Official Strava/Runkeeper Thread

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Icy

Btw, i started to use today Ismoothrun ($5) and it's a really nice app for running.

It has all that runkeeper does, even posts to your runkeeper account if you set it up, but it has way better tools to create your own routines, series, etc.

I find it really good to motivate yourself if you setup the audio cues, besides of just distance, speed etc every X distance or minutes as runkeeper does, it also can tell you if you are running too fast or too slow to reach the time you have setup for that distance, or if you are using a hrm, will tell you if you are over or under your target hear rate zone. It also tells you how many seconds you are ahead or behind the setup time for the distance, and you can even setup a metronome to help with your rhythm.

You can also setup a race against yourself with the ghost mode (takes in account the time you used for that same route).

It helped me a lot today on my goal to lower my average time in the 6k, as it was pushing me with the audio cues when i lowered my pace and when i was told i was 25 seconds under the time i had set for those 6km, it motivated me to keep the pace and even accelerate.

The stats are also more deep, like your average distance per step, and even some fun stuff like telling you which song where you listening when you did your best mile/km.

The export to runkeeper feature worked perfectly, the activity i did this morning is now visible with all details, route and stats in the runkeeper website.

One app to rule them all. One app...




Seriously...wow. I was doing some more research on GPS accuracy with the iPhone and started to run across review after review of iSmoothRun that raved about it. I bought it early this morning. Recorded my calisthenics/core workout with it this morning, and just did a run with it. Based on what I read, I didn't bother turning off wifi or cellular. The GPS said 5.01. iSmoothRun said 5.07. I'll take that.

And yeah, better audio cues than RunKeeper or Polar Beat (which had been my top two for audio.) Crazy easy automated export to Strava, Runkeeper, MapMyRun, Nike+, and more. (Just hit "save and export" when the run is over, and it's there.)

Subby, as far as the teams, is that just something informal, or is there a place at Strava where it's being measured?

[Subby]

Just informal. I'll kep track of it in this thread, although you will see when folks get there badges on Strava.

[AnalBumCover]

Icy should be placed on Team A

[kingfc22]

I'm going to have to get a decent run in tomorrow as I will have very little time next week due to work levels.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

One app to rule them all. One app...




Seriously...wow. I was doing some more research on GPS accuracy with the iPhone and started to run across review after review of iSmoothRun that raved about it. I bought it early this morning. Recorded my calisthenics/core workout with it this morning, and just did a run with it. Based on what I read, I didn't bother turning off wifi or cellular. The GPS said 5.01. iSmoothRun said 5.07. I'll take that.

And yeah, better audio cues than RunKeeper or Polar Beat (which had been my top two for audio.) Crazy easy automated export to Strava, Runkeeper, MapMyRun, Nike+, and more. (Just hit "save and export" when the run is over, and it's there.)

Subby, as far as the teams, is that just something informal, or is there a place at Strava where it's being measured?

Yeah i love the app, i just use it for running and set it to auto export to runkeeper and strava.

The audio cues are helping me a lot to keep my rhythm. I set the distance i want to run and the time it should take me, and as stupid as it sounds, the voice telling me to run faster when i slow down motivates me a lot.

As far as my personal goals, I set one months ago when i started running again about running 10k before May 15th, my top distance so far is 8k, will repeat 8k tomorrow Sunday, then next week a fast 4k, medium 6k and an slow 10k before the 15th to beat it.

I'm pretty confident i can make it running slow, at 7min per k, so 77min total, that is a bad time but something i have not done since i was 18... almost 20 years ago.

Then the next goal will be for a few months, to run those 10k in under 55 min, starting to train with intervals, and maybe will set a long term goal (1 year) to end a half marathon.

After the struggling first months of pain in my knees (i'm still 10 pounds overweight), being sore and so tired, etc, I'm so addicted now, to the point that when i have nothing to do i enjoy planning my next week of runs etc. the pain is gone, and i have no soreness the next day so i'm also thinking on running 4 or 5 times per week instead of my current 3.

[Northwood_DK]

I joined the Strava club.

[lighthousekeeper]

i can't figure out how to export runkeeper results to strava. any tips?

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

i can't figure out how to export runkeeper results to strava. any tips?

You can export your runkeeper results and then import the files into Strava. You may need to manually change the results to "Run" or "Cycle".

http://support.runkeeper.com/entries...RunKeeper-data

[AnalBumCover]

On each of the activities, look for "advanced options" or something like that. Then select GPX to export the file. From there go to Strava.com and import manually.

