Friday Question #221
By kilax, January 4, 2013 8:06 am
Are you a tracker? What do you track?
Hmm, another question that doesn’t make sense!
Well, with everyone declaring their 2013 goals I’ve been thinking about the things I tracked in 2012 and what I want to track in 2013.
In 2012, I did a really good job of tracking my running mileage and money donate to charities. But in 2013, I would like to better track money spent on races, miles biked, books read, weight (until I give up on eating healthy again), and so on. I can go back to my notes and figure out all of this stuff for 2012 if I would like, but it’s more fun to track it in real time that to look at it retrospectively for me (since I love spreadsheets!).
Themocracy
You’re a girl after my own heart!!! I love spreadsheets. I track my spending, meals and workouts on spreadsheets. Not to mention 75% of my job is done on spreadsheets!!!
I just got a fitbit so now I am tracker! I wasn’t before–I was horrible at writing stuff down.
(Now work I track all sorts of stuff but that so doesn’t count LOL)
I’m a tracker. My 2012 resolution/goal thingamabob was to track all my running/cycling (aka stationary bike) mileage. And I succeeded! I use daily mile for it. I’ve just started tracking my weight and measurements (bust, waist, hips) because I’d rather see improvement with the tape measure than the scale- muscle weighs more right?! Hehe
Good idea! I should track my measurements too!
I track, too. I have a spreadsheet where i track miles run, walked, biked, elliptical, stair master, weights, and an all-encompassing “other” category. When I added it all up at the end of 2012, i was surprised how much I did. This year I want to keep a running total for the year in addition to my monthly totals.
That sounds like a super star spreadsheet! I would love to see it. Hint hint 😉
I track my weight (try to atleast weigh-in twice a month) to see my progress and/or maintenance. I also like to track my running mileage. I should def track how much money I spend on races (or running in general) haha
Hey! Did you change the blog name?! Woo hoo!
Yep! i finally did 🙂
but now the link on Chicago Running Bloggers website leads to no where haha. oops. forgot about that
I half-assedly track my running/biking mileage. I do it old school by writing it down on a calendar and then entering each month’s total into a spreadsheet (for 2012 I entered everything in the spreadsheet today so obviously I didn’t keep very good tabs on it). I just downloaded a fitness app on my phone though and now I’m tracking what I eat, how much water I drink, and all my exercise. We’ll see how long I keep up with that!
The only thing I am tracking right now is my ovulation cycle. True story!
And that is the most important thing for you to track! 😉
I too love spreadsheets, but I don’t track nearly as much as I should. I track money more than anything, I have all kinds of budget spreadsheets set up. I log all my running and biking mileage on Cardio Trainer – not the most effective tool, but it’s on my phone so it’s really easy for me to remember to do! I wish I kept better track of all my circuit training workouts, but I haven’t found a good way to track those aside from just writing things down.
Wait a second… are you some kind of money nerd?! 😛 😛 😛
I wish I could better track what I do for strength. But I do so many things in one session, it’s hard to remember it all! If I wrote it down it would be several paragraphs!
Nah, I just like math 🙂
I track my weight once a week and how mny miles I run. I also have a huge calendar in my room where I track how many asignments I have.
I track miles and pace 🙂 This year i am tracking race budget as well, because its totally out of control, haha
Do you use something that averages overall pace for a period of time? If you do, what is it? Some fancy excel thing?!
I guess I am. I track miles (and this year I am tracking cross training) on the runner’s world log, books read on Goodreads, weight (sporadically), and money spent on Mint.com
I track mileage and in the last two months I have been tracking my weight just to see how it responds to workouts and my hydration level. Keeps me in check I think and really helped over the holidays.
I track my running mileage (and biking, swimming, etc) but I’d also like to track how much I spend on races. Like you mentioned, I could go back and calculate this but like you mentioned, it would be too much work. I’ve also debated tracking my weight just so I know what it is and see how it fluctuates but I’m really bad at remembering to weigh myself so there really wouldn’t be any trends to see.
I track (inconsistently) on myfitnesspal.com. It’s a really convenient food tracker – lets you set preferred amount of protein, carbs, etc., has a huge database of foods, and has an iPhone app as well as web interface. I really do better with healthy eating when I track, so I’m on it with that New Year’s mojo!
Ooo! I tried that app for awhile last year! It is fab! I cannot believe it’s free!
You know I tracked all of 2011….and found it was making me crazy. So in 2012 I vowed not to track anything! If I decide to train for a race in 2013, though, I know I’ll have to track something but hopefully I won’t get too OCD about it.
LOL! You were getting really in to making your training plan and tracking that, right? I just track mileage… would that be too much for you, you think?
