God doesn't make junk

If you could travel back in time, what would you change about your life? Of course, if time travel has been developed, then you might already have done this at least once and the whole space-time continuum thhas been twisted in and around itself into some horribly contorted knot as you've tried to rearrange everything that each previous change has unwittingly affected elsewhere along your timeline! But let's not go there.
If I could travel back in time I might be tempted to tell my younger self that becoming a church leader would not be worth the pain and sadness that it brought into my life, but then I'd miss out on doing some remarkable things with some remarkable people. I'd miss out on all that experience of seeking to help people, of learning how to do that to the best of my ability (even if they didn't appreciate it!), and the spiritual and emotional growth that comes through all of that.

Over the weekend I got one of those reminders that nothing is ever wasted. Someone once said that God does make junk, but there are times when I have to say that looking at my life I feel I've had cause to question that assertion! There is much that I would change if I could, but I can't. There are some poor decisions that I would change, some habits I'd like to change, some issues I'd address much sooner than I did.

Our last two years in full-time church leadership were pretty tough. In fact they were the just about the worst two years we've been through. At the end it felt as though everything we'd done over the previous twenty years was just rolled up like old newspapers and thrown in the bin. We, I, felt totally rejected and discarded. It felt like a complete waste of my life. It still does some days. If I could go back in time, I'd probably be tempted to avoid those two years at all costs. If I did, we wouldn't be where we are today.

This weekend I was reminded that God doesn't waste things, he doesn't make junk. It came in two unlikely conversations.

In the first I heard the story of one person's working life and how failing in one area brought success in another. They could have persevered and passed a particular exam and that would have taken them down one route, but instead, having failed, they went in a new direction which turned out to be far more successful for them.

The second conversation came about because someone recognised in me something that they needed. Through simple conversations we'd built a relationship and now they needed someone with whom they could talk through a challenging situation and they called me.

All those years of heartache and questioning have shaped the pastoral side of my life. Without it I'd probably be no use to that person, I'd probably not have been able to see the lessons from the first story in the way I could, and I wouldn't have been able to provide the listening ear of a critical friend in the second.

Interesting isn't it, that if I could travel in time I would probably change so many things that I doubt I'd have been there for this friend in need. I'd have studied sports therapy or become a physiotherapist. I might have been working with elite athletes or weekend warriors. Who knows.

I am what I am, as Popeye used to say, but unlike Popeye I know I am not all I could be. In God''s hands he continues to shape my life, and he continues to use everything I've experienced to shape me. I seem to remember that Michael Angelo was once asked how he turned a lump of marble into a beautiful carving of a horse. "Simple," he said, "you just chip away everything that doesn't look like a horse."

My prayer for this Monday morning is that God will continue to chip away everything that doesn't look like the life he wants for me. If it doesn't look like a horse yet, that's because it isn't finished!

Rambling thoughts of a non-economist on budget day

I believe there is a little matter of a budget being announced today. Get ready for all the analysis and speculation about the relationship between the plans and the upcoming election. Get ready for all the arguments about who has the right numbers and who's spinning them to make them look better or worse than they really are. Prepare yourselves for the voices of big business and the city bemoaning or celebrating something.

In all the bluff and thunder of budget days in the past, recent years have become somewhat antiseptic. There are very few shocks and surprises. Perhaps there never really where. There will be lots of self-congratulations and probably a few stern warnings that the process isn't over yet. I dare say a lot of important things will even get lost in the smoke and mirrors of complex fiscal accounting. And then the counter arguments will start.

But even if the numbers point to a positive state of affairs, even if the chancellor can demonstrate a recovery with falling unemployment and a few other positives, there remains a single, important question to be be asked.

At what cost?

Who has paid the dearest price for getting us to a positive position and who will continue to pay that price? As the gap between rich and poor continues to expand, we must answer this question. I grow increasingly weary of calls to protect the city (the financial district) as if it is the engine room of the economy. It may be, but only at the cost of a manufacturing and engineering sector that has shrunk exponentially over the last 3 decades.

