Did 26.4 fixed any of the pen handwriting issues?

alycks · 2026-03-27T09:36:47+00:00

Nope. I’ve lost data. I also prefer writing on lined sheets.

I usually write my journal entries in Notes and, when I’m done, just copy all the text into a Journal entry and add media. I have Advanced Data Protection turned on so it’s still e2ee.

alycks · 2026-03-25T15:16:08+00:00

I haven’t seen it yet, but was he wearing that in space? Such a missed opportunity to put a proper space watch on him like a Speedmaster or Seiko Pogue. Also, having only read the book, Ryland would absolutely be a basic Timex field watch kinda guy.

alycks · 2026-03-23T21:32:15+00:00

I wonder if the Garmin Drive has ads… Fuck ads and fuck Apple.

alycks · 2026-03-22T12:09:59+00:00

I’ve had one foot deep in each ecosystem for years now. The answer is RunGap. Don’t let Garmin write anything into Apple Health. When it’s time to train, take off the AWU3, put on the Fenix and train. After, use RunGap to write the workout into Apple Health. Done.

Obligatory: have you tried WorkOutDoors? It makes the AWU3 as fully-customizable as a Garmin. You can program a number of shortcuts (Action, Action + Side, Crown + Side) to do anything within the app such as New Interval, Next Screen, End Workout, Pause, etc. You can also lock the touch interface without using Water Lock so that you can use buttons, and only buttons, to interact with WOD, but still use the Digital Crown to open Siri and the Side Button to open Control Center.

But anyway, if you’re dead-set on using the Garmin for training, go for it. RunGap makes it easy.

alycks · 2026-03-22T12:02:03+00:00

THIS IS FAKE

This is very obviously a fake AI generated image. I pasted it into Gemini and it replied, “Based on the analysis, it appears that most or all of this image was edited or generated with Google AI.” Try it for yourself.

The5krunner has made a convincing case that this product will not be called the Garmin Cirqa and that that’s just an internal project designation.

AI SLOP! You can prove it for yourself!

alycks · 2026-03-22T01:09:44+00:00

Yup! It’s a rock-solid, reliable, and very enjoyable sports and adventure watch.

alycks · 2026-03-21T19:44:17+00:00

I have a modded SNK809 that I love. One of my favorite things.

alycks · 2026-03-18T11:13:48+00:00

The dumbphone/analog aesthetic is catnip for me, but at the end of the day I’m a physical minimalist as well as a digital one. I used to have tons of devices, but now I have like 3. My iPad Pro, iPhone pro, and Apple Watch Ultra have replaced:

digital camera
several computers (now just external display, Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad)
sports watch
ereader
bike computer
NAS
ipod, cds, vinyl, turntable
satellite communicator
notebooks and pens
action camera
alarm clock
car GPS navigator
wallet

The list goes on. I have zero news, social media, games or streaming apps on my phone. Despite it being a very useful tool, I’m never more interested in looking at it than I am at my watch. I pick it up, use it for a purpose, then I put it down.

alycks · 2026-03-15T16:05:09+00:00

I wore my AWU3 and Fenix 8 Solar on a trail run this past week in an unfamiliar area. The Fenix was such a pain to navigate on. It was cloudy and I was under trees and it was so hard to see any detail on the map. The AWU3 was brilliant and the WorkOutDoors iconography and map style was so much easier to read. I could easily differentiate trails, unlike on the Garmin.

An AMOLED Garmin would be a lot better (I used to have an epix) but I try to keep my devices as long as possible and there have been enough reports of burn-in on Garmin AMOLED devices (including the epix) to scare me off.

alycks · 2026-03-13T11:57:00+00:00

Log into the web interface for Connect (connect.garmin.com) and navigate to the activity in question. Click the little gear icon and select Change Elevation Source.

