Running has truly changed my life: I've made lifelong friends, explored beautiful places, and more importantly invested into my own health and fitness, which I'm starting to see the positive benefits as I get older.
The stack is pretty simple: a NextJS app, with a Postgres database to keep all my running data, and all the stats are pre-computed and cached in Redis, so I effectively only hit the database once a day when a new run is ingested. On the fronted, I toyed with the idea of using D3 or pre-existing data viz libraries, but ended up rolling my own using SVGs directly, it gave me more control on the visualizations.
I used the Strava bulk export to pre-populate the database, and I'm using their webhook API to do incremental updates. I have to tap into OpenWeatherMap and OpenCageDate to enrich the running data a little bit.
Happy to answer anything about the stack, data pipeline, or how I stayed motivated for 10 years!
[1] https://www.runeveryday.com Run Streak Association rules: ≥ 1 mile per day
Respectfully, that sounds awful. Being sick sucks enough, the last thing I'd want or benefit from doing is physical activity during a flu.
The actually awful runs I’ve had are more of the "type 2 fun" kind (running in the desert, grueling trail runs), or the occasional hungover run before I quit drinking.
I’m asking, because in German, many people call a regular cold a flu here.
But the chance to catch real influenza is like once every 20 years or so.
What about COVID-19?
I often wondered why people did these self-evidently unfun things, purportedly "for fun".
This was due to a number of factors: excessive running (the equivalent of ~50-70mi/week), calorie restriction, and possibly carbohydrate restriction. Thankfully symptoms of low T (namely morning erections) resolved ~1month after ameliorating those 3 factors. (For anyone interested, look up "Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport".)
Mileage isn't my goal. Health is.
OP states "I've... invested into my own health", but I'm not convinced.
Maybe this amount of running was excessive, but how did you even run such distances with T so low? (Ie how did you recover?)
I am a runner. I train at what is probably the 80th percentile for longer distances, so I am by no means an expert. But I do understand that if you are running 7 miles a week, most of the time, your body isn’t going to be that beat up, especially if you are taking it slow.
finally when they had to (successfully) defib him during a race, that shook him into assessing his health not running for the sake of running
There's a mindset with distance runners that I have seen over and over, just sometimes way too much of a generally good thing
So yeah, please be careful when doing sports while sick.
Rule 1 of training as an athlete was: you do not train for N extra days after N days of fever
You do not want a heart infection.
Keeping track of you morning resting heart rate will tell you exactly what is going on.
I am also a run-streaker (3 years by now). I am not proud of running when i have the flu. But I run really slow and only the required amount.
Effort comparable to going to the store to buy food and aspirin.
Don't let rest feel like weakness. It’s where the real progress happens.
I can see how you might worry that if you take off one day when you are sick that somehow you'll start taking more and more "sick days" out of perhaps laziness. But I also feel like someone with such a level of dedication would not be in much danger of doing that.
Why do you run with the flu of you feel bad about it? What is the point of fulfilling the "rules" of run streaking?
For me the by far biggest positive effect of run streaking was that I knew every morning when I woke up that I would something i enjoy that day. The training is too low intensity and volume to really matter and doing it for the rules would have felt pointless.
One of the symptoms of the flu is aching joints. Running on aching joints may be damaging them, so I don't.
- 0 = freezing
- 50 = mild
- 100 = Very hot (not burning just very hot)
If you go for a run at 0F in a T-shirt, you won't be running for very long. That's like -18C.
The result has been transformational. Resting heart rate is at 60, blood pressure down, my clothes don't fit me anymore, and best of all, I feel better and can concentrate more.
I wish I knew this in my teens. It's like a cheat code.
- weird monkey from Bojack Horseman, paraphrased through my memory
When I'm in a good routine, I run on my treadmill indoors. (I can't currently run outdoors for reasons I don't want to get into at the moment.) However, after a few weeks, especially if work/family life is getting stressful, I tend to stop running just because I want to work on something more mentally stimulating and tangibly productive with my extremely limited free time.
I have tried:
- Movies/TV Shows: I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to enjoying these. The ones I don't care for are boring to watch. The ones I like, I tend to get engrossed in them and pay more attention to the screen than my workout and end up phoning it in. Plus I'm not sure there are enough of these that I can watch one or half one one every single day. (Bonus: I don't watch anything with ads.)
