Official Strava/Runkeeper Thread

[Alan T]

I know there are a few "data junkies" like me that love looking at their runs in various ways. I stumbled across another site that is pretty cool. It will let you import gpx files or upload from watches etc, if you want. Or if like me you already sync to either garmin connect or nike+, you can set it up to auto-sync so you don't actually have to do any work (which I love).

It has a pretty cool presentation, badges, ranks, etc. So if you like that type of thing, check it out. I think the below link lets you check out my profile (or you may have to click the overview button)

http://smashrun.com/turlos/invite

[Alan T]

Dola,

This looks like it only takes your runs by the way and not other activities. (Biking/rowing/etc)

[Fidatelo]

I really enjoyed this cartoon: Why I Run Long Distances.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I know there are a few "data junkies" like me that love looking at their runs in various ways. I stumbled across another site that is pretty cool. It will let you import gpx files or upload from watches etc, if you want. Or if like me you already sync to either garmin connect or nike+, you can set it up to auto-sync so you don't actually have to do any work (which I love).

It has a pretty cool presentation, badges, ranks, etc. So if you like that type of thing, check it out. I think the below link lets you check out my profile (or you may have to click the overview button)

http://smashrun.com/turlos/invite

AS you've seen, I signed up. Really like the info presented on this one, the badges are funny too. It puts thing in perspective, comparing your runs one to another. For example, it told me that tonight's 8 km run was my best paced of my two 8 km runs I've done so far, quite faster than my previous one too...

FM

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

I really enjoyed this cartoon: Why I Run Long Distances.

Superlike!

[Alan T]

A new strava challenge is up.

8k as fast as you can between august 1st and august 7th. No maximum time limit for the run this time though, but your pace over the entire activity is counted, not just the fastest 8k. (almost 5 miles).


I have a 3 mile tempo run scheduled for my speed workout that week, with warmup and cooldown that would be 5 miles roughly for me. Guess I'll just do that for my run I suppose.. or maybe I'll warm up and then extend my tempo run to 8k instead of 5k.. who knows! Probably depends if it's still a million degrees outside that week or not.

[Alan T]

I'm trying desperately to break into the Master League in Fitleagues..

I just can't seem to sustain enough biking on top of my running schedule to get me there though. I will however knock off one of the achievements this weekend, with a planned trip to my sister's house in Quebec, I'll get my 5th state run in achievement for the 15 points from that. (Even though, technically I've already run in plenty more than 5 states, it only has counted the ones since I've joined I guess)

Edit: And yeah I noticed it counted Ontario as a "state" so I assume Quebec will count as well.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Alan T

A new strava challenge is up.

8k as fast as you can between august 1st and august 7th. No maximum time limit for the run this time though, but your pace over the entire activity is counted, not just the fastest 8k. (almost 5 miles).


I have a 3 mile tempo run scheduled for my speed workout that week, with warmup and cooldown that would be 5 miles roughly for me. Guess I'll just do that for my run I suppose.. or maybe I'll warm up and then extend my tempo run to 8k instead of 5k.. who knows! Probably depends if it's still a million degrees outside that week or not.

Heh. I've got my weekly 35-minute tempo run already scheduled for 8/6, and it increases to 40 minutes the next Tuesday. I might just go ahead and increase it a week early for this challenge.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I'm trying desperately to break into the Master League in Fitleagues..

I just can't seem to sustain enough biking on top of my running schedule to get me there though. I will however knock off one of the achievements this weekend, with a planned trip to my sister's house in Quebec, I'll get my 5th state run in achievement for the 15 points from that. (Even though, technically I've already run in plenty more than 5 states, it only has counted the ones since I've joined I guess)

Edit: And yeah I noticed it counted Ontario as a "state" so I assume Quebec will count as well.

Hah. I missed this apparently. I'm in now.

It's on.

[Ben E Lou]

So far, my long runs haven't felt particularly challenging, just....long. The upcoming week is a lighter one on my training plan, so I'm thinking I'll try to step it up a notch on tomorrow's scheduled 12-miler. The McMillan calculator has me at 9:41-10:57 for my long run pace, so I've been shooting for 10:20, basically right in the middle of that, for the last few weeks. I think I'm going to try to go at a 9:45 pace tomorrow.

