Today’s post is about all about getting inspired, connecting, and…RUN!!!!

Inspirational Running

Amanda at “Runninghood” (as in motherhood) is a great blogger to read if you run, parent, like to laugh, or all of the above. She’s a former teacher who has shared some really great ideas like starting a gratitude jar with your kids, and who wrote very transparently about her grueling experience at the overheated 2012 Boston Marathon in Sparrow magazine. She’s just published her review and giveaway of my Spinning Meals app and will be giving away a $50 Whole Foods gift card and a $20 iTunes gift card which I’ve contributed, after the giveaway closes Wednesday night. Head over to the giveaway post, make a couple entries (odds are favorable), and you could be the lucky winner.

Running A New Version: Spinning Meals 1.1

Spinning Meals 1.1 was released last week and includes features and enhancements you’ve asked for including: photos, online recipe sharing (facebook or twitter), planning for more than 7 days, moving shopping list items around, emailing your meal plan, and streamlined workflow for adding recipes and meals.

We launched the app three months ago, and the whole thing has been quite a journey. By far the best part has been connecting with people who have discovered the app and are seeing it change their eating and planning habits. Along those lines, please comment below or connect by email (wecare at spinningmeals.com) and let me know what else you’d like to see the app do, as we continue to improve and extend it.

Why I’m Running From Zombies

Collecting items in Zombies, Run! allows you to build up your virtual township, giving you a sense of perceived progress to go along with the real progress you are making in your health and fitness but can’t immediately see!

What do zombies have to do with any of this? Well, that is the topic that ties these two threads together: running, and apps with zombies. Naturally.

Yes it’s real, and serious business. There truly is a new running app which talks to you through the headphones to make you think you’re being chased by zombies in a post-apocalyptic world, motivating you to run faster and longer. Some of the gameplay is quite impressive actually, mashing together the concepts of interval training sprints, with game theory elements such as: goods accumulation, measurable achievement, adaptive difficulty, meaningful goals, and of course fun. So as you run along in zombie-infested areas, you pick up supplies which you bring back to base…unless you’re caught up to by sprinting zombies who take your stuff. Motivating? It’s all in your head of course, so it can be if you let it.

Running Towards Reality

If this sounds silly to you then you’re probably in the majority, and that’s fine – you’re probably more balanced than the rest of us! But so far it’s been a fun experiment for me, as I’ve never been good at running for running’s sake. More importantly, I love the innovation which we are now seeing around every turn. Some software/app/website ideas will fade into memory and others will stick around, as technology finds ways to have a positive impact on our real lives. I certainly hope that’s the case for Spinning Meals. How do you feel about apps like “Zombies, Run!”? What new technology inspires you, and what falls flat on its face in your own experience? Please tell me in the comments. Happy Running!