Running

[Skinypupy]

That’s awesome.

[Baroquen]

Gracious. I thought my 50 state thing was (overdone and) ambitious. Good luck with your around the world trek. Cool idea. I've logged about 12k in the last twelve years, but my yearly total has dropped from 1000+ to about 800some over each of the last three. So I'm closer than I thought but not sure I've got another 13k in me. I'll see what my totals look like after 50 states.

I'm not a virtual race fan, but that LOTR program tempts me every time it gets mentioned!

Two weeks until Kansas. Ran 15 on the treadmill today watching football. Generally feeling good. /fingers-crossed

[Kurth]

Gracious. I thought my 50 state thing was (overdone and) ambitious. Good luck with your around the world trek. Cool idea. I've logged about 12k in the last twelve years, but my yearly total has dropped from 1000+ to about 800some over each of the last three. So I'm closer than I thought but not sure I've got another 13k in me. I'll see what my totals look like after 50 states.

I'm not a virtual race fan, but that LOTR program tempts me every time it gets mentioned!

Two weeks until Kansas. Ran 15 on the treadmill today watching football. Generally feeling good. /fingers-crossed

(1) That LotR program tempts me too. I may do it.
(2) Watching football on the treadmill has revolutionized my running.
(3) Good luck in Kansas! Your 50 state thing is fucking amazing! Cheering you on.

[Zaxxon]

You're both nuts. Good luck!

[YellowKing]

I'm a big fan of Zombies, Run and have used it off and on over the years. They just released Marvel MOVE, which is essentially the superhero version. The stories are all written by actual Marvel writers and the production value of Zombies, Run has always been very high, so I'm expecting good things.

It's pricier than Zombies, Run at $7.99/mo (or $75 a year), but they have a 7 day free trial so I'm going to give it a go tonight. Starting off with the Thor/Loki 5K Training Program. I'll let you all know how it is.

[coopasonic]

Zombies, Run was probably my favorite running experience. Sorry Zaxxon, 36 hours in a van with a bunch of runners just doesn't really match up.

[YellowKing]

I did the first episode of the 5K training and it's about what you would expect if you've done Zombies, Run before. Except your fitness instructor reluctantly reveals she's an Asgardian warrior when Earth is invaded.

Excellent audio, great performances, and they tied the interval run/walks in with a story reason you're doing it which is always cool.

I wouldn't say it's breaking any new ground, really, but if you're a Marvel fan and you're burned out on zombies it's a nice change of pace (pun intended).

I'll probably at least sub for a couple of months to finish off the 5K program, then decide whether I want to keep going.

[Zaxxon]

Zombies, Run was probably my favorite running experience. Sorry Zaxxon, 36 hours in a van with a bunch of runners just doesn't really match up.

We rate just below night terrors and the apocalypse. Got it.

[Skinypupy]

I tried a couple of the narrated run apps, but didn't really enjoy them much. One was a zombie theme, the other was some sort of high-fantasy thing (I was being chased by goblins iirc). I found the narration to be more annoying than motivating or helpful. Besides, my morning runs are the one time during the day when I get to listen to 30 minutes of music uninterrupted, which is a big deal for me.

The LotR virtual runs track your progress on a virtual map with each run to see where you are in Middle Earth, but there's no narration or anything while you're actually running. Makes it a much better option for me.

[GreenGoo]

I think this idea is incredibly fascinating.

Do they have visuals as well or is it pure audio? When I'm on the street I have an audiobook running in my ear, but when on the recumbent bike I watch various tv shows or movies.

edit: To be clear, I'm not doing these things *now* . But when I was exercising more often, I did this.

[YellowKing]

It's pure audio. So it's a bit like listening to an audio book but with sound effects and the narration tends to put you in the middle of the action.

For example, in Zombies, Run you're Runner 5, an apocalypse survivor who goes on supply runs for the base. So the actors are speaking directly to you as if you're part of the story and tying the narrative into your run. Zombies, Run was fun because randomly zombies would appear and start chasing you and you had to actually speed up your pace for a minute (as calculated by the app) or they would "catch" you and you would lose supplies.

