Here’s something every runner should know: Your watch is lying to you. Right now, at this very moment, your watch is deceiving you in some small way. Whether it’s miscounting steps or shortchanging your calorie burn, your watch is not quite telling you the whole story about how you move throughout the day. (Don’t even get me started on sleep data.)
It’s not the device’s fault. No matter how advanced our technology becomes, watches are still imperfect machines. Even the ones that pack enough fancy widgets to qualify as mini computers will not measure every step and heart beat with 100 percent precision.
As runners, we accept those shortcomings because our watches deliver so much value in return. By and large, they collect reams of mostly accurate data. Not just pace and distance, but heart rate, cadence, elevation change, and physical power.
Taken as a whole, these data sets can be extremely useful, provided you know what you’re looking for when you comb the numbers. If you’re like me – mildly obsessive about statistics and fascinated by subtle training trends – you’d rather have access to all this stuff than not.
Still, it’s easy to get emotionally wrapped up in our metrics. Especially when your watch goes beyond simple data collecting and begins rendering judgments about your performance. In my case, that meant a recent workout that checked every box from performance to emotional resonance, yet was somehow labeled ... POOR.