- Music: I don't like most pop music, and the music that I DO like, I try not to listen to every day because I'll get sick of it that way and then I won't have any music to listen to when I want to listen to music. I can deal with high-energy EDM but 99% of it is not great, especially when binge-listening. Also I get tired of staring at a blank wall and so have tried finding live EDM performances to watch on YouTube. This is a lot of work and so far has worked okay but not perfect.
- Podcasts: There are a LOT of podcasts that I want to catch up on, but half the time I want to stop and take notes because the advice or information being given sounds really useful or seems worth following up on. Maybe there are comedy podcasts out there that I wouldn't hate?
- Audiobooks: I love reading but I have a hard time getting into audiobooks. Same issue with podcasts, I often want to stop and research topics and that would take me away from the treadmill.
Be careful to avoid injury, however. I wouldn't recommend this until you've already got a solid running base of miles to build upon.
Like running, keeping notes in your head is something that gets easier if you do it a lot. It's also a really useful skill to have when talking to people in person.
- load chess problems (look at a diagram before getting out the door) and try to solve it while running. Sometimes, I solve it the first 5min, sometimes I get frustrated because it turns out to be too difficult.
- practice polyrhythms. you have a dominant cadence while running, now impose others on top of it.Running never did it for me, I just couldn't stick to it, was always miserable and bored, etc. My main focus is strength training, but for my cardio cycling is what brings me joy. I would dread going for a run, but I excitedly look forward to my next bike ride.
Cycling, swimming, hiking, rowing, even dance will all get you the same benefits so if you're bored doing one, try something else - the important thing is to get moving, the specifics of the activity doesn't matter.
If you really want to get into running, and you have some green spaces or trails near you, give trail running a try. It's the one form of running I sort of enjoy - I get so bored on a treadmill or just in my neighborhood, but I love being out in the woods.
Sounds like you are only listening to non-fiction? You don't need to research topics to enjoy (say) a genre thriller, so listen to fiction.
Playing a computer game for hours on end feels productive when you burn 1,000 calories doing it.
For audiobooks, something I've been wanting to try is to see if I can listen to an audiobook of a textbook for a topic that I'm interested in. But I'm not sure if it would work well, since often textbooks have diagrams and such.
This is how we ran before smartphones, anyway.
To get back into running I listened to some page turners, but I’d only listen to them when running. Sometimes I’d do an extra lap just to hear more. And I’d look forward to the next run.
Once the habit takes, I don’t need as much stimulation.
Another idea is political commentary slop or news. Don’t consume any during the day like you normally do (Reddit, twitter, news sites).
Instead consume it only through Youtube on your run. It’s usually stimulating enough to compel the run.
Maybe accept that running, or perhaps exercise in general, is not your thing? You clearly have more pressing interests and there are other ways to maintain good health. My grandfather lived well into his eighties with nigh a scrap of fat on him and, near as I can tell, did no formal exercise after his army days ended. My mother is on the same track despite health issue severely limiting her mobility.
I say this as a guy who rides an indoor cycling trainer 3-4 times a week during the winter and turns in to a raging jerk if he doesn't get his workouts done. If you're not a "gym guy", "runner guy", "biking guy" or whatever, why waste your extremely limited free time trying to become one?
Spouse is also dubious. Remarks that spending 20 minutes on a treadmill or out walking is actually somewhat hard to do. Not wrong, but it only gets easier if you do it. And then it starts to get a lot easier.
This morning, I jogged more than I walked, and almost jogged the entire distance between warm up and cool down.
I haven't decided yet if I will then move to doing a second lap or if I will instead work on speed.
Either way, the daily habit has been surprisingly enjoyable, even if I'm very out of shape. The progress is addicting.
I also find that adding distance makes it easier to improve time. If I can only run 1 mile, it's pretty hard to run that same mile but faster. BUT if I can run 3 miles, it's a bit easier to run 1/3 of my normal distance but focusing on pushing the pace.
I did the same thing but kept pushing harder because my muscles could keep up and I wanted to build up cardio endurance, but I didn't take into account my bones.
Shin splints are no joke and will sideline you for months without warning. It takes several months for your leg bones to build up the compressive strength to deal with continuous high impact running.
Even if your endurance can take it, take your time. Slow and steady wins the race.
Keep it up though. All of a sudden it all sort of comes together. I just ran 9 miles straight last week! I was shocked and so excited.
