Fitness Tracking

As a runner and a geek, I have tracked my running for some time now using my Garmin Forerunner 405.  I absolutely love it.  It tracks my pace, elevation, and heart rate (with separate HR monitor) while running, and it will even track my cycling speed and cadence (with cycling attachment).  The data tracking is fantastic, I can wirelessly download all of my data from the watch to my computer and analyze each mile.  I can dig into the data and see why my heart rate increased or how my pace varies over time and distance.  I can see how many miles and how many minutes I was in each heart rate zone and speed zone.  I can basically geek-out over the data, and it's awesome.

While it is great, there are some drawbacks... I have to be home at my computer with the Garmin ANT Agent on with the ANT "stick" plugged into a USB outlet to download the data. THEN I have to separately upload it to the Garmin Connect website to have access to the data when I'm away from my computer.  Also, the blatantly obvious point is that I have to wear the watch to track anything.  If the battery isn't charged, I can't use it.  If the satellites won't connect (which can occasionally be a problem), I can't get data.  Plus, when I use a treadmill (with vehement disdain by the way), I can't track distance or pace with my watch.  Also, what about days I don't run and do yard work.  I'm exerting energy, but how do I measure it...?

Hence, the onset of fitness trackers like, Jawbone Up, Nike Fuelband, Fitbit Force, and others (newly released Garmin Vivofit).  These trackers track your activity, food intake, liquid intake, calories burned, sleep, etc.  With various features and pros and cons, I chose the Fitbit Force, and here's why...

Fitbit has a number of tracking devices in addition to the Force.  I wanted a device that not only tracked steps (activity) but also stairs.  The Force additionally allows the user to set goals, has a built-in clock, tracks active minutes (equivalent of minutes of elevated heart rate) and quality of sleep.  For Fitbit, it is the top-of-the-line product (the price tag says that...), but for me, it "fit" the bill for what I was looking for.

In comparison, other fitness trackers have similar features, but the selling point to me was the Bluetooth 4.0 integration with my smartphone.  Some of the other fitness trackers (when I bought the Force back in October of 2013) have to be removed from your wrist to synchronize with your phone or computer but not the Force.  I only remove it from my wrist to shower, clean it, and charge it.  Which brings up another point... With 10+ days of battery life, I can't remember the last time I charged it.  I honestly couldn't tell you when it was.

Back to the geeky part, what about data.  The Fitbit website will track more data than the Force collects.  For example, I can track food intake and water intake.  I used MyFitnessPal for a while doing this very thing, but with my not needing to lose weight, it was not really helpful other than to know whether or not what I'm eating is "healthy."  Fitbit takes it another step and compares what you eat to what you burn!  Now that's valuable.  You can easily see if you are one maintaining a healthy diet and two if you are maintaining a healthy balance.

Now, I couldn't talk about data without talking about accuracy.  Back to the Forerunner, the GPS data from the Garmin watch is fairly reliable and consistent.  Garmin actually overlays my route on a map so that I can see how close the data collected is to the route I ran.  It is generally pretty accurate.  For the Fitbit Force, there have been several critics of its accuracy.  I'll admit, I noticed just last night that my brushing my teeth added several steps to my day.  As noted by other users, playing the guitar will also add a few thousand steps.  While it may not be perfect, I don't see this as a problem.  For me, buying the Fitbit was about tracking my activity level.  If I exert energy that does something other than take a step but the Fitbit logs it as a step, does it really matter? Do I care if the distance traveled and calories burned exactly match what I have done? I don't think so.

What matters is that I can track how active I have been in a day.  This is a far cry from the geekiness I exert with my Garmin, but the Fitbit serves a different purpose.  I like being able to compare day-to-day how I'm doing and being able to see how certain activities (or lack thereof) impact my energy level, sleeping pattern, and caloric intake.  I don't see a need to have acute accuracy.  I think it does well enough as-is.

For me, I'm a Fitbit fan.  There will be more newcomers into this market as the popularity grows.  Fitbit will continue to improve as others do as well.  I'm sure people will think of new and exciting things that we have yet to even fathom.  Until then, I'll keep tracking.

