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Data Geeking...

Wednesday, 27 January 2016 00:10

Simple steps for evaluating your progress and planning for 2016.

By Jesse Thomas (triathlon.competitor.com)

In March 2011, I went to my first triathlon camp with coach Matt Dixon of Purplepatch Fitness and was assigned a shared room with Sami Inkinen. I didn’t know much about Sami other than he was very fast (I’d raced him a few times as an age-grouper), very handsome (his remarkably always perfect hairdo was the target of far too many of Matt’s jokes) and apparently very smart (he had a Stanford MBA and had recently co-founded some real estate website named “Stevia” or something)....

Sami and I spent many afternoons working away on our laptops, eating endless bowls of guacamole and chips while recovering between sessions.

One day, I asked him what he was working on. He said he was taking a brief break from actual work and updating his training log. I asked him what software he used. He said he was an Excel nut, and used it for just about anything he could. I also considered myself a fairly proficient spreadsheet dork since my mechanical engineering days, but there’s nothing that could have prepared me for what he was about to show me.

For years he had meticulously logged every stat and detail of every workout, his sleep, nutrition, performance, and tons other factors I didn’t even know existed. He had charts, graphs, formulas, pivot tables, VLookups, nested formulas to parse strings and other stuff I didn’t understand and had trouble pronouncing. It was, easily, the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. A self-described “incurable data geek,” Sami approached triathlon in the same way he approached business—using meticulous data gathering and analysis to identify trends, aid in decision making and continuously improve many facets of his athletic performance. He told me later that in business and in triathlon, “the rate of learning separates winners from losers.”

At the beginning of every year, I think of Sami and that statement and try to, in a much less detailed and impressive way, report and analyze my previous year’s progress in the hopes of making a plan that will help me take that next step toward “better.” We can’t all be Bobby Fischer on Excel, but there are some simple steps you can use to help you evaluate your progress and create a plan for success. READ MORE

ED. The MTN Guys love Jesse THomas' stuff and have reposted many of his articles. Matt Collins artwork is awesome, too.