I have always disliked running watches and have always struggled a bit when I used all my different performance gadgets. Heartrate straps are always uncomfortable, the watch is usually too big, not charging, not syncing etc. I’ve had moments when I really had to know I far I had transported my body on land or in the water. The training for ÖtillÖ was an endless up and down Idlywood and the pool, 1k in the water, 10k on land and over and over again for many hours. You need to keep your numbers ticking when you are training for a marathon or two. It’s good to know walking up a mountain how many more feet of elevation you have left and when the sun will set. My problem has been that my latest Garmin died on me 18 hours in and I’ve had to have a backup watch in my pack. In real life, every other regular day when running or biking you really mostly care what time it is and how far you’ve gone. And then we have the heart thing. You want to know how hard your heart is working, and if it’s working. And you want to be able wear it all the time, not for hours every now and then.

I got my Band a while ago and I fully embraced it, I seriously lived through my Band for a few months. I know a lot of people complained about the squared design and the Matrix look. I really grew to like it and came to that point that I never took it off. I got hooked on my sleeping pattern which seriously sucked and still does. And why was I faster that Tuesday and how much my heart rate went up if I ran with a heavy pack or late at night. Or if you don’t sleep enough. It was just easy, it was already in my phone when I got home. No difficult syncing and just about enough info. It even told me how long I should recover after a long run or a ride and it sure gave me a boost when I should recover 36 hours or so from a tough one. And it made me leave my phone in the purse since I could check the importance of messages and emails and choose if I should answer or wait.

My Band is dissing me. We used to love each other, dearly. It gave me instant gratification and 15000 steps per day on a slow day. It gave me 6 hours of solid sleep and 45 beats per minute rest heart rate. It gave me long runs and intense weight sessions. And now here I am, comparing, checking data, sleep and even calories. And just how miserable is it? Very! From loving every number that was constantly ticking and adding and now hating slow moving numbers and a very useless body. I have sunk so low that I am checking calories because it doesn’t feel like I move a single step all day. And I don’t really move much. So what do you do when a sweet love story ends? You dump it and then you upgrade. I think I need to preorder the Band 2.