Executive pay continues to outstrip the wages of the ordinary employee to the point where a CEO is, in no uncertain terms, grossly overvalued, especially so in today's economy. The whole thing is unbalanced in a hugely detrimental way. We're not talking about seeking some idealised equality, but some sense of equity wouldn't go amiss.

If the figures I saw a few weeks ago are correct and our debt is rising at the alarming rate of £5,000 a second, then by the time this business day is over we will have added around £150M to that debt. That can't go on. But if we are truly all in this together, then the solution must be to share the burden not equally but equitably among the people. I just wonder if we're too scared to do it.

Breaking an activity record!

I think I had my most active day on Friday since I began wearing my Polar Loop. According to my diary, I managed to do 319% of my daily activity goal! It all breaks down like this:

The 7 hours 16 mins of active time comprised 3 hours low intensity, 1.5 hours moderate and 3 hours high intensity stuff. The latter coming from the 3 hours spent on the tennis court practicing.

It's quite funny when you read the standardised notes that go alongside the analysis. Apparently I spent 8 hours sitting down, but not for too long at a time. I think after 3 hours on a tennis court a lie down was more likely than sitting down!

Setting a new goal

So, yesterday I missed my 10k step goal ending a run of 188 consecutive days. The reasons were simple enough: we travelled to Nottingham for a celebration lunch and I also managed to pop my calf muscle again while coaching in the morning. Taking these two together, I decided to rest my leg and forgo my target for the day.

Now, once the calf strain is better, I need to work out whether to return to focussing on 10k or setting a different daily goal. As you know, I received an activity monitor for Christmas, the Polar Loop, and I could focus my attention on hitting my activity goal every day rather than the step challenge. The interesting this is the difference between the two.

Generally speaking, if I play tennis for an hour or so or do some interval training for an hour, I usually hit my activity goal but not my steps goal. On the other hand, I can go out and walk and hit my step goal but miss my activity goal. I think it will be interesting for a while to focus on the daily activity goal as measured by the Loop, and thereby build a picture of what the impact of doing is likely to be. As you've probably already guessed if you read some of my ramblings about health and exercise, the data fascinates me and can be part of the motivation for getting up and moving in the first place. 

So I think I'll go for activity for a while, and se how the data stacks up!

Another active day!

This is my activity report for today.

Surely I'm allowed one inactivity stamp after such an active day!

February stats

Well, we've reached the end of February and the numbers loo like this:

Total Steps: 340079
Approx. miles: 170
Best day: 20288

Not bad. No days missed, which means 6 straight months of hitting 10K a day. In fact two more days and that will be 183 days, passing the half-way point for a year.

Comparing these numbers with Polar Loop is quite interesting.

Total active time: 6 days 13 hours

Steps: 464940 (remember this is body movements converted to steps)

Distance: 370 Km (231mls)

Kcal burned: 86824

In other words, I was pretty active in February!

The book remembered!

I've done a bit of digging and found the title and author of the book on guidance to which I made reference in my last post. The book is called: Decision Making and the Will of God, by Gary Friesen. It is still available, albeit with a new cover by the looks of things.

It's been such a long time since I read it, almost 30 years I think, that I certainly couldn't do it any justice in terms of a review. However, I still think it's a book you might want to read if your interested in thinking through how you understand and apply the principles guidance in your life.

I know some might suggest that the book dispenses with the idea that God has a plan for your life, but I don't remember thinking that at all. In fact my memory of reading the book was a sense of liberation from the debilitating need to have everything confirmed by some sort of sign. As with all things, there is a need to keep a sense of balance and to understand the interrelationship between obedience, choosing freely and applying what you already know about God's general will. Too often Christians can become paralysed, unable to make a decision because they are unsure about what God wants them to do. I wonder if that is in some way because we have a showed view of God's will, not grasping the differences between his revealed will, his sovereign will and possibly something more specific to particular events or decisions we have to make. I wonder too if there are not times when we want God to be specific because we don't want to do the "wrong thing".

Complicated stuff, guidance.

Unrealised dreams and the question of guidance

As a short follow-up to my previous post about unrealised dreams, I beleive the particular Bible reference I had in mind was from 1Kings 8:18-19:

But the Lord said to my father David, ‘You did well to have it in your heart to build a temple for my Name. Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own flesh and blood—he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.’ (‭NIV)

I guess the hard part is always going to be figuring out which dreams are going to remain unrealised and which are not. We would love such a clear message from God about such things, but our reality is that things are rarely that clear cut. Guidance is not that clear cut.

