A while back I wrote about Couch to 5K, an iPhone app that helped me run–you guessed it–five kilometers. I’ve graduated to a new app, RunKeeper, and recorded a quick screencast about it (apologies for the mumbling):
One additional point I should have made in the video: this app really bleeds your iPhone battery. I’m told it’s because the GPS is making a query every second or two to determine your location, and that requires a lot of power.
I don’t like reading braggy, boastful blog posts. I know I’m as guilty of them as anybody else. But when I read somebody writing about their recent award, weight loss or awesome new job, and I’m sitting at home all awardless and fat, I feel the little green Kobolds of Envy and Jealousy whispering in my ear canal. It’s petty, I know, but what’re you going to do?
This is one of those blog posts.
Today I ran five kilometres for the first time in my life. I know that five kilometres isn’t very far–for most runners it’s trivial. My siblings are all long distance runners of one kind or another–just this morning my elder sister, bless her, ran her first half-marathon.
But you need to understand what an unlikely achievement this is. I was an indoor kid, and I always hated Phys Ed class. As I said recently:
Whenever we did any kind of long distance running, I would usually come third to last in the class. I’d beat the corpulent Chinese kid and an asthmatic Brit with skin the colour of fluorescent light.
My chief torturer in Phys Ed was one Wayne Desjardins, who owned every cliche a gym teacher could. Once, after executing a particularly awful flexed-arm hang, I cursed under my breath. He made me do push-ups on my birdlike arms while the rest of the class took their turns. We did these things in alphabetical order.
I’ve always hated all kinds of exercise, except for some competitive sports and the occasional hike. I especially despised running. I mentioned running to my step-mother recently and she just sighed and said, “ah, Darren, it’s a hateful thing”. Indeed.
A little over two months ago, I wrote aboutan iPhone app that helps you get off the couch and running five kilometres in nine weeks. I predicted it would take me 12 weeks, and I was right. I blame lethargy and busyness.
It’s All For Vanity
Do I still hate running? Pretty much, yeah. Though it has granted me 30 or 40 minutes of much-needed free thinking time during a particularly busy couple of months. So that’s a plus.
Will I keep running? I think so. Frankly, I’m motivated by vanity–I don’t want to get corpulent–so that’s unlikely to change any time soon.
How is it that Ms. Hayes isn’t world famous yet? She’s a great singer-songwriter and, as you’ve probably observed, rather easy on the eyes. See also the single from her new EP.
For you kids out there, ‘EP’ stands for ‘Extended Play’. Ironically, it’s shorter than a full-length album.
I’m in Winnipeg for a speaking gig, so posting will be light for the next couple of days. I spotted this charming story in the paper (I forget which one) this morning:
As the global economic downturn begins to impact on the world of sport, one French athlete has come up with an unusual way to try to secure a new sponsorship deal. Pole-vaulting champion Romain Mesnil, whose contract with the sports brand Nike was not renewed when it expired last year, has run naked with his pole through the streets of Paris and posted a video of his caper online.
Mon dieu! Here’s the video. It’s safe for work, as there’s a little hovering black box over his viande et deux légumes:
I hope that he doesn’t already have a sponsor, and this isn’t just some clever reverse-viral-video campaign to ‘find’ the sponsor.
They are now eons beyond Gmaps because while Gmaps will show you the google satellites and topography maps, MapMyRide will show me google’s new terrain maps which I much prefer! And they even show me the elevation of my intended (or already executed) ride, per feet and per miles! And you can change it to kilometers if you like. And it’s awesome. Did I mention that?
I like the concept. I’ve been logging a few of my recent, short, errand-filled rides around town. They also provide a way to search for recommended cycling routes. The site is clearly designed for more aspirational athletes, but I enjoy plotting my bike rides on the Google Maps-powered interface when I get home.
Speaking of interface, MapMyRide could use the attention of a serious interaction designer. The site is so crammed with menus, features and advertising–it’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast. I always have difficulty finding what I’m looking for. Which is too bad, because the underlying functionality seems robust.
I don’t like reading braggy, boastful blog posts. I know I’m as guilty of them as anybody else. But when I read somebody writing about their recent award, weight loss or awesome new job, and I’m sitting at home all awardless and fat, I feel the little green Kobolds of Envy and Jealousy whispering in my ear canal. It’s petty, I know, but what’re you going to do?