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Imports from Suunto, Fitbit, Polar and TomTom.

8:36pm, 26 Feb 2020

If your training from any of these watches hasn't made it into your log during the last 24 hours, could you try triggering the import again? I've had some code problems today - trying to upgrade some of our software, and doing so always tends to break *something* :-)

But it should be working ok now.

Here are the links to manually pull across your training from each manufacturer:

Suunto: fetcheveryone.com/suunto
Fitbit: fetcheveryone.com/fitbit.php
Polar: fetcheveryone.com/polar
TomTom: fetcheveryone.com/tomtom

FYI we use a different system for Garmin that hasn't been affected.

Bing bong.

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Comments

Hi Fetch. I’m a bit confused. My training imports automatically from Garmin, but when Zwift uploads to Garmin the sessions don’t get pulled through to here and I have to sort it out manually. Which is fine and doable, but it seems a shame. Is there a reason why it doesn’t happen?
Angus Clydesdale
8:41pm, 26th Feb 2020
I'm not sure right now AC, sorry. Hands a bit full sorting this update out. It may simply be that Garmin only forward stuff that originated on their watches. How about you put in a feature request asking for auto-import of Zwift, and I'll have a look at it when I can: fetcheveryone.com/featurevoting
fetcheveryone
8:48pm, 26th Feb 2020
My Garmin Connect > ~~strava~~ > Fetch routine failed to make it across about an hour ago and so I created a gpx file and added that here before I saw your blog.
♪♫ Synge ♪♫
9:17pm, 26th Feb 2020
Cool, thanks. I’ll do that.
Angus Clydesdale
9:17pm, 26th Feb 2020
But your blog suggests I shouldn't have been affected anyway?
♪♫ Synge ♪♫
9:17pm, 26th Feb 2020
Done. Number 589 (there’s a LOT of requests in there!!).
Angus Clydesdale
9:46pm, 26th Feb 2020
Why do you have a Garmin Connect > ~~strava~~ > Fetch routine anyway Synge? Don't you just do GC > Fetch and GC > Strava? Or have I misunderstood?
larkim
9:54pm, 26th Feb 2020
larkim, you may well be right. For some reason I tend to think of it as linear (sorry, not very helpful at all!).
♪♫ Synge ♪♫
10:14pm, 26th Feb 2020
Fetch / AC - Garmin will only distribute activities for which it is the authoritative source. Any imported from other third parties won't be relayed any further. So unless it has changed very recently (and AC's question suggests not) 589 won't be possible.
flanker
12:19am, 27th Feb 2020
Mine worked fine last night
Joopsy
7:27am, 27th Feb 2020
*puts 50pee in the meter* you know just in case
runnerbean
8:42am, 27th Feb 2020
Boo
Maybe Fetch could become one of the places Zwift sends your stuff to on completion (currently ~~strava~~ TP and a couple of others can be sent to).
Angus Clydesdale
9:12am, 27th Feb 2020

Plot A Route - mobile improvements

1:34pm, 26 Feb 2020

One page that was bugging me every time I saw it on my phone was 'Plot A Route': fetcheveryone.com/routes-add.php

The pic on the left shows what it looked like on mobile, and the pic on the right is how it's looking now:

There's no new functionality here, just a bit of tidying up. But a few things worth knowing.

1) First thing to note is that it all looks neater. The black header is tidier, and the map gets to be a bit higher up the page. On iPhone 6 and above, you no longer have to scroll to see both parts of the map zoom button, and the buttons above the map aren't trashed by word wrapping.

2) 'Switch to Google Maps' has been tucked down below the map. As much as possible, I wanted to steer us away from Google Maps, because of their charging structure.

3) 'Grid' is now retitled to a more obvious 'Conquercise'. I know there are some feature requests for WSW and Fetchpoint overlays - I will get to those, but wanted to tidy up first.

4) The 'Undo', 'Reset', 'Elevation' and 'Save' buttons are hidden until you've done enough clicking to merit their appearance. So when you start off, you just get a distance box on the map - nice and clean.

5) Weird bug - on your third click, the distance between points 2 and 3 was being added to the total distance TWICE. Only that one. Schoolperson error. Sorted.

