What Your Garmin Can't Tell You — With Christine Clubbs

Christine Clubbs started running at 40, accidentally fell into triathlon, and has since gone on to represent Great Britain as an age-grouper. She is also one of the most thoughtful self-experimenters I've had on the podcast.

For the last two and a half years Christine has been tracking a remarkable range of data, but not in the way you might expect. No Whoop, no Oura ring, no algorithm telling her how recovered she is. Just a notebook, a pen, and an honest monthly reflection system covering motivation, mood, sleep, stress, training load, nutrition and how she actually feels about her racing.

What makes this conversation genuinely interesting is that Christine's personal perception data often tells a completely different story to her Garmin and Training Peaks numbers. Learning to sit with that tension, and to trust her own read of what's going on, has made her a better, more consistent and more self-aware athlete. This one will make you think differently about the data you're collecting and the data you might be ignoring.

5 KEY POINTS

1. Perception and performance data often contradict each other. Both tell you something important and neither should be ignored.
2. Tracking the human side of training reveals patterns wearables miss. Motivation dips and mood shifts show up in a notebook long before they show up as a poor HRV score.
3. Simple beats sophisticated. High, medium or low. Good, okay or rubbish. Christine's deliberately unsophisticated system is exactly why she's stuck with it for two and a half years.
4. Reflect before you look at the results. Writing down your honest perception of a race before checking the data means the numbers don't overwrite your own experience of what happened.
5. Tracking evolves over time. What matters to record changes as habits form and patterns emerge. The goal isn't a permanent system, it's a living one.

3 TAKEAWAYS

1. Start before you're ready. Pick a few things that matter, buy a notebook you like, and begin. There's no right or wrong, only the system you'll actually maintain.
2. Don't let the data become the verdict. Your perception of how you performed and what you learned is where the real value sits.
3. Self-knowledge transfers beyond sport. Knowing when to push and when to back off is a skill that works everywhere.

KILLER QUOTE

"My perception and the stats are sometimes absolutely polar opposite to each other. That difference is exactly what I wanted to understand."

 

LINKS & RESOURCES Mentioned in the episode:

Christine had 2 favourite books which she recommended. One we have had before

The Chimp Paradox - Dr Steve Peters - The Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness

The Brave Athlete: Calm the F**k Down And Rise To The Occasion - Lesley Patterson & Dr Simon Marshall - The Brave Athlete solves the 13 most common mental conundrums athletes face in their everyday training and in races.

 

Want help building durable training?

If what I talked about today resonates and you want a training structure built around your whole life, not just your swim, bike and run numbers, SWAT is where it happens.

Find out more and join SWAT here

 

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A simple checklist to see if you’re actually on track 3–6 months out.

Ironman Sanity Checklist

 

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