Runmeter Story – Colleen Williams
I’m a 42 year old mother of three children. I’ve been running for three years and have been an avid Runmeter user for about half of that time. I considered investing in a GPS running watch, but decided to try out Runmeter instead. Since then, I always run with my iPhone, ear buds and Runmeter of course! One year ago I ran my very first marathon, with Runmeter as my training partner and coach. In March 2012, I ran the annual Around the Bay (ATB) event, held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which is one of the oldest races in North America. It’s a 30 km course that starts out flat for the first 20 km, and slowly becomes very vicious with hills for the last 10 km. It ends with a run into a stadium, where crowds in the stands cheer on finishing runners. It’s a little bit like the Olympic experience. I had Runmeter with me every step of the way. One of the things I love about this app is that it easily provides a pace versus elevation grid, which is an excellent tool for visual learners like me. In the grueling hills of the ATB course, one can easily see how the hill work affects pace. I scored a personal best time thanks to having Runmeter as my running partner and coach. My race time was 2:33:58. Next up, the Boston Marathon!
I’ve impressed many of my runner friends who watch me run with my iPhone, ear buds in, taking calls and fully utilizing the multitasking ability Runmeter offers. Being a busy mom who likes to log 2 to 4 hour runs on occasion, I really appreciate Runmeter’s ability to track my runs and allow me to answer phone calls if need be. Most importantly, my friends are impressed with the results I’m getting with Runmeter’s help! I’ve helped to sell so many Runmeter apps just by telling people about it, and by them seeing my results, my husband says I should own Abvio stock! Thanks for such a great app.
Route: Road To Hope
Activity: Run
Started: 2010-11-07 8:14:02 AM
Run Time: 3:48:41
Stopped Time: 0:41
Distance: 26.28 miles
Average Pace: 8:42 /mile
Fastest Pace: 7:24 /mile
Ascent: 149 feet
Descent: 553 feet
Calories: 2133
Official: Yes
April 5, 2012 at 5:44 pm | Running, Stories
Cyclemeter Story: Ben & Dan Howarth Cycle from London to Paris in a Day!
My 16 year old son Dan and I cycled from London to Paris in 23 Hours and 20 minutes as part of a team of 10 riders. Dan and I rode to raise funds for Streets2Homes.org, a charity for homeless people based in Harlow in the UK.
It all started last summer, when we rode our first century. After completing it, we decided we needed a bigger challenge in 2011! We dreamt up the London to Paris in 24 hours plan with a number of friends who had previously done LEJOG in just 5 days. We started training in November 2010, with the first group ride in on December 31. A lot of the initial training was done indoors on a set of homemade rollers, but as spring wore on we rode outside as soon as the daylight and weather would allow.
The team had a number of group training rides, including a memorable night ride from London to Dover to test out our route and our lights in the dark. After arriving in Dover, we roughed it in a hotel for what was left of the night and then cycled back to London after breakfast the following day.
Unfortunately, one of our team was run off the road and then assaulted by an angry driver. The assault was recorded on a helmet camera by one of the team, and the video went viral on YouTube and the mainstream media a few weeks later clocking up hundreds of thousands of hits: you may well have seen it! The video resulted in the driver’s conviction, which was a victory for justice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKB9V7MNEXY
Several of the team used Cyclemeter to log our training rides. It was particularly useful for keeping track of cumulative miles each week – but also very helpful navigating the GPX routes we pre-loaded on some of the long group training rides. The clear screens, intuitive layout and email / social networking integration were all invaluable for sharing ride status and letting our “cycling widows” know where we were!
On the evening of July 9, we set off on the ride itself. We departed from Marble Arch at 8:30pm and were waved off by a large group of well-wishers on the first leg down to Dover to catch the 3:20am ferry to Calais. After a brief nap on the ferry, we set out from Calais at 6:15am for the remaining 182 miles to Paris.
The final section of the ride was superb – we rode up the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées into the setting sun with the Arc de Triomphe ahead of us and big grins on our faces. We arrived at the Arc with 40 minutes to spare.
We broke the ride down into six stages of about 40 miles each – two on the UK side and four on the French side. We used the rest stops between to refuel and top off our water bottles. I used Cyclemeter running on my iPhone in a Wahoo Fisica ANT+ case on the handlebars throughout the ride. To keep my iPhone running for the full 24 hours, I used a 9.6Ah external battery pack mounted on the bike frame. The pack performed faultlessly and still had 25% capacity left when we got back to the UK.
