Pail Tales

The point of the Oura ring is to use sophisticated, research-based algorithms to calculate readiness and recommend rest and activity goals. Over time these recommendations are supposed to become quite personalized for the individual as the ring begins to recognize patterns. After 4+ months of using the ring, it continues to make recommendations for training volume (intensity) and activity goals (duration) that I can not meet. I bought the ring specifically because I was recovering and wanted guidance on readiness, rest and rehabilitation goals. The rest part has worked very well, but the Oura ring sets activity goals that would leave me injured. The ring knows age, gender, height, weight, etc. and is supposed to factor that into its algorithms. It clearly tracks failure to meet training goals day-after-day. These failures detract from the activity and readiness scores. Oura ring evaluation of user activity record Even if the ring considers the ...

We had an incredible spring in Southern Arizona with every plant, cactus, bush, and tree blooming this year. This is the beginning of the monsoon season with dry winds and temperatures above 100º F. Many of the plants which were filled with flowers a week ago have seed fuzz, seed pods, or fruit now. Greasewood grows everywhere in this part of SOAZ (which is why so many streets, creeks, parks, bars, etc. are named greasewood). It had bright yellow flowers in the spring rains this year, but is covered with fuzz balls now in the fore summer. You would think that the dry winds would spread the fuzz balls. But the fuzz actually covers a fruit pod that is too heavy to be spread that way. The seeds inside the pod can germinate, but most of the time greasewood propagates by cloning itself! Greasewood is also called creosote and yes it can be used to make wood-tar products, but it is not the same thing as coal-tar or oil-tar that is used in preserving wood or a...

There is no shortage of bloggers, journalists, and scientists reviewing fitness trackers and comparing them to each other and to research-quality instruments. I admit, I have compared my own Fitbit, Apple Watch, iPod app, iPhone app, and Oura Ring. They use different sensors, algorithms, purposes, and quality metrics. There are differences and it would be easy to conclude that tracking fitness with these consumer devices is useless. However, I am not interested in knowing an absolute truth. I am interested in mapping a trajectory of improvement. The devices will show how   I  change relative to my starting baseline. There is a ton of scientific evidence that when people track change, they make better decisions and achieve better outcomes more quickly. Two groups of people can do the same thing, but the group getting feedback will improve more. The evidence is available in industry, finance, human resources, education, behavior change, mental hea...

The Withings Steel HR Sport watch arrived a day earlier than promised! It took 5 days total, 3 business days. If I had ordered on Monday morning, instead of a Friday evening, it probably would have taken only 2 days to arrive. Unboxing :  Yeah, it was a nice box. Nice graphics and functional design without superfluous or annoying wrapping tapes or wires. I get that unboxing is an aesthetic experience, but a part of me thinks I would have been just fine with simpler paper packaging, which I would have been content to recycle immediately. The box was too nice to just toss. I had read and watched several reviews of the watch, as well as viewed ads for it. It looked exactly as advertised. The case is slate gray (not black) with a matte finish (not shiny). The crystal is highly reflective. The gray numbers on the black dial are subtle, but do make it easier to read at a glance. Although I liked the white face of my o...

How I got here : One of the things I promised myself when I left my first 20-year career was that I would never wear a watch again. I hated being tied to time and I never found a comfortable watch, no matter its size, material, cost, sportiness, or elegance. I pretty much stuck to that promise for a decade. By then the demands of my second career required that I keep track of time (and not by pulling my phone out of my pocket all the time). Cartoon 1 At about that same time, aging drove me to want to track my activity levels. I used Fitbit fitness trackers for several years, eventually moving to a wristworn tracker that could serve as a watch, too (One, Flex, Charge, and then the Charge HR). I liked monitoring steps, floors, and heart rate, but never found the watches comfortable. The app was pretty good for watching trends. Then there was the Apple Watch : I replaced my Fitbit with an Apple Watch soon after it de...

I have been using the Oura ring to monitor my sleep for 17 weeks. I am still a bit skeptical. Is this thing really giving me actionable data or I am just fooling myself? It seems like I have seen correlations between shifts in my routine and shifts in my sleep, but I am not wholly convinced. For example, a typical night now looks something like the following graph from Friday night last week (i.e., Saturday’s sleep report). It followed a day of balanced rest and activity and an early supper. My heart rate variability showed evidence of a good range of variability throughout the night, a pattern generally associated with  health  and fitness. HRV following a good day The following graph of nighttime heart rate from the same night shows that my heart rate stabilized around 2 am and that there was a rise in heart rate shortly before I woke up. Not quite the perfect “ hammock ” but a generally healthy pattern. Heart rate foll...

Inside a Saguaro cactus It has been 10 weeks since the last time I went to the hiking trails at  Sweetwater Preserve on Tortolita Road. This park is my all-time favorite place to walk, but life happens and you deal with it. It was so great to be able to walk there today. One of the nicest things about these trails is the ability to walk up to a 120 year old Saguaro or to turn a corner in a trail to discover a forest of Saguaros covering the hill in front of you. This particular Saguaro is at the junction of Wildflower and Roller Coaster trails. It is awesome to see inside the cactus and learn how it grows. This scar looks like the kind the Saguaro gets when one of its arms breaks off. It does not look like the kind of hole that a Gila woodpecker makes when building a “ boot ” nest. You can see how much rain we have been getting by the how far apart the pleats are. When the Saguaro sucks up rain, the pleats expand. When there is a dry season, the...

My Oboz Sawtooth Low shoes are the most comfortable hiking shoes ever! I bought another pair (Sawtooth II Low), because I wear the first pair too much. Still, I found it hard to lace them with just the right tension (for different temps and terrain). These “cord lock beans” (5mm holes) make it super easy. They come in several colors, too. Oboz shoe with cord lock Oboz hiking shoe Colored beans See them @obozfootwear

2019 has been really different with the wet winter and spring . It has had dramatic effects, not only on the wildflowers, but also on the wildlife. They are better fed and hydrated. Along with the normal complement of doves, sparrows, and hawks, we have lovely desert cardinals feeding in our backyard. We have 3 sets of quail that join us at breakfast or lunch. Each pair has 11 to 13 chicks, tiny fluffy things. It is amazing to watch them learn to find seed and drink water from bowls. We usually have one pair with 9 or so chicks with maybe half of the chicks surviving the first month. This year is a bumper crop. We have had hummingbirds feeding on the wildflowers, too. We have lizards, but they all seem so much bigger this year. We have our daily visit from the Harris antelope squirrel, but only the one. We have not seen rabbits in the backyard this year, perhaps there is more food and water outside the yard. We have even seen a paloverde tree borer be...