With the limitations of running in urban Manila, I spent some quality time in the excellent gym at the Peninsula. There I was transported across the globe and ran in both Monterey and New Zealand…at least according to the visual cues from the Life Fitness treadmill.  This was my first run on a digitally connected treadmill.

Monterey was the first course I ran on the treadmill. Given that it was on a relatively flat road, it felt quite natural. I enjoyed the natural beauty of I place i was acquainted with and the motivation of passing virtual personas of other runners doing the same course around the globe. The virtual personas displayed their login name, real location and distance from me.

My trail run in New Zealand was not as good. For this second run, I downloaded the LF app and logged in. The terrain was stunning, but that was part of the problem…with every step, I felt like I needed to be adjusting my stride or landing as in a real trail run. But ultimately I was only maintaining the uniform pace on a monotonous treadmill. As I finished, I worried that this was negative training, setting me up to be less careful and aware the next time I hit a real trail. One of my colleagues at the hotel, also a trail runner, had similar thoughts.

And there weren’t any other virtual runners on the NZ route…had I signed in incorrectly or failed to adjust the settings? Or were folks staying away from South Island at the time I ran?

As you can see in the photos, the Peninsula has a great pool….22m and well-suited for lap swimming…but the purpose of this blog isn’t NP2S.

As I finished up I felt like the LF treadmill with the virtual interface had not yet achieved its full potential.

For a runner, the combination of new scenery and the social (albeit limited) interaction with other runners was a big draw…maybe better than the workout class focus on the new Peleton treadmill. But to reach its full potential, it should:

—-Display the virtual personas of other and their pace…a challenge to keep up or avoid being passing.

—-Allow some simple touchscreen communication to other personas on your route: Good job!” “Let’s go!” “Looking good.”

—-The app also hasn’t reached it full potential…why not record and identify the virtual locations where you’ve run? Award badges as you hit milestones in new regions or around the globe? Add some gamification to motivate runners stuck indoors. Incentivize folks to seek out Life Fitness treadmills and find NP2R!

It’s Olympic season and there isn’t a lot of running happening in Pyeongchang…but there’s plenty of endurance sports action.  I caught the end of this Men’s 15k mass start cross country race on TV.  At first I thought it was no big deal that a Norwegian was winning the race…and then I heard it was his first ever Olympic race…and that he fell down at the beginning of the race, broke a pole and was at the very back of the pack.  A great example of persistence and a never quit mentality.  Here’s the story from the Washington Post.

The Norwegian have more than just mad winter skills…they also know a bit about team dynamics and team building.  Here’s the story from the New York Times:

An Op-Ed in today’s Sunday Times has some thoughtful comments good for runners, travelers, and everyone else.  Here’s a quote:

“Embracing inconvenience may sound odd, but we already do it without thinking of it as such. As if to mask the issue, we give other names to our inconvenient choices: We call them hobbies, avocations, callings, passions. These are the noninstrumental activities that help to define us. They reward us with character because they involve an encounter with meaningful resistance — with nature’s laws, with the limits of our own bodies — as in carving wood, melding raw ingredients, fixing a broken appliance, writing code, timing waves or facing the point when the runner’s legs and lungs begin to rebel against him.”   Good summary of why I like running and travel so much.

Lastly, last week’s Sunday Times had some recommendations for staying in shape during travel…all good ideas, but why not also find a NP2R, especially early in the morning:

Continue reading News and musings, February 19, 2018 →

In a world full of information, these are the running and travel stories and articles that stuck with me in the last week.

Good article on training as we get more mature:

https://trailrunnermag.com/training/trail-tips/train-to-run-faster-as-you-age.html

Some better pictures of some of many fascinating places in Kyoto:

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/14-photos-that-will-make-you-want-to-visit-kyoto

An older post on rehydrating with the correct beverage after a run:

Lastly, a story that broke over the weekend.  I really like Strava but this one make me go hmmmm?:

https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/

More on The Strava Heat Map here:

https://medium.com/strava-engineering/the-global-heatmap-now-6x-hotter-

This excerpt from the data engineering story linked above suggests that a) they took privacy seriously; and b) folks need to carefully consider their individual privacy settings.

“Most importantly, our platform has numerous privacy rules that must be respected:

• Private activities are excluded outright
• Activities are cropped to respect user defined privacy zones
• Athletes with the Metro/heatmap opt-out privacy setting have all data excluded”

And the Strava CEO’s response to the story:

https://blog.strava.com/press/a-letter-to-the-strava-community/