Here are the Cyclemeter summaries from the UK and French legs:
Route: London to Dover
URL: http://j.mp/n1TxHt
Ride Time: 4:48:50
Stopped Time: 46:28
Distance: 77.73 miles
Average: 16.15 mph
Fastest Speed: 34.38 mph
Calories: 3525
Route: Calais To Paris
URL: http://j.mp/nspXE4
Ride Time: 11:17:34
Stopped Time: 3:20:09
Distance: 182.07 miles
Average: 16.12 mph
Fastest Speed: 34.97 mph
Calories: 8427
That’s a serious number of calories!
The full 265 miles went like a dream. We had good weather, a light tail wind, enthusiastic encouragement from drivers and pedestrians, no punctures, mechanical breakdowns or any other problems except for the back doors of the support van being left open after one stop just outside Paris. One of the team – an ex-Olympic rower – sprinted after the van and managed to catch up with it a mile or so later – Fortunately nothing fell out!
Dan managed to combine his training with revision for his GCSEs and came away with a great set of top grades, so his dedication certainly paid off. There are no official records, but at 16 years old, he may be the youngest rider ever to complete this route in less than 24 hours. Between us, Dan and I raised over £1,100 for Streets2Homes. The complete team raised more than £10,000 in total for several charities.
You can see more details of the ride, other riders’ stories and the charities we raised funds for at: http://londonparis24.co.uk
September 23, 2011 at 6:32 pm | Cycling, Stories
Runmeter Story: Marty Damrell Runs Boston!
I retired two years ago after serving 30 years in a small Colorado school district as a math teacher and technology director. I have been running for 25 years and have really enjoyed being able put a greater emphasis on running the last two years and improve all of my race times since retiring. I was never very fast but it is nice to still see improvement at 55 years of age and a big part of that is being able to use good tools in your training. Runmeter is a very important part of my training and racing in a number of ways. I have used other iPhone apps as well as a Garmin 305 and have found Runmeter to provide the best set of training features and Abvio has always been timely and friendly with any support issue or feature request. I believe that Abvio listens to their customers and makes every effort to add the features customers want.
To help me, my iPhone and Runmeter go with me on every run to provide accurate feedback on my training distance, speed, and time. I have a number of routes that I run on a regular basis and I can compare my progress on a daily basis or compete against my best performance. I have a few mountain routes that I ran several times during last summer and I am looking forward to running them again this summer to measure my progress. I have relied on the voice announcements during my long marathon training runs to keep me on the proper long run pace and have relied on the announcements during my marathon pace runs to keep me on my projected race pace. I am a geek at heart and love to combine my love of running with my love of useful technology. Hearing my pace and splits, seeing my data post-run, and recording and comparing my progress over time with Runmeter are now an integral part of my training. Good data can be a great motivator!
For my wife’s peace of mind, my iPhone and Runmeter go with me on every run to provide updates on progress and to identify my location. When I start each phase of my workout my wife receives an email with the route information and map link and she can follow my progress. I believe that the use of tracking for safety is one of the most underappreciated GPS tracking features in Runmeter. I know my wife appreciates the fact that she knows I’m still moving along on my training runs and I have been really appreciative of the proactive response from my biggest supporter when the weather turns ugly and I’m miles from home.
By the time I headed to Boston this spring I had 35 family and friends that wanted to follow my progress during the race. I decided that I would not listen to Runmeter during Boston, I would instead rely on the course mile markers and take in all of the sights and sounds of running Boston, but I wanted Runmeter to let my family and friends know how I was doing. I set Runmeter to email 35 people and to post to Facebook at the start of the race and when I was done. On race day I started Runmeter, tucked my iPhone into my iFitness belt, ran the race, and stopped the app shortly after finishing. Boston starts at 10:00 a.m. or 8:00 a.m. Colorado time and I had friends and family following me mile-by-mile. Runmeter was very reliable and accurate the entire race. I was surprised at how many comments I received via email or on Facebook immediately after the race. When I returned to Colorado I had a number of people who were not on my email list comment on my race because the map link had been forwarded on to them. I didn’t really think about it at the time but now I appreciate the fact that I had a number of supporters following my progress, they knew when things were going well and when things started to get tough. Letting friends and family follow you via Runmeter gives them a much greater insight into your race and allows you to share the good times and bad times. Runners and non-runners appreciate the data and map links that were made available to them on race day; they could be part of my Boston Marathon. Thanks again to Abvio for a great app!
