The Leaderboard
Do any of the fitness tracking sites you use feature a leaderboard to track your workouts in comparison to your friends’ workouts?
You know, to get some friendly encouragement/competition going?
I knew that Daily Mile and Strava did this, but I don’t use those. I only recently started using Garmin Connect to “connect” to my friends (thanks to Gina for explaining it) despite this feature being around f-o-r-e-v-e-r.
I originally just wanted to “connect” with Gina and my dad so I could see what they were up to (since Gina and I are training for similar races at times, and since I like to bug my dad) and when I went to send them requests I saw I had some other ones. Oops! No idea that feature was there!
And I had no idea that as soon as I started connecting with people, it would pit us all against each other on the leaderboard.
This is re-created, based on the Garmin Connect leaderboard. The real one shows your friend’s picture if they have one uploaded, and shows their username.
I thought I wouldn’t like seeing this; that it would make me feel competitive, which is not me at all.
But it actually does make me feel encouraged, when I see how much butt my friends are kicking (and makes me feel so proud of them!). And it is so much easier to track someone else’s training this way (then clicking through their runs all stalker-style).
So I am surprised to say… I like this feature and find it fun! For now. Ha ha. I am also consciously keeping it off my dashboard so I am not seeing it every time I log on.
Themocracy
I haven’t set this up in Garmin Connect (yet) but I have been using it in Nike+ for a while. It’s cool that you can set up challenges for your friends too. I’ve been enjoying that feature in the Nike+ app for extra motivation. Now, I’ll have to find you on Garmin 😉
I didn’t know Garmin connect had this! Off to go explore…
I have used the garmin connect feature for a while, but not with very many people. And I am very meh on it lately, mostly because garmin only uploads maybe 3 out of every 4 workouts I try to sync. Effing irritating.
That stinks! What is up with your Garmin? 🙁 I wonder if you need a software update or something.
I don’t think it’s my garmin, so much as the update to garmin connect. It started happening IMMEDIATELY after they went “modern” and reading comments on their fb page, I am not alone. It’s frustrating, esp when I want to see splits or a map on a run (like a long run) but the run is still on my watch, so I just plop it onto DM and let it go. I checked for software updates, and that’s all current. Whatevs…
I think it’s odd we have the same watch and that is not happening to me! Lame! 🙁
I havent used this and it scares me! But the fact is that I do not wear a Garmin for many of my runs. So while many are on my Garmin, many of my runs are free-standing without data to prove that I ran it. The horror! So I guess my Garmin data lies in a way.
I don’t use this feature, but you can actually go back and add runs you didn’t use your Garmin for, so it still shows up in your overall count (if that is what you use for tracking)! I have a friend that does that. I always wear my Garmin though 😉 I just change the screen to overall time when I don’t want to see all the data while I am running 🙂
Ah man. I haven’t logged into garmin in months! Seems like a cool feature. I’ve got a leaderboard on daily mile and Nike. I kind of don’t give a F… Any more about that stuff. I just ignore it. 😉 every once in a while it’s nice to see my friends kicking butt in their peak weeks of marathon training, but I’m just meh about it mainly because i can’t/won’t compare myself to others.. Although I think that’s a feature on DM- to choose the person you want to compare yourself to.
Yeah, I think for some people this would be encouraging, and for some, it would cause them to compare and be a bad thing. That is kind of why I was surprised I liked it – I thought I would be annoyed by it, but the opposite happened.
I use the Fitbit app leaderboard and it motivates the heck out of me to work for the top spot.
They have something like this in Flywheel classes, which is one of the reason why I love them!
I use daily mile just for my own purposes honestly. My Garmin bugs out and won’t upload to Garmin connect half the time, so I manually enter my mileage in.
I use Garmin Connect but I log all of my workouts on Daily Mile. I haven’t figured out how to modify or add workouts on Garmin if I forget to stop my watch, forget to wear it, etc.
I’ve never used this feature and I honestly rarely log into my Fitbit account either to see how I rank compared to my friends. While I love winning at games, I don’t get motivated to work out more when I see other people walking more or running more or whatever. It tends to make me anxious and feel bad about myself so I just try not to compare!
I’ve never heard of this feature, either. I don’t use Daily Mile or any fitness sites that publish my stats for all to see. I think I get too self-conscious about sharing that data, you know? A few years ago, an old friend of mine was clearly trying to get the hang of using Daily Mile for the first time. He had it set up to share on Facebook, and he had a bunch of posts with things like, “Ed just ran 0.07 miles in 45:22.” You can only imagine some of the comments he received in response, LOL.
LOL! It’s funny you mention DM because one friend of mine posts every single thing on FB and I had to block DM because I didn’t want to see it all (a .5 m warmup as one post, then the run, then the cool down, etc.).
I am not self conscious at all about sharing my workout data. But, I’ve been linking to each event on my training recaps for years. This leaderboard just puts it all in one spot!
Ha, I use the nike+ function. It does the same thing. It does get the competitive juices flowing and it also inspires me to run more!
I have a garmin too and I had no idea there was a function like this! Right now my son is using the garmin for his biking so his numbers are way up there…
I have one Garmin Connect friend (a good friend from high school) and it’s fun to see how he’s doing with his runs. I’m sure if I followed more people I’d get a little more competitive, but I’m also trying to be more zen with my running, so I’m trying very hard not to compare where my running is with where other people are with their running. It is nice to have an easy way to cheer your friends on, though!
I use the Nike+ app and find that it is motivating but also makes me nervous because I feel like I always have to catch up to that other person. But it is still fun! 🙂