I recall reading a book about guidance, but cannot remember either the title or the author (was it Gary something? I'll have to check my library catalogue). at the time I found it a really interesting read and very helpful. I don't remember too much of the content apart from a small part about marriage that sparked an interesting debate with a couple of friends at college.

Marrying, excuse the pun, guidance with dreams and discipleship is a challenge. What is harder perhaps is not beating ourselves up about it all when we either get it wrong or when he hear others talk in a way that makes us feel totally inadequate in the area of hearing from God.

Maybe the answer is simple. Rejoice in those times when God speaks clearly and don't fret on the days when he doesn't, just continue to live as a faithful follower of Jesus.

Unrealised dreams

I was thinking about my previous post about waiting and it reminded me of something else. I remember years ago when I was in my first church leadership setting that I was reflecting and praying about the future and how things might develop. I wasn't sure whether it was time to move or whether we were to stay in that place for the foreseeable future.

A wise person said to me, "Don't let the size of the task keep you here." Their point was that there would always be something that needed doing, always a reason to stay. I had my dreams, a vision for the church and what we could become as long as we walked with God. I may not have articulated it in the words I'd use today, but it would have been along the lines of partnership with God in whatever he was doing in our community. We had a passion to figure out how to reconnect people with the God who misses them and we were exploring how we could that. I'm sure that if we'd stayed we would have found our way towards the kinds of things I've been discovering over the 20 years since I left that place.

The turning point for me came as I was working my way through the story of David. I came to the part of his story where he decided it was time to build a temple. David had great plans, he had the dream, the vision to build a permanent home for the Ark. It wasn't about him and his achievements, but about his relationship with God. Although I can't quite track down the specific verse (I have a note somewhere in a journal form that time), the phrase that has stayed with me since the day I read it goes something like this: It was good that he had it in his heart... David was not going to get to build the temple.

I realised then that two things were true. Firstly, I was not going to stay and see the fulfilment of the dream or vision for the church at that time. It was not going to mine to build. Perhaps God knew I didn't need an empire! The second thing I realised was that God remembers and honours the dreams of his people. My vision wasn't wasted, even if it wasn't realised. It's okay to have an unfulfilled dream.

I know that some people might look at my ministry and see a list of failures, of unfulfilled potential and missed opportunities. I think that too from time to time. But what I remember and what I hold on to is that it was good to have had it in my heart to do something great for God. I'd rather have an unrealised dream than no dream at all, and after all is said and done it's not about my dreams, it's about God's grand plan, his mission among the people he misses most.

The waiting game

I decided to pick up the story of David in the Old Testament at 2Sam. 3 this morning. It begins like this:

That was the beginning of a long war between those who were loyal to Saul and those who were loyal to David.

How long, I don't know, but it had already been quite a long time since David had been anointed as Saul's successor and still he wasn't fully established as king. That got me thinking about a few other stories in the Old Testament.

Abraham, for instance, was around 75 when God called him and told him he would be the father of many nations. Yet it would be another 25 years before Issac was born. Joseph spent something like 13 years in prison and Isaiah spoke about things over 700 years into the future. Things he probably longed to see but would never do so.

So, how long is long enough to wait for God to fulfil a promise? Days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries?

It wasn't an epiphany this morning, just a reminder that things can take longer than we'd like them to, and that God moves at his pace and not ours. There are times when I wonder why I'm where I am doing what I'm doing. Days turn into weeks and months with no apparent progress and then all of a sudden something happens and God's hand is revealed. Learning to live with the wait is quite possibly the hardest part of being a disciple.

In support of exercise

I like these kinds of visualised talks, and although this doesn't tell you anything radically new it is still worth watching (unless you don't like illustrated talks!).

We all know that exercise is good for us but sometimes the message is confusing. Hopefully this talk will encourage you to make moving a part of your day. With all the recent talk about how much exercise is good for you and whether running long distances is ultimately damaging, this talk gives a research perspective on the value of exercise for positive health outcomes. The debate will still rage about over-exercise but the value of moderate exercise cannot be understated.

