Season 2, Mission S2: Headcount

2.41 miles – 45:48 min – 19:00 min/mile

In which Janine goes on a run and attempts to take a census of people living in the area around Abel, with results about as you'd expect. Heh.

The weather was very nice for a change, sunny and in the low- to mid-50s. I took off my jacket after the first couple of laps and could have had a short-sleeved shirt on. The road was pretty dry, just a few damp spots but no slippery areas. It's supposed to stay clear for the rest of the week so running/walking should be pretty good.

There were no chases today, but I did try to run every third lap. (Since I cannot seem to count from one to two while running laps, I'm not sure I always did two laps walking between one lap running, but I probably got it right most of the time.) My recorded pace was slow, but I think that's mostly because I was pumping water while I was running and had to go to the shed to turn the generator on and off in the middle of the mission. My little road map is all over the place. The GPS can't keep up when I'm cutting back and running small loops around the shed and such.

Nine Inch Nails recently released two ambient albums for free, Ghosts V and VI, so I put them on my phone in a playlist and used them for running today. Very nice being-chased-by-zombies music! I need to put together a few more running playlists and download some more music to my phone. I had it all set up on my old phone, but haven't gotten around to doing it on the new phone yet. I've got 256 GB on this phone, as opposed to 16 GB on the old phone, so plenty of room for music!

I'm going to try to get up early to go grocery shopping on Wednesday, so will probably run/walk when I get back.

Friday walk 30 min

Today's walk was accompanied by the hold music at my pharmacy, where I'm trying to get a prescription refilled. I was going to wait and walk after I got that taken care of, but I've been on hold for 1 hour 40 minutes now and I decided not to wait. So I plugged the phone into my headphones and went out to walk, while listening to the same music repeat over and over and the operator tells me the next available assistant will assist me.

The road wasn't too bad today, but there were some slippery spots on the back corner. It snowed maybe an inch Wednesday night and again a little bit last night but it melts off pretty quickly and the days have been clear or partly cloudy. But the road stays a bit muddy and slippery.

Still, another week done!

Season 2, Mission S1: Canada

2.30 miles – 43:15 minutes – 18:46 min/mile

Well, the weather was nice today, contrary to the weather report. Clear and mostly sunny. The driveway was dry all the way around for a change. Now they're saying rain and snow this afternoon. With luck it will be dried up again by Friday for my next mission.

There was one zombie chase at 13 minutes, which I evaded after they got within 50 meters. I also ran maybe two of the laps. So, continuing to get faster and stronger, little by little. 

Today's mission was a funny one, for a change. With a guest appearance by Margaret Atwood!

Season 1, Mission 23: Aftermath

1.84 miles – 34:45 minutes – 18:54 min/mile

Rained and snowed last night and the driveway was a mess this morning, but I went out and did my walk anyway. Go me! Fortunately, there weren't any zombie chases, because the road was pretty slippery. But for walking it was doable. It's supposed to rain and snow Wednesday and Thursday again, so we'll just have to wait and see how bad the road gets. As long as I can stay on my feet, I will keep walking!

Finished Season 1 today! Just checked, and there are a ton of Season 2 side missions, which I haven't done. Maybe I'll do those next, and proceed to Season 3 after that.

Once the weather gets decent, and we're allowed out in public again, I'd like to start going to the park once a week again to run. Try to get trained up to finally do that Halloween Virtual Race I'd signed up for in 2018. I still have the race envelope here with the finisher's medal and stuff. I don't think I ever opened it — waiting until I finished the race!

... Oh, wow! I was just clicking around the app and saw that they have "Zombies, Stay Inside!" Lockdown Workouts with indoor exercises you can do while listening to Sam on comms. That's awesome! I'm fortunate that I can still go outside to run, since I live in the middle of nowhere on five acres, but for people who are stuck inside, they can still use the app. That's great!

Season 1, Mission 22: Horde

2.14 miles – 40:02 minutes – 18:41 min/mile

All right, I got my time under 19 min/mile! Heh. Today's mission was 40 minutes long. I considered shortening the time, but then I figured, what the heck, I can do 40 minutes. It will make up a bit for not running on Monday. And it was actually no problem. I even decided to run a couple of the laps while I was at it.

I had one zombie chase, at 25 minutes, which I evaded without them getting close. I was a bit concerned about the condition of the driveway, since it went and rained and snowed again yesterday, and it was still a bit squishy and slippery, but not enough to interfere. Even on the zombie chase, which I was running at higher speed, my footing was fine.

One more mission in Season 1. I thought I'd finish this week, but the weather wasn't cooperating. We're still supposed to get more rain and snow next week, so who knows how it will go, but I will be out there on the driveway if I can.

California's officially under lockdown since yesterday. I'm glad I live in the middle of nowhere, where I can still go out and run around my driveway without seeing another soul. It's kind of weird, running in a fictional zombie apocalypse while an actual pandemic is happening.

