Well, Day Two of being internet free. The difficulty is, right now, the small moments. Those gaps in time, when nothing is really going on, and I’m wondering what to do. I find myself instinctively reaching for my iPhone, even looking for it around the house.
I pick it up, and open an app, any app that I still have on my phone. This AM I opened Strava. I scroll down and see what everyone is up to. At first, I didn’t want to delete Strava. It wasn’t in my original list. I am proud of the running and biking and other fitness I do. I liked the metrics, but…
Does anyone really care what I do? Is a Strava log any better than my old climbing log, that I used to keep. In the old days (before smartphones), in my early twenties I would keep a paper log of all the ice routes and rock routes I did. All the training. It was granular, messy, systematic but still adorned with doodles and exclamations and commentary. I would draw the route, sometimes, or just write in some crazy experience.
- Crappy ice, do not climb in sun.
- Tough bulge on 3rd pitch. Crapped my pants.
- Approach was tough, need more fitness.
- Hungover. Ack. Don’t do that again.
Stuff like that. Now, I know my wattage, my heart rate, a whole bunch of auto generated metrics that actually don’t matter. With my Garmin, I’m never lost. Running the trails, I can plan my route with certainty.
Does it really make that much difference to my 5km pace? Maybe. Am I age-adjusted fitter than when I used to climb, when my training was more adaptive and just… for fun? That’s hard to say. Then, I just went out and ran. Climbed. Pedaled. Hiked.
Now, I am one of those ‘if it ain’t on Strava, it never happened’.
If I just commit to Wednesday intervals (with a stop watch), and a few days of Long Slow Distance- would having granular data really matter to me, who races as an age grouper, non-professional? If I just run trails because that’s what I love, won’t I still benefit from the joy and health of movement?
How social is the social network for athletes? I mean, really.
When I look at what other people are doing on Strava, do I really, deeply care? I mean, do I care that much that someone just ran a 5:30 min/km 10km? Deep down, unless I was running with them, and we were chatting about our kids, or about an upcoming race, or the weather, or having a coffee after- I don’t really care at all about that.
It isn’t being callous. The Strava Scroll is a few photos (maybe), a map, some metrics. Does that little Thumbs Up mean anything to my happiness? Or, like any other social media, are we seeking a near thoughtless act of a Thumb’s Up-er, but at a cost of hours a day of our life.
Liking, liking, liking… Tap, tap, tap…
30 minutes is up. Delete Strava. Get on with life.