Anyone up for a run?

Dason

Dason

Ambassador to the humans
#1
#1
So I don't know how many runners we have in our nice little community here but I've been trying to exercise on a regular basis. I thought I'd start a thread and give a small little challenge. On another forum I frequent they have a "Run 10,000 miles" thread but I think that would take forever with the size of our forum. So to get us started (and to gauge the interest level in something like this) I propose a starting challenge of "Run 100 miles" (I know it's a silly measure of distance but it's what I'm used to). We'll see how long that takes us to do and then gauge what a reasonable goal would be.

So without further ado I'll start us off. Now I'm actually just about to go on my run so I'll put down what I plan on doing and then if I need to I'll edit it later. Format should follow
Previous Total + Your Run = Current Total

0 + 2.5 = 2.5 miles (4.02336 km)


Edit (by TheEcologist): I hope you don't mind, Dason, I added SI units to your post. Motivation: it's the standard in science [SI units] and for most of us on the forum. Finally - best argument yet - kilometers look so much more impressive (for the rest of us "Run 100 miles" would mean run 160.9344 km) .. indeed they look about 60% more impressive :p
 
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TheEcologist

TheEcologist

Global Moderator
#2
#2
Dason said:
So I don't know how many runners we have in our nice little community here but I've been trying to exercise on a regular basis. I thought I'd start a thread and give a small little challenge. On another forum I frequent they have a "Run 10,000 miles" thread but I think that would take forever with the size of our forum. So to get us started (and to gauge the interest level in something like this) I propose a starting challenge of "Run 100 miles" (I know it's a silly measure of distance but it's what I'm used to). We'll see how long that takes us to do and then gauge what a reasonable goal would be.
Click to expand...
Challenge accepted.

Dason said:
So without further ado I'll start us off. Now I'm actually just about to go on my run so I'll put down what I plan on doing and then if I need to I'll edit it later. Format should follow
Previous Total + Your Run = Current Total
Click to expand...
Oke so I'm a boxer, and run at least once a week next to training. I'll jump in now as well. Same format
My Previous Total + Your Run = Current Total only blue indicates SI km for those that don't live the US of A

0 + 5.12 km(0 + 3.1814205 miles)


I measure my distance with the gps in my smartphone and the free app runkeeper.


Dason's edit to update: 4.02 + 5.12 = 9.14km (5.7 miles)

Personal Total: 5.12 km
 
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Dason

Dason

Ambassador to the humans
#3
#3
I ran another 2.5 miles (4.02 km) (it's been a while).

I'd like to keep the format going so I'll edit it later but I'm not sure exactly how you formatted yours TheEcologist. Did you run 5.12 km? If that's the case I would have expected to see 4.02 + 5.12 = 9.14 km.

I was planning on keeping track of my personal total as well but the idea being that the goal is a goal for the entire community. If you want to make it a race (first to 160km then that might even be more motivation but might discourage others from joining up later...)

5.7 + 2.5 = 8.2 miles (13.19 km)

Personal Total: 5 miles
 
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trinker

trinker

ggplot2orBust
#4
#4
Just saw the post. I'm up for the challenge. In honor of the challenge I wrote a piece of [R] code to assist us in the task so we have no excuse for not getting our exercise. I don't know how many times I've used the excuse "I couldn't exercise because computing the metric conversions was too exhausting." Am I alone here? I think not. So Dason this is for you:

For those who use standard units:

Code: 
DASONs.challenge<-function(previous.miles,new.miles){
total<-previous.miles+new.miles
km<-total*1.609
cat("\nPrevious Total:",previous.miles,"miles.  Run Length:",new.miles,"miles.  Current Total:",total,"miles(",km,"km).\n\n\n")
cat(previous.miles,"+",new.miles,"=",total,"miles(",km,"km)\n")
}
And for our metric friends:

Code: 
DASONs.challenge<-function(previous.km,new.km){
total<-previous.km+new.km
km<-total
total<-total/1.609
previous.miles<-previous.km/1.609
new.miles<-new.km/1.609
cat("\nPrevious Total:",previous.miles,"miles.  Run Length:",new.miles,"miles.  Current Total:",total,"miles(",km,"km).\n\n\n")
cat(previous.miles,"+",new.miles,"=",total,"miles(",km,"km)\n")
}
 
I

interestednew

New Member
#5
#5
1) can we keep this in miles
2) whats the current total

Ill add 2 miles from today

8.2 + 2 = 10.2 miles (16.41 km)

PT: 2 miles
 
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Dason

Dason

Ambassador to the humans
#6
#6
I'll try to keep a running tally in both miles and kilometers. If you don't feel like converting to kilometers for that running total I'll come along and edit your post to have the kilometers as well.

I wish I could tell you the running total but I'm not sure about TheEcologist's post so once he clears that up we'll get everything updated.
 
bryangoodrich

bryangoodrich

Probably A Mammal
#7
#7
I'm American. I don't do kilos!

December 2012 will be a decade since my last marathon. I plan to run the California International Marathon then. I'm rehabilitating a messed up (arthritic?) knee, though. I ran 1.6 miles yesterday, and a bit over one mile two days before that. So, I'll accept this challenge and put me down for 2.75! I'm moving this weekend, so I won't have an update for a couple of days, probably. Not because I won't have internet, but because moving is a workout in itself!

10.2 + 2.75 = 12.95 miles (20.84 km)

PT: 2.75 miles
 
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Dason

Dason

Ambassador to the humans
#8
#8
Awesome! Looks like we have a few people interested now. Don't worry about not updating over the weekend but hopefully we can keep each other motivated.
 
trinker

trinker

ggplot2orBust
#9
#9
Oh I get it... I think what theEcologist, and definitely I, didn't understand is this is a whole group challenge, not an individual effotrt. I'm game!
 
Dason

Dason

Ambassador to the humans
#10
#10
What would everybody prefer? A "first to 100 miles" challenge where the winner gets all the glory or a community effort to get there? 100 miles isn't really that far (the other place I did this it was a challenge to 10,000 miles) but I didn't know how many people would be interested.
 
I

interestednew

New Member
#11
#11
My vote is a community effort because in some sense this forum is a community effort to learn statistics. Keeping in that spirit I think we should set a community goal of 2500 miles. Anyone second it? Depending on how many people join in I figure it will take us between 1 and 2 years.
 
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Dason

Dason

Ambassador to the humans
#12
#12
I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep the goal where it is right now. The reason I set it that low was that for a small amount of people it shouldn't take long at all to reach but it'll give us a trial period where we can see how many people are actually participating. So at the end of this challenge we'll actually have some data to use to create a more reasonable challenge. We wouldn't want to set an actual challenge too low so that it gets completed in a month but we don't want to set it so high that it would take 10 years to complete. 100 miles is easy enough for a very small group of people to get done with quite quickly but it still wouldn't take 1-2 people too long to finish either so I figured it would be a good way to gauge interest.


Edit: I updated the previous posts that added runs - let me know if I messed something up.

Post Edit: I wouldn't mind having personal challenges as well. We could probably do it within the same thread. My thought is that we would keep the overall challenge a community one but possibly have weekly/monthly personal challenges to see who can collect the most distance in the allotted time. That way new comers are still contributing to the community goal and if they're here when we start a new personal challenge they still have a chance to win it.
 
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Dason

Dason

Ambassador to the humans
#15
#15
Looks like while I was making those edits a few posts happened. So check the edits at my previous post if you happened to miss them.

I also added personal totals to each post as well so that along with the community effort you can keep track of how much you've added. Don't feel like you have to keep track of your personal total if you don't want to.
 
bryangoodrich

bryangoodrich

Probably A Mammal
#16
#16
Awesome. When I get back in shape I should be aiming for some 20 to 30 miles a week :D Glad you'll be keeping track of the totals! I wonder if there's some kind of counter we can plaster on the front page or something. Not only would it get recognition, it might motivate more involvement.
 
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