(Note: the Fitbit Force is currently under a voluntary recall because some users (less than 2%) have had issues with the band causing dermatitis.  Fortunately, I'm not one of those, but you can read about it here:  http://www.fitbit.com/forcesupport)

The Bell Center Fundraiser

The annual Mercedes Marathon is coming up on Sunday here in Birmingham. This event allows for a great opportunity for exercise and fitness, but also an opportunity to benefit an extraordinary local charity in The Bell Center.

The Bell Center for Early Intervention Programs in Homewood is dedicated to maximizing the potential of children from birth to three years of age who are at risk for developmental delay.

APC Marketing has a relay team that will complete this year’s marathon running the event in five segments. Team members this year include:

Bryan Coley

April Owens

Bevin Tomlin

Todd Rath

Scott Nix

One of our members serves on the Service Guild of Birmingham's board that supports the Bell Center and another team member has volunteered for service projects to raise money for The Bell Center in the past. Together we will run a combination of 26.2 miles during The Mercedes Marathon, and we hope to raise at least $100 per mile, or a minimum of $2,620 for The Bell Center. This money will be used to fund the Bell Center that provides life changing programs to its families and children.

As a part of the fundraising effort to benefit the children of the Bell Center please consider supporting our relay team through a donation.

DONATE

Running for More Birthdays!!

Run for the Reason 2013 has begun! We ran twice yesterday and are into the third run today. Yesterday, our daytime run was brutally hot, and today, the daytime run is wet and rainy. But that's ok, we're running to raise money for the American Cancer Society to help those diagnosed with cancer celebrate more birthdays.

This year's run is bit bitter-sweet for me. I just finished up my third and final run for this year. Ideally, I would run 5 times total, but this year my time has been cut short by the very disease we are running to cure. My beautiful wife's great aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just two weeks before it took her life. The funeral services are tonight and tomorrow, and I'll be cutting my running short to spend time with her and her family.

Hopefully, one day, this wont be an issue any more and we can run to support a different cause, but until then we will keep running for more birthdays!

BC

Run Starts Tomorrow!!

Alabama Power Service Organization's Run for the Reason starts TOMORROW!! It’s hard to believe that the event is here already. I’ve been training hard for the last few months, and I am ready. The rest of the group is excited and ready to run.

We will be live blogging during the run on our group blog. Please follow our progress as we go along: http://runforthereason2013.blogspot.com

I will be live tweeting and blogging as well. You can follow my personal progress at any or all of the following locations:

• My Personal Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook

To all of my Donors:

Thanks so much for your help. Your donation helped me exceed my personal goal of $1,500. The entire group together (21 runners and 12 drivers) raised over $35,000 for the American Cancer Society (the final number isn’t quite calculated yet, but it may be over $40,000). I thank all of my donors again for your donations.

BC

Team B: Finish Line

Thank you to all of our sponsors and donors. To the APSO chapters that volunteered their time and efforts to help us get to the end, we say a special thanks. Thank you to the Mobile volunteers for setting up the finish line cookout.

After a long two and a half days of running, we are glad to be done and going home. The runners are tired and the drivers are too. All in all, it is all worth it to help the American Cancer Society.

--
BC

Team B: I like your shoes...

I like your shoes...

My momma said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes: who they are, where they been, where they go... You know if I think about it real hard I can remember my first pair of shoes....

60% done Team B!! Our theme song is "Against the Wind" by Bob Seger. We decided if Forrest Gump could run to that song, we can too.

Our event is coming to a close rather quickly, but we're having a good time. We're off to our standard Friday lunch location in Thomasville before showering and getting a nice nap. We have two runs left and these should be easier. We are beginning to feel the soreness and stiffness set-in, but it's all for a good cause!

--
BC

Team B: A Little Extra Motivation...

After our midnight run yesterday, we are battling sleep depravation and muscle soreness, but we know we're only getting started. We took the baton from Team A and affectionately soaked them with water guns as we start down the road again. We needed a little motivation to get started this morning; so our creative driver Ben came up with a great way to motivate team captain Waymon.

