A Peek at Norwescon Through Apple Watch Data

Just for fun, here’s a little peek at going to (and being rather heavily involved in the production of) Norwescon as recorded by my Apple Watch.

For each graph, I’ve set it to display a month’s worth of data to make the variations nice and visible.

Overall Activity

An actvity graph showing fairly consistent movement, exercise, and standing trends for most of the month, nearly doubling for the past four days.

My standard goal for a day is 400 calories burned through movement. Most days I at least get close, many I go slightly over. I more than doubled that goal for each of the four days of con.

My exercise goal is 30 minutes, which, admittedly, I haven’t been regularly reaching for quite some time (though that’s something I intend to work on now that the weather is improving again). Hit that easily all weekend without even trying, and more than doubled it on one day.

My stand goal of 12 hours is one I usually hit pretty easily, but though not as visible, there is an increase here as well.

Flights Climbed

A graph of flights climbed over the past month, showing regular spikes on Sundays, dwarfed by the jump over the past four days, with the highest day reaching about 37 stories climbed.

I live in a three-story condo, so I do get a few flights of stairs climbed every day, and walking around the college campus where I work, which is on a hill and where I do intentionally take stairs fairly often, helps. But at Norwescon, I get a room on the third floor of the tower, and as the elevators are often quite busy and I’m still fairly able-bodied, it’s usually faster and easier to take the stairs. Looks like I hit about 37 flights climbed on Friday this year!

Sleep

A graph showing very regular sleep trends until this past weekend, when there is a sudden shift to much later bedtimes and slightly later wake up times.

Most of the time, my wife and I are on a pretty set schedule. Since we both work a pretty regular 8-5 schedule, we get up between 4:30 and 5 a.m., go to bed at 8 p.m., and turn out the lights at 9 p.m. (I joke sometimes at how disappointed 20-something me would be at 50-year-old me…but 20-something me was working swing shifts during the week and DJing dance clubs on the weekend, so it’s not really a fair comparison). At con, though? Somewhere between 2 and 3 a.m. to bed, and though my body tried to keep my 5 a.m. schedule in the mornings, I’d stubbornly doze as long as I could. Most days I hit my goal of a minimum of 5 hours of sleep, supplemented by one or two naps during the day (without which I would not be able to function).

Steps

A step graph for the past month, usually around 5,000 steps per day, but hitting between 11,000 and 17,000 steps for each of the past four days.

I’m not particularly sedentary (most days), usually getting around 5,000 steps per day. Could certainly be more, but it’s okay. And then suddenly I’m getting a minimum of more than 10,000 steps, peaking at somewhere above 17,000 steps (and that was on Wednesday, as I was packing, arriving, moving in, and then helping with setup). Norwescon weekend is a pretty constant “go” weekend, and I’m always on the move.

So there’s a bit of a data-driven look at the past four days. I’m definitely ready to rest now, but I’m also looking forward to doing it all over again next year. :)

Year 50 Day 324

Me walking on the school’s sports track, wearing a hoodie and hat, and with AirPods visible in my ears.

Day 324: It’s a week before con, and I have only 10 messages in my con email inbox, half of which are song requests just waiting for me to have a chance to find the songs. I’m either doing things very right or very wrong.

Year 50 Day 323

Me, wearing black t-shirt and hoodie, in a hallway at home, smiling.

Day 323: Got my “don’t forget you’re checking in for Norwescon in a week” email from the hotel today…not that I’d forgotten. It’s officially one week from con! (At least, it is if you’re one of the people who show up on Wednesday.)

Year 50 Day 165

Me, wearing a Jack Skellington t-shirt and black facemask, standing in a hotel meeting room with a number of other people sitting at tables and chatting with each other behind me.

Day 165: Today was this month’s Norwescon planning meeting. Our theme for the meeting was Halloween, so I wore my Jack Skellington shirt, while other people had pointed witch’s hats, Pikachu onesies, a corn costume, an Alf mask, and probably other things that I missed or aren’t remembering. Lots of good progress being made — but lots to do over the next few months as well!

Year 50 Day 130

Me, wearing a black cap, mask, and t-shirt with the Norwescon logo in green, in a hotel conference room with other people sitting around a number of round tables.

Day 130: Today was the first ConCom (Convention Committee) planning meeting for Norwescon 46. It was good to get back into the planning mode with this group of friends, and I feel like we’re off to a good start. Once again, it looks like my job lineup this year is webmaster, social media manager, Philip K. Dick Award coordinator, and Thursday night DJ. Just six and a half months to get everything planned and ready to go!