At the end of the run any supplies you collected (you would "pick up" supplies randomly along the way) could be used in a base building mini-game to add new buildings, ugprade existing buildings, etc. Marvel Move seems to have something similar (at least I was picking up random supplies), but I don't know what the base building looks like for it yet.

I'm really bad at self-motivation in terms of exercise, so it helps me to have something to "game-ify" it. I need someone in my ear telling me when to run, when to walk, when to speed up, and when to slow down. I like the structure of the narrative apps as when I finish the run I feel like I "completed" something and looking forward to the next part of the story gets me motivated for the next run.

[GreenGoo]

This is all brilliant and I would love to see what they have in place as the ideas mature and skilled game designers get involved.

If it's cool now, imagine what a few years of development might mean.

[coopasonic]

This is all brilliant and I would love to see what they have in place as the ideas mature and skilled game designers get involved.

If it's cool now, imagine what a few years of development might mean.

Zombies, Run is already ancient in tech terms.

- The Zombies, Run! app has been released to the AppStore for iOS (Android version coming soon). At $7.99 it's a little pricey, but I'll probably bite the bullet and try it out. For those who haven't been following its progress, it's an interactive story/game that plays out while you run. You can use your own music tracks, and then elements of the story will pipe in from time to time. You also earn progress in missions that can then be played out online. One interesting feature I liked was interval training with zombies, in which you have to pick up your pace to outrun the audio cues of a zombie horde coming up behind you.

[GreenGoo]

Zombies, Run is already ancient in tech terms.

Sure, but others will do it better eventually. See Peloton. Admittedly I would have thought 11 years would be enough for major innovation.

[EvilHomer3k]

Zombies, Run is already ancient in tech terms.

Sure, but others will do it better eventually. See Peloton. Admittedly I would have thought 11 years would be enough for major innovation.

I think if they were going to, they would have. It's been around for like 10 years or so. Just checked. It was released in 2012. It's a fine app but just not that popular. I think most people are quite happy just listening to their own playlist.

[YellowKing]

Not sure I'd call it not that popular considering it's got 10 million users and even successfully Kickstarted a board game.

I will say that it's geared more towards casual runners who need the extra motivation/distraction. Even though they do have 10K and even marathon training plans, I think it's safe to say that most of their content is geared towards people doing quick 20-40 minute runs.

I still enjoy it, I think anything that helps people get off the couch and move is a good thing.

[Baroquen]

Successfully completed the Prairie Fire Marathon in Wichita, KS over the weekend.

Travel out and back was relatively smooth. (Some irritation with Southwest but relatively minor). Hotel room was fine and staff was very friendly/helpful. (I stumbled on the hotel shuttle at the airport; another guest had called for a ride, and he let me ride along saving me cab fare. A nice surprise). Restaurants had tasty food. The hotel restaurant barkeep was extremely knowledgeable about college/pro football so that was a fun conversation.

The race itself also went well. Weather was perfect; neither too cold at the start, nor too hot at the finish. Lots of shade along the course too. It was a two lap course and I hadn't run one of those since Delaware in 2013. I enjoyed that aspect. I knew what to expect for the second half of the race. The course was flat too, which was nice. The elevation map indicated a rise in miles 3-4. But I asked a local at the expo and he said it was very mild and only the locals complain about it. (After running the course, I agree with him!).

I finished in 4:35:19 which was about 45 mins better than my previous race. (That only shows how badly my previous run was when I fell and scraped up my knee in mile one and all my legs muscles seized/cramped in mile 17 leading to an extremely slow finish). 4 and 1/2 hours is much closer to my norm these days. I wish I had been able to get under 4:30 but more importantly I felt good and was run/walking even at the end. I didn't really get tired until mile 19 and as I was realizing it, I was disappointed. I felt like my training had let me down and I had 6-7 miles left to run while tired. Then it hit me - I was hitting 'the wall'. I'm so dumb. But was glad to realize it was that normal phase of the race, and not my energy completely running out. The rest of the race went pretty well.

