Playing with the Xiaomi Band 7

Playing with the Xiaomi Band 7

Byrichard

I have had the Xiaomi Band 7 for a while but I didn’t wear it properly until the start of the new year. As a silly concept I thought that I would try to wear it for the entire year and so far I have kept to that resolution. Sometimes it’s worth trying the cheapest device that you can find to see how it differs from the flagships by Suunto, Garmin and Apple.

PAI

The first thing that I enjoy is that it has the PAI indicator. The Personal Activity Index. The idea is that you should reach 100 points per week. If you go for a run you can get 45 points within an hour or so. If you walk for one and a half hours you may get 18 points or more. It’s just to indicate whether you have exercised enough, without putting pressure on high energy sports like cycling, running and others.

Training Load

It also gives you an indication of training load. The four categories are low, optimal, high, and very high. Despite just walking for the last seven days the indicator is at a high value for me, with a training load of 193 over the last seven days.

Sleep Tracking

Recently I have found sleep trackers less reliable than I used to. The main reason is that I let various watches and fitness trackers guess when I am sleeping, rather than telling me. If I get up in the night then it discards the first stage of sleep and just tracks from the moment I went back to sleep. I used to track sleep nightly, but with time I lost interest. When you have tracked at least a thousand nights the results are less captivating. I also started to worry about how quickly it was affecting mobile phone battery longevity.

Seven Day Battery

Whilst on the topic of longevity, one of the key advantages of the Activity Band 7 is that the battery lasts for seven days or more, between charges. You place it on your wrist and forget it for seven days. Apple Watches prove to be especially frustrating because you have to charge them every 18 hours and the charge time can be from two and a half to three and a half hours long. It tends to need to charge just as I want to walk, rather than at a reasonable time. With the Band 7 this isn’t an issue.

And Finally

I like the simplicity of the device. Tracking walks, runs and more is easy. It uses the phone for GPS tracking so this enables the device itself just to count steps and measure heart rate. Some people might want more but if you always walk, run, and more, with your phone, then this is a great device. It’s light and small on the wrist. It has a wealth of displays to chose from. I chose a mountain landscape, with the digital time. For 40-50 CHF this could be a good device for children and non geeks, as long as the parents and teachers tolerate children listening whilst fiddling, rather than fighting to stay awake in class.

Shovelling Snow and Playing With Plex

Shovelling Snow and Playing With Plex

Byrichard

Yesterday it snowed for several hours and that snow was covering the path to my house. When I saw the ground turn from asphalt black to grey, to white I decided to go and start clearing the snow. It’s easy to clear snow when you have three or four centimetres, rather than more. At first it was light and easy to move so I cleared the path once, and then a second time, and then a third, and by the third I decided to stop. It had become a sisyphean task. It was falling as fast as I was clearing it.


Eventually I got around to spreading salt but because it had got wet it was clumpy and very hard to spread as efficiently as when it’s dry so in the end I didn’t spend too much time on it. I could have got away with not using any salt because within a few hours the snow turned to rain. I could have ignored the falling snow and the problem would have solved itself.


It was never about clearing the snow. It was about having a different workout than usual. It was about seeing an opportunity to have an upper body workout for free. It’s easy to walk, run or cycle. Sometimes it’s just as good to shovel snow, even if it was going to be melted by nightfall.


Eventually I was going to go for a walk, but because the snow was still falling I shovelled more snow. By this point it was wet and heavy so I eventually felt that I had reached the limit of my endurance and stopped. I was frustrated by the clumpy salt that was hard to spread because I was worried that the snow would freeze overnight and the ramp would become a rink.


Experimenting with Plex


Recently I have been listening to various Linux podcasts and I kept hearing about Plex, a video streaming service, and self-hosting solution. Plex is both a self-hosted media server as well as a film and television streaming service. Yesterday I watched Breaker Breaker as well as Ice Pilots NWT. When I watched Ice Pilots NWT on the laptop I had no ads but when I watched Breaker Breaker on an iOS device and Apple TV I did. I’m not sure whether it’s because of content type of viewing platform.


Plex looks like a great alternative to YouTube. It allows you to watch film classics like Nanook of the North, films from the 30s as well as plenty of films from the seventies, as well as more recent content. It’s divided in two. On one side you have video on demand, where you choose what and when to watch. You also have the Live TV option. Here you can watch Guardian TV, Euronews and other channels. You also have the Washington Post, Reuters and more.


The TV cateogires you can choose from are featured, news, hit tv, crime, sports, Game shows, Movies, action and more.