[Alan T]

From what I understand since the long runs are in aerobic range, they aren't supposed to feel tough cardiovascularly. They help increase your aerobic threshold.

My only issues with long runs generally come from tired legs or leg strength issues. You do more strength workouts than me so you might not have some of the same issues on long runs that I do from an imbalance of muscle strength from non running muscles. For me when I get 9+ miles sometimes I start feeling itband issues but that's about it

[Ben E Lou]

Yeah, so far I haven't felt any leg issues at all on the long runs. Maybe you're right and it is the lower body strength training stuff. I have been doing lower body at least once a week, sometimes twice, for over 6 months now. Anyway, I'm open to slowing down, but I'm thinking I'll give 9:45 a try and see how that feels. With a lighter week coming up, it seems like the right time to maybe push myself a little.

[digamma]

Long runs are really about getting your body used to activity for that length of time. So for a half marathon, two hours of exercise.

When I was marathon training I typically ran my long runs about 45 seconds off race pace, which is slightly faster than most books suggest but very comfortable for me.

[Subby]

I think there is a pretty big mental component to long runs. Being mentally strong enough to push through barriers makes it a lot easier once you get to race day.

[Ben E Lou]

Heh. I need smaller shorts. Can't believe I'm down to a Large and that's too big. They started slipping down about halfway through the run. By mile 9 or so I had to either hold on to them or pull them up every 15 seconds or so. Slowed me down quite a bit there and just got frustrating. Maintained a 9:45 average for 9ish miles, though, and 9:55 overall, so ultimately I'm not complaining.

[Subby]

Looks like I am getting double credit during the Dirt Search. I have run 22.2 miles in July, but have credit for 71km.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

Looks like I am getting double credit during the Dirt Search. I have run 22.2 miles in July, but have credit for 71km.

Must be all of the EPO!

[Alan T]

I think one of my favorite non-useful parts of various running apps is when it compares my calories burnt to food that you can eat. My run yesterday for instance would be a half gallon of orange juice. Who drinks an entire half gallon of orange juice in one sitting?

Or my last week workouts in equivalence of chocolate:

Total calories burned

3888calories

Food equivalent

144 Dark Chocolate Coffee Beans, 23 Pieces of Lindt Connoisseur Chocolates, 12 Pieces of Godiva Chocolate Truffles, 4 Flipz Milk Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Anyone want to eat 144 Dark Chocolate Coffee Beans with me?

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Alan T

For those into the "social competition" aspect to help motivate you, check out Welcome | Fit Leagues

They basically have "seasons" where you compete against others for points based on your activities. The points you get appear to be primarily based on mileage (similar to the Strava challenges we have been doing).



They have API calls that can link to your runkeeper or strava accounts to automatically pull in your activities from there (Strava appears to be broken for them right now though due to changes in the strava API , so I guess only runkeeper connections work currently).

They place you in a league based on your average daily activity, for instance I was put into the Gold league once I resynced all of my old Runkeeper data, which is the top league where I currently am in 9th position.

In addition to their overall leagues, it has setup for custom leagues with your runkeeper friends, or you can set up a custom league all together (such as a FOFC league if desired).

Anyways, check it out if this type of thing interests you. Once you get it setup, doesn't require any extra effort every day from you to populate it if you're already using runkeeper.

Hey look - I am third overall in achievement points!

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

Hey look - I am third overall in achievement points!

You need to find 35 more to catch those ahead of you. I am guessing it is time to start hiking?

[FrogMan]

just received my Spibelt today, can't wait to try it on a run.

FM

[Kodos]

I think my ankle is finally healed enough to get back into this. Probably too late to get my 40k for the month in...

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

just received my Spibelt today, can't wait to try it on a run.

FM

couple of runs done with it and I LOVE it! Holds the iPhone with absolutely no bouncing that I can feel. Very neat little belt.

FM

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

couple of runs done with it and I LOVE it! Holds the iPhone with absolutely no bouncing that I can feel. Very neat little belt.

FM

That is what I wanted to know. I've been looking at one of these forever but was concerned that there would be too much movement. So no problems with things sliding around or bouncing or chafing or anything?

