In mid-November, a persistent calf strain turned into a full-fledged injury. Techtember and his Techtober kicked my butt. Grandma passed away. Also, my lease had expired and it took me about two weeks to find a place to live. These are the perfect conditions for a fitness slump.
Slumps happen to everyone. But I’m still beating myself up pretty hard. I make a living reviewing wearables and fitness technology, but that doesn’t mean I’m immune to the harmful aspects of fitness culture. Didn’t my failure to perform, even in difficult times, make me a fraud? Every time I ran, I found myself chasing my past self, who was thinner, faster, and stronger. I understood it logically, but it was depressing. At Christmas, I was cleaning my old apartment by myself, eating gas station chicken fingers, and berating myself for being too tired to go for long runs. At that time, my best friend sent me a TikTok. “You need this,” her text read.
The TikTok belonged to a group of friends who attended a holiday party. Everyone else was in a food coma, and the person recording was making fun of their friend who was hooked on a fitness app on the couch. I couldn’t find the video, but my friend who was sitting on the couch said something like this: frodo Defeat me? ”
As it turns out, the person was looking at Fantasy Hike data. This app uses your health data to track your quest to Mount Fire, a copyright-friendly version of Mount Doom in Mordor. They were in competition with another halfling named Mr. Underhill, aka Frodo Baggins’ Travels alias.
I snorted. I thought it was cute. I wondered for a moment how long it would take. myself Walk 2,799 miles to Mt. Fire. Then I finished my stale chicken fingers and went back to packing up my life.
Two days later, after another bad workout, I downloaded the app.
Fantasy Hike is not a very complicated app. It runs in the background and integrates with Apple Health to track your walking and running data. (Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an Android version.) You’ll find your little avatar traversing places that aren’t Middle-earth. (The app changes most of the names, but I haven’t completed the quest yet so it’s hard to say if it’s all the names.) Sometimes a ghostly wight will appear behind you . You earn achievements as you move from one region to the next (for example, from Hillside End to Halffing Country). You will also receive notifications when he encounters important plot events, such as when Old Tom (Bombadil) rescues you. Besides Mr. Underhill, you can compete with other copyright-friendly fantasy heroes. There’s John Snowflake (who knows nothing), Alice Wonderfoot, and Hairyfoot Potter. And unlike the fast-footed Mr. Underhill, other heroes move at a different pace.
It sounds silly, but it works. About 1.5 months after I started using it, I noticed a change in my way of thinking. I no longer care so much about how much speed I’ve lost. Instead of lamenting how tired I am, I’m going to get off at the bus stop one stop earlier to close the pitiful 337 mile gap that Mr. Underhill, who is resting in Riverdale, has over me. is.Even if it’s a long run, even if it’s a 4.25 mile long run and it’s slow. Already used Even at 10 miles, I still have 4.25 extra miles to use to close the gap to Alice Wonderfoot.
Funny, this is what my countless fitness trackers were supposed to do. Most of the ones I test include gamification or competitive elements aimed at motivating you to hit 10,000 steps each day. That’s why his Apple Watch sends a notification at 8pm on his rest day, reminding him to walk briskly for 27 minutes so he doesn’t lose his streak. This is why fitness-oriented trackers like Garmin feature training scores. When things are going well, these things are great. When you don’t, it’s like getting a report card full of Bs and Cs when you used to get straight A’s.
But do you know what such luggage doesn’t come with? Low-stakes fun. I’m not actually going to Mordor, but it’s not Mordor. No one is asking me to drop an Oura Ring into a mountain of fire to save the world. But even on bad days, something It brings me closer to my destination. I’m still generally heading in the right direction. I don’t really care that Mr. Underhill is so far ahead of me because he’s not real. The truth is that I have made the most progress in recent months. And in the process, I remembered why running is so fun.