[kingfc22]

Going to give ismoothrun a go this morning.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

On each of the activities, look for "advanced options" or something like that. Then select GPX to export the file. From there go to Strava.com and import manually.

thanks - this worked.

[Ryan S]

I pity everyone in my team. The weather here has been shocking, so no outdoor running for me so far in May. I am not sure if I am going to get a chance to get outside until late this week.

[Alan T]

No big worries Ryan. This is all for fun and encouraging everyone to run. I ran all winter in gross weather so just now getting to enjoy some nice temperatures to run in.

[Draft Dodger]

I'm in

[Ben E Lou]

Now that I've got iSmoothRun set up my walks (not common..maybe once a week at most) and my weightlifting (3 days a week) are going to show up on Strava. Hope that's not too much...

[lighthousekeeper]

Holy Norwegian ringer! Top international free agent. Bidding war will ensue.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

Holy Norwegian ringer! Top international free agent. Bidding war will ensue.

What a monster. 40K already!

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

You can export your runkeeper results and then import the files into Strava. You may need to manually change the results to "Run" or "Cycle".

http://support.runkeeper.com/entries...RunKeeper-data

I didn't realize until a few minutes ago that this meant that you could export *all* of your RunKeeper data in one shot. I went in there a few minutes ago just to try to grab my runs for the last couple of weeks to populate Strava and iSmoothRun and was pleasantly surprised to learn that you can pick a date range, export 'em all, then do mass imports. (Strava limits it to 50 at a time; iSmoothRun imported all of them in one shot.) So now that I can use the One App To Rule Them All to auto-export everything to all of the apps moving forward, I guess I'm fully in with Strava. The funny thing is that now that I'm using iSmoothRun, I'll upgrade to Strava Premium to get the extra stats, too.

Oh, and I'm sure you all are *SHOCKED* that I'm a sucker for MOR STATS... *shurg*

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Oh, and I'm sure you all are *SHOCKED* that I'm a sucker for MOR STATS... *shurg*

That is one of the things that my wife just doesn't get about me. I use all of these different apps because they all present different stats in different ways. After my race yesterday, I looked at the same run on like 5 different pages. She just thinks I am nuts.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Alan T

That is one of the things that my wife just doesn't get about me. I use all of these different apps because they all present different stats in different ways. After my race yesterday, I looked at the same run on like 5 different pages. She just thinks I am nuts.

Lol i'm the same, I'm also about to upgrade to pro in strava, also ordering a heart rate monitor for extra tracking.

I know it's way too much for a beginner but those tech things make it more fun for me and at the end it means extra motivation.

[digamma]

Get well soon Subby!

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by digamma

Get well soon Subby!

indeed

[Alan T]

[Ben E Lou]

Ouch!!!

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Alan T

This

[AnalBumCover]

Sucks. Get well soon.

[Icy]

Just received today a Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor that connects to the iphone by Bluetooth.

Today i want to run a 30 minutes easy recover routine as i'm still sore from the 8k ran on Sunday, when i lowered my best time by 1:42 minutes.

My problem lately is that i'm over enthusiastic and the easy days are not as easy as they should, and even if i start slow, i end sprinting towards the end and trying to beat my best time for that distance.

With the HRM i want to control my effort level, to never go over the zone i have set for that run (zone 2 for example for the easy recovery run).

Let's see how it goes.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Icy

My problem lately is that i'm over enthusiastic and the easy days are not as easy as they should, and even if i start slow, i end sprinting towards the end and trying to beat my best time for that distance.

I've had that problem alot myself. Especially when going for longer runs, I'll see that I'm less than 10 minutes away from a good 10k time for myself and completely exhaust myself in the last mile.

[Fidatelo]

Only 2 runs in the first week of May Massive, and it's not going to get better soon given the 4-day trip to Minneapolis starting Thursday. Sorry Team B!

[Icy]

Very very good website to learn about running, setup training plans and goals, lose weight, avoid injuries etc.

Most of it can be found just surfing around running sites, forums etc but this s the best i have found to have it all together in the "book". Also helps with forms and tables to do the calculations for you.

The Book: Running for Fitness | Running for Fitness

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

First Crack...