Expo after was small, but nice. Medal and shirt were average. The weirdest thing out of the entire weekend was the street racing. At least that what I'm assuming I heard from my hotel room during all hours. Some of the loudest engines revving that I may have ever heard, over and over and over again. I don't know if it's a Kansas thing, or just a weird acoustic trick from where my room was located. But it was unusual and annoying.

So state 28 (and race #30) is in the books. I'm encouraged after this positive experience. Next up is probably some Texas race in Jan/Feb. Then finding something for the spring. Yearly mileage is at 575. I'm guessing I get up to somewhere in the 800s which has been the norm over the last few years.

[EvilHomer3k]

Congratulations on the marathon!
I have no idea on the street racing. Probably just kids being idiots.

[Zaxxon]

Awesome job!

[Skinypupy]

Congrats!!

Anyone here use Runkeeper? If so, have you had any issues this week with runs not syncing on their end? It tracks the run, but hasn't synced my last three runs and added it to my weekly/monthly/yearly totals.

I got an email from their tech support last night saying that it's a known issue that they're working on, but it's been broken for three days now. That seems like a really long time to have the primary functionality of your app broken...curious if it's just mine or everyones.

[EvilHomer3k]

We ran in the Des Moines Marathon this week on a relay team. I've run half marathons and some fairly big races but this one was different. It was the first marathon we've done that was in a city. All of our other long runs have been in small towns on a trail or from town to town. It was well set up and there were lots of volunteers. None of us had ever done a relay marathon before so we weren't sure where to go or what to do. They had a PDF map of the dropoffs but didn't have the locations marked with streets. Thankfully the driver was from Des Moines so he knew where they should be. The race was all over Des Moines so we had trouble getting to the exchange area. Every time we'd try going down a road it was blocked for the marathon. Eventually, we just parked and walked about a mile to the exchange area. After that we kind of figured out that it was better to drive well away from the race course and then come back rather than trying to get there through a more direct route. I ran the 3rd leg and I was about 4 miles in (of 6) before they got to the next exchange point. If I was a little faster or if they'd had to walk a mile like our first one I probably could have beaten them. The next two were pretty quick to get to and there was no trouble getting around the race. We did spend a lot of time standing and walking just trying to get to our exchange areas. I think the driver ended up walking about 4 miles just for the dropoffs. Overall, there was a lot of walking and I

In most races I've run you kind of spread out and end up running with people who are about the same speed as you are. I ran the third leg and the two runners on our team before me are a fair amount slower than I am. By the time it was my turn to run the marathoners had already run 11 miles so when I ran on fresh legs with people who run at a slower pace I was passing people the entire leg so you feel like a superstar runner. I do wish I'd have had more to eat, though. By the time it was my turn to run it had been 3 hours since I'd eaten and I generally don't eat much before a run as I get indigestion/acid reflux. So I hadn't eaten anything other than a granola bar and one of the trial size bars that was in our race bag and it was almost 11:00. After 4 miles there was a water station that had pretzels and gummies. I didn't notice they were in cups so when I saw the box of gummies I just grabbed a bag and dumped them in getting too many gummies and almost choking on them. I never imagined myself going out all sweaty and choking on fruit snacks but the thought came to mind in the moment. The leg I ran ended with two miles of wooded trails and was quite pretty. I finished running over a bridge on the trail and exchanged the race band with my wife who had the next 5ish miles. Thankfully I brought two long sleeved t-shirts and had given them to my wife to put in the car for the run. By the time I was done my shirt was soaked and I had to sit outside at the next stop waiting for my wife to finish her leg. Overall I wish I'd eaten more and brought an additional sweatshirt because it was cold and windy with only two t-shirts and no sun.

The last exchange point was about 3 blocks from the finish and everyone who ran the relay finishes as a group. It' was pretty neat to finish the race. While we were waiting we cheered for the marathoners (along with several other relay groups). I didn't have a desire to run a full marathon before and I still don't. I've done a few half marathons and I'm perfectly good with that. The medals were pretty nice and afterwards each person got two beers and a some food. Unfortunately, the food was cold grocery store pizza and some donut holes. We had plans to go out afterwards so it wasn't a big deal but if I'd run 26.2 miles I'd have been quite disappointed with grocery store deli pizza that was sitting out and cold. I am absolutely certain I would have devoured it though. We went to an irish pub near the race finish.

