Connected watches: take off!

On my application of Lucile Woodward Experience Club, now I offer connection to some of your sports watches for monitoring Cardio Slip.

From this function, I have received many members from members on data merits – sometimes very intimate – offered by these same watches.

• Recovery monitoring. “My watch tells me I’m too tired to train, that I do.” Or “my watch tells me that my training is too beautiful and that they are in the recovery phase” …
• Quality of sleep “, my watch tells me that I slept very well when I feel very tired for 2 weeks” or “my clock tells me that I don’t have enough sleep, would you have advice to increase this?” ”
• Quantity of stress, swimming analysis, swolf, step …

I think you have to detach yourself a little. And always say one thing: your watch can never decide for you if you have trained / quite pushed / equally recovered …

As much as I love my watch, I’m not watching “comments” as she does me. In addition, for almost 2 months, he tells me that they are in “keeping” or “recovery” mode. Because it does not integrate the strengthening of cardio and muscles at all. So the sessions that are not in execution do not really count in his analysis … while I feel good, I progress in speed and I feel my swimming techniques or running well.

Privileged satellites

These watches are the basis of GPS calculators. That is to say that they are connected to the satellites to give you live: distance and speed in your sport. Point. On this technology ok, we can say that 5-10% closest are very reliable.

EXCEPT FOR ! Except in swimming in the pool, for example, they are quite zero. All. I am not ashamed to say it. And they calculate very badly or not to the entire length of the education that we all do when we swim seriously.

In swimming in free water it depends, sometimes it is a little deceptive. The Coros Vertix 2 I have is very good. But as soon as you go to Swimrun, it’s the cat. And there are many other fairly average examples, in particular related to living water.

So imagine that your sports watch is not able to make the difference between swimming at sea or in the mountains. So how can your watch know if you have a recovery of 80% or a recovery of 95%?

If your son was sick tonight? If you thought of an important file during the night? If you have not eaten enough magnesium, selenium, zinc in the last 3 weeks? If you like sunlight in early spring and you feel in the Olympic form?

Robotic analysis

Your watches are computers. Robot. Connected objects. Which acquire some data more or less well. And that transmit robotic analysis on a very low number of often scarcely registered data.

While your body is a psychological genius of a performance without rivals so far in the sun system. No computer can ever predict any of your feelings.

Also: take the watches for what they are. GPS calculators. Cold frequency sensors on the wrist (completely optimal as a capture place). Vertical/horizontal position sensors of the forearm.

And with this: the application of the clock offers an algorithmic compilation of these data to give you a small start to objective trend.

That’s all !!!

I think we lately give too much importance to all these watches calculations. And even if it is good to check your speed: you have to know how to experience it above all. Sometimes we are perforated and we make a “gear” speed at speed. But let’s give everything physically. Because there is nothing else, it was ugly, cold, nothing was going … your watch will tell you that you were not at the top. Yet this session matters in your mind! In 3-4 weeks in which you feel better, that the weather will be milder: you will make great progress “suddenly” …

And sometimes it is the opposite: we are in excellent shape and we are a success in our fractional easily on the speeds provided when in reality we could have gone even faster … in the end we did not stay at all.

So yes, the watches are beautiful. But calm the game on their data. Your feeling is stronger than anything else.

Also, I remember a short conversation that I had with Lucie Bidault. High Mountain Guide in Valloire had won the Raid des Alizé by hand and won almost all the paths in which I participate !! I had been able to spend some time with her in Valloire in January 2024, during a short stay there, and followed her in her excursions and mountain courses that she organizes.

Lucie never trains with a connected clock. He goes to the feeling. “HERE I accelerate on this tree” or “go the next descent I completely do everything I can” or “I’m going to do mountain bike today because I have a pain on the left” … stronger than a clock !!

Your watches learn from you

Finally, know that your watches learn from you. And not the opposite. These young technologies ask you for a maximum of data (your menstrual cycle, your feeling of difficulty of effort after a sporting activity, your weight, etc.) to learn millions of data collected for several years, to be increasingly effective. And perhaps between 10-15 years, they will be a little more precise and will become aid for supplementary medicine. But so far it is still very random.

A reminder therefore, to take even more perspective on these data. Do not obey the clock. It is your watch that obeys you.

Follow the plan of a professional form. Follow your sporting wishes. Follow your goals and give yourself the means. Mostly = stay on your feelings.

If you have a sports goal and you cannot reach it at all, it is certainly that your lifestyle does not match. And your watch doesn’t know!