What is fascinating is some of the research cited. Another interesting thought is the "Whole Body" impact idea that comes up when he talks about stents. Think about the implications for a while. If a stent only fixes one part of the problem, but exercise addresses a wide range of factors, ho might that be true for other diseases/ risk factors?

 

Inaccurate fitness monitors

Lara Lewington at the BBC's Click has an article on the website about fitness/activity monitors that's quite interesting for those inclined towards gadgets. How long it will be available I'm not sure, but currently you'll find it here. Thanks to Adam for pointing to the article.

In simple terms, the article points out that if you take four of the most prominent players in the market, you will get significant discrepancies in the data they present to you about your activity levels and related data. I have to say that I don't find that particularly unexpected, and it certainly fits with my experience of my Polar Loop (which wasn't among the four tested). I guess the object lesson in all of this goes back to something I learned doing physics at school. We were taught the difference between precision and accuracy. As I recall, and it is a rather long time ago, the difference is that you can have very precise measurements that are inaccurate and conversely you can have accurate results that are imprecise. Sounds crazy I know, but we are talking about the mysteries of physics here. In common usage we might use accurate and precise to describe the same thing, but in science they mean different things.

So what does this mean for the activity tracker you're planning on strapping to your wrist? The most important implication is that the data you get has to be understood against the way the technology works, the kind of sensor it has and the maths it uses to convert what it measures into the data you get to read off the device. I've already blogged about the differences between a simple pedometer and my Loop and how the Loop converts body movements into steps. Even my pedometer doesn't necessarily measures steps exactly.

So why would you spend your hard earned cash on an activity monitor that can't tell you either accurately or precisely why you've been up to? I'm not sure the technology exists to do that, but that doesn't mean a monitor is a bad thing. The reason to buy one of these gadgets lies in a quote from one of the companies making the devices has to say.

Managing director of Fitbit Europe Gareth Jones advises people to simply be aware of the trend.
"Rather than get down to the half step or the next calorie is to look at the trend in their step pattern," he says,
"Are they increasing the number of steps in their day all week? Are they increasing the calorie burn day to day, week to week? Because it's that trend that's going to make you healthier."

It's pretty obvious that a device worn on your wrist is unlikely to give you a proper measure of steps taken, but it will indicate how active you've been. It's these trends that help you make choices about what you need to do to improve your health. So buy a gadget if you want, or get someone to buy one for you (mine was a Christmas present) and use it to motivate yourself to move. It's fun to see what yo've been doing, how far you've walked or run, how long you've spent sitting down. But don't get hung up on the raw data, look at the trends. Look at the bigger picture.

Is it a habit yet?

Well, as I've just tweeted, I passed 2 million steps and 1000 miles yesterday (4th February 2015). I've been recording the data since September 1st and I haven't missed my goal of 10000 steps a day yet. It's a record by some way given that I purposefully took a day off at 104 last time I did the 100 day challenge.

So, apart from some self-congratulatory back slapping, have I formed a habit yet? Actually, I don't think so. A habit is something you do almost automatically. It's a response, something you do because you always do it. It happens without much predetermined thought. Getting up and going for a walk everyday takes discipline, so I guess you could call it a disciplined habit, but most of the habits we do without thinking require no discipline at all and are usually bad habits. Maybe all habits that require no thought are bad habits.

No, habit is not the tight word to describe what I'm currently doing. At least not the right word for me. If I think it's a habit I'll more than likely stop thinking about it and that inevitably leads to a breaking of the habit. So I'll continue to call it a disciplined choice. There are days when I really don't feel like hitting the mean streets of Ockendon and pounding away at my goal. But I choose to do it.

Take yesterday for example.

I had two funerals to do and a visit to make. That doesn't sound like a lot of work I know, but funerals carry their own stress for me and I like to be there early so I'm settled and ready. Having said that, at yesterday's second funeral I managed to leave a candle in the chapel office and had to nip out doing a piece of music to get it! I did tell the family what I was doing, just so they didn't think I was running away! I've also got a nasty cold and I've got my torn calf muscle. Add to that the temperature and the fact that I didn't get ready to go out walking until gone 5:00pm and I definitely didn't feel like doing it at all.

