Tag: Apps

Strava App Review – My Favorite Bike Riding App

August 18, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Strava App Review
On most of my bike rides, before we even leave the parking lot, someone invariably says “Strava On?”

It’s become like a mantra. The bike riding (and running) app was originally designed for competitive people who really like to see how fast they are doing a similar course compared to others. I like to use it to document rides. (I guess you can use swim also, but I’ve never tried that.)

I don’t use it as much of challenge but more like documentation or logging my rides. I love looking back over the years of riding and remembering the fun we’ve had.

On this past Saturday, I rode my favorite ride. It’s a large circle that we affectionate call the “Kent Loop.”

It hardly goes into Kent, Ohio at all, just the outer edge. It’s the southern part of the Bike Hike Trail for Summit Metro Parks. If you click through on these links, you’ll see how great this route is! We are so very lucky to have so many trails.

One reason I really like this route: about 70% is on a bike trail, 25% on pretty neighborhood streets and only 5% along or crossing large highway (4 or 5 lane monsters.) Most of them have a cross walk.

The Strava app keeps track of your moving time, so if you’re like me and like to take breaks to drink water or talk a bit, it captures your moving time, not just how long you are out riding. I also like tracking the calories and the elevation. The Watts for average power kind of aludes me, or I guess I don’t care about it as much, since I’m mostly riding for fun and secondarily for the exercise.

Strava lets me document with photos, elevation, speed, the map, and I can text changes to the route.

One of my fastest sections is along a 1 mile flat area that has a hill down from the crossing road. I’ve done this section 55 times, first starting in 2012.

Someone has named various sections of the Kent Loop and this section is called SPRINT! so I guess lots of people like to ride fast along here.

I know from tracking all these rides that I like to ride a little over 11 miles per hour. I’m happiest as a casual ride, chatting and enjoying the wildflowers along the trail.

The SPRINT! section is also one of my running and walking routes. Loyal readers may remember these flowers from last fall!

If you are a bike rider, you probably already know about and use Strava to document and log your rides. If not, give it a try and see if you like it. I used to use MapMyRide and have also tried RideWithGPS. I sometimes use Charity Miles too, but they all offer different features.

Why I Like the Strava App:

With Strava I can connect with friends and give them “kudos.” There’s a friend from Rhode Island who started riding later in life, and we support each other with our bike riding.
I like to look back a prior years and see when was the last time I did this route
If I’m looking for a “new” but familiar route, I can quickly flip back to see my rides
Uploading the photos was a cool way to further jog my memory
It’s easy to let the phone log my rides. Much easier than jotting down on a paper or entering into the computer.
Tracking helps me know how “prepared” I am for a longer or more difficult ride. It gives me confidence.

Do you track your rides or runs with an app? Ever tried Strava? What do you like, or not like, about it? Let me know by leaving a comment below, sending an email to Chris@becomingelli.com or calling 330-970-6662.

Three Ways to Get Motivation in Winter

February 3, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

The first weekend in February in Ohio is about halfway through the winter. This is the time of year have to I look for ways to find more motivation to stay with my intentions of being fit, strong and healthy throughout the winter.

I guess I blame the weather.

Winter in Northeast Ohio usually means grey, overcast skies that blend into white and grey half melted snow. Most of the winter, my instincts are to get cozy on the couch with a good book/movie, a warm blanket and eat something with high calories, lots of rich food. When I fight that “instinct” and get out in the fresh air, get some exercise and engage some endorphins, I always feel tons better.

If there are warm air and sunny, blue skies, I just feel like getting up and moving. Motivation is not a problem, but I know I can’t wait for blue skies to take care of myself! For most of the winter, I look for ways to psych myself out and get myself motivated.

Here are three ways I am motivating myself this winter to exercise and eat healthy:

1) Exercise Buddy – If I try to go it alone, it’s easy to skip a workout. Finding a partner to work out with gives me accountability. Even if my friend isn’t working out with me, we send emails and texts back and forth for work out motivation. Having a friend in person, either at the gym or going for a walk really helps. Setting an appointment with a personal trainer definitely helps. My gym has a buddy program that started a couple of weeks ago and I am getting to know someone new at my gym while making a point to show up. The last few weeks have really upped my exercise totals for the week and I attribute this to having a buddy.

2) Food Challenge – I’m finding ways to eat more food that is nutrient dense (not calorie dense.) Luckily, I’m in the early stages of a weekly vegetable challenges. Maybe you are too? If not, it’s not to late to join in the fun! The Becoming Elli community veggie challenge is to find one new vegetable a week — or at least prepare a vegetable in a new way — and it challenges me to look more closely at the produce. I had several eggplants in my hands this past week, but didn’t buy one. Here is my “new” way of cooking cabbage with turmeric and thyme.

