Data

Imbolc                                                                    Valentine Moon

Gadgets. Yes. I like them. My latest is my birthday present, a Basis watch.  The basis keeps track of my steps (not so many in these winter days), calories burned (not so accurately for reasons I’ll make clear) and, most interestingly my sleep.  basis-sleep-tracking-web

Not quite sure how the sleep sensors work, but each time I nap or sleep at night the Basis records my sleep with several different variables:  time in deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep.  It also records turns and turnovers and what it calls, interruptions.  At 67 you can imagine what my interruptions are.  These are done up in a neat graph that wouldn’t copy, but the overall data stream for last night is below.* (above is from their website)

But that’s not all. Overtime the Basis learns your patterns and gives you a sleep score based on Basis-Bandlength of sleep and all those other data points.  It also measures, helpfully, heart rate during the day, in particular resting heart rate which is a good measure of fitness.

I initially thought it would record my heart rate during exercise and give me feedback about my workouts, but it doesn’t do that.  I wanted to be able to upload my exercise data to the computer and save it, track my progress over time.

Though I’ve always exercised with a heart rate monitor (or at least I’ve done it so long I don’t recall when I started), the technology I had was only good for in the moment ft7_blulila_topleft_340x395_0readings.  That was good, but I wanted better data.  When I found the Basis wouldn’t do what I wanted (I was not the only one who made this mistake as the forum on the Basis website demonstrated), I went to Polartech.

They make a great, inexpensive watch and chest band (transmits heart rate to the watch) which, when coupled with a data synch plate, transfers a great deal of relevant data from the watch to the Polartech personal trainer website.  BTW:  I have the FT7 which the link displays and explains, but I got it for $73, not $119.00.

This means I don’t wear my Basis during exercise.  It didn’t do much helpful then anyhow. That means its calories burned per day reading is not accurate because it doesn’t reflect my workouts.  Still, it’s sleep monitoring and throughout the day heart monitoring give it a place, too.  Oh, and it tells time and the date, too.

Now I can monitor my sleep accurately, my resting heart rate and the intensity of my workouts.  With the workouts I see calories burned, maximum, minimum and average heart rate, training load (call it intensity), time in various training zones and I get graphs over time plus a calendar/diary that records each workout in a calendar format.  I like it.

*91%

Sleep Score

19 times

Toss & Turn

1 time

Interruptions

REM 25%

1 hr 48 min

Light 54%

3 hr 56 min

Deep 21%

1 hr 33 min