Team A

Chris Shue
Mc Lean, VA

Ben Lewis
Goose Creek, SC

Richard Dixon
Wake Forest, NC

Stephen Venable
Los Angeles, CA

Jason Wood
Pitman, New Jersey

Team B

Rob Ordona
Anaheim, CA

Alan Baker
Grafton, MA

Ryan Stevenson
Ayr, Scotland, United Kingdom

Dave Harris
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

David Gonzalez
Fremont, CA

Doug Timms
West Windsor Township, NJ

We need to get Northwood_DK and Icy in to this as well. , any objections from anyone if we add Northwood_DK to Team A, and Icy to Team B?

With the current teams and those two additions it would give both teams currently a tie at 40k points. Plus with Northwood_DK going crazy with running, it gives me good motivation to try to meet my goal of 110 miles this month and getting all four badges

[DanGarion]

I kicked my ass today trying to do 8 1 min intervals. I'm still not at all in any shape other than round, but I'm feeling good when I'm done. Feet are a bit sore, but that is bound to happen especially with all my weight. A couple things I've been happy about is that neither of my ankles (which have both nearly been broken as recently as 1 1/2 years ago) have shown any signs of weakness. They have both held up well, especially the left one which is the one that I'm most worried about. The weight really hasn't started to come off yet, but my health is definitely improving and I can tell an overall difference with how I'm feeling with just the 2 weeks of running and walking I've been doing.

I've set myself up with a goal of running 30 miles this month, I feel it's obtainable, already hit a 3 mile run a couple days ago and every time I'm running I'm hitting personal bests in all the split distances.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

I kicked my ass today trying to do 8 1 min intervals. I'm still not at all in any shape other than round, but I'm feeling good when I'm done. Feet are a bit sore, but that is bound to happen especially with all my weight. A couple things I've been happy about is that neither of my ankles (which have both nearly been broken as recently as 1 1/2 years ago) have shown any signs of weakness. They have both held up well, especially the left one which is the one that I'm most worried about. The weight really hasn't started to come off yet, but my health is definitely improving and I can tell an overall difference with how I'm feeling with just the 2 weeks of running and walking I've been doing.

I've set myself up with a goal of running 30 miles this month, I feel it's obtainable, already hit a 3 mile run a couple days ago and every time I'm running I'm hitting personal bests in all the split distances.

That's awesome Dan! I think you and I are taking similar paths, and I'm following along and rooting you on.

You're right on about showing immediate improvement in your overall health. About only 2 weeks into my running, I've noticed I'm walking with my head up high and a skip in my step.

Are you doing a C25K program?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

That's awesome Dan! I think you and I are taking similar paths, and I'm following along and rooting you on.

You're right on about showing immediate improvement in your overall health. About only 2 weeks into my running, I've noticed I'm walking with my head up high and a skip in my step.

Are you doing a C25K program?

That's what I'm attempting to do. I can do 5k already with a combination of walking and running at what I consider a fairly decent pace, especially for my size. BUT I'm looking to improve that and start working on more distance. Hoping to be able to do a sustained full 5k jog by the birth of my daughter. I've love to someday beat my real personal mile best which was 7 minutes and something about 20 years ago. I only have to cut my current mile time in half.

One thing I have noticed is that I'm thinking about running a lot now, like before I go to sleep I'm looking forward to my run the next day and wondering what milestones I can achieve. Of course once I woke up today my feet were sore and I had to get myself to go run, but it's a start!

[digamma]

Feet on the floor, out the door.

It's a mantra. Use it.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

That's what I'm attempting to do. I can do 5k already with a combination of walking and running at what I consider a fairly decent pace, especially for my size. BUT I'm looking to improve that and start working on more distance. Hoping to be able to do a sustained full 5k jog by the birth of my daughter. I've love to someday beat my real personal mile best which was 7 minutes and something about 20 years ago. I only have to cut my current mile time in half.

One thing I have noticed is that I'm thinking about running a lot now, like before I go to sleep I'm looking forward to my run the next day and wondering what milestones I can achieve. Of course once I woke up today my feet were sore and I had to get myself to go run, but it's a start!

You're doing great. All it takes is just more time out there on your feet. As you do more, it will become easier to do it.

[Subby]

Thanks everyone! So bummed I will miss out on the challenge. Keep up the good work. Added some bonus photos of my wreck...

[Icy]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

One thing I have noticed is that I'm thinking about running a lot now, like before I go to sleep I'm looking forward to my run the next day and wondering what milestones I can achieve. Of course once I woke up today my feet were sore and I had to get myself to go run, but it's a start!