From my own experience, after 2020 threw me into a bit of a depression I gained a bunch of weight for the first time in my life. I decided I was going to "workout every day" but gave myself a ton of grace about what the definition of "workout" meant. If it was bed time and I hadn't done anything yet I'd just do a couple sets of pushups to "check the box" and go to sleep. I tried to do as much as I could every day, but still gave myself a pat on the back as long as I did ANYTHING that I could call a "workout" ... I lost the weight shockingly quickly and felt a lot better even though most days I was only working out for 10-20 minutes.
Presumably more than a mile a day now
you can check https://yihong.run/
and also a repo: https://github.com/yihong0618/running_page
I've been on an unbroken rowing streak (Concept2) since December last year. Half hour per day mandatory, no rest days. Typical distance rowed is 6.5-8km. There are days where I "take it easy" but I still force a minimum distance of 6.5km regardless of how long it takes. My rationale for using the C2 is the lower impact and the fact that it resides inside a climate controlled building. These factors help reduce the possibility of excuse making.
I found that taking even one day off is all it takes to throw my discipline into a death spiral. Making it a required thing no matter what changes the psychology and game theory. It has become entirely a background concern after day 90 or so. There are days where I have to row and then do hours of yard work. The first two weeks of Texas summer almost got to me. But, this too has become a background concern. I can wake up, row 30 minutes, landscape for 2 hours, and then write code or post on HN until the sun goes down. No naps, stimulants or motivational speeches required.
Not overthinking the exercise is a big part of not falling off the wagon. If you wrap yourself around that post it can really discourage you. Perfect is the enemy of really, really good things.
In the very rare occasions I don't have a phone I vividly remember what I've eaten and will record it later.
But a 1 mile run mean you've put your shoes on, went outdoor, were active and it feels extremely doable for anyone. I'm wondering if I walk at least 1 mile each day, if not, I definitely should!
Thanks for the share!
Edit: also, they pulled the data from strava. It’s possible they forgot to record their Australian run(s) in strava for some reason
there aren't that many of us (that have run on antarctica, vs king george island).
Edit: seems maybe tht 5k is mislabeled, should be 5 miles... But that feels like a less standardized time.
5 miles is not that uncommon a race distance in the US; 8k is very close, but you can still find both. (There are much fewer 3-mile or 6-mile races, those are mostly all 5ks and 10ks.) Though it's unclear if it was an organized race.
edit: it probably wasn't an organized race, there's a separate "races" tab.
I'm also into running visualisation, and created the running report card:
It visualises your year in running, with some fun narrative generated by GPT. Here's my report card:
My current bests are: 686 days for completing the New York Times Crossword and 582 days of 20+ minutes of Apple Fitness+ classes.
Plus 15,344 days without driving a car (I never learned) and without having alcohol or soda (just never had the interest). And 5,123 days since I've taken Ecstasy (tried it once).
Around 6,000 days since I last intentionally ate meat, but I couldn't tell you the exact date.
What does "intentionally" mean? Are you sometimes accidentally tricked into eating meat?
Unreal that you rolled your own svg's for this instead of using d3.js. That absolutely blows my mind, great work!
I’m not going to run it but I’ve hiked up in there a bunch of times.
I'm a trail runner and I've been running over 18 years or so, not every day, but two or three times a week. Sickness or health, injury, birthdays, holidays, rain, snow, -30C. My last big run was around Christmas. After that I had about three months medical off-time. Now it's very hard to get back on track. I just had to cancel some summer running events. It's not just motivation, but general stiffness and musculoskeletal pains like shin splints and knee and ankle soreness. My guess is that at my (middle) age, you either do it or lose it.
I advise anybody to find something they like and stick with it. Vary it according to how your body feels, but always do something. Keep the body (and the brain) working.
"Roger Federer says he was injured giving daughter bath"
https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/15059810/roger-federe...
I'd like to see your average HR per pace marker to see how your running zones have changed at the same pace over time.
The average HR for a 10k you did at 5,50 per km did 6 years ago compared to now at the same pace.
I don't think you should be running through illness and stress fractures but I can't really criticize as I get the obsession
My personal joke is that I like to get my "10,000 steps a day" in all in the first hour
but this is actually the most amazing part to me:
COUNTRIES VISITED
been lucky to run on all seven continents, including antarctica!I've only been running for a couple of years and already feeling troubles brewing in.