But I did. I made he disciplined choice to exercise. Even with base layers, mid-layers and top layer on it was still cold. I wore a hat and gloves and I still found myself having to take some painkillers for the ache that gets in your face when it's been too cold for too long. This is why it's a disciplined choice and not a habit. You have to choose to do something like that, it doesn't come naturally. Of course once you're into your stride you mostly forget about everything else. You remember how much you get out of simply being outside and the pleasure of the walk or run. holding onto that memory is what helps making the following day's discipline choice to get moving.

Speaking of which, it's time to pull on the trainers and get out there again. Normally I'd be off to tennis, but I'm rehabbing my calf, so no tennis this week. All my steps will have to come from running or walking in circles.

Rehab progress

I thought I'd do a quick update on how my rehab is going on my calf injury. Friday was the first real opportunity to assess the damage, and it didn't appear to be quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. Everyone is different, and every injury is different. The muscle was certainly tender to the touch and there was a reasonably sized area that was both tender and firm to the touch. Dorsiflexion (imagine pointing your toes towards your nose) was the most painful movement, and I was most definitely limping. Running was out of the question!

I'd applied a Physicool bandage the previous day and rested it. I'd also put on a compression bandage, the good old tubigrip sort of thing. I decided that I would try walking and although it was obvious I was limping, I managed to do a steady, if rather slow, 4Km. Once home I reapplied the cooling bandage for 30 minutes before removing that and putting the compression bandage back on. About every 20 to 30 minutes I made sure I got up and walked around a little.

Saturday morning I went out for another walk and this time things were much better. I did a little bit of gentle massage of what had been the rather firm and tender area before setting out on the walk. My stride pattern was much more even, and I concentrated on making sure I was flexing my ankle while not stressing the soft tissue by going too quickly. There were still a few movements that were painful, but generally it was okay. I still couldn't run and when we were at the rugby match that afternoon it was pretty clear that running was difficult every time I needed to get across the pitch to deal with an injury.

By Sunday, walking was good, with very few issues. I even went for a faster 2Km walk on my own to finish off my sets for the day. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I will be ready to try a little running. Before I try that, I will do some simple weight-bearing exercises, and if they are pain free I'll try some short intervals.

And that's my rehab plan! I guess the lessons are pretty simple. Start moving sooner rather than later. Work within pain free ranges. Don't push too hard too soon. Listen to the feedback your body gives you.

Tis the end of January

Another month, another set of stats to reflect upon. Of course this month has been different because I've not only carried my trusty pedometer, but I've also had my Polar Loop too.

I've already blogged about the Loop and the way it measures "body movements" which are converted into steps compared to the pedometer that simply measures steps as best it can. Anyway, here are the stats as recorded by the pedometer.

Total steps: 369, 313

Approximate mileage: 185

Despite my calf injury sustained in the last couple of days I actually managed to make my daily target, so that means I've now reached 153 consecutive days of 10k steps a day. On the other hand, January has been my lowest overall total since September.

The Loop recorded the equivalent of 527, 122 steps, which I assume means I swing my arms a lot when I play tennis! Oh, and there's a bit of swimming in there too. Overall, the Loop recorded 7 days 13 hours of activity. This breaks down into 4 days 5 hours standing, 1 day 21 hours walking and 1 day 10 hours running. If I could do 4 miles an hour walking and say 6 running, then I could have travelled 384 miles. That's nearly all the way to Leeds and back!

Of course this is mostly idle speculation and a bit of fun with numbers. Both the pedometer and Loop serve to keep me motivated to get out and be active and I'll take every motivation I can get. I know that it only takes a day to break a habit, no matter how good a habit it is. In fact the better the habit, the easier it is to break it. Bad habits come naturally and are easy to keep, good habits are much hater work.

The calf muscle is responding well to rehab. I can't run, but walking is easier and I'm pleased to have managed to keep going even with the injury.

Rice or meat after my injury?

