Greg Tracy

Back in March when I got started on my marathon training, I signed up for a service called dailymile to track all of my workouts. Even if my marathon aspirations failed, dailymile proved to be a fantastic tool and started a larger trend for me this year. Since starting with dailymile, I've begun quantifying all sorts of useful things in a quest to understand myself better. Partly because my memory is so bad and partly because I just like data. In some cases, I don't yet know when or where the usefulness will come, but in a world of infinite storage it's easy to store all kinds of information.

Here's a summary of what I've been collecting...

Exercise

The year started with dailymile, which I used to track my running, swimming, cycling and bike commutes to work. Dead simple data entry with a social/community element. I will say that I'd trade in the social aspect for a mobile app. :) MyTracks proved to be a great app on Android even though it didn't integrate with dailymile.

When the snow came, my outdoor activity essentially ended and so did my visits to dailymile. But in November, I joined some friends for the 100 Day Challenge. A friendly competition to see who could amass more points (via exercise activities). The idea is simple, you receive points for a variety of exercises - pushups, situps, walking, running, etc. The points are maintained on a Google spreadsheet so everyone knows where the others stand. There's even a little Twilio app that sends out a text message in the morning with the daily standings. I'm not even sure there is a prize at the end, but I can say that the simple fact that my numbers are viewed by others is an incredible motivator for me. 

Most recently, I've started carrying around a FitBit to track my general activity level throughout the day. I'm doing this primarily as a research mission for Asthmapolis, but I've enjoyed seeing the statistics each day. And the entire process is passive. I litterally don't do anything other than snap the device onto my pants pocket in the morning.

Task Management

I've been using Remember The Milk for a couple of years to track To-dos - mostly macro-level items like "fix kitchen window" or "make yard signs for melsgreengarden". But for most of this year, I've started using it as my idea board. I've been recording every idea I've had regardless of whether or not it will actually turn into a To-do. Things like "build a Twitter app that let's one query baseball statistics". Likely never to be built by me... but I have an impressive list of good, bad and ugly ideas. Now I just need to find a better place to store them.

At the end of the year, I started tracking my project time with far more granularity. I've often wanted to know how long it would take me to build something like Frinook with my kids, or a more accurate number for the number of hours I'm spending on Asthmapolis related projects. I'm now on a path to figure some of that out. I'm using a service called Toggl which makes this process very very easy and painless.

• Ran, biked, and swam 486 total miles
• 106 total (dailymile) workouts (1 every 3.5 days isn't bad!)
• 135 donuts burned
• 7 pounds burned
• 2,870 pushups
• 3,105 situps
• Walked 424 flights of stairs
• 262 tasks completed on Remember The Milk

In addition to logging more things in 2011, I'd like to figure out a new way to aggregate all of it so it isn't spread across so many services. I'm envisioning a system like Nimbits and perhaps implementing a number of APIs to import the data. But I'm pretty sure I don't have the time to implement that so I'm still searching...

The pace of innovation in web design and the proliferation of native mobile applications is making data collection easier and more fun. The tracking tools have become so easy and ubiquitous, you shouldn't stop and ask yourself, "What will I do with this data?". You should be saying to yourself, "I can't wait until I figure out how to use all of this great data!"

What else should I be tracking in 2011?

With the demise of my marathon aspirations this year, I set my sites on a different test when I visited my parents in Bristol, Rhode Island last week. I have long wanted to swim around Hog Island, which you overlook everytime you visit their house. It's 3.5 miles, but the tougher test is managing the currents that move around the island.

In the end, I decided to scale back and simply swim around the Hog Island lighthouse that sits off the shore. In a straight line, we measured it to be two miles round trip. And the theory was that if I went at or near low tide, I could finish most of it with a slack tide and avoid fighting any current.

My sister and eldest daughter were kind enough to escort me across the channel in the dingy. As it turned out, I needed it! There was a boat towing that tried to skirt right in front of me (see pictures) and I'm not sure they would of ever seen me without them.

