Day 6: 5.9 miles – run through Bosc-Hyons, Normandy (London To Moscow Run) 101.7 miles complete

Going well today. Added almost 6 miles running through the countryside. You can see on the map below the section that I ran today.

I have decided to mix things up a little bit. I deviated on the route a bit – I was getting a bit bored of the road, and I also changed the way that I was measuring my running distance. I used my Pebble watch along with a new app called AeroTrackerPro – which helpfully allows me to start and stop the running tracking from my watch, and automatically syncs to both Strava and Runkeeper.

I am experimenting with Strava, and running it in parallel with Runkeeper – an app that has served me well over the last 2 years. The reason for the change? Well, three things.

Firstly, I want to try out Strava because it has “segments” that you can analyse your running time over… basically, just repeat and repeat and see how you stack up against other runners and yourself.

Secondly, I accidentally turned off my running watch yesterday, which meant that I had to manually input my route in last night. I hate missing data. This new app has a protection feature built in so that you don’t accidentally turn it off. The timer has to be paused, and then a long press, and then a short press to confirm. That’s pretty solid.

Thirdly, it is very easy to get stuck in a rut and not look around at other options. So, I like to test whether I am still using the best tools for the job. Yes – I know that a dedicated GPS watch is good. I have one… but frankly, they are pretty useless in cities at keeping satellite lock – and therefore accuracy tends to be poor. Whereas, linking my pebble to my phone means I can use a combination of wifi, network signal and GPS to get a location. Much better. I use a Garmin 305 – usually when I am on a run – outside of the city.

How did I get on? Great actually. Only problem was that at first I thought I was overmeasuring – but then realised it was in metric rather than imperial…. I wondered why I was doing 5 minute miles! 😉 Other than changing the setting, it worked really well. It also allows me to change the stats that are shown on the three line screen. It is possible to choose from pace, distance, split times, time, last minute pacem elevation. It’s fabulous.

Here is a link to the app – http://aeropilotapps.com/aerotrackerpro.html and I used it with my Pebble https://getpebble.com/

So, closer to Paris, and loving it! Oh, ran into another runner today – Nina. She was out for a run before work. Runners in France are much more sociable than the ones that I see on my run into work in London.

Anyone else noticed that?