Will this blog ever talk about food again? Better question: will I ever have time to cook and eat again? Sadly I’m right in the middle of preparing for the comprehensive exam for my MA and honestly cooking is low priority right now. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get in the kitchen and make something delicious, but for now my random thoughts will have to suffice. Apologies, etc, etc.
(Oh and if you’re joining me from Skinny Runner, thank you for clicking over!)
So, riding on the coattails of my half marathon I figured I’d talk shop a bit about running. I guess now that I have a medal, I can consider myself a real runner? I think it is funny how new runners are, typically, reluctant to call themselves “runners” because there is a very clear image that goes along with being a runner.
But, I honestly think a website, Daily Mile, has the fault for a lot of my running woes. When I first started running I was logging my miles religiously on Daily Mile, a kind of Facebook for fitness. I found other local runners who friended me and would comment on my workouts and I on theirs. But I started to get really into it — too into it. I compared myself to them, pushed myself to keep up with them, and ultimately pushed myself too hard. I got an injury in my IT band and virtually quit running, mad at the running gods of the universe.
I took over a year off but when I came back to it for this half marathon training, I started my DM account again. And the cycle continued. I completely deleted it and began to log my miles on a spreadsheet on my computer, comparing my stats to no one but myself and much happier, despite my slowed pace.
This is not to say that DM is evil. I met some great people and even had a few group runs because of it. I got to know some local athletes who inspired me in my running and could pass on their wisdom to a newbie like me. But ultimately, social networking of my workouts was not for me. I am far too competitive of a person for it to be productive.
So now I use SmashRun, a website with a much better interface (I think) with the option to push notifications out to Facebook or Twitter. I do neither and keep it all private, but I like the analysis it does of my runs. It tells me that I rarely get my butt out to run on Mondays. It tells me that when I run after 10am, I’m a good 20 seconds/mile slower than average! And it tracks cumulative miles so I feel super impressed that I’m almost at 100 for 2012.
These are just my 2 cents on the issue. Do you use DM and love it? Had you never heard of it before? Do you track your fitness (of any kind!) on some kind of website? Are my questions stupid?
I came here from SR – wanted to say Congrats on your half marathon! I was part of the crew at the mile 20 water stop. I hope to be running it next year! I was inspired by so many runners! WTG!
Thank you for being a volunteer!! I didn’t quite make it to your station but I made sure to thank every volunteer who gave me water. It was really inspiring, I hope you do run it next year!!
Hey, congrats on your first half. I ran mine my first in Staten Island last year and had the same experience. I went from feeling great to just wrecked somewhere around mile 11. The last 2 miles were like torture. Still haven’t got up the nerve for another go at it yet. We’ll see.
I’m the developer of Smashrun, so it’s interesting to hear your perspective on DM vs Smashrun. I think DM’s a great site, but the social angle was never hugely helpful for me. Now, on Smashrun one of our most frequent requests (outside of new badges, and Garmin/Runkeeper support) is to add more social features. One of the challenges we’re going to have is adding those features in a way that people who don’t want them can ignore them, and the people who do want them can take advantage of them.
Happy running,
Chris
Hey Chris, thanks for stopping by! I really love your site. As far as people wanting social integration, that seems natural (we all love to share everything with everyone!) but one of the big DM turnoffs for me was the newsfeed in my face as soon as I logged in. I love how Smashrun takes me straight to my own page with my stats. When more social integration comes to Smashrun, I would personally like it to be maybe a separate tab that isn’t thrown at me the minute I go to the website (just my two cents!). I have to say I’m excited to hopefully see Garmin integration down the line and I would honestly love an app for my iPhone. As you say it is a challenge to give people the option to ignore or participate in certain aspects, but I think you’ll find a way to do it. Happy running to you as well!
I was on the other side of the spectrum– I got so intimidated by DM that I stopped running. While I was proud of myself for just running anything for 10 minutes, I’d log on and see all these 6 minute miles or people who ran a half marathon that morning… and yesterday morning, and the morning before that! some day I’d love for 10 miles to be my normal morning run, but it’s really daunting when you’re eating microwave pizza dinners a few days a week and are so proud because you finally mustered the courage just to run that one mile (and then threw up a little bit afterward… yes, probably partially the pizza’s fault).
I still don’t run a lot, and I still have big dreams of someday being “a runner”… but if I start, I won’t go on DM until I can go for more than a few miles at a time!
That’s definitely a problem too — it is like we had the same issue with different reactions. I got too competitive and tried to keep up and you got intimidated.
I am proud of anyone for running even a minute, and even if he or she ate pizza the night before
I think pizza is actually really good fuel for running!
You should look into Smashrun and see what you think. Plus you get fun badges like 4square!
Interesting perspective about the social media aspect of Daily Mile. I have never used the site, but I do use My Fitness Pal (which also has an app for both iPhone and Droid). This site is more focused on dieting and eating right than calculating how far you’ve run, and there is a social aspect to it that is more encouraging than competitive. As you said, though, it’s easy to lose sight of the good side of this type of social media and to turn it into a competition instead. It sounds like you are figuring out what works best for you, though. Keep it up!
Do you like My Fitness Pal? I went back and forth on it recently (I switched from Weight Watchers to calorie tracking to save some $$) and ended up getting the Lose It! app. I think I was swayed by the barcode-scanning capability of the Lose It app, honestly. It has social capabilities but I’ve never activated them, but when I first did Weight Watchers (our senior year of college), I used the message boards on there for support. I think community is important for motivation, though. There’s a fine line for me of how involved I want to be and how involved I end up becoming (which is too much).
I do like My Fitness Pal, but I think it it is fairly limited if you want to track your exercise extensively. The barcode scanner sounds cool, but I can’t really think of an occasion where I’d need it. All the foods I enter in that aren’t home made have already been submitted (and most chain restaurants, too). The great thing is that users can submit meals and recipes, and others can use those too if they like. Course, I’ve never used any other app or shopped around at all, but I’ve never found a reason to look elsewhere.
I joined a few weeks ago but I do NOT look at other people’s workouts or anything. I’m a hott mess when it comes to the comparison game so I know better than to do that!