I like numbers. I don't blindly trust them, but when you collect enough of them over a longer period of time they can tell you things you sometimes didn't notice yet. And it helps you to work towards goals.
I've been doing keeping track of my Hive and HBD earnings for my #saturdaysavers goals for a while which helps me to keep focus on the goals I have set.

With my Garmin watch (and Garmin Navigation + Hear rate monitor) I also keep a lot of health stats. I've set a yearly cycling kilometers goal and I've set a minimum daily steps count of 7000.
As I was a bit behind on my cycling goal for 2025 I decided to dive move into the figures that my Garmin equipment collects from me and found out that there are way more figures that I can follow in my personal profile.
I think I will pay some more attention to these figures for a while, so I can improve my fitness and health even more than I already do. It's not my plan to obsessed with the numbers, but I just want to keep an eye on them to see where I can improve things to get fitter an healthier.

Garmin Connect

As I aleady mentioned, I'm using Garmin equipment, so Garmin collects all my stats in my connect.garmin.com account. My smartwatch keeps track of my heart rate, steps and somehow also manages to track my breathing, sleeping and many other stats.
Time to dive into it!

Steps

The easiest way to improve your health is by walking. Sitting is the new smoking! Because a lot of people have jobs where we sit a large amount of the day and we eat too much, we get fat.
Making sure you regularly walk and take the stairs, you can improve your health.
My watch keeps track of my steps. I can see the amount on the default display. I've set my daily goal to at least 5000 steps. Most health organizations recommend at least 7000-10,000 steps a day, but for me this was not possible. And besides walking I also often cycle, which compensates for the walking.

When I look at the stats for the past month I see I only missed the goal once in the past month.
The average number of steps is 7435 per day.
The peak on the 28th is a local mud run I joined that day.
So I'm actually doing quite well on this stat.

Sleep

Sleep is very important for recovery and feeling fit. I didn't need to check the figures to know I consistently go to bed late and I don't make enough hours.
I know this and still I keep hanging around late in the evening zapping through TV channels or surfing on internet.
When I checked the stats for the past month I wasn't really surprised. The duration most of the times is less than the need for sleep.
The average bed time is 12:17 AM and my average wake up time is 7:20 AM.
As you can see in the graph there is a positive change going on since this week. I managed to go to bed earlier in the last week (except yesterday).

I want to pay a bit more attention to this as you can see. I already notice some short-term effects, but consistent routines give more benefits in the long run. Let's see if I can keep this up!

Cycling

Regularly I post an update of my cycling stats for 2025. Because of a long during injury I am way behind on my schedule to reach 5000 kilometers by the end of 2025, but I'm coming back.
I've set this goal in my Garmin Connect account so I can easily see how far I am.
We're just over the half of the year and I have reached 45% of my goal.
The 5000 is still achievable...

The calendar gives a nice overview of the weekly numhber of kilometers, the time I've spent on my bicycle and the calories burnt.
That last one is the least interesting for me. I do sometimes check my weight, but I'm not planning to get thinner or lighter.

Garmin connect also offers challenges you can join to earn badges. It's a kind of gamification. I do join these challenges sometimes, but I don't really focus on reaching them. My main goal is the 5000km a year.

Earn badges. See progress

Trainings status

On the main screen of my Garmin Connect profile there is this widget that shows your training status. At the moment is says:
Keep it up
Load focus – Too few high aerobic activities

Your current training level is enough to maintain your fitness. If you want to improve, you should try to add more variety to your workouts or increase your training volume.

A while ago I was doing a lot of high intensity rides and then it said: Too hard, train at a lower heart rate.
This means I have to find a sweet spot between high intensity and low intensity rides.
The intensity depends on the heart rate zone I ride in. More about that later...

In the figure below you see the intensity of my activities. At first I was below the optimal (green zone), later I went above it and now I'm in the bottom of the zone. I need to alternate more high intensity activities with low intensity ones.

Aerobe vs Anaerobe

The difference between aerobe and anaerobe is in how your body uses oxygen during exercise.
With Aerobic trainings your body uses oxygen to produce energy. This happens during longer, steady activities like cycling at a moderate pace.
Anaerobic means without oxygen. Your body makes energy without using oxygen. This happens during short, very intense bursts like sprinting.

Aerobic exercises improve endurance, and anaerobic exercise builds strength and power.
You need both of them. I've read somewhere that the Dutch pro cyclist Mathieu van der Poel does 80/20 Aerobe vs Anaerobe. 80% for the endurance, 20% for the power in climbs and sprints.

I've done quite a few low intensity commuting rides last week. These are rides in heart rate zone 2. So now I need some more high aerobic activities, which are good for VO2 max (which I'll explain next).

VO2 max

VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise.
A high VO2 max usually means you have better fitness. Your body can use more oxygen during exercise, which helps you train longer and harder without getting exhausted. It’s a good measure of your endurance.

When I check my stats I'm actually doing quite well for my age 😀
The number also depends on the age and I'm on the highest 25% of my age group.
But being so close to the blue part of the circle my intensions are to improve this.
The purple part might be a bit too high for a goal, but who knows!

I also have a graph of the VO2 max over the past months. I cannot tell why there is a dip, but I might figure it out when I look at the stats and the training advices of Garmin Connect more frequently.

Conclusion

The information that my Garmin gear collects give me quite a lot of interesting information. Most things I already knew, but looking at these graphs can help keep focus on your goals.
Especially the sleeping habits and paying more attention to the intensity of my rides can help me improve myself a bit more.

Finally, I didn’t want to keep this last figure from you. Garmin also gives you an overall fitness age based on the information it collects from you.
And mine is 36.5
And that while I just turned 45 💪🏻

In the end it are just some numbers, but it's interesting to keep track of them.
I might even make this a recurring blog, so I immortalize my stats in the Hive blockchain.
That might also a great way to keep myself motivated to make progress.

Who else is tracking his health stats?
Have you set yourself some goals?
And how are you doing?
I'm interested in your experiences! Please share them in the comments!

Friendlymoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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