A nice addition would be adding a switch for converting to non-American units though
In other words; what led to being in each of those places for only one day? I don’t understand how you, e.g., found yourself in Puerto Rico for only one day.
This being said, Sweden is a fun one: I was in Copenhagen for a few weeks and I thought it’d be fun to take the train to Malmo, do my long run, and then take the train back. All that to say, I’ve spent 3h30 in Sweden, 3h05 of which I was running.
Shanghai was an overnight layover.
And hey, great run in Japan! (Tokyo here!) I love the map visualization too.
I loved loved running in Japan, such a wonderful country
'pk.eyJ1IjoiZnJpZ2dlcmkiLCJhIjoiY21jbHdmZmZmMGV3dTJpcHR5cWcwOHhzdyJ9.Z-XMMh_nFDjm8FUyB2tZ_w'
Second: About running just one mile in a single day: Does have any physical benefit? (Yes, I know you run more than one mile on many days.) It would take more time to change in to/out of your clothes and shoes than run a mile. Plus it only burns 100 cals. Can you imagine someone writing here that they only swim 9 mins per day... Or bike 9 mins per day?
Here’s a study called “Minimum amount of physical activity for reduced mortality and extended life expectancy: a prospective cohort study” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21846575/
From the abstract: “Compared with individuals in the inactive group, those in the low-volume activity group, who exercised for an average of 92 min per week (95% CI 71-112) or 15 min a day (SD 1·8), had a 14% reduced risk of all-cause mortality (0·86, 0·81-0·91), and had a 3 year longer life expectancy.”
Of course 1 mile a day is less than 15 minutes for most people, but that 92 min per week is just 13 minutes 9 seconds per day. I’m guessing with the long runs he’s over this when measured weekly.
There are other corroborating studies too.
Here’s from “Association between Bout Duration of Physical Activity and Health: Systematic Review” (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6527142/)
“Additional evidence was identified from cross-sectional and prospective studies to support that bouts of physical activity <10 minutes in duration are associated with a variety of health outcomes…The current evidence, from cross-sectional and prospective cohort studies, supports that physical activity of any bout duration is associated with improved health outcomes, which includes all-cause mortality.”
Compared to what? Sitting on the couch, snacking on chips? Of course.
Of course that may also just be due to locale.
I cover about ~4 miles or so depending on my pace. I increase my running duration every other week by a few minutes.
The details are astonishing.
Can you tell how you managed all of this so gracefully? Were you working on this idea from day 1? When did you buy this domain?
You even saved and displayed a few dozen live map coordinates as well from 2016 onwards.
How do the runs end up on the dashboard? Is that Apple Watch / Strava data that you automatically or manually export? How many different systems did you have to integrate? I assume you don't necessarily used the same app or watch to track your running ten years ago that you use today?
Do you have AFib, by any chance? Congratulations on your streak, regardless.
EDIT: in another comment, you mentioned:
> I needed a cardiac ablation a couple of years ago
So I guess that's a yes? Was that when you were averaging 5.3 miles daily that one year? For those unaware, there's a well-established link between excessive endurance exercise and AFib.
Thankfully the ablation took care of them and I haven’t had an episode in a few years.
Do you also use Apple Watch (or other smartwatch) while running? If so, in your experience, do the run stats match up with Strava?? How different are they?
After about two years the streak became part of my identity, which might sound a little unhealthy. It’s easier to just head out and jog a mile or two than to let the number go back to zero.
This being said, it’s made for interesting conversations with medical professionals – I needed a cardiac ablation a couple of years ago and my electrocardiologist came to an “agreement” (as in she didn’t forcefully dissuade me from doing it) that I could jog a slow slow slow mile late in the evening the day after the procedure, as long as I kept my heart rate down and I made sure I was being mindful of my puncture sites.
I’m happy to have hit that goal this past week, and your post inspired me to make every week a successful one in that regard. Thanks!
Cheers, best with everything!
Great work on data collection for 10 years. Quantified self tracking into a universal format is still really hard.
What tracking sensors do you use that input into Strava? (e.g. Garmin, Apple Watch, built in iphone, etc)?