6) Some of you have been noticing that 'Follow Roads' wasn't working. I use openrouteservice.org for getting directions between your clicks. And at some point since I last looked at this, they dropped the free quota from 2500 requests during each 24 hour period, to 2000 requests. I'd set it up so that when we'd hit our 2500 quota for the day, we'd flip to using the equivalent from Google. So in that period between 2000 and 2500, it was falling over. What I've since noticed though, is that they have two versions of their directions API (v1 and v2, unsurprisingly); and each version has a daily quota of 2000 requests. So I've updated us to use v2 primarily, and when we've exhausted our quota with v2, we switch to v1. In effect we now get 4000 requests during each 24 hour period. I've also signed up to their monthly newsletters, so that I (hopefully) won't get caught out by these changes in future.

Whilst you're here...
As always, if you're a fan of the site, and want to give me as much time as possible to work on improvements, please consider making a small monthly donation. For the price of a coffee each month (you decide whether it's a fancy one with sprinkles, or just a spoonful of instant), you get to use the site ad free. You also get a shiny gold background on your user profile, and the knowledge that each donation means I spend a bit less time trying to cover costs, and a bit more time focused on improving the site. And if you're in any doubt about my urge to improve things, do have a read through my blog to see some of the stuff I've been up to recently. If you're ready to do some supporting, here's the link: fetcheveryone.com/invite.php - thank you :-)

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

thanks. nice bit of housework
DocM
1:39pm, 26th Feb 2020
Nice improvements.
Sigh
1:49pm, 26th Feb 2020
Nice one. Now, about the automatic import of Zwift rides from Garmin...
Angus Clydesdale
1:49pm, 26th Feb 2020
Nice bit of tidying.
Flatlander
1:53pm, 26th Feb 2020
Nice. Regarding point 3, may I suggest, unsolicited, that the Conquercise button could become simply "Games", which pops up a small box with tick boxes for each game? This would be good on the activity map, too, to make things cleaner
ishep
2:11pm, 26th Feb 2020
I was wondering about ‘Layers’ or ‘Overlays’, which might also then potentially include a satellite layer.
fetcheveryone
2:21pm, 26th Feb 2020
Satellite would be great, yes! As would heatmap, to highlight where I or others have been before 🙂
ishep
2:48pm, 26th Feb 2020
Looking sharp!
JCB
3:38pm, 26th Feb 2020
👍
Stevewjj
4:08pm, 26th Feb 2020
Clever lad! G
HappyG(rrr)
4:34pm, 26th Feb 2020
Nicely tidied
Rosehip
4:53pm, 26th Feb 2020
Thanks Ian - I'd wondered about #6 and sporadic 'follow roads' not working, but never worried enough to do something about it. I'd put it down to a slow response or timeout. Then was pleasantly surprised a few day later when it worked.
um
5:23pm, 26th Feb 2020
So that’s what the grid was!
Nightjar
5:42pm, 26th Feb 2020
Nice

Re (5): I'd always thought there was something odd going on with distance and sort-of learnt to subtract 'a bit' from a plotted route (although sometimes, when clicks 2 and 3 were close together I guess, it was nearly correct!)
Oranj
7:27pm, 26th Feb 2020

Happy tugging!

4:38pm, 24 Feb 2020

There's a new slider just above the map on all your training entries.

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

Oh, new mystery feature! Nice. On the mobile it can be hard to catch the slider without swiping the whole page.
Nightjar
4:56pm, 24th Feb 2020
I have just had a quick tug. It was quite enlightening.
HowFar?
4:59pm, 24th Feb 2020
Tap the middle of the bar to move it away from the edge, and then you're free to drag it without triggering a page swipe.
fetcheveryone
5:00pm, 24th Feb 2020
I'm glad you enjoyed it HF?
fetcheveryone
5:00pm, 24th Feb 2020
Things you didn't know you needed but are cool as owt
Velociraptor
5:13pm, 24th Feb 2020
Love this
DocM
5:25pm, 24th Feb 2020
I'm off to have a go
Wazelle the Gazelle
5:26pm, 24th Feb 2020
Will check it out.
Ness
7:21pm, 24th Feb 2020
oooooh!
Seratonin
7:51pm, 24th Feb 2020
Have you or any one else noticed. When Fetch comes up with something fantastic that other website copies?
snogard
8:38pm, 24th Feb 2020
Love it! A couple of questions:

what does “recent” mean?

