With nice warm weather finally on the way, and a pretty early spring overall, we’re getting pretty geared up for outdoor activities here at the Small Dog HQ. I don’t remember which of us suggested it initially, but Emily and I have kicked off an April fitness challenge/competition.
We’re both trying to get more active and we thought having a challenge would be a good fun way to keep us both motivated. Emily’s main method of attack is running and other exercises like burpees, pushups, and the occasional jumping jacks (to intimidate me while I’m sitting at my desk). I never liked running, so my main method of attack is riding my bike. The weather has been marginally cooperative for that. The roads are mostly clear of salt, and the sun shines enough, but the days have still been on the colder side. I don’t like to ride in less than 40 degrees because I have to put on too many layers and I find it really uncomfortable.
We needed to figure out a way to track our individual progress so we could compare results. Emily has an Apple Watch and I have a Misfit Shine. At the beginning of the month, we did a few test days to see how the Misfit would track my bike riding and how the results would compare with Emily’s Apple Watch tracking her running. As it turns out, the two are pretty comparable. When I’m riding, I have the Misfit on my shoe to record the pedaling motion. It ends up recording this in a kind of “step equivalent” that we’ve found is actually comparable to the steps counted by Emily’s Apple Watch when she runs. Obviously running 5 miles takes more energy and effort than riding 5 miles (thanks, bearings!) but we found that Emily’s standard run (about 3-4 miles) was roughly equivalent to a 10-15 mile ride for me depending on terrain.
So the challenge is fully on now. On a daily basis, I don’t get that many steps. My ace in the hole here is that I still haven’t been able to do my standard full 18-20 mile training ride yet. The weather hasn’t cooperated enough. I’m hoping that’ll change this weekend. Two days of over 60 degree weather and nice and sunny!
The coolest thing about this challenge is that it shows how completely different fitness trackers are pretty close to each other in tracking general activity. The Apple Watch can do additional things like better tracking of calories and workouts, because it can measure heart rate. The Misfit cannot do that. We found that my Misfit’s calorie reading includes basal metabolic rate. So even if I just walk around all day and never get my heart rate up, it’ll record that I burned something like 2200 calories (which basically translates to, “hey, you were alive all day today!”). If I get it to record an actual workout (like a bike ride) the calorie information for that specific activity will be pretty close, but on average, it’s not a good metric for our challenge. We’re sticking to steps.
At the end of the month, I’ll be back here to report our results to Kibbles readers! (Bad news though, after writing this, I did a check of my month-to-date total and it’s about half of where Emily is. I’m still confident I can stay in it. I’ve only had like 2-3 half decent rides so far. I’m itching to get out on the road!)