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

That is what I wanted to know. I've been looking at one of these forever but was concerned that there would be too much movement. So no problems with things sliding around or bouncing or chafing or anything?

as I said, so far no bouncing. Chafing, well I've only worn it on two runs of 8 and 5k so not sure if there was that much time for chafing to happen. I wear it low, really on the waistband of my short, under my shirt. One concern I might have though is if I'd have to carry a key with my iPhone. The belt is really just one pouch, so I'm thinking that the key could rub against the glass of the phone and scratch it. Might think about putting the key inside a paper towel or something...

FM

[Poli]

I signed up on strava today. Be gentle. I haven't run very much in the past 15 years, but I have knocked out 12 miles in the past two weeks.

I thought I'd have a run tomorrow morning, but my wife is working tonight which leaves me with the baby until I go to work. I guess I won't be running again until Saturday morning.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Poli

I signed up on strava today. Be gentle. I haven't run very much in the past 15 years, but I have knocked out 12 miles in the past two weeks.

I thought I'd have a run tomorrow morning, but my wife is working tonight which leaves me with the baby until I go to work. I guess I won't be running again until Saturday morning.

Awesome! Welcome! Glad to see you hopping on board.

[Radii]

Hopefully I'll be back out there in a few days. I'm still breaking my new orthotics, its taking a little longer than it should, mainly b/c I work from home and am not out all that often, so if I don't think about it, and if I don't manufacture a reason to go out (Monday I went to the mall and wandered around for 2 hours), I'm really not wearing my shoes as much as I'm supposed to to get used to them. Its definitely been a frustrating month!

[Alan T]

Haha, so my wife and I went to the sporting good store after dinner tonight just to look around (plus I wanted another pair of compression boxers to run in) and came out with a new collection of running shirts from under armour..






They had other various colors and styles.. but they are actual synthetic running shirt material.

I totally would have gotten one if they didn't cost $45 each.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Poli

I signed up on strava today. Be gentle. I haven't run very much in the past 15 years, but I have knocked out 12 miles in the past two weeks.

I thought I'd have a run tomorrow morning, but my wife is working tonight which leaves me with the baby until I go to work. I guess I won't be running again until Saturday morning.

that's great! welcome aboard!!!

FM

[hoopsguy]

Ran a 5k tonight, have another one on Saturday morning.

Shaved a minute off my times from two months ago. Assuming weather stays nice, I want to get greedy and see if I can take another 30 seconds off Monday and get down to 25 minutes.

Oh, and on Saturday I need to remember to hit the watch to "end run" when I cross the finish line ... not 9 minutes later after grabbing water, an apple, and chatting with a dozen co-workers

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Ran a 5k tonight, have another one on Saturday morning.

Shaved a minute off my times from two months ago. Assuming weather stays nice, I want to get greedy and see if I can take another 30 seconds off Monday and get down to 25 minutes.

Oh, and on Saturday I need to remember to hit the watch to "end run" when I cross the finish line ... not 9 minutes later after grabbing water, an apple, and chatting with a dozen co-workers

Haha, that's happened to me a few times, too. Whaddya mean it took 45 minutes to run that 5k?! Argh!

[Fidatelo]

Dola

On a personal note, I managed to give myself a massive blister last week playing Ultimate, which has kept me out of action for 7 days and counting. It is so bad that I've been hurting my ankle and my other foot because I'm walking in such an odd manner.

I won't be able to get any runs in over the weekend, so if I'm lucky my next run will be on Monday. But that assumes my blister heals up, which so far is not going well. Very frustrating to be put out so long by such a lame 'injury'.

[Poli]

First run in with strava. I almost jumped when the voice came in at a mile.

[Ben E Lou]

It's pretty nice to compare the speeds of my "easy" runs today to harder workouts a few months ago. Less than 3 months ago (4/30), a 30-minute run at 10:03 per mile yielded a 151 heart rate. Today I did 30 minutes at 9:35, and the heart rate was 141 despite warmer temperatures.

[kingfc22]

Getting back into it today after moving and then a week long vacation. Tried out a trail near our new place which seems like a good place to run. It has dirt, grass and pavement to run on with a decent amount of elevation changes.

[aston217]

I use RunKeeper, and I love it, but I have a serious gripe. Is there any way to simply make it not talk? I don't mind the time/distance cues, but I don't want it to announce 'activity started' or 'activity stopped.'

