This is Erika Smith.  She understands that if you can measure something, you can improve it.  She  built a device to prove it.  Doesn’t she look wonderfully geeky?

I’ve used that saying (“If you can measure it, you can improve it”) as long as I’ve been in business for myself.  It’s not just a saying, it’s virtually an axiom of life.  Just google the phrase, and you’ll see what I mean.  The results are incredibly varied, from the expected business references, to literary writing, and everything in between.  Heck, there are even YouTube videos in this category. Here are some of the more interesting links from just the first page.

Business (From site called “Goliath” Business knowledge on demand)

Life (from a blog called “Life Optimizer”) I love that name.

Neobluepanther (Writing, among other things)

What got me thinking about this truth of truths today was my Physical Therapy visit.  It was my last visit for my wrist, broken a couple of months ago from my first road crash.

What’s the first thing they do in PT?  They measure.  What’s the last thing they do?  They measure.  On my last visit, all my measurements improved except for one.  Truth be told, it was the only thing that I didn’t do my “homework” for.  The poor results then made me ultra aware of its weakness, and so from Thursday till Monday, I worked the wrist in the weak direction.  In just 4 days, upon my return and remeasurement, I increased 14% of mobility.  No matter how many times I see this process work, it still gets me excited.  I think it’s the control freak in me.  If I can improve whatever I measure, I can improve my life.  Cool! Let’s see, what can I measure… (hey, I know what you’re thinking.  Stop that, this is a family show).

The obvious connection here is TRAINING.  This again points to the critical importance of using training tools; heart monitors, cadence counters, power meters.  These are more than just tools, once you get used to using them, and understand how to exploit them, they become the closest thing you have to a personal, full time, always at your beck and  call, coach.  They give you the means to measure your effort, the tools to set your targets, and best of all, it keeps you honest along the way.  Without the constant feedback, what do you have to tell you when you’re slackin’ off or working too hard, or worse than both, training without focus and discipline.

I received an email this summer from one of the members at my club who had just completed one of the best “measurement” experiences – a complete metabolic assessment for Heart Zones, VO2 max, and lactate threshold.  In her own words “ … took 3.5 minutes off my best time….and that is due to nothing more than awareness and data! watched my heart rate the whole time” Danielle

Without these tools, we end up thinking something stupid like “Wow, I sweat buckets today, I must have been working really hard”, or “I want to do better this year.  I’m going to ride more”.  The interesting thing about these common misconceptions is that it shows how inherently people want to measure; the amount of sweat, the miles of riding – the notion is there, but without the tools, it will inevitably leave them frustrated.

So why is it, at least in the field of sports, that the average person seems to use only one thing to measure success; winning and losing.  Even if you don’t race, the only measurement seems to be “I did __________ “(fill in the blanks with your latest accomplishment) or I didn’t.  That sounds a lot like pass/fail.  Don’t get me wrong, I celebrate the mere completion of hard endeavors as much or more than the next guy.  But I am still perplexed by the lack of measurement and hence training along the way.  The reasons why are likely to be wide ranging, but could it be that sports and “exercise” in general don’t often merit this consideration?

Take my original Google search as an example.  I was shocked to not see a single reference to any sport or physical activity on the first three pages of the search results when I put this phrase in the search box.  Every other subject imaginable came up:

Pg 1 results – primarily business and a few other stray subjects as noted in my links above

Pg 2 results – Marketing, Internet Traffic and Conversion, Manufacturing, I.T. Security, BioMed, Carbon Emissions

Page 3 – more of the same Search Engine Optimization, Healthcare, and on it goes with no sports references

So, let’s use this post to change this pitiful state of searchability.  After all, one of the key tenants of the Cycling Fusion manifesto is the need for training tools in cycling indoors, where we have control of the environment, and thus have the ability to be very specific in our training.  If you write a blog, or have a website dedicated to sport – link this blog (this specific post) to your blog or site, and let’s represent sport in this vital life lesson of the need to measure something in order to improve it.  On my next post, I’ll report whether we did enough to fight our way into the first 3 pages of Google or not.  After all, isn’t that the measurement standard of any good blog performance