Today we are running through the town of Camden, AL. There are some nice hills here in south central Alabama, but the scenery is beautiful. Looking forward to getting through our third run and being over half-way done.

Until then,

BC

Team B: First Run

Team B "the Best team" is done with the first run. Everyone is ready for lunch, but overall, we had a good run. Looking forward to some short rest and relaxation just before we start up again.

The wind and the heat are a bit intense today, but combined they cancel each other out.

First out today was our team captain Waymon. Hills have an affinity for Waymon, but today they were kind to him. Nicole was batting second and took us through the traffic infested city of Oxford. Littered with red lights and unhappy drivers, Nicole did well despite the obstacles. Nicole also was able to recruit a local runner to join her for a few miles.

In the third spot today was Matt. Matt is new to Team B, but not new to running. He busted out some quick miles. I (Bryan) was batting clean-up right as we got into the midday heat. After battling a few long hills in Munford, I turned it over to Melissa. Melissa pulled us through the middle of nowhere through blazing heat. Robby was our anchor today, and he did a stand-up job of pulling us through to the end. He even ran a few extra tenths of a mile to take us to the handoff with Team C.

Now we're off to the Key West Inn in Childrrsburg for a short nap before running again.

Until then,

--
BC

Run one is done!!

Run one is done! The wind and the sun didn't want to cooperate, but I managed to overcome. All in all it was an ok run. The traffic is extremely perturbed that we are out running which means I guess they hate cancer research.

Team B: Starting up!!

Getting started this morning bright and early! We left Inverness at 6:15am headed to Southwire in Heflin, AL. They always do a stand-up job of providing breakfast before we run. Spending time in the RV getting to know my new group members and getting reacquainted with past members. Good times!

More to come,

BC

Run Starts Tomorrow!!

Alabama Power Service Organization's Run for the Reason starts TOMORROW!! It’s hard to believe that the event is here already. I’ve been training hard for the last few months, and I am ready. The rest of the group is excited and ready to run.

We will be live blogging during the run on our group blog. Please follow our progress as we go along: http://runforthereason2012.blogspot.com

I will be live tweeting and blogging as well. You can follow my personal progress at any or all of the following locations:

My Personal Blog

Twitter

Facebook

To all of my Donors:

Thanks so much for your help. Your donation helped me exceed my personal goal of $2,500. The entire group together (21 runners and 12 drivers) raised over $35,000 for the American Cancer Society (the final number isn’t quite calculated yet, but it may be over $40,000). I thank all of my donors again for your donations.

BC

Fundraising: There is still time to donate!!

A huge thank you goes out to all of my funders who gave to the American Cancer Society. I'm keeping my part of the deal by continuing training. I'm up to 4-5 miles per day. Between Thursday and Saturday, I will run between 20 and 25 miles. It seems like some crazy long distance to run, but it's not. I have some great motivation to keep me going.

If you have not had time to make a donation, there is still time! Click the "Donate" button below to make a donation to the American Cancer Society.



Also, you can go to http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=9060315&pg=personal&fr_id=42992 if the above button does not work.

Continue following right here for updates during the race and to see how my progress is going.

BC

Spring has Sprung! And it's fundraising time...

It's that time of year again! I am excited to announce that I am again participating in a unique and exciting event to raise money in support of the American Cancer Society's mission to save lives from cancer. Please visit my personal page to learn more about my participation in this event and to make a secure, online donation. All contributions are tax deductible and will support the American Cancer Society’s efforts to save lives and create more birthdays by helping people stay well, helping people get well, by finding cures, and by fighting back.

Every bit helps, so thank you in advance for any support you can provide. Please forward this email to your friends and family on my behalf to encourage them to visit my personal site to support the fight against cancer. Together, we can create a world with less cancer and more birthdays!

To donate online, visit my personal fundraising page

Here is a little background on the event:


The Alabama Power Run for the Reason is a 2 ½ day continuous run through the state of Alabama to raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society. Three teams of seven runners each take turns running through the state in leapfrog style. Each runner covers about 20 miles over the weekend. Each team (and therefore each runner) will run twice in a 24 hour period. When not running, participants ride in RVs and sleep in hotels.