Wednesday

30 minutes walk

Well, as I feared, the weather this week has been interfering with my exercising. Heavy rain and snow on Monday meant no walking/running. However, I did spend some time dragging the ladder up to the house, scraping snow out of the internet and TV satellite dishes, and Tuesday I dragged the ladder back down to the shed to scrape the snow off the solar panels. I call that exercise! The good thing is that I felt really strong and able while I was doing all that snow scraping. The exercise has really been helping, even though I didn't think it was.

So today, I put on an old pair of leather sneakers and went out to see how the driveway was. It's still pretty muddy and slick in places, but I was able to do 30 minutes of brisk walking, so go me! I didn't put on my running clothes, or use the Zombies, Run! app, which somehow makes me feel like it wasn't a "real" exercise session, but I walked just as fast and just as I do on the missions, so it counts.

The weather's supposed to stay clear for the rest of the week, so I should be able to get back to the zombies on Friday

Season 1, Mission 21: Siege

1.81 miles – 33:04 minutes – 18:18 min/mile

Did my third mission of the week on Saturday instead of Friday, since I had to leave early yesterday for an appointment, plus it had rained on Thursday and the road was still wet, and my Saturday plans were cancelled anyway. I don't like postponing runs, because I tend to keep postponing them until they just don't get done, but for this week it worked out well. The road was dry enough that I didn't have to worry about slipping and there was no need to get up early to run.

I keep saying "runs" when they're actually walks — although I did get one chase today, at 11 minutes. I didn't try to run at top speed, just kept a good pace, and evaded just after the zombies reached 50 meters. So that bumped my average speed up. Even my second split was a bit faster than usual, so I guess I am getting stronger, even though I don't feel much like it.

I will probably continue like this for next week as well, walking except for chases. It's supposed to rain off and on next week, so the driveway might be muddy at times, but we'll just see how it goes.

Two more missions in Season 1. I'm tempted to re-do Season 2 as well, since I don't really remember much of what happened in it. I suppose I can catch up by reading the mission threads on Rofflenet. If I keep re-starting the story every time I take a long break, I will never get past the first couple of seasons!

Season 1, Mission 20: Listen In

1.81 miles – 34:34 minutes – 19:03 min/mile

Turns out Mission 20 downloaded after all. When I checked last night, it was there. That's good, because I don't think my email to support went through. Whole app was glitchy on my last run, but it looks like it's okay now. Probably just needed to be restarted.

No zombie chases today, again, which is just as well — it poured down rain all day yesterday, and the driveway had some muddy spots, especially on the southwest corner, where it was soft and slippery. It was okay for walking, as long as I was careful, but I wouldn't have wanted to try to run on that part. I considered turning the chases off for today's run, but decided not to bother, seeing as how I was rarely getting any chases anyway. I figured if I did get one, I'd just hope it was around the part of the driveway that wasn't slippery, and if it was, I'd just do my best.

I got a late start today, but it was still 47F and cloudy when I went out just before noon, so it was fine to be walking in the middle of the day. When summer comes around, I'll have to be more diligent about getting up and out early, but for now, at least it's not too hot. This Friday, though, I've got to leave at 9:45 am for an appointment in Bakersfield, so I'll have to make sure to get up by 7:30 am. Supposed to be snow next Monday and Tuesday so we'll see how that affects my runs next week.

Only three more missions in this season. Then it's on to Season 3, finally! The story is up to Season 8 now, I'm way behind. So I guess I won't have to worry about running out of story for a long time.

Season 1, Mission 19: An Unimportant Mission

1.53 miles – 29:21 minutes – 19 min/mile

Had a bit of a glitch on this morning's run. I turned the zombie chases up to 4.9/hour (because I couldn't get the slider to land on 5), and I did get one chase — when I'd barely done one lap, and was not even remotely warmed up! Still, I started running, and was doing all right, when I got to the point where the chase should be ending, and the beeps that mean the zombies are on your tail stopped, but I didn't get the message "Zombies evaded." I kept running for a bit, then came to the hill in front of the house and couldn't run any more, so I started walking again. Still nothing from the app. So I checked, and the mission had stopped. I told it to resume and carried on from there, but I ended up with two run logs for today — one for the first 2:44 minutes, and one for the remaining 26:37. The zombie chase didn't get logged, it must have stopped right at the end of the chase. So I combined my two logs for today, but there was also another bit in between, no more than a minute, probably, after it stopped and before I resumed. Anyway, no matter, I got my mission done for today. I hope that was just a one-time glitch and not a bug in the app.

I wish you could have a little more control over the zombie chases. Maybe set the number of chases you want during the mission, and minimum number of minutes in between. Or at least minimum number of minutes warm-up at the start before you get hit with a chase. Then let it throw them in at random, but at least you'd know how many you were getting at the start.

... Okay, now the app is not downloading the next mission. I get a progress bar, but at the end, it just goes back to "download" and the mission isn't there. I tried switching to WiFi, but it still doesn't work. Argh. Maybe I'll check the forums. I hope it's working again by Wednesday!

... Hm, I tried downloading the mission after that, and it downloaded okay. Must be a problem with Mission 20. I'll email support.

Anyway, week 2 and I'm still out there trundling around the house in circles. My neighbor with the barking dogs moved up the road, so I had a few blessed months with no dogs barking at me every time I stepped outside, but then his friend moved in next door, and he has barking dogs, too. Sigh. Fortunately, his dogs don't bark as often or as loudly as the previous neighbor's dogs, so I just carry on and ignore them.