Plex feels like Satellite Broadcasting used to feel. You have a choice of many genres and hundreds of channels for niche interests. Rather than sorting through clickbait headlines like you do with YouTube you get real content, produced by Television and Film Professionals.


And Finally


When it snows you have a great opportunity to get an upper body workout. At this altitude it’s quite rare, so that’s why its fun. Plex is an interesting alternative to Netflix and YouTube because you have a wide variety of programs to watch when it’s convenient for you.

A Good Run

A Good Run

Byrichard

It’s good to vary between walking, cycling and running. I even threw in skateboarding but I am not confident at that sport yet. The beauty of walking, cycling and running is that these are sports that you can do straight from home, without getting into a car, and without having to put up with other drivers. The one drawback is that dangerous drivers endanger you on every outing, but that’s another topic.

Comfortable

Although I was worried that I would regret running with barefoot shoes, after wearing them for over six hundred kilometres I can say that they were the right choice. The reason for which they were the right choice is that now, rather than run two kilometres before my knees hurt I can run for five kilometres and reach the goal I wanted to achieve. I wanted to be able to run five kilometres comfortably, and I can.

No Extra baggage

For this run I took no backpack, no lumbar bag or any other form of bag. I had my phone, some cars in case, and my house keys. I don’t usually run so light. I didn’t expect rain. I didn’t expect to feel thirsty, and I didn’t expect to need the external battery pack, to recharge the phone. I didn’t even take earphones.

The Route

Originally I was thinking of running the usual route, to avoid being near homicidal car drivers but I noticed that there was a village party, which I didn’t want to run through. I changed my routing and it had me run up a steep road for several hundred meters before turning left and heading down towards the lake, and then turning right along the motorway. That’s not really the point. The point is that I routed it perfectly, so that I stopped running just as I got to a busy road where I sometimes have to wait for cars to pass.

Quiet

It was quiet on this run. I saw one or two walkers and one runner. In a different age, and time, I might have said hello, but in this day and age it is better not to. She was doing interval running, but when she had a rest interval she took the rest part more seriously than I do. When I’m told to rest I walk at full speed. That is my rest pace.

It was busy with dogs and walkers on another route but I always avoid routes where I expect to meet dog walkers. I don’t want dogs to jump on me, and force me to overcome my desire to run away.

And Finally

Running allows you to experience the same route as you would walk, in half the time. It’s a way of enjoying the outdoors, without devoting the same amount of time. I would not replace walking with running, because I like taking the time to walk that route. By walking you can read a lot of audio books, but you also take a break from sitting and being indoors.

By running I am forced to look at where I’m going, as well as to think of how my feet are hitting the ground. I consider the route. Today I surprised a heron that hid behind some trees. It saw me and flew away.

Cycling With Different Levels of Fitness
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Cycling With Different Levels of Fitness

Byrichard

Originally I wanted to write about following route 50 from one village to Romainmôtier. I changed my mind as I created the title for this post.


An old pickup truck and bike
An old pickup truck and bike


Yesterday I cycled with two people on electric bikes on my normal bike. I didn’t feel that I was making that great an effort, especially since I was cycling at a relatively slow speed compared to usual. I actually felt that I was taking it easy.


View of one of the porticos
View of one of the porticos


Calories Burned


It’s when I looked at calories burned that I realised that what felt like an easy ride to me, was actually a huge effort. It didn’t feel that way to me, because it is normal for me to make such an effort, and I usually push myself when I ride alone.


Three Times More Calories


By riding with people with electric bikes I felt that I was having a relatively easy day. I burned three times more calories than them. It shows to what extent being fit affects how we perceive effort, but also how much energy electric bikes save.


Perfectly Within My Comfort Zone


A window seat and table, from the days before planes and trains
A window seat and table, from the days before planes and trains


I was surprised by the huge difference in calories burned because I felt comfortable. I didn’t feel that I was struggling to keep pace with the bikes, or struggling on hills whilst they glided with ease. That’s the beauty of cycling a lot. Effort becomes ordinary, and fitness makes electric bikes harder to justify. Why get an electric bike when you can cycle with people with electric bikes and keep up?


Cyclists and Non Cyclists Riding Together


There are two types of people. Those that invests hundreds of hours over several years to boost their cycling fitness, and those that use electric bikes, to keep up with those with experience. I would argue that the strength of the electric bike is two-fold. The first is that it encourages non cyclists to cycle and experience the pleasure of getting from A to B under their own steam, but the second is that electric bikes allow non cyclists to ride with cyclists, and get a taste of what we enjoy.