So, soon after blogging about reaching my 150th day of 10k steps a day, and rambling on about targets and possibilities, I went straight out an injured myself. Turning to chase a cross-court backhand I felt the unmissable twang of a muscle strain. I hopped of the court, limped to the car and reach for the freeze spray and some compression bandage.

It was not good.

Back home, I strapped a Physicool bandage around my calf, elevated it and consoled myself for the next 30-40 minute by watching a bit of the Australian Open tennis on TV. I'll have a better idea tomorrow about how bad it is and how long it might take to rehab, but for now it looks like my consecutive day record will not go beyond 150.

The received wisdom with an injury like this is to apply the well-known RICE protocol. Rest, ice, compress, elevate,but there is an alternative that I came across a few years ago and that I've used on a more minor injury before. It's called the MEAT Proctocol, which stands for: Movement, Exercise, Analgesics, Treatment.

Movement begins soon after the injury, corrective exercise only after the acute phase has passed. Analgesics are pain relief (typically NSAID's like ibuprofen), and treatment speaks for itself, although treatment obviously varies according to the stage and severity of the injury.

The basic premise is that you need to start moving within the pain free range of motion as soon as possible in order to support the healing process. No moving, i.e. rest, doesn't help the blood flow which in turn doesn't help promote faster healing.

Clearly I'm not going to be able to run for a while, certainly not going to be able to play tennis, but I should be able to do some gentle walking. Hopefully I'll be racing around again sooner rather than later, but as with al injuries it's best to listen to what your therapist tells you. Unfortunately in my case that's me and although I talk to myself a lot, I rarely listen to what I'm saying!!

150 and still going!

Yesterday marked two milestones. Firstly, it was my 150th consecutive day of 10k steps or more. I worked out that I'm roughly 3 weeks away from hitting 6 months at this daily target. The other milestone was that yesterday was my first bout of the winter with the cold virus! Certainly having the flu jab in the autumn seems to have helped me avoid getting a cold so far, but it's finally nabbed me while I wasn't paying attention. Oh well, it should clear up pretty quickly, and in fact I already feel better today than I did yesterday. Let's hope that's not just a lull!

I also noticed that yesterday was the first day since I started wearing my Polar Loop that I didn't hit my target. I could have gone out in the evening and done enough, I only needed to jog for 5 minutes or so, but I decided enough was enough and I didn't need to push myself out the door for the sake a 2%. 98% of my daily target is quite possibly significantly more than many people without colds manage!

I remember years ago a friend saying that a target was like the bullseye you might aim at in darts or archery. Hitting the bullseye is great, but if you aim at it and miss, then you haven't missed the bigger target. If you run, you'll know all about personal bests. You might even be geeky enough to keep a notebook or spreadsheet about it. It's okay, if I were serious about running I'd have running journal of some kind I'm sure. PB's are subject to all sorts of things: fitness, terrain, weather, how you feel on the day, how many other people are around you and so on. Not making your PB every time you run is not a failure. The same is true of your health and fitness goals.

In the back of my mind I wonder if I can keep achieving my 10k goal every day for a year. I'm a very long way from doing that at the moment, so I don't think about much. It won't become even a remote possibility until I get to somewhere in June, and then not a real possibility until I hit August. Thinking about it now is just not realistic. In fact the only reason to think about it now is to encourage me to go out each day and finish, because if I don't then I can't achieve that particular goal. Okay, so that probably makes it realistic in some way, but the point is I'm not focussed on the 365 target, I'm just focussed on the 1 day target. The big target will take care of itself if I keep hitting the smaller one.

Maybe you set out at the beginning of the year with the intention of getting fitter or being healthier and you said to yourself that you were going to go for a walk everyday. Maybe you've managed it, maybe you haven't. It doesn't matter if you've missed a day or even a week as long as you get back out. Make each day a challenge, and when you can conquer that challenge, make each week a challenge. Do whatever it takes to keep yourself motivated and don't let the things that demotivate you take control.

Today is an interesting day. Now I've missed my activity target do I say to myself it's not worth the effort and give up on it. At least I hit my 10k target. Or do I simply say that yesterday was a good result given how I felt most of the day. Today I feel better, so there are no excuses not to achieve both goals. That's the choice I need to make.

