ZR Track here

Still not able to hit Yellow Zone, and the only thing I managed to do today is burn myself out quicker. :-(

Source: Zombies, Run! | The first Zombies, Run! 2 mission pack is out now!.

We can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since Zombies, Run! 2 was launched - which means it’s time to release the first Season 2 mission pack. Two new story missions are now available along with a new sidequest!

We’re not going to spoil the story missions, but we thought you’d be excited to know that this new sidequest features legendary Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Yes, it’s really her!

Not only did she come to the Six to Start offices to record her part in the mission, but she also co-wrote it with our lead writer, Naomi Alderman. Look! Here’s a photo of Margaret Atwood with Naomi and our director, Matt Wieteska, in our recording sound booth:

Along with Season 1 and Season 2 missions, there are also the Side Missions (S1-S3 at the moment), but there’s also RACE missions, which appear to be distance targetted instead of time targetted. These race missions range from 5K (approx. 3 miles) to 20K (approx 13 miles - this is also almost a Half Marathon distance.) It doesn’t appear to be available for me yet, but it may be because I haven’t completed my rerun of Season 1 yet (just finished Mission 15 out of 23.)

The distance missions would be perfect for my long runs.

Graze have a Breakfast club where they send not snacks, but combinations of 8 different porridges. Healthy and tasty. It’s invite only for now, and I’ve just got in :-)

graze | exclusive breakfast club.

ZR Track Here

For today, I had to revert to pace training because I foolishly left my pacer on and it flattened my battery. You can see that my Green Zone is quite narrow and actually, it’s a reasonable effort keeping that pace zone. This is why I need to do my Assessment Workout again.

Interesting fact I found out on Saturday. Even though I’m into my fourth decade, a visit to my local dentist for a checkup revealed that I still had two wisdom teeth that hadn’t come through, and based on the angle of them, if they do come out, they will cause problems with my other teeth.

And here I was, thinking all my teeth had come through already….

ZR Track here

There was a huge blip about a third through, not sure what that was. A few blips at the end, but mostly stayed within range for an extended period. Pretty pleased with this long run.

In the recent weeks, with the bombing in Boston at the Marathon there, it has, like many others, no doubt, caused me to reassess and reorganise some of my priorities. I used to run as part of my ongoing physio to heal a fractured metatarsal in my foot. There was no reason for me to run for charity, or anything like that.

Then the bombs hit Boston and in the aftermath, both stories of heroism, and stories of sadness. People who ran towards the chaos to help people. People who lost arms, legs, and, of course, people who lost lives. The most touching one is the one of the 8-year old boy, Martin Richard, killed near the finish line by the bomb.

Although I was not in time to register for the London Marathon, my target is to race at least a Half Marathon next year.

In my recovery time after my fracture, I could not run, I could not walk, but in 6 weeks, I was back to walking and within 3 months, jogging. I recall the feeling of helplessness whilst I was on crutches. Being unable to walk long distances without aid, and near-total reliance on everyone around you. People who have lost limbs because of the bombs will have to endure that for a longer period than I did. I feel for them.

I used to run for fitness. Now, I have a new reason. I run, not just for fitness. I run, not just for physio. I run for everyone who cannot run.

Related articles

• Thousands of London marathon runners observe 30-second silence for Boston (metro.co.uk)
• 25 Photos From The London Marathon Showing Support For Boston (buzzfeed.com)
• London marathon organisers to donate £2 for every finisher to Boston bombings fund (metro.co.uk)
• Silence at start of London Marathon in memory of victims of Boston bomb attacks (standard.co.uk)
• London Marathon raise money for Boston (bigpondnews.com)
• Missoula Marathon registrations up as runners show solidarity with Boston (missoulian.com)
• Pittsburgh Marathon Organizers, Runners Offer Support For Boston (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)
• Halifax runners pay tribute to Boston Marathon victims (metronews.ca)
• London Marathon crowds undaunted by Boston bombings (telegraph.co.uk)

ZR Track here

Endomondo Track here

My heart went all over the place today. :-(

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“240”] Soleus - Muscles of the Lower Extremity Anatomy Visual Atlas, page 34 (Photo credit: Rob Swatski)[/caption]

Not sure why, but my right soleus seized up in the middle of the night, and now its really, really, sore.