It was a fun race overall. For the most part things were well organized and it was a big race but not too big. If we do another I'll be better prepared. If you aren't up for a marathon a relay can be a lot of fun in the same environment. The Des Moines marathon is the only one I've done but I would do it again.

[Baroquen]

I've never done a relay, but I have routinely seen relay runners blast pass me like you described. It might be a nice change of pace sometime with some friends at a local race.

I was also interested in hearing your thoughts on the Des Moines event, as I have that pegged as my potential race for Iowa. Glad to hear it wasn't a total mess!

And sorry Skinypupy - I don't use Runkeeper so can't help. (I use Map My Run to bare-bones log my runs, and then transfer details to a spreadsheet).

[EvilHomer3k]

One thing I didn't like about the relay was that at the end I saw a couple relay team sort of swarm around a marathon runner. I felt bad for the marathon runner. I'm sure it's disheartening to have a group of runners run by you at the finish. We made sure to give the marathon runner a wide berth and cheer them on (we talked about it before our last runner got to us).

I think for the marathon, itself, it would be pretty good. It is a sanctioned race so you'll have to be there a day early (no same day packet pickup). It starts and ends downtown so there are lots of places to go afterward that are fairly close. We parked about a mile away but the driver who drove us parked a couple blocks away in a parking ramp. The race was on Sunday so you didn't have to worry about paying for parking. My only real complaints are the relay instructions and getting around (which is probably typical for marathons) and the crappy pizza for runners afterward (the donut holes and beer were good though).

There is also the Quad Cities Marathon. The Quad Cities are 4 cities with two being in Iowa and two in Illinois. I haven't been to that one but I have friends who have run the BIX which is a pretty popular race. It does start and end in Moline, IL but also goes through Davenport and Bettendorf Iowa. Not sure how that affects your 50 states though.

Des Moines also has a St Patrick's Day marathon. St Patrick's in Iowa isn't too bad. It's usually not very cold (well it doesn't feel cold since you've spent January and February running in 0 degree weather). But I can't say what that race is like as I've never done it. My assumption is that it follows a similar route though.

If you want to run a winter race there's the Triple D race. It goes from Dyersville to Dubuque along a rail trail. My wife did the half a few years ago. I did the bike. It's in February in Iowa so it's pretty dang cold.

There used to be a marathon in Cedar Rapids (CRANDIC) but they didn't do it this year and it sounds like there's no plan to try to run it again. Not enough volunteers and too much coordination.

[Skinypupy]

And sorry Skinypupy - I don't use Runkeeper so can't help. (I use Map My Run to bare-bones log my runs, and then transfer details to a spreadsheet).

After a week, it just randomly decided to go back to normal, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sounds like a cool run EvilHomer. I've never done an actual race (nor am I ever likely to) and the logistics of it all are fascinating to me.

[Baroquen]

Personally, Relay runners don't bother me when I'm slogging through a marathon. It's pretty obvious who running which race, and I don't begrudge them speeding past me. It's all part of the game and everybody shooting for their own goals. But I can imagine it really bothering some runners.

And thanks for the Iowa events overview. I'll have to keep those options in mind for the future.

Glad to hear Runkeeper fixed itself. My favorite running app was from way back in the day called Cardio Trainer. It was several years before I realized it wasn't being supported anymore. Now all the apps keep pimping monthly subscriptions which is a pet peeve of mine. Hate that plus the paid benefits never interest me anyway.

[raydude]

I was incredibly lazy for most of 2023 and only got back into running in the fall. So my total for this year is 223 km, maybe 233 km if I add in the runs I intend to do the last week of the year. I'm resolving to do a lot better than this in 2024.