Turmeric, Thyme, Salt and Pepper. Cabbage cut into slices. Underneath: Mushrooms slices. baby Carrots, coarse chopped Celery, sliced Green Peppers. Cup of water. Pork roast – outside seared before going into the crockpot.

I forgot to take a photo of the final product. Basically it was a mushy stew kind of meal and not especially photogenic, if you know what I mean.

3) Helping others – My personality type is more motivated to help someone else, than to help myself by exercising. I don’t know why. Getting involved in the MS bike ride each summer has really helped to get and keep me in shape. Now I have found another way to contribute called “Charity Miles” which is an app you can download. It tracks your mileage for walking, running or biking (you need your phone with you when you do the activity.) Various corporate donors have pledged to contribute money to the charity of my choice (in this case the MS Society) based on the number of miles I complete. I’m not exactly sure how much they donate for each mile because Charity Miles divides the money between all the charities at the end of every term. I think the corporations are counting on people sharing the images via social media. But my motivation is to help others and I find that doing this helps me to do more miles than I would have otherwise. So its a win/win/win.

How do you motivate yourself? Do you have ways that you struggle with winter workouts? What tricks to you use when you don’t feel like eating right?

Training with Your Smart Phone– Fitness Apps

February 21, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 10 Comments

Today I’m thinking about fitness apps. In one of our recent podcasts, I made the comment that I like to be told what to do for my workouts. Sometimes I use a personal trainer to keep me on track. That’s not always an option and not everyone has the resources for hiring a trainer or doesn’t have a trainer close by. Of course, you can figure out something to do on your own but if you’re like me, and want that little bit of extra guidance, what do you do?

I realized this weekend that I have several apps on my phone that I use for workout routines so I thought I’d share some of them with you. Presumably, most of us have found different apps so please feel free to share the ones you like in the comments below. The ones that I’m listing are free though many of them have premium membership if you’re willing to pay a fee.

I’ve always used an Android phone so these apps are all available in the Google Play Store. I’m assuming most of them are also available for the iPhone.

Mixed Training

Fitbit Coach: This is part of the Fitbit family. It provides a wide range of workouts with instructions, including times and ratings of easy, medium, and hard. (I noticed some easy mediums and medium hards in there too.) Obviously, Fitbit is best known for counting steps but Fitbit Coach includes both strength and cardio workouts. There’s a lot of good advice in this one.

SparkPeople provides a lot of training videos and exercise routines. I tend to think of this site as more of a weight loss site but they provide exercises. SparkPeople does have an app so you’re not tied to a desktop.

Strength

7 Minute Workout: This app is put out by Wahoo Fitness and is meant to be used with their heart rate equipment but you can download and use this app without any equipment. This is a basic full-body workout that can easily be done at home. If you have seven minutes, do this. If you have 14 minutes, do it twice.

Scientific 7 Minute Workout: This is the app that I believe New York Times promoted. This includes options to set the length of breaks between exercises. It also is a basic full-body workout. In fact, I think these two 7 minute workout apps have the exact same workout. You can check out both apps. I noticed that this one has a fair amount of advertising in it but also has a timer and the ability to set it to multiple rounds.

Stronglifts 5×5: This app is a good option if you want to do the standard lifts. It is designed to do five main lifts in sets of five:

squat
deadlift
bench press
row
overhead press

This app asks you a few start up questions and then:

tells you what to do
suggests the weight to use
provides instructions on how to do the lifts
tracks your workouts too
recommends you when to increase the weight.

JEFIT: This app has a wider range of workouts than the 5×5. The beginner routine follows a traditional weight lifting schedule of days divided into:

chest and triceps
back, biceps, and forearm
shoulders and legs
abs

This app tracks what you do and provides instructions on how to do the lifts. You can find workouts of increasing difficulty. I think this is an excellent choice for those us looking for something to use in the gym.

Running

Get Running is a couch to 5K type app published by Splendid Things. I used this app to learn how to run. It really worked even though I had to repeat weeks sometimes because I wasn’t ready to progress. So, instead of taking 12 weeks, it probably took me closer to 18 weeks to run for 30 minutes straight. I love the woman’s voice on this: she has a charming British accent and is enthusiastic without being mushy. She also doesn’t speak all the time. As the runs get longer, you hear her less often. I keep this app because I find it useful now for running intervals. Plus I just like her voice.

RunKeeper tracks your runs but also includes training programs that you can access from your phone. You can select different distances that you’re training for and get a plan.

Map My Run lets you (you guessed it!) map your run. You can track your runs and get feedback on your performance.

Strava lets you track bike rides and running. It also provides a social media service; you can see your friends’ workouts and update your own via your Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, or other sports watch.

This is a pretty good sized list and now that I’ve made it, I begin to understand why the guy at the phone store once called me the Queen of Apps. However, I suspect my list is a drop in the bucket, so feel free to share the apps that you like. These are great ways to track your performance and get lots of support, regardless of your sport.