Technology is part of our lives. Over the years it has come more and more prominently into our days and also into our passions.
I used to run just for the fun of it, without any gadgets and trappings, just shoes, shorts and a T-shirt. Today if I don’t go out with at least a watch, I feel like I am orphaned of some meaningful data for the success or otherwise of the training.
Have you also followed this development? Have you become a techno-addicted runner? What help can technology give you to increase and, perhaps, improve the sense-perceptual experience of running?
In the beginning it was just the time that the stopwatch let you read as data, at the most you could get the lap (lap). For years the whole sports world used only this as a technological tool, sure the precision was always more accurate, but for us endurance sufferers the seconds have always been more than reliable.
To know running speeds, one would go to the track, or on certain measured routes. Measurement should be done with precision instruments such as a surveyor’s metric wheel that indicates measurements with margins of error on the order of a centimeter per kilometer.
The first “revolution”: cardio
The first real revolution was in the late 1980s with the introduction of heart rate monitors. Using a chest strap, connected via radio waves to a wrist device, one could see the instantaneous heart rate on a small monitor. The coaching world went into turmoil, and nothing has been the same since. Knowing at how many beats any given action is performed has allowed us coaches to understand more about the complex world of performance and functional adaptation. For the ordinary user, it allowed them to put a figure on their effort and better evaluate the recovery phase.
Even today, it is still the most widely used parameter for all users, and now every sports watch can display it, thanks in part to recent wristbandless technology.
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The second “revolution”: the GPS
New evolutionary impetus was given in the early 2000s by the introduction of GPS technology, which made it possible to see the meters traveled and the speed of travel in real time.
The possibility of having this data available at all times created some consternation in the sports and coaching community. I do not want to dwell on the positive aspects that are obvious and well-known, instead I would like to bring you to think about the critical points.
Being able to read speed instantaneously has limited development to sensitivity to pace and recognition of training gaits, made us a little less sensitive and motor-smart.
Evidence of this setback, especially in amateurs, but also in some competitive athletes, is the limited ability to recognize a speed, required by the coach or training program, without the continuous verification by looking at the clock. In my opinion, self-recognition of training intensity, is a key step in the growth of any athlete at any level.
Then what about the error the system has in detecting the correct measurements? In fact, it is accurate when conducting the activity in a straight line, but has problems when there are continuous curves and tree-lined stretches. The proof you can do directly at the athletic track, which-by homologation is 400m in the first lane-where you can ascertain by making a few laps, that the measurement is a few meters different.
The importance of developing sensitivity and knowledge
For these reasons, I always use to mark with precise references at least every 500m the training routes where to do the most significant work such as repeats, variations, progressives, and race pacing.
Recently, we also have complex metrics available, thanks to the introduction of accelerometers and increasingly accurate analysis algorithms.
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The most modern watches, better called smart sports watches, allow us to see and analyze so much data. If you are not a super-enthusiastic engineer in data analysis, the advice is to use a few but knowledgeable ones.
The essentials are: cadence, that is, the number of steps per minute, and the variation of the center of gravity with respect to the horizon.
These aspects deserve, however, further study, which you will find in the near future always on these pages.
(photo by lzf on DepositPhotos)