That is the turning point.

The first couple of weeks are usually full of pain and soreness, specially if you are overweight as your joints suffer a lot.

Once you pass that, you start to become addicted. I'm also thinking a lot now about my next training season, working on spreadsheets, reading more about technique, etc.

My immediate goal is to run 10k, my max is 8k now and want to do it before the 15th, so it's just a week more until i attempt it.

Today i have an off day (i run 3 times per week now, want to upgrade to 4 soon) and i miss it a lot, but you also need to be careful to not to be over enthusiastic and train to much, as it can lead to injuries and that means time lost.

Btw, this thread and the Strava group is doing wonders for motivation.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by Icy

Today i have an off day (i run 3 times per week now, want to upgrade to 4 soon) and i miss it a lot, but you also need to be careful to not to be over enthusiastic and train to much, as it can lead to injuries and that means time lost.

That's how I feel with my rest day today. I had a poor run yesterday (you can read about it in my dynasty), and I just want to go back out there and redo the run just because I didn't want the workout to beat me. It kills me that it's my rest day, but I know my body has to recover.

[Alan T]

The way that I understand it, your gains are only as good as your ability to recover from your training. As icy said, if you overtrain or try to do too much too soon, not only do you not receive optimal results but you also increase your chance of injury.

I have been trying to slowly increase my weekly mileage by about 1/2 a mile approximately per week over the past few months, but this is also why a lot of training programs recommend for newer runners (including myself) to do the majority if not all of your miles at an easy pace or a pace that you could have a conversation at. Just by putting in more time your fitness level will improve and thus your speed and duration.

[AnalBumCover]

Team A is leading the May Massive with three 40K badges and one 80K
Team B has one 40K badge.

[Alan T]

It is still early! We have all month to run!

Today is my normal rest day but I am going for the 80k badge this weekend as long as I can fit runs in all of the weekend plans.

[AnalBumCover]

I'm on pace to reach 40k by Thursday next week.

[Northwood_DK]

What is the 4th badge?

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

Team A is leading the May Massive with three 40K badges and one 80K
Team B has one 40K badge.

i'm going on a week long vacation this month, so getting to 80k will be very tough.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Northwood_DK

What is the 4th badge?

The 4 are 40k, 80k, 120k, 160k

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Subby

Thanks everyone! So bummed I will miss out on the challenge. Keep up the good work. Added some bonus photos of my wreck...

Ouch that doesn't look good. Heal up and get back out there soon!

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Alan T

You're doing great. All it takes is just more time out there on your feet. As you do more, it will become easier to do it.

That's what I'm seeing. Thanks for the encouragement. I'm working on getting my bike repaired (it had a recall on it) so I can ride that inbetween running sessions as well.

Originally Posted by Icy

That is the turning point.

The first couple of weeks are usually full of pain and soreness, specially if you are overweight as your joints suffer a lot.

Once you pass that, you start to become addicted. I'm also thinking a lot now about my next training season, working on spreadsheets, reading more about technique, etc.

My immediate goal is to run 10k, my max is 8k now and want to do it before the 15th, so it's just a week more until i attempt it.

Today i have an off day (i run 3 times per week now, want to upgrade to 4 soon) and i miss it a lot, but you also need to be careful to not to be over enthusiastic and train to much, as it can lead to injuries and that means time lost.

Btw, this thread and the Strava group is doing wonders for motivation.

Fortunately I'm not having much pain, my body seems to be enjoying the pushing. I usually feel pretty good after the runs, in fact today I could have kept going, but my dog was spent after 3 miles.

I've done training like this before (years ago) so the last thing I want to do is get an injury that takes me out of the game for awhile, so I have been pushing myself but not to hard as I ramp up.

[AnalBumCover]

Costco is running a sale on the Garmin Forerunner 310XT for $199 with shipping.

Any opinions on this watch and its price?

[Alan T]

I don't have that watch, but it is the low end watch from farming for people interested in multiple sports (triathlon). I think more serious swimmer/biker/runners usually go with the 710 instead I think. The price seems ok, a hair lower than what I recall seeing it for, but I haven't really been looking for that model myself.


A great site for watch reviews is dc rainmaker blog. He does technical reviews of fitness technology such as watches all the time. Let me try to find a link to it to edit in to this post.