[JCC]

A mere 573 miles walked this year. I had metatarsalgia which required a walking boot and then said boot screwed up my knee. I see an ortho the first week of next year for that. I wasn't remotely disturbed about turning 50 this year, but man my body fell apart almost immediately afterwards. Hope I can get over this knee quickly and do better in 2024.

[LordMortis]

This a timely bump. In the last few weeks I've started interspersing 500 pace jogged steps on my walks and I've decided I'm going to start tracking them as measureables in the weight loss thread. My medium walk (was medium previous to getting hit, not it's my long walk) is about 5k and maybe one day I'll jog the whole thing. But for now, my short walk is about 2 miles and I trot (shorter faster steps than jogging) about 2500 to 3500 steps of the 6000 or so it takes to walk 2.2 miles. I'm not really a couch to 5K kind of guy, but I do hope to improve over time. Right now, I'm just trying to get my body readapting to the idea of being jarred for 500 steps at a time while taking the weight at the same time with a bit of warm up and cool down walking. My busted up arm also none too happy with the idea yet, though my hernia seems OK so far.

[Baroquen]

Looks like I'll finish the year at right around 700 miles. Lowest total since I started back in 2011. It is what it is.

[Jeff V]

Looks like I'll finish the year at right around 700 miles. Lowest total since I started back in 2011. It is what it is.

That is approximately 700 more than I ran this year. That's the shitty thing about my job -- if I had time for exercise, it's better spent working instead.

Nevertheless wife bought me Nike Air shoes for Xmas. I never owned shoes in that product line and gave up on Nike 11 years ago when I discovered Brooks was much better. She bought me new Brooks for my b-day earlier this year, and since I've not been running they are still in great shape, but she thinks they look "old." She questioned why I didn't wear the Nikes while working today, I told her I was saving them for when we go out since they certainly won't look "old."

[LordMortis]

After a month or so of light jogging, I might have to wait until I get better shoes, which was already in the plan, right around the corner... I knew it was a mistake to write down a commitment before doing so. The padding on my left foot behind my right middle toe suddenly felt severely bruised. I now have to walk with padded socks and thick rubber soled shoes not be in pain just to get my 10,000 steps in and I walk fairly gingerly to do that. Not sure if I will continue to pursue my goal until this pain goes away or not.

[Skinypupy]

In early November, I was on track to easily break last year’s record of 500 miles on the year. Unfortunately, I pulled a groin muscle which knocked me out of commission for nearly a month, and now I’ll come up just short at 490 miles. I did run nearly the exact same number of times as last year (200), but ended up with very slightly less miles. Oh well.

For the new year, I’m going to try and be less frustrated by my slowing pace (9:37/mile average this year vs 9:34/mile last year) and instead just focus on remaining consistent on how often I get out there and run. Realizing that as I approach 50 next year, I’m not going to be setting any new records and at this point it’s all about simply getting some exercise.

[Baroquen]

I still struggle reconciling my slower times. I understand it's age, and it's been over a decade since I had my PRs. But I still feel like if I trained more, I could do better. And then real life intrudes. And I only have so much time I wish to devote to running endlessly.

I ended up with 725 for 2023. Lowest total for me since my first year running 2011. And it would be significantly lower if I hadn't done a running streak in July. Good news is that it should be easy to beat for 2024.

Speaking of 2024 plans - I think I'm going to be running a Colorado marathon this summer. Don't we have a block of Colorado/Denver people on the board? I could use some general advice on the area for planning the trip. (Maybe I should post this plea for help in a more widely read thread?)

[coopasonic]

To make you all feel better, my running total for 2023 was 1. I ran a mile race against my 8th grade son and he beat me pretty soundly. Good news, my time was less than double my PR. If you are less than 4 minutes off your PR you are still doing pretty good. 16 year old me was pretty fast.