It looks like it takes total time rather than moving time into the pace. Is that true?
Pothunter
9:53pm, 24th Feb 2020
Love that, really useful / interesting. What period is "recent"?
larkim
8:50am, 25th Feb 2020
Recent currently uses the last 200 readings from your watch - so if your watch does 1/second, that’s 3m20s.
fetcheveryone
9:26am, 25th Feb 2020
agreed, this is very nice and helpful too. I don't like how it calcs towards the end of my marathons though although that's an issue with my race execution rather than the tool!!
Windsor Wool
11:42am, 25th Feb 2020
Just tried it out and the only issue I can see is on a mobile and using my finger on the slider means I can't read the info bar unless I contort my hand.
Fenland Flier
12:48pm, 25th Feb 2020
Perhaps the bar could be beneath the map and slider under that? Just a thought.
Fenland Flier
12:49pm, 25th Feb 2020
Good spot! I've put the numbers above the slider, which should help.
fetcheveryone
1:30pm, 25th Feb 2020
Love it, can pinpoint the exact point in Parkrun where I ran out of steam.

Just my opinion, but current speed would be great. Also cadence differs from the training cadence.
mr d
1:52pm, 25th Feb 2020
Ignore the cadence bit, sorry.
mr d
1:53pm, 25th Feb 2020
Just an oddity ref the "recent" period. I got curious, and it revealed that my watch only records (into the relevant .fit files) a point every 6 or 7 seconds. Which probably explains why I get nice smooth runs outputted. So for me it's the recent pace over about the last 20 minutes.
larkim
2:02pm, 25th Feb 2020

Something to play with

8:24am, 20 Feb 2020

If your watch records cadence, here's a graph that shows your pace, stride length and number of miles logged at each cadence during the month:

fetcheveryone.com/training-analysis-cadence.php

I am interested to hear what it's showing you.

Mine looks like:
1) my pace and cadence are largely correlated,

2) my stride length and cadence are also largely correlated.
3) I do most of my running around 170 cadence
4) Also possibly that my stride length at a given cadence has been increasing a little since I've been running again consistently after calf injury in November.

Have fun looking :-)

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

Interesting
Velociraptor
8:26am, 20th Feb 2020
Nice
DocM
8:27am, 20th Feb 2020
Crikey, that's interesting and not immediately obvious. I've got some weird stuff above 186 - pace drops off. Is this dodgy data? Or is it e.g. hiking up steep hills (10-11 min mile 188-200 cadence?!) G
HappyG(rrr)
8:36am, 20th Feb 2020
For me it shows that as I speed up, my cadence and stride length increase!
Most of my running appears to be around 172 cadence and 96 cm stride.
westmoors
8:37am, 20th Feb 2020
Happy - check the amount of mileage at that cadence - if it's low, it might not be representative.
fetcheveryone
8:37am, 20th Feb 2020
That is very good indeed, mainly a clear increase in pace, cadence and stride length all the way through, especially so once I get out of plod mode.
Ocelot Spleens
8:40am, 20th Feb 2020
Shouldn't we see some cadences duplicated with different paces potentially, rather than only 1 bucket of pace corresponding to 1 bucket of cadence x stride length? Shouldn't there be a corresponding graph which shows average pace (perhaps in 5s per mile increments) and average cadence / stride length. And potentially a third which shows average stride length in 1cm incremements with pace & cadence being averaged at those stride lengths?
larkim
8:52am, 20th Feb 2020
Nice. Here's mine for January, looks consistent with the Garmin entries:

Sigh
8:55am, 20th Feb 2020
Mine goes off the page when I look at the interesting ones to the right and I can't read the data. Android. Tried landscape. Not a biggie as I know it's a wip.
LindsD
8:56am, 20th Feb 2020
Formatting issue - my cadence went up as high as 204 this month (for less than 0.1 mile 😅) which made the graph too wide for my iPad in portrait mode.
Fragile Do Not Bend
8:57am, 20th Feb 2020
Actually, is it worth showing a bar where the distance is 0.1 or less as that’s probably a bit of dodgy data? I’m sure I never have run at 204 cadence.
Fragile Do Not Bend
9:03am, 20th Feb 2020
Mine bars also goes off the right of the table (Chrome on Win 10). I've got 20 different cadences.

Perhaps excluding items with
Pothunter
9:42am, 20th Feb 2020
*My bars...
Pothunter
9:42am, 20th Feb 2020
In think it shows I've got long legs and the higher my cadence the faster I go¡
3M
10:32am, 20th Feb 2020
My results are similar to yours Fetch
Fenland Flier
10:48am, 20th Feb 2020
I'd be interested in seeing the spread of paces - e.g. looking at Sigh's above, it shows he's covered 25.8 miles with a cadence of 164. The average pace is 10:40, but presumably the spread of pace across those 25.8 miles is reasonably broad, which then affects the calculation about the stride length? I like the idea of the data though!!
larkim
10:55am, 20th Feb 2020
Mine looks similar.

