This Data Can Change Your Life

This has been the week of Fitness Science and Technology in my world. It started a couple of days ago when I read about a thing called DNAFit. It’s an at-home mouth swab DNA test very similar to 23andMe that gives you personalized genetic info related to sports ability and nutrition values. It sounded like a cool idea to me.

Yesterday, my mom told me that a friend of hers had gotten a high-end Fitbit. This woman isn’t active in the slightest, so all the data it can spit out doesn’t serve a real purpose for her. She just likes spending money on things and the watch looked cool so she bought it. 

Then, this morning I came across an app that Training Peaks has recently launched call The Pacing Project. It’s an online calculator that gives you target splits and pace times for a specific race course that correlate to the actual effort needed to manage the course’s terrain. Pretty cool. 

In all three examples I wondered what compels everyday hobbyist endurance athletes to want to know everything they can about themselves and their performance, even down to the cellular level - and to pay as much $250 for it.

Here's what I came up with.

DNA and Blood Tests

There are several companies offering the at-home DNA tests. The sports-specific ones I found the most information on were DNAFit, Athletigen, and Promethease.  

There is a similar product called Inside Tracker that uses a blood sample to measure fitness-related markers such as vitamin concentrations and hormone levels. Inside Tracker makes a pretty report out of the data from selected markers then sells you “personalized” training and nutrition plans. It’s immediately obvious to that this test is a common CBC panel workup. Just get your annual physical like a good little runner and save the enrollment fee. 

I found through my reading that many of the experienced endurance athletes who take the DNA tests find that they could correctly guess what the results would be just by knowing their own bodies so well. The report was more confirmation of what they already knew and were already incorporating into their training.

...Then What?

These blood and saliva technologies are sold under the premise that the info will have only positive effects on your health and training. This is good news, but what do you do with this information? What if…

•    You find that you would be much more successful at tennis than running? 
•    You have the genes to be a world-class sprinter but you’ve spent years as a mid-pack half-marathoner?
•    You have the kind of metabolism that thrives on fat and you’ve spent the past twenty years avoiding all fat?

A common question that nags at every athlete at every level is how to balance striving for top performance and enjoying doing your sport. These tests and gizmos present an opportunity to step back and examine why you do the sports you do. 

For example, if finish times are your primary motivator, and DNA results tell you that long distance running isn’t what you’re best suited for would you actually stop doing it and move on to a shorter distance (or different sport) in which you could have knock-out performance times? 

Or, would you shrug that off and keep doing what you do because you love doing it? 

The DNA tests in particular carry a big weight: the mental effects. In that regard, there are a few worthwhile positives from getting all the numbers.

•    Build confidence - Give you a renewed motivation to work toward your sports goals
•    Find more enjoyment – Get pointers for how to feel better and enjoy training more
•    Open new opportunities - Try a new activity or sport you never considered 

Advanced Wearables

A less invasive and and more pervasive running tool is the GPS watch. I’ve previously written about my experiences with nitpicking my splits after a race. I believe I referred to my Garmin as “maybe the best worst way to erase good feelings after a race or workout.” I’ve made an effort over the past year to use my watch only for tracking distance and time run each week.

And, right when I decided to give up Big Data Fitbit, Apple Watch and Garmin all put out souped-up, data-laden, report-driven watches that I have to work hard to resist. Deep down we all know that there can be so many ambiguities as to how your watch came up with the data you’re seeing that you’ll never really get the good (or bad) news you’re looking for. 

Finish Time Calculators

Finally, there are online finish time predictor calculators. I’m an almost daily user of these things when I’m training. If Cool Running had a dime for every time I hit their site they could profit for years. 

I used Greg Maclin’s My Marathon Pace course-specific pace calculator spreadsheets to train for my past two marathons, and both times they were incredibly useful.

The Pacing Project app is almost identical in that both tools factor in course details such as grade of individual hills. (I find them suspiciously similar given that Maclin’s sheets have been available for a few years.) The site Find My Marathon even figures in altitude and typical race day temperature. 

Pace calculators can be tremendously beneficial to your training, but they can slide into crystal ball territory. Plugging in numbers and seeing your PR emerge, along with a concrete vision of how it could unfold, can be motivating as long as you don’t mistake a prediction for a guarantee.

So, Why Use These Tools?

The DNA and blood tests and a few of the wearables promise to help you dial in nutrition, training and recovery for optimum health and peak performance. Let's be honest, though - even with all of the data available, 99% of us won’t find the secret formula for turning ourselves into an Olympian nor will we unlock the mystery to losing all the weight we’ve ever wanted in a short period of time. 

Getting granular details such as your heart rate at the bottom, middle and top of a tough hill from a feature-loaded watch is interesting but does it really make a difference in your overall training? In your life in general?

I found that the DNA and blood tests would be great for weight loss hobbyists, gym rats looking for a breakthrough, or everyday exercisers looking for activities they might enjoy. IMO, this hyper-specific information is simply fun navel-gazing for most established runners. 

The pros and cons of using watches and gizmos to collect numbers are unique to each person. Personally, too much data causes me to over-assess results from a race or even a shake-out run around the block. Basic how-far and how-much-time info keeps me in the moment when I'm on the road and shows real overall progress. 

My conclusion: The best diagnostic tool out there for measuring and improving your run performance is right under your nose: a smile.