Has anybody seen my tennis shoes!

Bit of an update on the iPod Touch and GPS

I posted a piece about using Runkeeper on my iPod Touch and the inaccuracy of the tracking I experienced with it. Given how well Runkeeper works on the iPhone, it can't be the app that's got the problem, it has to be something to do with how the device itself accesses its location.

Now there have been one or two occasions in the past when my old 3GS iPhone would produce a sudden leap off my know route leaving me both confused and with a PB unlikely ever to be beaten! That aside, I think I may have a handle on the issue with the iPod.

Reading an article about how to use your wifi only iPad or iPod to navigate around a city, it appears that these devices use a map of local hotspots to track your location. According to the article you can use your map to navigate simply by setting a route between to points while you are using say a local hotel's free wifi. Once you've done this, your device loads a database of all local hotspots.

So, if it's using hotspots rather than GPS (which might be a feature only available via the cellular data network I'm thinking), that would explain why it jumps around so much because it's not actually tracking your true position but rather the location of these hotspots. And if that is true, then the iPod will never be useful as a route tracking device which is a shame, but at least it gives me a wider range music to which I can listen while I run or walk.

The moral of the story is: If you want to listen to music, buy an iPod Touch, if you want to track your route, buy a GPS device!

Inactive, me, really!!

Okay, so this amused me a little bit today. I was looking back at my activity data for the last few weeks, wondering what it was going to look like at the end of a month of wearing the Polar Loop. Apparently I've averaged 169% of my daily goal so far. Some days it's much higher.

This activity overview is from a Friday a couple of weeks ago. It was a day when I'd spent 2 hours tennis training in the morning and another hour having a one-to-one session with my tennis coach in the afternoon.

According to the tracked data, I'd spent over 7 hours being active, counted nearly 25k steps and burned around 4000 Kcals.

Overall that meant I'd reached 300% of my daily activity goal. Yes, that's not a typo, it was 300%. So what made me smile?

See that small red triangle at around 18:00 on the left of the picture? That's an inactivity stamp. It means that for an hour I'd done nothing, just sat on the sofa. I probably fell asleep, given all the exercise I'd had during the day.

Maybe I should suggest that they redesign the software so that it uses a blue triangle to say you've been inactive for an hour but you probably needed the rest. Why don't you treat yourself to piece of cake!

Typically I get the inactivity stamps because I've been somewhere in the car that's taken over an hour. I'm not about to stop every 55 minutes to walk around just to stop little red triangles appearing on my timeline. As I look back over January so far, and in fact the whole month I've been wearing the Loop, I've actually only had 9 alerts about being inactive, and 6 of those were in 1 week.

Given that I've been sitting around doing a few bits of writing and admin so far today, I think I'd better get up move just in case I'm due another stamp. A little stroll should do the job.

Runkeeper on the iPod touch

I decided it was time I replaced my iPod touch that was stolen a year or so ago. I opted for the 16Gb version and called in at the Apple store while I was in Lakeside waiting for a call from the garage about the car (another story for another day). One of the reasons I decided to buy a new touch was that it will run apps like Runkeeper that use GPS to track movement. I rather assumed that the technology in the touch would be similar to the tech in the iPhone, but I got quite a surprise when I took out this evening for a short test run. I seemed to be covering the distance at quite a fair pace, and it wasn't long before I realised something was wrong. I know I walk fast, but I don't even run at less than 6min/Km!

It seems that the touch has much more difficulty with the GPS than the iPhone does. Here's what the touch reported:

Expanding the map showed that the GPS was jumping all over the place adding almost 2Km to the actual distance walked. Cleaning up the map took a while, but the difference is clear:

This is disappointing because I bought the touch so that I didn't have to use my phone, running down its battery and having the potential for access to more music on the iPod rather than the phone. It would also mean that if I didn't want to take my phone with me for some reason (I can't think of one except maybe because I was planning to run through a river and didn't want to ruin a phone!), I wouldn't have to. Shame really, the new touch is slim and light and lovely like it should be.

There may be a reason, even a fix, but at the moment, while I love the new iPod, I remain disappointed with the GPS performance.