I'd be interested to see the data for a single run.
mole-thing
12:03pm, 20th Feb 2020
My walking seems to be between 154 - 156 cadence with stride length of 60-63 - all walk logged in just 2 bars - so consistent. My fastest is also my highest cadence and longest stride length but then my lowest cadence with longer stride that is almost as fast - but that only has 0.1 miles of data so I guess not accurate. I have 4 bars with only 0.1 miles of data so maybe I should discount those bars as not enough data?
Elsie Too
12:05pm, 20th Feb 2020
It was low Fetch. And now it's gone! Have you trimmed off "outliers"?! G
HappyG(rrr)
1:14pm, 20th Feb 2020
Yes And I've added a second graph showing cadence at various paces.
fetcheveryone
1:17pm, 20th Feb 2020
That's nice! And interesting too - on the pace at cadence graph, 8:16 pace is at 184 cadence, with a stride length of 106cm. But on the cadence at pace graph, 8:00-8:20 pace are both at 184 cadence but with a stride length of 107-111. I now need to think about what this is telling me
larkim
1:28pm, 20th Feb 2020
That looks much better.
Fragile Do Not Bend
1:29pm, 20th Feb 2020
Looks pretty good to me. Both the graphs show a nice steady curve and an apparently logical progression of the data. No obvious inconsistencies or oddities. (Just a shame my average pace bands all show such high numbers!)
♪♫ Synge ♪♫
2:38pm, 20th Feb 2020
I’ve only recently had a watch that does that. However, I don’t know what to do with the information. Is it interesting or useful?
Raggedy runner
7:32pm, 20th Feb 2020
Both legs Trin. Some logs / watches report each leg, some watches / logs report the number of (say) right foot plants only. Most common is to measure each leg strike, hence 173 (supposed optimum is 180).
larkim
4:58pm, 24th Feb 2020
It's just two different conventions for the same data.
fetcheveryone
5:02pm, 24th Feb 2020

Adding A New Feature

11:35am, 17 Feb 2020

In this week's podcast (coming soon), I mentioned that I was going to put together a blog outlining all the stuff that I try to consider when adding a new feature to the site.

When I say "new feature", I mean something like the new My Fetch Mile thingy. If you haven't checked that out yet, go have a look here: fetcheveryone.com/mile.php

Back in the old days, it felt like I could just fling stuff up onto the site, like throwing jelly at a wall. But the more it matures, the more new stuff has to meet a certain standard in order to work well. Here's a (probably non-exhaustive) list of the stuff I have to consider:

Mobile
In 2004, virtually no-one used mobile devices to access the internet. But these days, about 54% of page views come from mobiles and tablets. So although I still tend to build a page for desktop first, I always have to make sure it works decently on mobile too.

Ads vs No Ads
I view the site with ads turned off. It's undoubtedly a nicer experience. Go here for info on how to make a small monthly donation to the site, and you can turn off ads too: fetcheveryone.com/invite.php But anyway, I have to think about how pages look with and without ads, as they take up useful screen space.

Badges
Over the last year or so, interest in acquiring badges has really taken off. They help encourage people to try out new features too. So (ss) coming up with corresponding badges is part of any new feature.

Notifications
Similarly, it was often the case that people would explore new features, then forget about them. I need to find a suitable volume of notifications to inform you when important stuff happens, without p***ing you off.

Security
One of the golden rules of security is "never trust user input" :-)

Every opportunity that a user has to supply data to or request information from the system needs to be accompanied by checks that make sure what is being supplied / requested is reasonable.

Privacy
We're all more aware about sharing data on the internet these days, compared to 15 years ago. Every new feature comes with the question "would a reasonable user be happy about this information being shared". And a new feature has to offer opportunities for the user to make that call.

Data Consistency
When you upload a piece of training, it feeds in to various league tables, games and calculators around the site. Great. But if you subsequently change that piece of training (e.g. change from bike to run, or trim a bit off the end), then those changes also need to be trickled through to the other features of the site. I haven't always got this right, and there's room for improvement here, but it's something I am trying to reflect on when I add new stuff.

