Reaching level 4 on Garmin and the badges I earned along the way

Gamification has been around for a long ol' time. Garmin have this year cottoned onto the fact that rewarding people, with virtual badges and arbitrary numbers, gives their customers an additional sense of achievement and progress over their activities.

And it works. It's the equivalent of patting a dog on the head. "Who's a good boy for doing 20 thousand steps today? You are. Yes you are".

And I lap it up.

My goal was to reach Level 4. I don't know how many levels there are and I don't know how I stand against the vast masses of people that using Garmin to track their activities, but against my own (whopping) 7 connections, I'm nearly 90 points ahead from the second person (I'm not boasting, but this leads to a point).

The genius of gamification is that it asks you to do things you wouldn't normally do. And that might mean taking a few more steps each day to reach a particular target, or do enough steps each day to reach a new goal. Or try a new sport. Or go further in a sport than you have before. There are also some badges that encourage you to compete with others.

It would take 40 marathons (8 points each) to reach level 5

It took me a little over 3 months to reach my level 4 goal from April to mid July. And it felt great. But now I'm stuck. I've collected most of the badges that I can easily gather, and I have sights on collecting a few more later this year and next, but there are no easily repeatable badges that will help nudge me on into the Level 5.

And this is where I'm starting to become disillusioned. I've done what I can do within reasonable expectation. I've taken to cycling more to get a few more badges, been taking more steps each day and I've nailed a few more marathons to up the points, but as the above image, I now need 20 marathons, or other 8 point repeatable activities, to hit the next level.

What Garmin could do to keep my interest

• More badges
• More repeatable badges
• Repeating the same badge, 3 marathon badge, 10 marathon badge etc.
• Prestige, where my level gets wiped and I start all over again (but collect a prestigious badge)
• Connect me with other people who are of a same level for competitions and challenges (it's so hard to make connections in Garmin. Strava is infinitely easier in this respect)

Overall, it was a lot of fun to attain the level 4 status. It means nothing to anyone else, but I enjoyed it and it was a nice free perk. But for Garmin to keep my attention, they need to add more attainable steps (levels) to keep me engaged.

Here are the badges that helped me earn level 4

Badges that earned me Garmin level 4

100% success using an iPhone hotspot with a Garmin scale

I love data. There's something about collecting it and storing it in a place where you can later view and interrogate it at will. And over the years. as I've started to appreciate the many dimensions to data, I've looked for tools and workflows to accumulate more of this data. The goal however is that I don't have to put in the effort of collating it myself.

Enter Garmin and their at times hideously poor weighing scales

Goodness. If Apple had delivered an iPod that would only sometimes connect to the Internet to get new iTune songs, Apple would no longer exist. But, that's what we have with the Garmin scales. At times, it connect to the Internet just fine and at others it seemingly can no longer find the router it's been speaking with for months.

I can only assume that Garmin hires excellent developers for their projects, but either doesn't employ enough, has abandoned their scales project or simply sees greater reward for placing their efforts elsewhere. /rant over!

Anyway, I've had 100% success through tethering with my iPhone

Exhausted of trying all other options with my routers and close to the point of throwing it out, I tried tethering my iPhone and it worked. And it's continued to work every time I've tried it.

It's a little frustrating to turn my phones Wi-Fi off, and then switch to tethering, but it's far easier than faffing with routers and better than not having any data at all.

Here's what I do when using the scales

1. Switch off my Wi-Fi on my iPhone
2. Search for 'personal hotspot' and switch it on
3. Use the scales

Here's what I did to get the scales working

1. Reset the scale to factory settings
2. Switched off my iPhones Wi-Fi
3. Configured my iPhone hotspot
4. Connected the scale to that hotspot
5. Used the scales

Worth noting that when you update your phone or your scales, you might need to reset the Wi-Fi connection again. For me, this has only happened once in the past year.

Hope this helps someone.

Maidenhead trail runners Garmin group

If you're reading this you may well just be looking for a group of trail runners in Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK. If so, then read on.

I've been running around Maidenhead for a little over 10 years, but I've always ran by myself. However, I'm getting old, a bit bored and I've found that I'm settling into familiar routes and times.

If this sounds like you too, or you're just more socialable than I am, then you might consider joining the Maidenhead trail runners Garmin group.

If you're not interested, but still like the idea of running trails around Maidenhead, then here are a few hilly trail runs at Maidenhead's Winter Hill you might wish to try.

How to join Maidenhead trail runners

• First, you need a Garmin account
• Then visit the group and follow the on-screen instructions to join up
• There's no approval or review of membership, so do join in

What to do once you've joined up

• Check out the other members, recent activities and the courses - see who you know and where you've both run
• Connect with me
• Connect with the other Members
• Tell your mates about it too

What will the group offer?

At the time of writing it's simply a method to connect other like-minded runners from across Maidenhead and the surrounding areas, but in the future it could be used for running meet-ups, lift-sharing to events or simply something social.

My running events for 2018

More so that I remember what I've got planned, here are my running events for the year

1. South Downs Way 50 - April 7
2. North Downs Way 50 (Annual favourite) - May 19
3. Devon Area of Natural Beauty Marathon - June 24
4. The (last ever!) Picnic Marathon - July 1
5. North Downs Way 100 (Volunteering) - August 4 / 5
6. Chiltern Wonderland 50 - September 15
7. Wendover Woods 50 - November 17

Just need something for October and December, and I'm all set.

Centurion Running South Downs Way 50 2018 ultra-marathon race report

I'm ill. I've been ill for several months and I'm bored of being ill. It's nothing serious, but it's enough to keep me from training and being more prepared for an event such as this.

I was lucky to get in a few long runs before the event and some regular enough shorter runs too, but overall I fell far below the expectation I had of wanting to run the SDW 50 faster than I had before. Far below.

In fact, this years SDW 50 is the slowest I've run a 50 (except for the understandably slow Wendover Woods 50). My fastest time for the SDW is 09:40, but I finished in 10:46! That's a 10% difference.


However, I'm upbeat and not too fussed. I had high hopes for some fast times at the SDW and NDW, the latter of which is only 4 weeks away, but alas, if I push hard and get frustrated it'll only end in tears.

I've got lots to be thankful for

• I had a chance to run with my friends Justin "Jimmy" Bateman and Ilsuk "Train" Han
• I also was able to run with someone new, Rich "Calvin' " Goulder
• I haven't been 'free' running outside for so long in such a long time
• I was so thankful for the toilet at the last checkpoint, though I'm quite sure it wasn't reciprocated
• I had expected to really struggle, but I didn't
• I recovered within a day

So here's to some good training runs for the NDW50, not letting an illness get the best of you and the friends, new and old, that make events like these worthwhile.

Rich, aka - Calvin' - Goulder, and me at the finish

Justin 'Jimmy' Bateman, always ready to dance

All smiles with a pooch nearby

Less smiles when one of us was trumping

Why didn't anyone tell me arm warmers with a vest is a no-no?

Garmin data for the nerds.