[EvilHomer3k]

My running was cut short due to tearing my meniscus. Just a few weeks after the marathon relay I was running with my wife on a trail. Just as we were finishing I looked back to see where she was and tripped over a root. Re-tore my meniscus and it's been messed up since then. It got better for a little while and then I shifted my knee and it got messed up again. I'm sure there's a flap that keeps getting pushed up. The other day I had to get my gloves out of the car and put my knee on the seat. When I went to get up I heard a pop and it was out again. Very frustrating. I have an appointment in a couple weeks (took over a month to get in) so hopefully they can do something. Can't walk or run without pain and sitting indian style is completely out. At least I can bike without too much trouble.

Anyway my running total was just 335 with only 3.1 miles in December and 10.4 in November.
Running: 335
Walking/Hiking: 821
Biking: 1590
Indoor Biking: 140 hours

Overall I'm hoping to get back to running next year but that depends on just how messed up my meniscus is. That and lose the 10+ pounds I gained in the last month.

[LordMortis]

For the first time I almost belong here. At the end of 2021 I made a commitment to walking with varying degrees of success over time. By the end of 2022, I renewed that commitment to walk 10,000 steps a day and stuck with it soon adding a calorie restriction to stop gaining weight in spite of my walking. Over time I had worked up to about a 5k walk at 9000 steps in 90 minutes. By March of 2023 I had that time down to a tiring 75 minute walk... and then I got hit while doing a longer walk and basically did a soft reset. It took until that winter to get back to 80 minutes and I was filled with too much anxiety, pain, tightness, and exhaustion. So I changed my route, did more indoor pacing to get my steps and decided to start jogging 100 steps at a time to speed my walks up. Today I did my original 5k walk, jogging 800 steps at a time. The total walk is down 8000 steps, of which I ran 4800, in a total of 55 minutes. I'm exhausted my arm is tight and in pain but that is by far my "best" walk three years.

I'm still a work in progress and I still need to make the effort to get fit for better shoes.

[YellowKing]

It's finally getting light enough in the evenings that I'm considering starting back up.

I was getting my walking in with my dog at lunch, but I got a longboard for Christmas and tried riding that while walking her. Well, she took to that like a fish to water - she LOVES pulling me on it. She's an Aussie mix so she's super high energy and when I ride the longboard she can actually run instead of staying at my pokey walking pace. Great exercise for her, less so for me.

I've been keeping up my cardio with my rowing, but without the evening runs I feel like I'm still only doing about half of what I should be doing.

[Jeff V]

In a few months, I get to file for early retirement. Depending on what the tax lady's punchline on the Uber thing shakes out this year, I might be working less. For the past 20 months, I've rarely had a chance to take the dog for a walk. Wife texted me last night that she was feeling shitty and wanted to go for a hike today. I pretty much took 2 hours out of my workday to be home at noon, which was when she would have had enough sleep and before she needs to leave for work at 1 pm.

She asked me to get gas for her car instead.

Yesterday I gave a ride to a guy who was giving up his long-haul trucking career for one in medical transport. He said the change will allow him to get back to the gym and workout again. I told him how doing Uber hasn't been conducive to it and he affirmed what I already know, I really need to give it up or defer to exercise and not work.

There is a Planet Fatness across the parking lot from my son's taekwondo. It's cheap, and I could do 40 minutes there every weekday while my son is in class.

[Skinypupy]

2024's running has gotten off to a rough start. Stupid pulled groin kept me out for another week and change after New Years (still dealing with it...will be doing an MRI soon to find out the severity and figure out how to treat it). It still hurts, but I'm trying to run through it because I need the exercise.

Then it snowed for a week straight.

Then I went on the metal cruise for a week.

Then I came home from that with a horrific head cold that took a week to shake.

All told, I've run a grand total of 10 times since Jan 1, and all of those have been more of a very slow plod than an decent run.

Blech.

[Baroquen]

My start to 2024 has been the norm in recent years. Unfortunately. I did the Texas marathon in mid-January. Run rarely since then. Maybe 10 runs or so in the subsequent weeks. Hopefully now that changes as I've signed up for my next state marathon (Kentucky) for April. If I want to do well, and be satisfied with my run, I'm going to HAVE to get a move on.

Looking to possibly squeeze in North Dakota in early June. That would leave me with 19 states remaining. Woo hoo?