The worst part is if I turn the phone volume all the way off, RunKeeper will deign to see fit as to change the volume back to max for starting an activity.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by aston217

I use RunKeeper, and I love it, but I have a serious gripe. Is there any way to simply make it not talk? I don't mind the time/distance cues, but I don't want it to announce 'activity started' or 'activity stopped.'

The worst part is if I turn the phone volume all the way off, RunKeeper will deign to see fit as to change the volume back to max for starting an activity.

Settings > Audio Cues.

[AnalBumCover]

So I've been back from my trip to the Philippines. I didn't get much running out there except for that one really short one early on in my trip.

I can't wait to get back to the pavement, but I gave away my shoes to my BIL in the PI. I was due for a new pair anyways, so I'll likely be hitting up the store tonight or tomorrow to get fitted.

[Alan T]

My intervals this morning were completely backwards from the past few times I've done intervals. I was able to keep a 7:45mi/min pace for 1/2 a mile pretty consistently on all 6 attempts. But boy were my legs hating me for it, and really felt like my limiting factor instead of it being my cardio this time.

I think that tells me that all of the aerobic runs have been helping me improve greatly (as they reportedly should)... it also tells me that the fatigue from running 6 days a week for over a month is starting to tire me out a bit. (probably didn't help that I had a softball game last night too)

I think it also tells me that I need to stop being a wuss and stop skipping out on my strength and core exercises. I keep skipping them to do cycling or more running or whatever. Those are just as important though for me right now probably.

[Poli]

2.3 miles today that started in the rain. Got mixed up on my c25k and runkeeper apps but Strava was started on time.

[AnalBumCover]

My new kicks.



Time to break 'em in.

[Fidatelo]

Almost 2 weeks without any exercise now. Starting to feel pretty gross. Foot is finally starting to feel less tender, so I'm going to attempt to play Ultimate again tomorrow, but if it starts to feel sore I'm going to pull out immediately. Hopefully I can get a normal run in on Thursday if everything holds up.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Almost 2 weeks without any exercise now. Starting to feel pretty gross. Foot is finally starting to feel less tender, so I'm going to attempt to play Ultimate again tomorrow, but if it starts to feel sore I'm going to pull out immediately. Hopefully I can get a normal run in on Thursday if everything holds up.

Is this all from the blister or the ankle soreness as well?

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Is this all from the blister or the ankle soreness as well?

Just the blister, it was crazy deep. The ankle seems ok over the past few days as the pain from the blister has mostly subsided, allowing me to walk with a proper motion. If I didn't have Ultimate tomorrow I'd probably have run today, but I decided to give it one more day without any action before jamming it back in those cleats.

[Kodos]

Has anyone dealt with hip flexor issues before? I've been having a devil of a time with my hips (especially my left hip) tightening up after I've run. The tightness and pain usually takes several days to resolve. This morning, I found some stretches I can do to help. Hopefully they work. Any advice would be welcomed. I feel like my various hip\ankle issues have really been sidetracking my efforts.

Having pain in your hips while running. | runner unleashed

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Has anyone dealt with hip flexor issues before? I've been having a devil of a time with my hips (especially my left hip) tightening up after I've run. The tightness and pain usually takes several days to resolve. This morning, I found some stretches I can do to help. Hopefully they work. Any advice would be welcomed. I feel like my various hip\ankle issues have really been sidetracking my efforts.

Having pain in your hips while running. | runner unleashed

I haven't had hip flexor issues. Only hip issues I've had was from ITB, which is on the outsides. I've become a definite believer though in foam rolling anything that is sore. Looks like your link you posted also shows some foam roller exercises you can do. I bought my foam roller off of amazon for like $6 and it's helped me through numerous nagging sorenesses.

[Ben E Lou]

+1 on foam rolling. I absolutely love mine!

[Kodos]

Something like this?

http://www.amazon.com/SPRI-Super-Hig...f=pd_sbs_hpc_3

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Has anyone dealt with hip flexor issues before? I've been having a devil of a time with my hips (especially my left hip) tightening up after I've run. The tightness and pain usually takes several days to resolve. This morning, I found some stretches I can do to help. Hopefully they work. Any advice would be welcomed. I feel like my various hip\ankle issues have really been sidetracking my efforts.

Having pain in your hips while running. | runner unleashed

I strained one earlier this year during my rehab, and then tweaked it a bit more on a run a weeks or so later. Since I've specifically started stretching them, not had a problem (touch wood)