If you see me sprinting along the pier, it’s only because I’m being chased by zombies
So, I totally thought that I’d written a blog posting about this before, but apparently not. Sometimes I compose blog postings in my brain when I’m not in a position to write stuff down and then forget that I never actually wrote them down ((I’m *still* waiting for that mind reading app!)). Clearly, this is one of those situations.
One of my favourite apps is the “Zombies, Run!” app ((As per usual, I have no affiliation with the makers of this app. I just really like it and want to share!)). The basic idea behind the app is that it tracks your running while you listen to a story where you are a character in a zombie apocalypse. The other characters are from your home base and are talking to you over a radio headset (their voices conveniently brought to you through the headphones of your phone) as you go out into the zombie-infested world on supply runs, rescue missions, and the like. There are some parts where they are talking to you – say, for example, giving you instructions of where to run and what supplies to grab when you get there – and then other parts where you just listen to your music – where you are just running to the specified location. If you want to do some interval training, you can select a setting where, during the parts where you are listening to your music, you can be chased by zombies. You’ll get a warning: “Zombies, 50 metres!” and then you have to start sprinting to some speed faster than you were running ((Maybe 10% faster? Or 1 minute per km faster? I can’t quite remember.)) and you have to keep up the sprint for some time ((I think maybe it’s a minute?)) in order to evade the horde. If you aren’t going fast enough, you’ll hear “Zombies, 20 metres!” accompanied by the groans of the undead. No matter how tired, I am, I always seem to have the energy to sprint when I hear those groans!
I like this app for several reasons – first and foremost, the story is just interesting. It’s well written and well acted. Since I want to hear what happens next in the story, it motivates me to want to go out for a run! And once I’m out running, I can lose myself in the story and not pay so much attention to physical act of running – I just get into the zone and keep going. Second, it makes interval training fun. I usually listen to the app when I’m running along the pier – I figure that’s safer than running on streets where I might inadvertently end up running out into traffic to avoid an undead horde. And I really do sprint hard when I hear those zombie moans. One time I was out running along the pier and a zombie chase happened just as I saw a friend of mine walking – ordinarily I’d stop to say “hello”, but I just took off on a sprint! (Fortunately, I saw her again when I was running back and could tell her why I’d sprinted away!). I also find myself looking at my surroundings in a different way – could a zombie be hiding in that bush? Are those slow walking people up ahead alive or undead? Who is in that helicopter overhead ((I never really noticed it before I started using this app, but a surprising number of helicopters fly over New West.))?
There’s a whole other side to the game where, as you are running, you pick up items along the way – maybe some batteries or canned foods or, for some reason, sports bras. If this app is to be believed, the landscape of a zombie apocalypse will be littered with sports bras. I believe you can log in to their website and do something with all the virtual goods you collect, but I honestly have no idea how any of that works.
Although the app does track your runs, I still track my apps on Runkeeper ((Criminy. I appear to have never written a blog posting to review Runkeeper either! I was sure I had! Guess that’s going on the list of things to write!)) simultaneously, as I don’t do all my runs using the zombie app and I want to have all my runs recorded in the same place.
I’m currently on episode 6 of season 2 – which is 40 episodes long, plus 24 side missions ((You can buy just the regular episodes or the episodes + side missions.)). Season 3 is going to be released in April ((omg, April starts in 2 days?? Where is the year going??)), so clearly I need to do some running to catch up!
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