I don’t use a lot of technology to help me with my training and motivation – I’m not a big fan of carrying devices around with me when I’m running and I’m certainly not going to take my iPhone swimming! But I suppose a bit like my post on coaches, I like the “pure”, “naked” feel of the training.
That said, I do record most of my efforts into Fitocracy (I’m Patrickjpr if you want to follow me).
It started out with a recommendation from a friend and I signed up to beat her! But then I joined the “community” and although nowhere near as avid a user (or trainer) as many on there, it’s nice to have a few friends and colleagues on this journey – along with the readers of this blog.
One of the main things that Fitocracy does is allow you to record the session you’ve just completed and earn points for it – you can then see where you are on a variety of different leaderboards. And there is clearly some fun and value in that.
However… (and you knew that was coming), what Fitocracy seems to do is give you a score based on its own view of your exercise – and not yours.
For me right now it is easier to swim two miles than it is to run it. In fact, I could almost swim it easier (although admittedly slower) than I could cycle it. Yet I would get a lot more points for swimming than I would for the other two as Fitocracy has decided that swimming is harder. It seems to me that the algorithm should be tweaked to measure you against recent performances, the more you do something, the fewer points you should earn for it.
Or, to put it another way – I should earn more points if I put the effort in to go out for a run, cos I find it really, really hard 😦
1000kmstowindermere 
mmm, sounds like my expereince of the Wii – different experience, same principle!!
I love Fito. 🙂 And it’s been very nice to meet new people through it, including yourself! But I quite agree; once you’re experienced in one discipline it feels easy and taking up something new is a different physical challenge. A two mile swim is a “normal” session for me now, but a 5k run is much much harder as I’m only just starting out with it. It is galling to get loads of points for something that feels easy when you’ve put your best into something that earns you nothing. And it’s a pain for duels and challenges, too. OTOH I try and look at it like this: the majority of people would find it hard to swim a mile; half the world can’t swim at all, apparently. Statistically those of us doing 2 miles/a couple of hours or more on a regular basis are doing something extraordinary – if we were “average” swimmers, pools would have much longer lane sessions open! So maybe it’s right that we get rewarded for being altogether more awesome. 😉
I like your logic and I’m happy to work on the assumption that I’m “more awesome”. Thanks 🙂
Well, scoring is always an issue on Fitocracy. The main objective of theirs to give the same points for the same effort (measured in calories).
Yes, it would be a nice to distinguish by experience of a given workout … but how would you define your skills for each activity? And usually everyone does workouts that fit them. I wouldn’t run much either – I’d rather swim 5 km than run the same length though it’d take 22 minutes instead of 1h40. Caroline (and Fred) is true: We’re simply awesome. 🙂