Route: Boston Marathon
Google Maps URL: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/5a99/8dcf/4b54/9ad8/Runmeter-Run-20110418-1002.kml
Shortened Google Maps URL: http://j.mp/dYuKs2
Import URL: http://share.abvio.com/5a99/8dcf/4b54/9ad8/Runmeter-Run-20110418-1002.kml
Run Time: 3:13:59
Distance: 26.21 miles
Average: 7:24 /mile
Fastest Pace: 6:07 /mile
Ascent: 391 feet
Descent: 813 feet
May 9, 2011 at 6:20 pm | Running, Stories
Cyclemeter Story: J. D. Hollway
In February 2010 I had bariatric surgery…I lost about 100 pounds before I started cycling. I started using iPhone app Cyclemeter after a friend saw me cycling. Since then I have lost another 92 pounds! I am just an average joe, not a pro. I always hated to exercise, but I fell in love with biking. The Cyclemeter app works fantastically…I track my rides and everything I eat. I am 45 years old and have 4 boys, now we bike together and I’m going to live! My favorite feature is the tracking…breaking it down per mile and the calories. I average about 8 to 15 miles a day, five days a week..my longest ride was 48 miles. I will ride and use this app forever. I have turned a lot of my friends onto this app. The tech support is excellent!
January 18, 2011 at 8:30 am | Cycling, Stories
Cyclemeter Story: Liana Lehua
I had the privilege of being on a talented and hard-working relay team at the San Diego Triathlon Classic 2010. My duty was to “rock” the bike leg of the triathlon, which included 2 loops through the city and Naval Base at Point Loma.
Two of my long-time favorite Cyclemeter features, Google Maps sharing via Twitter and Facebook and audible playback, proved, once again, to be what helped me hammer up the moderately challenging hill (elevation gain approximately 300 feet) for each of the two loops required to complete the 25 mile course. There was one particularly memorable moment: on my second trek up the hill, as I felt my muscular endurance waning, I was passed by a guy just as a friend commented on my Cyclemeter update posted to my Facebook status, which was spoken to me out loud as:
“This is so freakin’ cool. You can do it!”
The cyclist slowed, on a hill mind you, to ask if I was on the phone. I said no and briefly told him about what he heard. He then asked, again climbing a hill, the name of the app. He said, “I’m going to have to check that out.” Too funny. I loved the encouragement at a time when I really needed it and that it prompted a mini-app overview during a race.
As a Sports Performance Coach, I appreciate the data I can export, analyze and do what needs to be done to improve my cycling. Both Cyclemeter and Runmeter have been integral tools in my training arsenal this year for the benefit of both my athletes and I. Comparative analytics at the level of detail Abvio provides is unmatched, especially splits, calendar sharing and the ability to export in several useful formats.
Thank you for continuing to build training and fitness applications driven by this awesome user community you’ve built.
By the way, my relay team placed third in the Open Women’s Relay Division. Yeah. We ROCKED it!
Route: San Diego Triathlon Classic
Activity: Cycle
Google
Maps URL: http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/dd2f/581d/4c82/a738/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20100918-0717.kml
Shortened Google Maps URL: http://j.mp/9mlM7c
Started: Sep 18, 2010 7:17:35 AM
Ride Time: 1:43:41
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 23.86 miles
Average: 13.81 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 34.55 miles/h
Climb: 676 feet
Calories: 0
Official Route: Yes
In Good Health,
Liana Lehua
September 22, 2010 at 10:37 pm | Cycling, Stories
Walkmeter Story – Robert Troccoli
On September 6, 2010, I began a six-day, 118-mile walk from Denver to Vail to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association Colorado Chapter, which I named the “Muir Wolfe Memory Walk” (MWMW). For the last five years, my dear friend Fred Wolfe had made this trek, solo, as a personal tribute to his father who passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2007. However, due to personal reasons, Fred was unable to make the trek this year. In order to carry on the tradition, and with Fred’s expert guidance, I completed the walk in his honor. Fred was able to join me on the first leg of the walk; however, I completed the remaining five days solo, with the accompaniment of my iPhone 4 and a wonderful application, Walkmeter.
I found the Walkmeter application in July just as I started training for MWMW. I used it to track all of my training walks – some 20 in total in the mountains of Colorado (from Loveland Ski Basin – up an over Loveland Pass (11,990 feet in elevation) to Keystone, Keystone to Frisco and Georgetown to Bakerville, in Maine while I climbed Mount Megunticook, and back in Colorado when I climbed Mount Bierstadt (one of Colorado’s fourteeners). Walkmeter worked like a charm! I especially liked the GPS feature and the way it connected with my Facebook page. In fact, my assistant printed out all of the maps, graphs (elevation, pace, etc.) for everyone to enjoy at my retirement party once I reached Vail. Facebook interaction kept my friends abreast of my progress, and the feature that actually speaks posts (in this case – words of encouragement) on Facebook through one’s iPhone was fantastic!!