Guess I should call it a sore-leus :P

I think I’ve managed to fix the problem with the sync on ZR2, but a consequence is that I lose around 4 of my runs.

Also, the base cannot continue being built because the “Spanners” which are used for building are only issued as part of Season 2 missions.

Evidently, Threshold Runs aren’t my strong point…

I just checked Endomondo and found my PB for 1 KM is 4 minutes 44 secs. Not brilliant, but a start. If I was to keep that speed, I’d clock a 5K in approx 25 minutes, a 10K in 50 minutes, and a Half Marathon in about 1 hour 45 minutes.

Better start working on my pace….

I’m trying to find an Android app that will notify me if I’m above/below/at target pace to help me with training for the Half Marathon. Whilst miCoach (which I use primarily) does this, it only does it once you’ve done an assessment run, and/or tweaked the pace zones yourself. I can use other apps such as Endomondo, RunKeeper, etc. to notify me of current and average pace based on time and/or distance travelled, but I’d like to know without having to wait for the next time/distance trigger.

Speaking of which, I might go back to myAsics training. Even though their app is crap, I could still make do with their training plan, and use Endomondo to monitor my pace. True, it won’t be accurate, but I guess I could set it to announce pace every five minutes.

Alright, I’m stopping playing Zombies Run until Six To Start sort out the sync bug. I’m going to backup the app, then uninstall it. On the plus side, since I’ve uninstalled it, I can also get rid of the music I downloaded onto my SD Card to work with it.

Tried to do an Assessment Workout before this run, and slightly impacted it (elevated heart rate at the start of the run). Also, burned out much more quicker this time as a result. I think I might do another one on my Thursday rest day. I aborted the Assessment Workout because it burned me out too quickly, although looking at the Assessment chart, it seems I should have tried to keep going….

No Zombies, Run! track, and there probably won’t be anymore, not until they sort out the synchronisation bug.

And here’s the actual run.

No ZR track since the new version has screwed up synchronization.

Picked up Endomondo again after a long while, so the track is here.

ZR Track here

ZR2 still doesn’t like to play nicely with Runkeeper. I wonder if I run JUST ZR2 without Runkeeper, if that will work. If it does, I’ll report that as a bug.

ZR Track here

RK Track here

Again, had trouble getting my heart rate up to Yellow Zone. I might do an assessment run sometime to reassess my zones.

Related articles

• How Heart Rate Training Has Saved My Running (rockthedogs.wordpress.com)

It would seem that the Zombies, Run! 2 app doesn’t play well with RunKeeper. My GPS tracks with RunKeeper when ZR2 is running are very ragged and the ZR2 app ran without GPS tracking, even though I know I did turn it on, because RK was running in the background. I guess I’ll have to turn on ZR first, then RunKeeper.

As for the actual app, though, the new base construction section is so far, a very interesting improvement, you use the supplies you have picked up on your runs to build it, like before, but this time, it takes multiple supplies to construct or upgrade building, and you can now extend your base and make it bigger. Perhaps even add more housing and buildings. At the moment, I’ve only added additional buildings – Comms and Farm, but we’ll see what happens in the future. I want to finish my second round of Season 1 missions before I start on Season 2, even though I’ve already downloaded all the available S2 missions.

Related articles

• Zombies, Run! 2 (blenderfox.com)
• App Review: Zombies, Run! (puregeekery.net)
• Zombies, Run! - Using the audio (blenderfox.com)
• Louisville's 'Zombie Run' to go on, despite Boston tragedy (wave3.com)
• App Review: Zombies, Run! (puregeekery.wordpress.com)
• Zombies, Run! 2 Adds New Missions and Modes, Is on Sale for 50% Off (lifehacker.com)
• Zombies, Run! 2 - More News (blenderfox.com)
• Zombies, Run! kicks off season 2 (tuaw.com)