Visiting Romainmôtier by bike


Romainmôtier is a nice destination to cycle to. The road takes you through a nice quiet road in the forest. The woods are the Bois De Ferreyres. The route that I took was undulating, with some climbing and some descending, but these ondulations are not extreme like cycling up to La Dôle or up to La Rippe, so manageable.


Cycling Destination


Quite a few people cycled to Romainmôtier and I noticed that a few went into the grounds of the Abbaye and rested their bikes against the wall, before having a drink. By taking the bike parking is simplified, but as well as parking being simplified, you get to experience the landscape first hand. You’re faster than a hiker, but still get to experience the winding roads, the ups, the downs, and the freedom to stop with the bike, more conveniently than with a car.


An old fireplace
An old fireplace


Recommendation


If you are not a confident cyclist, and don’t want to spend hundreds of hours getting fit, then electric bikes are a fantastic short cut because they give you the freedom to explore, without the dread of having to get back, despite being knackered. Electric bikes are more forgiving than cycling without a motor. With an electric bike you just ask for more assistance and you’re comfortable.


Cycling from Nyon To Geneva and Back
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Cycling from Nyon To Geneva and Back

Byrichard

Catching the train to Geneva and back to Nyon costs about 14CHF per day, depending on whether you have paid 180 CHF for the half fare or not. In contrast two Continent GP 5000 tires cost about 110CHF and you can go to Geneva and back a few hundred times. 


Place Des Nations with the broken chair, and the fountains
Place Des Nations with the broken chair, and the fountains


The loop from Nyon to Geneva is about 20-30 kilometres. This is a very easy distance to cycle once you get to the right level of fitness. I have cycled to Geneva and back multiple times recently because I want to habituate myself to the journey but also because I want to prove to myself that I don’t need trains and other forms of public transport. 


I often caught the train to Geneva and back when I was working for three or more employers. I got used to the journey but eventually I learned that the journey took about two and a half hours a day. Around an hour one way, and one and a half hours the other. Cycling to Geneva takes 40-50 minutes but at least I’m working out while I’m commuting. If I catch the train then my workout is a 20 minute walk, and then I wait for a train, fiddle with the phone, and then feel frustrated that Swiss commuters walk so slowly. 


In the reverse direction I hated waiting 15-20 minutes for a train to take me to where I wanted to go. That’s where the bike comes in. 


If I have somewhere safe to store the bike, and if I can shower and change clothes, then commuting by bike would become a pleasure, rather than a chore. Cycling is enjoyable. Commuting by train, and by car is a chore. 


We need more people to see cycling as an option, rather than buses and trains. Buses and trains are as much of a problem as cars, because they encourage people to be lazy. The other flaw of buses and trains is that they are inflexible. 


If I was unlucky commuting home then I would miss the bus, have to wait an hour, and the bus journey would take 50 minutes. I’d waste two hours, for a one hour walk. It was as fast to walk, as to take a bus. That’s why I hate buses. Between the time you wait, and the time the bus takes it is very often just as fast to walk, especially for small hops. 


We need cycling to become a serious and viable option. Cars, buses and trains are keeping us prisoner. If we move around by bike then we gain our freedom. Bikes are fast, have minimal carbon footprint, and open up the world. 

Battery Powered Transportation And Fitness

Battery Powered Transportation And Fitness

Byrichard

Every time you go for a walk, bike ride or run you encounter people being moved along by something using electricity.  The most common of these forms of transport are the electric car, the electric bike and the electric foot scooter. People want to be more environmentally friendly in their way of getting around but they use something that has to be recharged. 


Quick to Adopt


Electric bikes, foot scooters and cars are a shortcut used by plenty of people. The beauty of the three methods of transportation listed above is that they’re relatively easy to use. Charge them, and then go for a ride. 


A break From Driving


A few years ago I lost my driving licence for a month so I replaced the car with a foot scooter that I had to propel myself and public transport. At the time I was happy because I was bored of driving. I was happy to be lazy for one month. That’s not the point. 


The Less Strenuous Solution


The point is that we see plenty of people use electric foot scooters because manual ones require a good level of fitness. Using a scooter requires strong leg and back muscles, as well as endurance. Going downhill is easy, you just stand on the scooter and gravity does the work for you. Go the opposite way and that unpowered foot scooter becomes so tiring that you ever walk, to save energy, or work on your fitness, to get up the hill. 


As Fast as an Electric Bike


Yesterday I went for a bike ride at an average of 25.9 kilometres per hour. This is a foot powered bike and I was going as fast as an electric bike, without any assistance. Electric bikes are wonderful. They are a short cut. With an electric bike you are as fast as someone who has spent years training to be fast. It provides people with a short cut to getting around on a bike, without the need for physical training. 