Season 1, Mission 18: Eavesdropping

1.70 miles – 32:56 minutes – 19:21 min/mile

One week completed! Still no zombie chases, even though I increased the rate, but that's okay for this first week. I'm happy just to be out walking briskly for half an hour. I didn't walk yesterday, because things, but I'm not bothered about that. I will try to do something on my off days — maybe some weights or yoga or something, as well as walking — but the main thing is to get my official three days of running/walking done. I think next week I'll continue to walk most of the time, turn the chases up a bit more, and maybe try running every third lap or something.

I remember this part of Season 1 now, and it reminds me of something that I occasionally find frustrating about the Zombies, Run! story, which is that Runner 5 never speaks. I understand why — they want to make Runner 5 as undefined as possible so that anyone using the app can assume the Runner 5 identity for themselves. Which is cool, but when things happen and Runner 5 gets accused of things he (or she or they) didn't do, I'm running along going, "Tell them! Explain what happened! Stand up for yourself!" But Runner 5 remains a cipher.

Perhaps I'm supposed to insert my own dialog there, being that I'm Runner 5, but no one can respond to me and it doesn't fit the story, so I'm left silently fuming.

Oh! I got a letter from Maxine on Wednesday congratulating me on meeting Runner 10! That must be something new to the app, I don't remember ever getting email after a run before. Kind of makes me want to go back and start over from the beginning to see if I get any more letters... but I won't.

Season 1, Mission 17: Information Exchange

1.71 miles – 33:28 minutes – 19:33 min/mile

Twice in a row! Yay! I'm on a roll now!

I remembered to turn on the GPS this time. Pretty slow pace, but once again, I just walked the whole mission. No chases. I seem to recall this happening once before, and I had to turn the chases up before I'd reliably get one or two during a half-hour run. So I've turned them up to 4 per hour for next time. Not that it's a problem at this point—I'm happy just to be walking. I'm already feeling better. I sleep better, my mood is better, and my joints and muscles are loosening up. Looking forward to seeing how much better I can do, now that I've got meds to keep me from crashing out.

I also went out for a half-hour walk yesterday, but I didn't get suited up or listen to the zombies. I just put on my shoes and set the timer on my watch for half an hour. I am hoping to do my run/walk on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then just a half-hour walk on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. As long as it's just half an hour, I should be able to fit it in no matter what else is scheduled for the day. If I decide to train up for a race at some point, I'll probably do the long runs on Friday, to keep my weekends clear.

 It's still cool enough that it's no problem to start my runs later in the morning. It was 8:15 when I got out this morning. Will probably want to start earlier once the weather starts to heat up, but I hope now that I'm on meds I'll be able to handle the sun a little better, so it won't matter so much if I get a late start.

Season 1, Mission 16: Scouting Mission

3242 steps - 33:11 min

Well, it's been a long time since I posted a run. And I didn't really run today — just walked briskly around the house for 30-ish minutes — but at least I got out there and did something. I forgot to set it to track mileage, so I only have time and steps recorded. I turned the GPS back on for next time. I had zombie chases turned on, thinking I'd walk the mission and run the chases, but there weren't any, so I just walked the whole thing. I'll continue to do that at least for this week (may turn the frequency of the chases up so I'll be more likely to get a little running in) and then evaluate.

Anyway, after my last disastrous attempt to do just a virtual race, I pretty much gave up on running, or any kind of exercising, really. I just got so tired and weak and dizzy every time I tried to do anything, especially outside, especially in the sun, I couldn't keep trying. I felt worse when I exercised than when I didn't. This went on until last September, when I finally got my doctor to refer me to a cardiologist, who had me do a tilt table test, something none of my other doctors had ever done. Anyway, I passed out on the table during the second part of the test — where they give you meds to speed up your heart rate and simulate exercise — and my blood pressure went so low the machine stopped recording it. So they don't know how low it really went. Anyway, it's not supposed to do that! So, finally, I had a test that actually confirmed what I've been saying for years — that when I exercise or go out in the sun, my blood pressure drops so low I can barely function. So the cardiologist put me on meds to keep my blood pressure more stable, and I've been much better ever since. I still get dizzy sometimes, especially when I'm tired, but I recover quicker and I've actually been able to do stuff like housework and building projects without collapsing.

Ever since I started on the meds, I've been thinking I should start exercising again, but it's been hard to get back into gear. Lately I've been trying to walk around the house while I'm pumping water, but that's only 20 minutes and I don't always do it. Last week, I was determined to get back on track and run or walk three times a week, but various circumstances interrupted and I didn't. But this week, I put on my running clothes and fired up Zombies, Run! and went out and did a mission.

At this point, I barely remember any of the missions, but I decided to continue where I left off last time, re-running the Season 1 missions I lost when I deleted my app before (now, thankfully, it's changed so it remembers what you've run even if you delete your app), and then starting Season 3.

At some point, I will probably even run the Halloween 2018 virtual race I was leading up to when I crashed out last time.