I stopped using Garmin Connect’s easily-forgotten gear tracking feature — but I’ve just fallen back in love with it
Garmin Connect is a detailed app with a ton of features under the hood. Users of the best Garmin watches can analyze all kinds of stats in all kinds of ways using the app, from displaying last year’s stress scores on a graph to analyze trends, to planning routes and courses to export to your Garmin watch.
It doesn’t just work in the background to activate your watch, collect and display data: it’s a powerful health and fitness tool in its own right. Garmin recently launched Lifestyle Logging, a feature that requires users to add tags like “morning caffeine” or “large meal” or “cold shower/bath” to provide additional context to your measurements. This led me to return to Garmin Connect to see what other “active” features I’m missing, rather than the “passive” aspect of data collection.
It’s important. The foam in running shoes wears out after about 300 to 500 miles, and that doesn’t mean a loss of speed and comfort: old, worn-out running shoes affect your gait, putting you at risk of Achilles tendinitis after miles and miles of microtrauma.
I’ve been riding my old Altras for a while now and haven’t kept track of the total mileage. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be able to give you an accurate estimate. Although I didn’t feel any discomfort, it’s a bit like a frog in boiling water situation: if I notice it, it’s probably too late.
However, as luck would have it, I’m just in the process of changing my running shoes: I’m about to log some serious miles in the Saucony Ride 19s. What a perfect opportunity to track my shoes from the start of their life!
I also own several pairs of trail shoes, so I will need to create separate profiles for those and remember to change them every time I go for a trail run. This is a bit more boring and will require contribution. It’s the kind of thing I often forget to do, like starting a set in the gym without pressing the button on my Garmin watch, so it always thinks I’m resting.
Still, aside from the injury issue, I think it’s a nice addition to the running hobby to be able to see how long your equipment lasts over time. It’s a nice way to retire a much-loved pair of shoes with a bit of ceremony after a tough year of marathon training, while avoiding the inconvenience that might accompany old, worn gear.
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