Why I Left Nike+

For those who haven’t seen it, I did a review of the Nike+ FuelBand when it first came out.  Don’t read it.  I’ll save you the trouble.  That’s not to say the review wasn’t good, but it’s not relevant anymore.  I’ve decided to move on from the FuelBand and Nike+ (not quite 100%), and it seems like Nike has sort of decided the same thing.

For background, the FuelBand was a sought-after piece of wearable fitness tech.  It tracked your daily activity in units called NikeFuel that weren’t as direct as steps or calories (though it could track those, too) like other fitness trackers (FitBit, Jawbone Up, etc).  It was on the more expensive side, but had a great, fun app and large ecosystem since Nike+ had been around for years and was a thriving community of runners (mostly).  Nike+ devices were all over the place since many iPods, iPhones and Nike shoes were ready to track activity right out of the box (or with a $20 footpod inserted into them).  Nike partnered with TomTom on a GPS watch, too.  Basically, you had an existing community to add NikeFuel and the FuelBand to, unlike competitors who were starting from scratch.  That was attractive.

Nike+ website at 6:20am on 10/25/14

Fast forward two years, and Nike had iterated the FuelBand once (with the SE), yet didn’t add anything revolutionary to the mix (ok, much better battery life, BTLE, activity session tracking – which is both good and bad), and had basically stopped developing the Nike+ platform.  In fact, a key part of the FuelBand at launch was the little motivational mascot named Fuelie who you would unlock videos of based on how active you were.  He was hokey yet fun at the same time.  Fuelie videos disappeared from the app and site, and you basically started getting these weird badges and awards for odd things (you were active twice today), and often a different badge was awarded for the same thing (or seemingly the same – it was more confusing than it needed to be).  The site also became increasingly slow and unresponsive, or wouldn't load at all (see what it looked like the morning I posted this blog entry).  The performance issue seemed to be mixed for various users, and seemed to be tied to those with higher NikeFuel scores (I am at about 5.2 million right now).

The sessions functionality was perhaps the most maddening since you need to tell the FuelBand that you are working out.  Well, you don’tneed to, but you should so you can get more credit for your activity.  See, I am very active and typically earned 8-9k a day with my first gen FuelBand.  When I switched to the SE, I’d struggle to get to 3,500.  When I did 30-45 minutes of high intensity intervals on the elliptical, gen 1 would give me 1500 (or so) NikeFuel and the SE would give me 200-300.  They changed the algorithm supposedly to be more accurate (I brought this up to Nike and they kept telling me I was wrong and this was more accurate).  No way.  A 10 minute run was worth the same as 45 minutes on the elliptical?  Not possible.  And, yes, I use my arms on the elliptical.  They said I should use the Session feature since some activities get higher NikeFuel scores.  Great.  Well, only three activities do – running, swimming and cycling (I might be wrong on swimming).  Running is only slightly higher.  Cycling lets you assign an intensity rating that then dictates how much NikeFuel you get.  The problem there is in the descriptions.  Low intensity sounds like you basically are coasting, doing nothing.  Medium says you barely break a sweat, if at all.  High is hard work.  Well, I don’t do low or medium often since I generally sweat and make myself pant now and then, so everything is high for me.  But that high score seems too high relative to – again – what I do on the elliptical or running.  30 minutes of high cycling effort is over 1,000 NikeFuel, versus 600-800 for running and 200-300 for the elliptical.  No way.

And that would be lovely if I could actually set the parameters of each session, but I couldn’t do that online since the Nike+ portal would never load the session for me to edit.  I would have to sync the device, and then go to my iPhone and edit the session (I couldn’t do it all on my iPhone since I was testing iOS 8, and there was a Bluetooth issue that Nike had to fix, so you couldn’t sync the device via an iPhone – they’ve since fixed it).

Then the biggest let down, and the straw that broke the camel’s back for me came when I was doing the Canary Challenge.  103 miles of cycling with some very intense efforts.  I set a session to start as I left the start of the ride.  I shut the session down when I came through the finish several hours later.  I synced my device expecting to get like 20-30k NikeFuel.  I went to edit the intensity, but was told that you can’t edit intensity for sessions over 6 hours.  What?  Why?  Who decided that and for what purpose?  Net result – I got 11,311 NikeFuel for the entire day, with about 10,000 for the ride

.  Looking at my Strava account, I burned 5,262 calories on the ride.  Do you think I really only did 10k NikeFuel over 7ish hours?

