Gyroscope Personal Records
Owen Williams: From sitting at a desk to running 100 kilometers per month
Knowledge workers are people who think for a living. They are engineers, architects, academics, accountants, lawyers, and more. Many people dream of having these jobs, as knowledge-based jobs generally pay better and have better hours. But knowledge work comes with challenges too — the mentally taxing work often leaves workers too tired to take care of other aspects of their lives, like exercise.
Owen Williams thinks for a living. He builds software, makes podcasts, and writes. But to do all of that work, he has to spend most of his days sitting at a desk. In 2016, Owen decided to make exercise a routine rather than something he did sporadically. He started tracking his workouts with Gyroscope and set ambitious exercise goals for himself.
Most of my day was spent sitting at my desk…
Gyroscope: How did you first get into running? If you do any other sports, we would love to hear about them too!
I realized in 2016 that while I was enjoying a more active lifestyle after moving from New Zealand to The Netherlands because of my long cycle to work every day, but most of my day was spent sitting at my desk. I always enjoyed running, particularly in the morning, because it helped me get my mind right for the day and felt great… the hardest part was actually making a routine of it.
Even though I was really eager to get into it, I just couldn’t will myself to get out of bed in the morning. In the end I found a weird trick: if I made getting up early shocking enough (a ridiculous time like 5AM), then I could somehow do it, so I started setting my alarm for 5AM, having my clothes ready and just going straight out the door while half asleep!
In the end I found a weird trick: if I made getting up early shocking enough (a ridiculous time like 5AM) then I could somehow do it.
Gyroscope: What do you think knowledge workers (people with sedentary jobs, often involving office work) can do to motivate themselves to get and stay fit?
I’ve always struggled with this one, but it came down to two things for me:
i) Set yourself a goal, even if it seems arbitrary. For me, that was to run 100KM a month, but later became even more specific (35KM a week). I paid for Strava Pro, so I felt like I had to get some use out of it… then somehow got weirdly addicted to seeing those lines keep rising.
ii) Get up early. I’ve heard a million excuses from people about why they can’t get up early, but just set your alarm in a different room, on top of your running clothes. By the time I’m in the park running I’m still half asleep and it works. Running after work never worked out for me because there’s too much life stuff, but in the morning there’s nothing but you, the quiet and the road.
Gyroscope: Can you tell us more about your running goals or personal records?
At some point I wondered how far I could push myself.
I don’t really find running a marathon interesting — [I prefer] more distributed activity, so I set myself a goal of running 100KM per month. The first month I failed miserably, because I didn’t have a routine or planned schedule each week.
In May, I set the goal again, but this time set calendar reminders using Runkeeper for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Sundays are the long days, where I have to do 8–10KM, and each other day is about 5–6KM. Having that regularity really helped; and my goal at the end of this is to be able to reliably run 10KM in under 50 minutes by a few months from now… no sweat.
Gyroscope: How are you using Gyroscope during your training?
I use it to visualize how far I’ve come, and show off my runs. There’s something valuable in being able to tweet a map of all the running you’ve done in a month, and people seeing that you’re actually achieving something. Most activity apps aren’t good at that, and I love getting an overview of all the places I’ve run, along with the run-recap images that feature a nice photo I took on that run.
Gyroscope: Do you have a favorite spot to go running?
Running in Amsterdam is pretty damn magical as it stands, but I adore running in the Vondelpark at 5AM.
It’s a place that’s so crowded and insane during the daytime with tourists, but in the morning nobody’s around and it’s full of songbirds. It’s beautiful, and super close to where I am. It definitely helps with my motivation.
Gyroscope: If you could go running anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
New Zealand! Specifically, along the coast in the South Island. Mostly because it’s my home, and I never got into running before I moved overseas, so I’m super bummed I didn’t make the most of it while I was there.
Gyroscope: What are your favorite features in Gyroscope? What do you think we should add or change about the app?
I love the running overviews, and that I can see them right in Chrome’s new tab page — it helps to have that motivation right in front of you all day.
When I’ve had a bad week with running, the extension reminds me I should just get out there and do it. I’d love to see more ways to display those runs, as well as better overviews of my aggregated activity across RescueTime, Moves and the other apps I have plugged in.
Gyroscope: You visited Brooklyn last year. Can you tell us more about your Brooklyn trip? What fun things did you do around town?
I was in town for work, and I happen to work at a company that makes beautiful electric bikes… so I was super keen to ‘walk the talk’ and basically forced myself to cycle everywhere. I rode all around Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Manhattan and it was awesome!
It’s such a beautiful way to see the city, and aside from a few problems getting to meetings on-time because I kept getting lost it was actually awesome. I mostly spent my time in cafes working on my laptop and came to adore Sweatshop Coffee in Williamsburg for its tonic coffees, so spent most of my time out there.
People thought I was crazy for cycling over the Williamsburg bridge twice a day, but it gave New York such a magical feeling… I wish more people would do it!
To catch the next chapter of Owen’s story, you can follow him on Twitter or add him as a friend on Gyroscope. Get the Gyroscope app for free on iOS and Android — and set up Runkeeper or Strava or your other fitness trackers to track your workouts, just like Owen.
