'm detraining, or like I'm overreaching, or or whatever it says, if it is adding more stress than clarity, you gotta do something. You gotta change that relationship with it. Um, so it's either removing something like the heart rate from your watch, it's not looking at the sleep data, whatever that needs to be, if it's adding stress, you need to stop looking at it. Period. Ask yourself the metric actually changes your behavior. So if you see that um, we're just gonna say your heart rate is a certain thing, but like you're running an easy run and everything feels good. You're talking to the person you're running with, uh, maybe you're by yourself, you're singing just fine. Hey, Cheryl, I see you. Uh, but you're out there, but all of a sudden your heart rate says like, okay, nope, zone, this is I'm way too fast, or my heart rate's way too high, and you slow down, that's a behavior change. But you're in your easy effort. So if that metric is changing your behavior, you need to not look at it. You need to not go by it. So that shows though that like the relationship with your method with your data with that metric is too strong, and you've got to not look at it. You gotta take it off the watch, whatever you need to do. I always say take it off the watch, especially for enter run, because that's a very easy thing to do, and then it's just not there. Kind of in the same like measure here, but turn off the things that you obsess over. Like, just don't have them there. I know, like, I think in the app, like if you open it, there are you can like see a lot of the data, um, especially like in the Garmin Connect app. Again, I have Koros now, but like you can also make, I think some you can remove from the home screen, and some you can like click the little carrot thing and like make it so it's smaller so you can't see all the data. So I do suggest doing that too. Um, so on top of like removing things from your watch that aren't needed um because you're obsessing over them, try to get them off of your uh off of the app too. So you're just not seeing them all the time. I don't go into Strava that much, y'all. I don't even go into my app that much unless I realize my runs aren't uploading for my coach to see. And then I open my app. So it could be as simple as like not opening your app too much, too. So um make sure you're just switch or you're running by effort. Just just make sure of that. Like that can help your relationship with data. Focus on the effort, focus on the moment, focus on each run. And remember your goal, running with joy and strength and like just being present. Like when I run out there, yeah, I even felt I felt pretty hard today too, but once I got moving again, like I was still happy to be out there. Like, and I knew this was this is a workout day for me, guys. This was VO2 Max. And I knew I wasn't gonna be hitting or I wouldn't hit, first of all, because my brain was like, I was in my head a little bit. You know, I was like, I don't want to trip again. And I was in a headlamp for almost every single single interval because of how much dark we have in the morning right now. So I just focused on like being there. I still focused on my effort, but I was really focused on my feet. Uh so I didn't kick anything again. But the goal is to run with joy, get stronger. If your goal is to get faster, like great, but always think about the goal and not the data. Remember, you're not trying to win the log rhythm. Because that's if you are focused on that data, that's what you're trying to do. Win the along rhythm. Um, what you're trying to do is run an ultra on real human legs. Not data, but human legs. All right, y'all. Here's the real takeaway. Though your watch is cool. I love getting new, I love it when I get a new watch, right? And I love when somebody gets a new watch and they tell me about it. So it's cool, it's fun, it tracks the adventure, it doesn't count unless you turn it on, right, y'all. I know we all talk about that, but it is not your coach, it is not your intuition, and it absolutely is not the reason you get to feel proud or accomplished or strong. You are. So trust your body, trust your training, and trust the work you're doing out there when no one sees it. And if your Garmin tries to tell you you're detraining again, just wink at it and go live your life. Alright. If this episode hit home, share it with a friend, send it to your running group, text to the person who keeps panicking about their sleep score, and please rate, review, follow, download, do all the things because somehow it helps this podcast reach more everyday trail runners like you, or everyday not trail runners, but I don't know, something happens. So now go move your body, drink some water, stretch your calves, and if you're listening while running, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort, a positive attitude.