So, I was left with something that wasn’t accurately capturing my efforts and took a lot of effort to deal with.  I realize these aren’t major life problems, but the issue is that this is meant to be a motivational tool.  Not only was it not motivating me anymore because of what was taken out of the system (both the reward of points and of videos and encouragement that made sense), but the effort you had to put into dealing with it was too high and getting higher, which was demotivating.  I had to retire my FuelBand (and actually sold it).  I wish it had worked out differently as I liked a lot of things about it (built in USB plus is BRILLIANT).  I made a switch, and am rocking a Garmin vivosmart, and really liking it.  It actually tells me to move if it senses that I’ve been inactive for certain amounts of time, and it seems to be fairly accurately tracking my steps regardless of what activity I do (not to mention it’s quasi-smart-watch feature set).  More on that in another post, but I wanted to update you on the FuelBand since I gave it such a glowing review early on.  With our health, we have to keep moving ahead and not lose focus or drive.  I feel Nike did that with the FuelBand, so I can’t recommend it as a tool to help you enlighten.your.body.

So Long, 35

A selfie on my final 35 year old morning

As I sit here on the last night that I'm 35, I thought it would be appropriate and a bit nice to reflect on the past year of my life.  It was a year filled with lots of trials (mentally and physically), tremendous growth, and was overall a great year.  Some people look back on a year of their life and are thankful it's over.  Some wish it wouldn't end and are sad to see it go.  I can't feel either way about 35, not because it didn't have reasons to make me feel either way, but because feelings like that don't set me up for positivity and success.  No, I'm leaving 35 feeling invigorated, glad to have lived this particular year, and excited for how it's prepared me for the years still to come.

This year saw the toughest year of my professional career, with politics at work getting the best of me, and my having to make a tough call to leave a job I truly loved and saw myself in for the long haul.  As they say, the toughest decisions are often the best.  Sure enough, I am in a new role with a new company that I'm extremely excited about, with lots of opportunity in front of me, and the power to make things happen.  I miss my old job and colleagues, but also know what I missed wasn't what it was anymore, and am feeling blessed to be where I am now.

My first (but not last) half marathon

I took on a physical challenge I never expected to do with a half marathon the week after my 35th birthday.  I never used to run, and even when I picked it up, I didn't expect to do more than 5K or 10K races.  In fact, the 10K I did a few months before turning 35 was so tough and unenjoyable, I figured I wouldn't do anything but 5Ks again if I even raced at all.  Not only did a I do a half, but I beat the goal time I had set for myself, and would have definitely beat my dream time if I didn't have a damaged tendon and broken bone in my left foot.  I have another one two weeks from my 36th birthday, and am feeling much better about my preparedness and injury status.

Speaking of injuries, while I did spend many months dealing with the injuries I mentioned above (I didn't really run consistently after the half for eight months, and was in an air cast for a while), this year marked the first in a while where I didn't have or wasn't recovering from surgery.  I've had some operation or recovered from one basically without interruption since 2008.  Two knee surgeries, back surgery and double hernia surgery over four and a half years, with a bout of swine flu thrown in the mix for good measure.  While I certainly had some injuries to recover from, my body did what it was made to do and healed and grew stronger.  My mind did, as well, as I learned a lot about smart training, evening out inequities in the body, and taking time when you need it.  I also learned about how much capacity I have to do things and do more of them - even when my mind tells me otherwise (the half had a lot to do with that learning).

My second, toughest century ride

I took on another century ride, and it was intense and challenging.  But I did it.  I don't get to train with real climbs, and this ride had a few very real, very long, very steep ones, but I powered through and passed those ahead of me.  My left knee was a bit of a victim, but I know what to do to get it back on track, and it's progressing nicely (and oddly isn't a problem when I run at all, so my next half is still safe).

With newbodi.es, I had a great year.  I got to do some really valuable continuing education. I coached an awesome young lady to a fantastic weight loss, but more importantly a new 'whole health' life that will absolutely endure.  I got to meet Dean Karnazes.  I became a FitFluential ambassador.  I also launched my video podcast and YouTube channel, and recorded 31 episodes, including doing a couple of great interviews of people I respect a ton (thanks again to Dai Manuel and Alex Hutchison for joining me).