The Need to Replace All Cars


In theory electric cars are fantastic because they pollute less, and they’re better for the air we breath. As a person who walks and cycles between villages electric cars are as threatening and dangerous as petrol powered cars. I feel that instead of electric cars, especially for short hops, with single occupancy we should think of skate boards, rollerblades, foot scooters and more. 


And Finally


Now that I have sold the petrol driven scooter I am thinking of alternative solutions. In theory the most practical is the bike, but the problem with bikes is that they’re easy to steal, and in theory it’s expected. The alternative, the electric foot scooter is tempting but I worry about balance, when carrying shopping. The second concern is that by getting an electric scooter I might walk less, due to the convenience and lazy enticement of letting a machine do the work. 


Electric seated scooters would be fun to drive but with a range of just 37km I’d be stuck locally. I’d like the range to get to Geneva and back, without recharging. It makes the electric scooter absurd, for my use case. A pedal bike is fine, with my level of fitness. I have demonstrated to myself several times that I can go back and forth with ease, without adding the day of work in the middle. 


Conclusion


Although I was tempted by an electric bike for a long time my level of fitness increased to the point where I saw the electric bike as a luxury, rather than necessity. I could be tempted by an electric scooter, but to get to the train station in a quarter of the time that it would take to walk. It’s a twenty minute walk to the train. I don’t need an electric scooter to take me in five minutes or so.

Playing with StatsHunters

Playing with StatsHunters

Byrichard

Today I saw a link to Stats Hunters on the Google App so I clicked through on a laptop, once I was sitting at a computer. This is an app that looks at Strava data and gives you a summary of how many activities you’ve done as well as how far you have travelled. 


According to the data this Strava add on can access I have 2753 logged activities with a total distance of 25,l404 kilometres. November 2018 was my best month with 898 kilometres travelled. I think this was kilometres ridden on Zwift if I remember correctly. 


My longest ride was La Visit Horlogère where I cycled from around Nyon to Le Post, around the Lac de Joux and back down via St Cergue. 


The biggest vertical gain in a day of hiking was the EuropaWeg part 1 where I gained 1803.2m of altitude. 


It’s fun to see the distance per year graph because my best year was 2775km of distance travelled. For context I had 2775 in 2019, 2487 in 2020, 2267 in 2021 and 2499km in 2022. The pandemic has really affected how far I travel by bike and by foot, despite hardly driving to do any of these activities.  We should not ignore how much we can do, without touching a car. 


You can see a breakdown per week for the last year if you want to., 


The general stats are interesting. My average distance per activity is 9.23 kilometres. My average speed is 9.29 km/h. My maximum speed is wrong, because that’s when I played with a GPS watch in a plane. 


The website gives a lot more information than I am exploring in this blog post. It’s interesting to see the hour stats. This tells you at what times of the day you are most active. 


In the type statistics you can select from moving time, distance and other factors. My walking habit accounts for 36.8 percent of sports, with hiking accountiing for 28 percent. That is 64.8 percent of my sporting time. Bike rides account for 20 percent and running for 4 percent. 


According to some stats I have done 2639 activities of 0-35km, 107 between 35-70km and 7 between 70-105km. The main reason for this is the mountainous nature of the landscape. If it was possible to do longer distances without too much climbing then I would. 


And finally


Although I have done no group activities for years now, my sporting habit endures, and has thrived. I have done so much more now that I don’t wait for the weekend to do things with others. Solitude is not a reason to do nothing. It is a reason to do more. I like the data trends that this app shows. 

My Lack Of Interest In the Apple Watch Ultra

My Lack Of Interest In the Apple Watch Ultra

Byrichard

I see people are training for ultrarunning events, scuba diving and more with the Apple Watch Ulta, but I feel no interest in such a watch. The first reason for my lack of interest is that the watch is stupidly expensive for something that lasts just 30 hours on a single charge. I would expect a watch to last at least three or four weeks between charges, and at least a week with daily use. The Ultra does neither.


The second reason for my lack of interest is that Apple watches are fragile. They are not protected from being bashed or knocked when climbing or doing other things. I broke one screen. indoor climbing. With Suunto watches I climbed for years with barely a scratch.


The Third reason is that when you’re diving in cold waters you want a big, clear, easy to read display that is reliable. I trust Suunto to make reliable dive computers, but as a secondary device. My primary device was a Mares Icon HD. This is a large, clear, easy to read dive computer. This is from a few years ago. The point is that for cold water diving I want specialist gear by specialist device makers. It has to be trustworthy.


