Running With Technology
When the pandemic hit the UK very hard (early 2020; lock-down came only in late March) we stopped going to the gym. We sporadically came back to it, but at the end we realised we already had a lot of the necessary equipment/kit at home where we would not risk catching COVID-19 (we finally got infected in September 2023, and we likely got it from my mother).
Over time we found that the most effective and fun form of exercise was park runs. We could rest there between laps, then feed the birds. It was, understandably, more fun in summers than during winters (rain, cold, more attire required to wear and then wash).
More recently we experienced the more/most advanced form of treadmills. Neither of us uses a mobile phone or "apps" or whatever "today's kids" - pardon a cultural reference - are into (maybe some social control media "things"), but those treadmills work OK even if you don't use some Bluetooth thing and don't have "the app". That's a relief!
About a year ago I wrote about people who choose to do exercise such as running with plenty of gadgets. I find that to be a pointless distraction or a solution in search of a problem. One might say it is a "cult-like" mentality; can't you cycle with a physical map (or your eyes, sense of orientation etc.) rather than GPS or some "smart" thingie? Do you really need to count everything and pass around data? Should you ever identify to some equipment that you use? Who stands to gain from it?
Andy Farnell habitually alludes to "solutionism". We seem to have created more new problems instead of solving any. Sometimes we need to physically reset machines at the gym because they fail at the very basics. At least they always run Linux (all of them, since 2015). █