I never lost reception during my trek, and now I have a record of my walk that raised more than $70,000 for Alzheimer’s (Colorado Chapter) and also celebrated my retirement from KPMG after 39 years.
Map of Robert’s Georgetown To Keystone Day 3 Route:
September 22, 2010 at 10:29 pm | Stories, Walking
Cyclemeter Story: Matthew Prieto
I just got back from a fantastic trip to Lake Tahoe California/Nevada and I wanted to email you about how FANTASTICALLY Cyclemeter performed. The latest update that added Auto-Stop to the app was exactly what I needed. The Tour de Tahoe ride was a perfect real world test for that feature. The ride had 6 stops, and since I also had two friends tag along it allowed me to pull into a rest stop and wait for them and not have to worry about stopping and restarting the counter. Cyclemeter is so efficient at utilizing the GPS signal, that my 7+ hour ride was entirely recorded on a single charge while listening to music and taking 82 pictures with HDR enabled.
At mile marker 20 (enabling the feedback at 10 miles and 1 hour), I was surprised to hear all of the responses via the auto-posting to Facebook. I enabled that feature with very little expectation. I was very surprised to hear the app read the comments to me in such a clear tone. Given it was a computer-based voice it was still very discernible. I also have auto-email enabled, which works flawlessly, along with Calender Sharing, which also works perfectly with my Exchange-enabled account. Thank you for a great product and allowing me the opportunity to use it. I also wanted to share the information that I received from the auto-email for ride completion:
Finished Ride: Sep 12, 2010 2:30:10 PM
Route: Tahoe – Bike The West
Google Maps URL:
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/2504/57f9/4ba8/3517/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20100912-0641.kml
Shortened Google Maps URL:http://j.mp/b1RtTI
Distance: 72.74 miles
Ride Time: 4:36:53
Calories: 3650
Thank you for making my life easier,
Matthew Prieto
See Matthew’s Lake Tahoe Ride embedded in a live Google Map to the right. Just zoom in, and Google Map will show the mile markers instead of the blue placeholders.
September 19, 2010 at 9:13 am | Cycling, Stories
Cyclemeter Story: Roger Bailey
Five friends and I just completed a cycling adventure in which we travelled the whole length of the UK from John O’Groats in Scotland to Lands End in Cornwall!!
I used your Cyclemeter application to keep all of my friends, family and work colleagues up to date on our progress and I have to say it worked perfectly! Everyone was amazed at the updates that Cyclemeter provided and how it kept people interested in our progress as we travelled across the country.
We all raised money for different charities amounting to more than £10,000!!
Here are the final brief stats from our ride as follows:
Journey Time – 12 Days
Distance Travelled – 931 miles
Elevation climbed – 33,000 feet – higher than Mt Everest!!
Calories burnt – 49,000
I would just like to thank all the people who helped develop this great application. I tested Cyclemeter out in some pretty severe rain and wind, yet it never faltered once!!
September 4, 2010 at 6:37 pm | Cycling, Stories
Runmeter Story: Quynn Morehouse
I love the Runmeter application for iPhone! I’ve been running with a Garmin GPS watch for years and this app is so much better. The GPS on the iPhone and Runmeter is so much more accurate than my Garmin. The app is fantastic. The way you can see your splits, see your route in a map format, look at prior runs and compare progress is awesome. I just started training for my 5th marathon and I hope to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Since using Runmeter, my runs have been getting faster and faster. Prior to using Runmeter, I wouldn’t have a sense as to how much faster I was running unless I did the calculation manually. It’s great to have feedback while you’re running so you know when you’re slower or faster than your average pace. I haven’t qualified for Boston yet, but when I do Runmeter will be the one to thank. This application is by far the best one I have on my iPhone. Thanks!!!
September 4, 2010 at 6:36 pm | Running, Stories
Cyclemeter Story: Barry Grabowski
I, and some fellow riders, recently completed the BC Cancer Foundation Ride to Conquer Cancer. This was a 250 kilometer ride from Vancouver, BC to Seattle, Washington, which took place over two days. It supports fundraising for the BC Cancer Agency, a leading research centre in Canada. We have been training for the ride since early March 2010. One of the first apps I installed on my iPhone was Cyclemeter, and I’ve been using it ever since to track our training rides so we could see our progress as the distance of our rides increased. Just being able to visualize our rides on a map made it easier for us to appreciate our gains and give us continued confidence to go farther and ride longer.
At one of our fundraisers, we had supporters guess our accumulated training mileage and Cyclemeter was a cool way to verify to everyone how much we had accomplished.
I think the app is great and I’m looking forward to the next upgrade to Cyclemeter.
September 4, 2010 at 6:34 pm | Cycling, Stories