I track my miles on my bike using Endomondo on my phone. This seems to be slightly more accurate than MapMyRide. The hard part is keeping my phone charged. I have an external Anker battery that can recharge my phone, so I’ve not had a problem since I got that. My goal this year is to get a 100 mile ride sometime in 2013. In 2012, I started riding with a new bike and padded shorts and all…and was able to get up to a 75 mile ride near the end of the “warm” season here.
Ooo! You are totally going to meet that goal! Too bad your pedaling cannot power your phone!
Oh, I track, and how!!
I track my miles via DailyMile and RunningAhead. I also log them in Google Docs to make up for any shortcomings of those sites (for example, they both only go back so far, so I have a spreadsheet that logs my monthly mileage and avg pace going back to 2010, and then also my yearly mileage and avg pace). I also track all of my non-running workouts in DM, mostly just for my weekly training and monthly numbers posts.
I track my races via Google Docs. It’s kind of insane. For each race, I keep track of what I spent on the reg fee, my time/pace, and my placing. AND, in my RunningAhead log, I can input my placements, and the overall number of runners, and it’ll tell me what percentage I placed in. So I track that too in my race log. I also keep a list of the upcoming races that I’m interested in (or already registered for).
I track books read via GoodReads, which is how I know I read a whooping five books last year.
I chart my cycle via smartphone app and have a Google Doc for charting other symptoms, because I’m pretty sure my moodiest/saddest days are linked to my cycle.
Right now I’m trying to keep track of smaller monthly goals, and a monthly check-in on my 2013 goals, via a Google Doc. We’re also logging all of our spending right now since we are trying to stick to a very strict budget so we can afford to buy a house/condo this year. I also keep track of all of our debt balances about once a month to see how we are doing on paying that off.
I love keeping track of all this stuff so I can see how far I’ve come, and it also keeps me in check when working toward a goal.
This comment makes me look a little (a lot?) OCD. Oh well.
Nah, you are not too OCD 😉 I knew you would have a lot of input and I was looking forward to it! I like your race gdoc idea! Right now I just set up to calculate price, but I should also add in temp and windspeed and other bs. Also, I think I want to track how much I spend on my fitness hobbies this year. So far, It’s like $40… silly Amazon GU subscription!
Weekly mileage, swimming visits and yoga classes.
I track my mileage in a super cool spreadsheet on Google Docs. One page per month, and I note date, day of week, distance, time, pace, any notes (ie did I have the stroller) and what shoes I wore. Plus, I track on Daily MIle. I don’t normally take note of other workouts but I might soon as I’ve been doing a lot more cross training. Hmph. Oh wait, I also track what I eat on MyFitnesspal and use a BodyMedia armband to track how many calories I burn everyday.
#numbersnerd
That’s a lot of tracking but you look so good at it!! I only track on dailymile when I remember to do it! lol.
I started tracking my mileage last year but then lost all of the info because they had to reset my computer and I didn’t have it backed up. This year I am going to try to be better at tracking my miles and I’m keeping track of how much I spend on races this year and keeping better track of my budget since I will have to start paying back student loans 🙁
I love looking at the data (and use spreadsheets to analyze it) but I do most of my tracking on various websites:
-PhysicsDiet.com to track weight/body fat % — has a lot of nice charts (I haven’t needed to export the data to see my trends)
-Daily Mile/Garmin – workout data — I did have to export these to Excel to trend & analyze my info for 2012.
I don’t track or analyze too much else at home, particularly since I do a LOT of number crunching at work.
I’m pretty in love with spreadsheets too. I recently started tracking my budget (something I should’ve done a long time ago) and I went back to every single bank statement from 2012 to input it into the spreadsheet. This year I wanna track my running mileage as well!
I used to track the number of airports I’ve flown in/out of, and I also used to track my hotel points and frequent flier miles. I also used to have a spreadsheet where I would track my vacation hours earned and utilized for each fiscal year. I do track my running mileage, as well as the miles on each pair of shoes, and it’s fun seeing the numbers start growing!
Awhile ago, someone’s vacation hours were miscalculated at work and the supervisor was surprised the person was not tracking on their own! Maybe since it’s a new year I should track what I use this year. Although, I can always add it up from my google calendar.
I’m a HUGE tracker!! I track all of my stuff (running, biking, swimming, rowing) on the Runners World website, it’s free, and I’ve been using it since I started running waaaayyyy back in 2008, so it has all of my numbers. It shows pace, weekly, monthly, yearly mileage, as well as how many miles I’ve run since I started tracking. I’m a numbers FREAK!!
I also started tracking my measurements again this year. I did this years ago when I needed to lose 30 pounds, but now I’m not seeing a number move on the scale, so I’m going to try to see if my measurements move. Like I said, I’m a numbers girl, I LOVE me some numbers!!!
I didn’t even know RW offered that! Very cool!