The fourth reason is that there are perfectly suitable devices for between 100-350 CHF. You don’t need to spend more on a watch than on a fragile device. I want something that tracks my daily walks, hikes, runs and bike rides, without worrying about it breaking. Cheap devices have plenty of functionality. I’d even toy with the idea of getting an Apple watch SE, because cheap watches last as long as expensive watches and some devices are bought for three or four years of use, not a lifetime.


The fifth reason is that a touch screen is often not useful when hiking, diving and more. You need buttons because you can navigate by memory, rather than by looking intently, and because with buttons you don’t need to take your gloves off to use the device.


The Final reason is that Apple watches are designed to make you want to swap them out every second or third year. If you buy the top of the range watch this year then next year or the year after you will want to swap it out, and then again after that. It’s better to buy a watch at a reasonable price, that does what you want, that will least three to four years. The Series four lasted four years. The Suunto Spartan lasted until the strap started to break and the battery started to decline. The Ambit three lasted for many many happy years of use.


If we were not in a pandemic, and if life was normal I’d be focused on doing a variety of sports, and I wouldn’t be so distracted by devices. I’d get the gear I need for the sports I want to do, and I’d do them. My desire to experiment with a variety of devices is due to the pandemic. In better times I would be focused on driving hundreds of kilometres a month, to do things. Not at the moment.


And Finally


I get pleasure from looking at the breadth and diversity of options. If I choose the cheaper options then if I play with them for a year or two, before moving on, then I do not feel wasteful. Three or four years ago I was tempted to get a cycling computer but resisted that urge because I don’t have the use case for it. I do love to cycle but sports watches do the same, and more. They are not dedicated to a single use.


An Easier Run
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An Easier Run

Byrichard

Since the start of the year I have been running regularly. Yesterday I went for a run and I found it easiser than other runs. It might be thanks to the audiobook, on the one hand, and to consistent training on the other. I am not pushing hard. The training program is a 5k programme over twelve weeks. I don’t need twelve weeks for this. I was a runner before. I don’t care about beating distance records or other things.


My primary goal is not to write “I didn’t feel my shin splints today” or “This run really hurt”. I want to run, without pushing my body to breaking point. I also want to run and feel comfortable. I want to allow my body the time to adapt to the sport, rather than pushing too far, too fast. If and when I can run five kilometres comfortably my one hour walks will take half an hour and my one and a half hour walks could take fourty five minutes. It’s not that I don’t like my long walks. It’s that I want to feel that my fitness is improving rather than stagnating.


Lifehacker currently has an article about “walk score and quality of life. I don’t like that there are so many roads with people who show apathy to cyclists and people walking by the side of the road. I walk into fields and I get thanked. I don’t walk into the fields out of curiousity. I walk into the fields out of fear and fatigue of cars skimming by me too fast. That’s part of what motivates me to run. Running is a sport where you can easily get away from cars.


I don’t need to take the car to go for a run, and I don’t need to buy anything extra for the scooter or car, if I want to run elsewhere. Although everything seems to indicate that the pandemic is over I am not convinced, so I prefer to run outdoors, away from people, to be safe. I value my health, and I enjoy walking and running locally. The pandemic has shaped how I think of sports, and which sports I would consider doing.

Running Again
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Running Again

Byrichard

At the start of this year I started running again. This wasn’t a new year’s resolution. I just decided that I wanted to start running, so I did. For five years I have been walking around in circles. Some take me above the A1 motorway and others take me below it. The walks are all familiar and I do them so regularly that I see the changes from week to week.


I thought I would take up rollerblading but this landscape is not friendly for rollerbladers until they are comfortable stopping. There are downhill slopes in three out of the five possible directions I can take. Every single route has downhill sections.


The advantage of running, in contrast to cycling is that you can go for a run straight from home, from the car, bus, train or even scooter. No need to put anything on the back of the car, or improvise a carrying solution. You just wear appropriate shoes and go.


My challenge isn’t cardiovascular fitness. Walking and cycling ensure that I am in good physical form. According to Garmin my vo2 max is 45 and my fitness age is that of a 20 year old. The limiting factor are my legs and joints. I can run and push further than my body wants to be pushed, and if I am not careful I will damage my joints again, and have to stop.


My running goal, for now, is simple. I want to get to a place where I am comfortable running for five kilometres without stopping. I then want to repeat this until I feel comfortable building speed. I can also increase running frequency, from every two to three days, to every day. It’s only later that I can consider running further.


With Strava, Garmin and other apps it would be easy to give in to temptation and to run further than others but that is not the goal. The goal is to run comfortably, without injuring myself, without paying beyond what is comfortable.