The Run for the Reason (RFTR) participants are employees of Alabama Power and raise funds to support the American Cancer Society (ACS).

What: A two and a half day continuous run covering 350 miles

Why: To raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society

How: Teams of runner take turns running through the state in leapfrog style, running approximately 20 miles throughout the event. Runners cover 3 to 4 miles increments every 12 hours. Four drivers per team pilot the runners' RVs and lead vehicles that accompany the runners throughout the state.

Where: The run begins at the Alabama/Georgia state line and ends at Alabama's coast, on Dauphin Island.

When: Thursday, April 26 - Saturday, April 28, 2011

Who: Drivers and runners are Alabama Power or Southern Company employees working in the state of Alabama.

Event Cancelled: Storm Damage

Sponsors, friends, and family,

It is with great disappointment that we have cancelled this year's event. With 400,000 customers of Alabama Power without power and over 100 deaths statewide, we did not feel it was appropriate to continue the event. We do not want to be disrespectful to communities affected, and we do not want to hinder emergency crews or storm crews due to our slow speeds.

Thank you for your support. We will update the blog with our final fundraising numbers soon. We truly appreciate your support.

Thank you,


Bryan Coley

Picnic

Just having a friendly picnic on Dauphin Island after the run watching
the... Um... oil?... come in.

Final Run!!

DONE!! Finished the final run. This is such a rewarding experience. I
thank all of my sponsors for donating over $1,500 to the American
Cancer Society on my behalf. I am truly thankful for your donations to
such a worthy cause.

The team is in high spirits! We are excited to be almost done. We
didn't get wasted by our first run this year and we ran decent times
(7am & 7pm) which means we kept roughly normal hours.

All that is left now is for the picnic at the end. We are looking
forward to the celebration and a shower.

Until then...

--
B

Run 2 Start!

Just finished our second run. The picture shows the last of Team A's
run. Chesley (pictured above) is a crazy fast runner. He busts out 6-7
minute miles consistently.

Team B is hanging in there and running strong! I had a rough 3rd run
with almost an entire mile uphill. I made it with relief from Waymon
at the summit. I got back on the road later to finish out my miles.
Now off to dinner at Trey's Bar & Grill in Thomasville.

--
Bryan

Run #2!!

Just finished run number 2! 3.9 Miles in 33 minutes. I was cookin'!
My playlist keeps me going. It consists of Metallica, Kenny Loggins,
Nickelback, Van Halen, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, and more.

I was looking forward to handing Team C the peanut butter covered
baton, but they decided to leave their hotel when I was finishing.
Seeing as I was running anchor tonight, we had to make up the slack
for Team C. Kathleen, Lee, and Nicole ran 2 miles of Team C's miles.
Go Team B!

The picture above shows the Clanton Police showing interest in our
event. We were probably the most interesting thing he had seen all week!

We are on our way to the hotel now to get some rest. The whole group
is ahead of schedule about 30 minutes. We might finish early on
Saturday!

Until next time...

--
B

Run For The Reason!! Starting Today

I'm super excited, we are starting our first run today in just under
an hour! I'm on Team B this year. We have the same set of runners and
we added one, yes! Kathleen, Jennifer, Waymon, Holley, Lee, Nicole,
and I will be running. Cherie, Denise, Rosa, and Ben are our drivers.
We are psyched and ready.

Wish us luck!

B

I made my goal!!

A huge thank you goes out to all of my funders who gave to the American Cancer Society. I'm keeping my part of the deal by continuing training. I'm up to 2-3 miles per day. By the end of April (the time of the run), I will be up to 4 miles per day! It seems like some crazy long distance to run, but it's not. I have some great motivation to keep me going.

If you have not had time to make a donation, there is still time! Click the "Donate" button below to make a donation to the American Cancer Society.



Also, you can go to http://main.acsevents.org/goto/bccoley if the above button does not work.

Continue following right here for updates during the race and to see how my progress is going.

BC