So many bits in this post from David Smith resonate with me. He committed to getting in shape 3 years ago, and this post is a summary of thoughts on what works and what doesn’t. A key takeaway is one that should be obvious (but clearly isn’t for many people), that many details about workout effectiveness are personal. Some things work for some people, others need to take a different tack.

I liked this point on tracking data about fitness. Feels true to me, as well, in my case with tracking run data:

I’ve also found it to be really helpful to have a objective measure of my performance. This can take both sides. Either I can be encouraged by how tough this workout feels is being proven out in my heart rate or pace. Or alternatively, I can look down at my wrist and see that I can push things a bit further. In both cases I can do better because I’m not basing my choices purely on how I feel, which can often be misleading in the moment.

What I find most useful about run tracking is to combine the objective results (distance, average HR, pace) with the subjective (how do I feel?) and try to figure out what’s contributing to the difference.