The swim felt great physically, but the mind plays ugly tricks on you when you can't see anything and you swim through slimy jellyfish. Seems kind of fun to stick your hand in a jar of jelly, but when you're going through pockets of 100's and you feel them all over your body, you can't help but shiver. And it's impossible not to start thinking about the other creators that could come up for a visit!

The only other challenge was getting around the lighthouse itself. In spite of our tidal planning, I still ran into a stiff current between the lighthouse and the island. At one point, I stopped and looked over at the dingy where my sister greeted me with, "Yah. You aren't moving anywhere right now."

After a two hundred yard sprint to get around the lighthouse, it was a quick swim home. Now I'm eying a circumnavigation of Hog Island next year.

Thanks again to my sister and daughter for the escort. The map below is from the My Tracks app from the dingy (which didn't stay next to me the entire time).

(download)

Click here to download:

Rounding_the_Hog_Island_lighth.zip (6.45 MB)

View Larger Map

I just scrolled through some history of this blog and ran across a bunch of older posts on my marathon aspirations, and it dawned on me that I've yet to report on the lousy news that I've shut it down for the year.

Everything was moving along swimmingly until the end of May when I basically woke up one day to a bad knee. I have no explanation for it, but after taking six weeks off and trying to ramp again, I simply can't get it better. And I was fighting a shrinking calendar. So instead of getting carried off the course on a stretcher I simply decided to push this off a year and get some treatment on the knee.

If you look back at the last marathon update post, you'll be able to laugh at my own prediction for failing on this mission - "staying healthy".

The flip side of this, however, is that the friend that had originally challenged me to the marathon in the first place can't say he isn't ready. He'll now have over a year to prepare for it. :)

If anyone is looking for a bib to the sold-out Twin Cities Marathon on October 3rd, email me!

It's now official. I've put my money down on the table for the registration of a marathon... I'll be running the Twin Cities Marathon October 3rd at 8am. 

The marathon training is off to a good start. At the end of March, I've logged 50 miles with another chance to do more today. I've been pretty good about getting on the road three days a week.

It's still early and I have yet to launch into a real training regime, but I've already convinced myself of the keys to success. I think there are two things between me and the marathon finish line...

1. Staying healthy. This means taking care not to strain something or screw up my joints during my training.

2. Mental toughness. Not quitting is an important skill that can be applied to lots of different things in life. And when you get to mile 18 and you're uncomfortable, hot and irritable, I expect that quitting will be an appealing option. But like most things, it's rarely the right option. After all, if running a marathon were easy, everyone would be doing it.

I've decided that the actual physical preparation is trivial given the above, and that anyone (anyone!) can prepare their body to run 26 miles given enough time.

So I've mentally moved past any concern over being ready physically and I'm focused on (a) staying healthy during training and (b) preparing myself to not quit when things feel bad and uncomfortable.

How do I actually do this? Not sure yet, but I think the slow and steady approach to my preparation is good for avoiding injuries as is avoiding riskier activities like basketball and mosh pits. I think I'm well ahead on the mental part already just because I've done hideously long, grueling and persistent swimming activities (I swam more than five miles before and that defines "not quitting").

Here's to cranking things up in April! You can follow my progress on a new site I just started using and am really impressed with - dailymile.

Ok, so I haven't actually laced up the sneakers and hit the pavement yet. But it's Wisconsin and it's cold! Besides, I've been nursing my bizarre back injury back into form.

In the cold and with a bum back my training has consisted of consuming Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. I just finished it this week and am thoroughly inspired. I recommend it to anyone that is thinking about running a marathon or looking for motivation to become more active.

I made a pack with a friend of mine this past fall to run the Chicago Marathon. It's October 10th (221 days from today) which leaves plenty of opportunity for procrastination, injury, and excuses. I'm going to try to choose a different path so if you don't hear from me on this subject, call me out on it!

It's cold out, and I just ran across these old pictures from the summer's Door County Triathlon. I don't think these were ever posted even though I posted my training progress along the way.

(download)

Click here to download:

DCTriathlon.zip (12.85 MB)