Day 179: Zombies and Spies and Bears…oh my

Ok…No bears

And technically only virtual zombies spies…but shhh that is completely not the point!

Basically, I have been playing iPhone games all day…but good ones where you progress in the game by doing real world activities such as running and walking 🙂 I did another mission of Zombies, Run! but I’ll get to that in a minute…

First The Walk…

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This is along the same lines as Zombies Run! but it is designed to track walking, it is designed to run all the time and track all the walking you do all day. I started it at lunchtime because I didn’t know that.

It bills its self as a “techno thriller”. You get caught up in a terrorist attack in Inverness and mistaken for a new spy/secret service operative (easy mistake to make really) and consequently you have to deliver a package to Edinburgh by walking there.

Each episode takes you through interactive maps where you have to walk for a certain time to unlock the next clip of the story and there are things to pick up along the way. It is pretty cool and adds a little bit more incentive to the daily walking. Ok for all you doubters out there, I don’t *need* an app to make me walk more, but If I am going to walk more, I may as well play it 😀

0000000 mapsThis meant that yesterday during my lunchbreak, I walked for 45 mins (which is my whole lunch break) and I went 3.6 km, I played almost an entire episode during that walk, but had to keep walking up and down the office to finish it off during the afternoon 🙂 The map on the left is where I actually went in really real life, and the one on the right is the one from the game 🙂

The other cool thing about this game, is that it has what they call adaptive difficulty. This means it alters the time it takes to complete the episodes dependent on your fitness level, which it works out from your activity level and time to complete other ones 🙂

So that covers walking and spies…

Now for running and Zombies 🙂

I am enjoying this zombie game, it is slightly more interesting than just running, it breaks up the music a little bit 🙂 and I am apparently very valuable in the defence of Abel Township which is the town in the game! Believe it or not, I am also quite enjoying running in the dark. I even went out yesterday when it was raining! I stand a chance of turning into an actual runner…cold, rain, dark, zombies…and still having fun… *raises eyebrow*

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So it was mission 3, I had to distract some zombies and lead them away from the base.

It was also, run number 3 after my 3 week running hiatus, my 3rd run in the dark, and my third run in the evening. I improved again, not back where I was, but better than the last two and that is important. I have read that you run slower in the dark, I think I may run slower in the evenings so I am pleased with this improvement. 😀

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for the sake of continuity and to satisfy my obsession with tracking things on apps…I also recorded the run on Strava 🙂 and here it is…

The other interesting thing about this Tuesday, is that a with a walk and a run I managed to go further and do more steps than I have in ages 😀

13,126 steps…
6.18 miles

Woohoo!

Day 179 Complete 😀

PS…it turns out not every work out this week comes with free chocolate…probably a good thing really…

15 thoughts on “Day 179: Zombies and Spies and Bears…oh my”

  1. I wish I had tracked my walking yesterday. Between the crazy amount of walking at the Toronto airport, then the walk to the train station in Newark, NJ to take the train to Manhattan’s Penn Statio, and then the walk to the building where my meetings were held, followed by a walk to the subway to attend an evening event, then a ride to the airport at Newark, lots and lots and lots of pacing as my flight got delayed 2.5 hours, and then a crazy long walk at the Toronto airport (we literally parked the plane in a nearby town, I think) to get back to the customs hall and finally exit. My day started at 4am in Toronto, and I didn’t get back home until 1:30 am. At which point I had to drop and do push-ups and planks, because I couldn’t convince myself my daytime walking was enough of a workout for the day. 🙂

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    1. you should definitely have tracked that, it sounds like it would have been enough.
      I know how you feel though…it was not done for “a work out” so it doesn’t feel like it counts! I was the same with walking around the steam fair, even though I walked 10 miles + in the day…My husband had to stop me doing squats in the field!
      I can recommend these run in the background apps, the only problem is you have to find a way to carry your phone with you all the time…which is tricky if you don’t always have pockets…

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      1. I stopped using my BodyMedia armband (bodybug) back in July, as I didn’t like wearing it with short sleeves/tank tops – plus I wanted to just get comfortable without the crutch of knowing EXACTLY how many calories I had burned (and steps taken). But no that long sleeves are back, I’m thinking I’ll start wearing it again. That way if I get to a decent calorie burn during regular life activities, I won’t feel as compelled to do pushups and planks at 1:30 in the morning. 🙂

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      2. hahaha yes! noone wants to do a plank at 1:30am!
        I have a fitbit flex which is just a wristband, so I can wear it all the time without it being obvious, it just looks like a silicone bracelet!
        I love it…it fits in with my tracking obsession… 😀

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      3. I tested that one for a couple of days, and then also tested the Jawbone UP wristband. I felt that neither of them was as accurate at tracking activity as the armband by BodyMedia. It’s got an accelerometer – so it’s really quiet amazing at tracking the vigorousness of activity, which I’m not sure I experienced with the two wristbands I tested. They are definitely way better in terms of being more discreet though.

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      4. i think the fitbit is reasonably accurate for walkign and running, but you do have to tell it when you do something different like boxing or weights or suchlike. I don’t use is as an absolute guide for calories, I treat what it says I have burned with a pinch of salt and just stick to eating the calories I worked out using the BMR calculation plus a bit if I have done a lot but not crazy amounts!
        I don’t think the bodymedia is available in the UK…not easily anyway.

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      5. the bodymedia one does a reasonably good job with even activities like BodyPump because in addition to the accelerometer, it also measures perspiration for intensity. I like it a lot, but don’t love that it’s so obvious. I may have to revisit one of the wristband options.

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      8. I found I still had to add in things like yoga/pilates. And also, for some reason, Stairmaster. Which literally kicks my ass more than any other cardio activity and yet registers next to no steps and barely any calories burned. Weird. (But you can also add in manually via the web interface.)

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      10. the bodymedia Link armband has that. the Core armband (the one I have) does not, so I’d have to do it on my laptop when I sync’d via cable. I chose the Core because it’s a bit smaller than the Link. (Vanity…) 😉

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