Usability
It should go without saying, but I have to make things as easy to use as possible. Prominent buttons, useful tips, efficient wording - that kind of thing. It's good fun!

Meta tags and sharing
To help conquer the universe, it makes sense to make stuff shareable. And that involves adding meta information to the page, so that when your URL gets pasted into Facebook or Twitter, it looks attractive. Sometimes I just CBA with this :-)

Performance
Some pages require quite a bit of work behind the scenes to produce. A great example is the annual infographic. Your watch can record data every second - so filtering a year's worth of that data into a single page requires a lot of processing. I have to make sure that new features don't have the capacity to overload the server.

Edge Cases & Unexpected Use
When I sit down and build something new, in the process I am teaching myself how to use it. By the time I offer it up to you lot, I know how to use it. But it reaches you fresh, and you find different ways to use it. Or you push it beyond the limits that I'd considered. I try to anticipate these as much as possible, but it doesn't always work like that.

Feedback
And here's the best part of the process. I put it live, you lot give me feedback, and I adjust what I've done. It's a hugely important step. You are my testers, my focus group, my validation, my encouragement... everything I need to turn something from an idea into useful and interesting functionality. I came away from launching the My Fetch Mile feature with a to do list of 11 points, plus real-world use that helped me fix half a dozen bugs that hadn't come up when I was trialling it with my own data.

--
If you haven't tried it yet, go take a look at the Fetch Mile feature: fetcheveryone.com/mile.php

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

Excellent stuff. You are a very clever man.
Diogenes
11:42am, 17th Feb 2020
Interesting blog and very good work.
Dvorak
11:46am, 17th Feb 2020
Lord Fetch for President! Viva la revolution!!
Angus Clydesdale
11:52am, 17th Feb 2020
Wow - I thought adding a few light sabers was quick and easy. Didn't think all that needed doing.

But I suspect you also (whether consciously or not) also think about
- activity type (running, cycling, swimming, hiking, others, multiple)
- user type (super fast, fast, not so fast, young, not so young, sprint vs distance etc etc)
- indoor (virtual) vs outdoors (real)
- GPS technology & brands & futures

Thanks for all the above !
um
11:53am, 17th Feb 2020
I am hoping to go out sometime today and do a little run, hopefully accompanied b the latest podcast, so I can have a go at the Fetch Mile feature on the trail through the woods, next to the lough. It's amazing, the amount of stuff you have to consider. I'm sure the jelly throwing days were easier.
HowFar?
11:58am, 17th Feb 2020
Ooh, thanks for that summary of how you work. Fascinating. I love how agile it is. We'd be 6 month doing design governance on adding a button to a page in the company I work in! G
HappyG(rrr)
12:09pm, 17th Feb 2020
"never trust user input" - or let a coder name a child

xkcd.com
Sam Jelfs
12:15pm, 17th Feb 2020
Love being part of this world 😊
ishep
12:24pm, 17th Feb 2020
lol @ Sam
D2
12:31pm, 17th Feb 2020
I love this too.
LindsD
12:42pm, 17th Feb 2020
Also lol @ Sam
fetcheveryone
12:46pm, 17th Feb 2020
Thank you for being awesome
1step2far
12:48pm, 17th Feb 2020
Good to see!
JCB
12:57pm, 17th Feb 2020
love the passion you put into the site, it truly shows
DocM
1:40pm, 17th Feb 2020
phew - who knew!
minardi
2:00pm, 17th Feb 2020
I was thinking this morning about a new feature that I was going to suggest in that voting thing.... but now I've read this and been amazed at how much needs to be thought of I have completely forgotten what it was I was going to suggest
BaronessBL
2:39pm, 17th Feb 2020
I'm taking copious notes, as I'm about to become a Product Owner.
TeeBee
5:12pm, 17th Feb 2020
Thank you for everything you do for us!
Garfield
3:25pm, 18th Feb 2020

February Treasure Hunt

1:31pm, 14 Feb 2020

I gave blood on Tuesday, so today was my first run. Not because I couldn't have run before, but there's just been stuff going on, plus I've wimped out a bit too. Anyway... I got out there to break the duck, and thought it'd be a nice distraction to do February's treasure hunt. Not least because if we're scoring points for the pub, I think I win :-)

Up a rather inconveniently hilly hill (more breathless than usual, but the wind wasn't helping), with the goal of hunting down a benchmark. But I spotted a building with a date on it (and was glad of the rest). In case you can't read it, it says 1888 :-)