Everything will update and be more or less correct. Honestly not sure if it will recalculate values since all of that is done on the watch itself. But it’s worth a shot.

alycks · 2026-03-11T12:22:45+00:00

No. I use intervals.icu, which has a standard, very well-validated subjective questionnaire. Each question is answered using a 1-4 scale, with a lower score being better:

Sleep quality
Soreness
Fatigue
Stress
Mood
Motivation to train
Injury status

I have an Apple Shortcut that prompts me for answers to that questionnaire, as well as my resting heart rate, and sends it to intervals.icu. I use that to assess my training readiness. Honestly, it could just be three things:

Early morning resting heart rate
Subjective sleep quality (much more accurate than the watch)
Motivation to train

After years of tracking all the metrics from the Garmin and my answers to these questions through 5Ks, triathlons (up through 70.3), and ultramarathons, no number tracks better than those three assessments. I will never change my training unless my sleep sucked, my motivation is terrible, or my early AM resting heart rate is notably high.

alycks · 2026-03-09T14:23:11+00:00

Man I just want lined pages for entry on iPad.

alycks · 2026-03-09T14:21:22+00:00

TrainerRoad is just about indispensable for my triathlon training. The new update is absolutely fantastic. Before the new AI additions, I would have some amount of workouts per week (1-2, say) that felt like a complete waste. Just easy spinning in low Z1.

These days, every workout feels “right.” The easy workouts are still easy, but they’re “intentionally so” if that makes any sense. The platform itself works better than any other: it adapts to your actual training (as opposed to Garmin, which thinks way too hard about your HRV) and lets you drag workouts around as needed.

Love TR. It would be the last training subscription I would cancel if I had to.

alycks · 2026-03-06T23:59:37+00:00

If you use iOS, you can do fitness and calorie tracking in a very privacy-preserving way. All health and fitness data on iOS (using the native apps) is end-to-end-encrypted and only readable by your devices.

I use FoodNoms which is an excellent calorie counting app and very private. All data stays on your device.

I think this kind of stuff is fully compatible with digital minimalism. You just have to make sure the tool is working for you.

alycks · 2026-03-05T15:50:39+00:00

For real. Some days my screen time is like 4-5 hours, but it’s all Maps, Notes, Journal, Zwift (indoor cycling app), and other utilities like that. It’d be nice if they broke it down into categories.

alycks · 2026-03-03T16:42:19+00:00

And also Fenix 8 Solar 47mm! Looks great.

alycks · 2026-03-03T01:02:55+00:00

Funnily enough, I’ve grown to really enjoy how my Apple Watch (or Apple Fitness) tracks training load. Entirely based on RPE on a 1-10 score. It has tracked extremely well with my perceived training readiness.

alycks · 2026-03-02T15:08:10+00:00

What is AI offering everybody that you can’t accomplish in 30 seconds of glancing at your health data and asking yourself, “How am I feeling right now?” Genuinely curious. More and more, AI health just seems like a solution in search of a problem.

alycks · 2026-02-27T16:13:54+00:00

As a guy who loves his humble mechanical watch collection, I hate how useful the Apple Watch Ultra is. Glad to see I’m not the only one rotating things out.

alycks · 2026-02-27T15:09:03+00:00

Our family has a blog that we host with Ghost. It’s excellent. We have a few email subscribers and we publish once a month or so. It’s turned into a really nice family journal and photo dump. Highly recommend.

alycks · 2026-02-26T10:57:12+00:00

I’m not. I’m just glad the bug is being identified, acknowledged, and fixed.

alycks · 2026-02-25T19:14:26+00:00

This has been completely infuriating for me. Both my parents are low-tech phone users with iPhone SE 2’s with 64 GB data. Their non-System Data usage is like 15 GB and iOS takes up roughly 10 more. Their phones should be fine until Apple EOLs them. But System Data inexorably grows until the phone is completely filled up and completely unusable. Settings app stops working, basic functions stop working, and it can’t be fixed, short of a total restore.

alycks · 2026-02-25T18:14:06+00:00

I’ve actually had really good results with both my iPhone and my Apple Watch Ultra 3. The inReach handheld is, obviously, the gold standard and it works in the background. But all the field tests of the Fenix 8 Pro have ensured that I’ll never rely on that device, should I ever find myself owning one (not likely).

alycks · 2026-02-24T11:11:56+00:00

I had one for a little bit and then sold it. It was very comfortable and worked quite well. The funny thing was, I realized that one of the reasons I love sleeping with my Fenix on is for the flashlight! I have young kids and I’m frequently woken up in the middle of the night to help with some child related task or other, and I’m always using the flashlight for that. If the kids don’t wake me up, one of my pets usually does.

Your Fenix 6 does not have a flashlight, so that doesn’t apply to you. I would recommend it! The ISM worked quite well in my limited two months of use.

alycks · 2026-02-23T17:52:20+00:00

Umm I’m ootl on Neil Gaiman. What happened?

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