On the home front, my family continued to deal with my wife's illness, yet also benefit from the learnings and health consciousness we've gained as a result.  Despite the hardships of it, we're also better off in terms of the food and healthcare choices we make.  I know I would be hard pressed to be as fit as I am if the woman across the table from me was eating junk, so my health is clearly benefitting from what my wife is doing to manage hers.

We also saw our son start elementary school, which was exciting and sad at the same time.  He's amazing, and loves school so much.  As a parent, it's hard not to be filled with joy and pride to see him so happy and thriving.

So, I'm not writing off 35.  I'm not lamenting or mourning its passing.  I'm thankful for the year I've had.  I'm excited for the years I will have.  I owe both of those feelings to what I lived while being 35 and how I grew while being 35.  My wife said it brilliantly when I told her about this post.  She said, "I see any year as a gift, and they all taught me things."  So true.  Be whatever age you are, be grateful for how you lived it and for what will come after it, and enlighten.your.body.

Race & Place or Ride with Pride?

I just got back from a truly epic charity event out in San Francisco.  It's called the Canary Challenge, and the purpose is to raise money for the Canary Foundation at Stanford.  The Foundation is trying to develop a blood test for early detection of cancer.  The idea being that early detection means less extreme intervention and higher cure rates.  If you are familiar with the phrase 'canary in a coal mine', that's where their name came from.

Anyway, back to the subject of this post.  I do both races and charity events.  Some charity events are races (Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure, for example).  Most are not.  Charity cycling events are often called 'rides', while the Canary Challenge is called, well, a 'challenge'.  That's definitely due to the grueling nature of the course, which ascends 8,455 feet over 103 miles, including two climbs that last longer than 30 minutes (the second comes at mile 78, so you're just a bit tired at that point!), plus another in between them that's nearly as long (only you also have headwinds and it was raining a bit).

Anyway number 2, back to the subject of the post again.  So what am I talking about today?  I believe in the value of racing.  I also believe in the value of not racing.  What's that?  Hipocracy, you say?

Well, let's take the racing part first.  I have found that I am not pushing myself as much as I can when I run.  It's not to say I'm not tired at the end of a run, but my pacing is never what it is in a race.  When I did my first half marathon, I was injured, and my training runs were in the upper half of the 8-9 minute per mile range.  When I did the race, I was at 7'50" until mile 10 when the really steep hills hit, and I finished with an average of just over 8'.  My injuries were hurting a lot, but I was fine energy-wise and endurance-wise.  If I wasn't in pain, I would have easily been able to keep going for a while.  So, for me, getting into a race is a fantastic way to push yourself and learn more about your limits.  Was I going for a top 3 finish?  Was I trying to pass everyone?  No.  I was racing for my own goals and treated it as a personal event.  But I was being egged on by the 1,000 other runners around me, and definitely had little bouts of being more competitive and passing people when I felt the power to pick someone off. It feels great.  I also learned that I'm really good at running up hills relative to most other runners.  I never would have known that without doing this race.

I got a lot out of that race, and others I've done, mainly around what I'm actually capable of.  Setting successive PRs in 5Ks each time I do one feels great, and they're all times I never imagined whether as an overweight kid/teen, or as a fit 30-something father and husband.  Physically and competitively, it feels great.

But as great as racing is, I also see value in events that aren't races.  The Canary Challenge has a kinship across riders that made it amazing.  I was exhausted by it, and my left knee is still in bad shape from the long climbs (funny since my right knee was the problem going in, but that's been fine).  But I didn't care.  I loved it.  Really loved it.  I rode with some friends, though we weren't together too much. The time we rode together was great, and I made a point to meet up with them and visit for a bit at the aid stations, which brought an even tighter feel of community.  I started recognizing jerseys, and chatted some of the familiar ones up as we were grinding up the mountain together, or when stopped at an aid station.

Where did I place?  I have no idea - no one was tracking it.  How many riders were in my age group?  I dunno - a bunch, maybe?  Maybe not?  What was my final time and average speed?  I know both of those, but they don't matter.  What I got out of it was a grueling event that definitely worked my body, but also worked my mind and soul.

So, my point is hopefully clearer and less hypocritical-sounding.  Racing can be incredibly good for your development in whatever sport you do.  So can events that aren't races.  Do them both.  Don't lose sight of the value of either, and enlighten.your.body.