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Posts Tagged ‘MapMyRun’

A 13.1 Mile Training Run

Posted in Family life, Half marathon, Running, tagged , , , , , on May 14, 2016| 4 Comments »

Today’s run was a special one! I got to accompany my husband Mike and our 14-year-old daughter on their longest run to date — a 13.1 mile training run! They had been building up their mileage for weeks now, and they were ready to cover the distance. It wasn’t easy, but they finished super strong (they had some kick left in them for a sprint at the end!) They ran it in 2 hours 24 minutes. A good 10 minutes of that was spent walking around a local high school trying to find an unlocked bathroom for a pit stop around mile 6. I should have turned my MapMyRun app off for that. And I probably should have mapped out a less hilly route for their unofficial half marathon debut.

MapMyRun elevation chart

Yes, that’s 879 feet of elevation gain and it felt as hilly as that MapMyRun chart makes it look. As I said, probably not the best training run for a race that has 2,125 feet of elevation drop from start to finish. But Mike and my daughter knocked it out like champs and I could not be more proud of them. I always enjoyed passing a new distance milestone myself, but it’s even more fun to watch them pass one. I hope it has given them confidence going into the Fontana Days Run Half Marathon, which is three weeks from today. Today’s run was a huge accomplishment, and I made sure to remind my daughter that there aren’t many 8th graders that can do what she has done.

What’s the longest distance you’ve run? If you’ve trained for a half marathon, what is the longest training run you do before race day? When I was training for my first half (the OC Half in 2012) the longest training run I did was 12 miles. I think that was enough to carry me through 13.1 on race day, but I do think it can be helpful to go 13.1 or longer before a half. I wouldn’t do more than 20-22 before a full marathon though!

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Runners’ Bonus Points System

Posted in Humor, Running, tagged , , on January 28, 2013| 11 Comments »

Do you know that MapMyRun logs all kinds of physical activity and that includes housework? (It even logs the indoor sport “intimacy” but there’s no way in heck I’m recording that!) So when I cleaned house for nine hours on Friday to get ready for a surprise party for my husband’s 42nd birthday, I burned over 1,500 calories. When I cleaned for another two hours on Sunday morning to get ready for the kids’ book club discussion (Wonder
— awesome book!), I burned another 340 calories. It’s no wonder (ha ha) that when it came time for me to get in a “real” workout on Sunday afternoon, I was pretty pooped already. I simply did not want go out for a run. I knew I’d feel better if I went, so I laced up my shoes and got going. Mind over body. It’s a powerful thing. But I spent the entire run coming up with a bonus points system for runners.

You get 75 points for going for a run, any run, any distance, any amount of time. If you ran today, you’re a super star. But you get extra points for the following:

+10 for running when you really really just did not feel like running but you did anyway
+1 for every mile you ran (round up to the nearest mile!) (or +1 for every 10 minutes you ran, whichever is greater)
+1 for getting up with an alarm to run
+1 if you didn’t even press snooze when your alarm went off
+5 if you set your gear out the night before
+1 if your gear was clean (washed and dried)
+2 if you had no clean gear and threw on smelly clothes because you are just that dedicated to running (and willing to prioritize it over, you know, doing laundry instead)
+1 if you ran before 8 a.m.
+1 if you ran at lunchtime
+2 if you ran after 5 p.m. (guess who loves a morning run?)
+1 more if you ran after dark and took proper safety precautions (minus 80 million if you didn’t wear reflective gear, didn’t run with a light, and/or didn’t run in a safe location, preferably with a partner)
+1 if you had to pay someone to watch your child(ren) while you ran
+2 if you had a child run or ride his bike next to you
+10 if you pushed any children in a jogger
+5 for the lady runner who carried any children in her womb! (Yes, I give mad props to the pregnant runner, but I gotta give more points to the runner who pushed the jogger plus any child who can vocalize his protest at going for a run)
+2 if the temperature on your outdoor run was above 80 degrees
+3 if the temperature on your outdoor run was below 50 degrees (yes, I think that’s cold)
+5 if the temperature was below freezing
+5 if you got rained on
+2 if you ran on a treadmill (make that +3 if the treadmill didn’t have a television screen or iPod dock)
+5 if you didn’t poop your pants or puke
+/- 3 points (I can’t decide) if you pooped beside the trail or behind a neighborhood bush — anywhere besides a bathroom or porta potty
+5 if you had a head cold (minus points if you had a fever or chest congestion or flu and you ran anyway)
+1 if you said hello, waved, or gave a thumbs-up to anyone along the way (minus points if you used any finger other than your thumb)
+1 for every piece of trash you picked up on your cool-down walk (am I the only person who does this? I hope not).

What else would you add? How many points did you get on your latest run? I earned 100 points for yesterday’s 5.75-mile, hard-fought I-didn’t-wanna run through the hills.

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