> You cannot fly from New York to Bangalore without missing a day in the calendar. So I flew to Dubai and stopped there for two and a half days, played table tennis at clubs there, and then flew on to Bangalore. I’ve been to China and Japan multiple times, and, because of the time change, the flight leaves New York at, say, 11 a.m. and gets to China or Japan late afternoon the next day. So I play early in the morning, like seven or eight, go directly to the airport, fly to Beijing, get off the plane, and go directly to a club to keep my streak alive.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/w...
Edit: you could also potentially run on the plane. I admit that would be pretty weird though
Congrats on the decade! Did you ever focus on specific metrics or was it always just about the run?
The only thing I ever really cared about was keeping the streak going, everything else has come second. I dropped out of a trail running trip after a fall because I felt that even though I could continue, putting too much mileage on my knee would jeopardize the streak.
Of course the effectiveness of this rule depends on where you live :P
So in 4 years it might be really bad? Be careful.
Even if the poster walked a mile day, that's only 20 minutes and barely hits the recommended exercise time.
I feel like anytime these threads pop up about someone staying physically healthy a bunch of people come out the woodwork to make it sound like they are hurting themselves. I'm not really sure why.
I was in the on phase, and we decided to get a puppy. She lives to sniff, run, and explore. So, looking forward to a long streak!
The 16-17 hour flights from the US to Asia are really hard to manage when you are trying to run every day. Depending on when you take off, you may be in the air an entire calendar day, based on starting the flight in the time zone were you leave in the US and ending it in the time zone where you land in Asia. (Like Singapore airlines flight 23. Takes off 10:15 pm from New York on a Wednesday and lands 19 h 15m later on Friday morning 5:30 am in Singapore.) Either you decide that your first run in Singapore is going to be on New York time, or you say running in place on the plane is going to count, or you don’t take that kind of flight.
Flying the other way is easy to keep your streak with though. Take off from Singapore at 11:35 pm and land in New York at 6 the next morning (18 1/2 hours later)
It doesn't have to start big, you can start by running down your block once a day and go from there.
Start small, think big.
In this "expert mode running" video the protagonist, Tom Murphy VII, of computer science comedy YouTube fame, runs 3661 miles across 269 runs in this mammoth 16 year project to run every street in Pittsburgh, thus "completing" it Pac Man style.
If you are not familiar with Tom7 and his whimsy, I cannot recommend enough that you check his videos out.
I will hit one year mark in a couple of weeks. Currently maintaining stats in a Google spreadsheet :)
Also unlike many people I know, I don't listen to anything while running. Running is a time for me to think about stuff that I'm too busy to think about during the day (e.g. contemplating life issues or is 1*0=0 because of 1 or 0)
My first jog was like 500 meters, and I was exhausted, but I've did like 20 more sessions since then, and I see a steady increase of distance I can go before I reach my first point of exhaustion.
Now I can go 1000 meters, and recover faster, and I even feel slightly generally better during my everyday life.
Since I'm not pushing myself too hard, it is actually kind of enjoyable and even though I do not have a regular routine, never before I had the spontaneous urge to jump up from my chair at the end of the workday and go running with a smile on my face.
Over time the speed and duration you can run will get better but your heart rate will stay the same.
I would recommend trail running as it is much more dynamic and you are less likely to get overuse injuries like people who run on concrete for many miles get stress fractures. Bonus points you get out in nature.
On week four "I am really doing this". And on week 12 "impossible to stop now".
Aim for those and you will be unstoppable.
Those aren't the days that matter.
The days that matter are rainy. They'll be bastard hot and humid. Cold and windy. You'll be annoyed because you don't have time. Something will hurt and there'll be a thought in the back of your head that maybe if you skip today (and the next run too?) then you'll feel better.
Those crap days are the days that count. Those days are money in the bank. Enough of them and you get great days. Every day like that is a day where you can think that running for you is like a smoke to a pack a day man. It's not something you do it's something you are.
With running you need to play the long game and slowly build up your pace, total mileage, and number of weekly training days. It's hard to be patient, but it seems to be the secret to minimizing training injuries.
Alternatively, try cadio exercise on a machine. Personally I like the elliptical machine way more than running. Mostly since I can watch Netflix and other videos while I do it. But it also lets you regulate and monitor intensity more effectively than running.
Consider taking it much slower and do intervals between walking and jogging (I'd do it by feel instead of timing exactly). Over time increase the proportion you jog.
No logs for May 1st, 2021, what happened that day?