Then I found my benchmark, down in the paintwork by the door of the chinese takeaway. There seem to be so many more benchmarks in Stapleford - Katie and I were wondering whether that's because it's got more lumps than Bedford. Anyway, here it is:

Back to the high street, and I was going to go with Greggs for my iconic image. But then I ran past the closed branch of Lloyds. And I reckon that whilst it's not unique, the decline of the high street is quite a defining feature of lots of towns:

On to the pub. I was very pleased with myself for finding this :-)

Up over the railway bridge, and then a little footbridge across the River Erewash. I'm more in focus than the river bank unfortunately, but it was looking pretty busy today. The boy and I have hauled a few BMX's out of here in the past whilst magnet fishing.

I ran up the canal (I wanted to see if the Fetch Mile I'd registered would work - it did!), and there are a few houses on the opposite side before the factories start. And I'm counting these two as garden ornaments.

Further up the canal, it goes under the M1. And it seems like a popular place for graffiti artists to practice their social commentary. I know a lot of people don't like graffiti, but I like this. Every time I run through this bit, it seems that a bit has been updated.

I was struggling a bit for a brown road sign. I think there may be some for Alton Towers over on the A52, but I wasn't gonna take myself all the way over there on the off chance. So the route numbers on these cycle path signs will have to do. They are red whilst new, but once they've faded a bit, they're almost brown. And it's almost a road. Shuddup.

Just spiral and look up left to find. I'd been wondering how feasible it would be to capture a spiral in the canal water, and was thinking of some impressive (non-existent) stone work on top of some of the buildings in town for 'look up'. But then I actually looked up, and saw the ivy spiralling around this tree. So I'm claiming my 2 for 1 discount on this last one.

Doing a treasure hunt like this has been really good fun. Thanks to Silvershadow for picking this month's list - it was great! If you'd like to join in, there's a forum thread, and a different person will pick a list of treasures every month. Here's the thread: fetcheveryone.com/viewtopic.php?id=61138

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

Snap! I was out treasure hunting this morning too. I think your millipede trumps all other pubs - excellent!
♪♫ Synge ♪♫
1:34pm, 14th Feb 2020
Definitely a winner with the millipede - that may be the only reason you'll get away with the garden ornament
MisterTea
1:42pm, 14th Feb 2020
The ornament pic is a bit washed out - but I was actually intending to highlight the rowing boat that's in front of the caravan.
fetcheveryone
1:43pm, 14th Feb 2020
Running to the pub is fine, it just takes ages to tie up my shoelaces.

Well done - for giving blood and for getting out there and then sharing your search.
um
1:50pm, 14th Feb 2020
Great pub find!
Badger
2:00pm, 14th Feb 2020
Millipede is genius!
fleecy
2:00pm, 14th Feb 2020
Awesome. Well done. Millipede 😂
Silvershadow
2:08pm, 14th Feb 2020
Excellent. A pub with SO MANY LEGS
Velociraptor
2:14pm, 14th Feb 2020
Another terrific spiral! Love these pics
Winniefree
2:29pm, 14th Feb 2020
Nice one! I was also on my treasure hunt this morning, still 2 to get.
Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs)
2:57pm, 14th Feb 2020
These are great pics. And I like your facial expressions
LindsD
2:58pm, 14th Feb 2020
Excellent. I have all the treasure hunt done but much of mine matches WL and NJ so I'm going to try to get some original ones this weekend.
Elsie Too
3:21pm, 14th Feb 2020
Fabulous!
Alice the Camel
4:16pm, 14th Feb 2020
Love the natural spiral and the millipede pub
GimmeMedals
4:31pm, 14th Feb 2020
I think you left your mobility scooter outside the micropub
Diogenes
4:59pm, 14th Feb 2020
Fantastic treasure hunting
Corrah
5:20pm, 14th Feb 2020
This makes me happy
Bintmcskint
5:32pm, 14th Feb 2020
I liked the facial expressions as much as the treasures. Funny. Well done.
Wazelle the Gazelle
5:58pm, 14th Feb 2020
TeeBee
6:13pm, 14th Feb 2020
Great bloggage and hunting. Very jealous of the pub legs
LazyDaisy
7:45pm, 14th Feb 2020
Well done on the original spiral.
alpenrose
7:58pm, 14th Feb 2020
Brilliant finds there
LipGloss
8:40pm, 14th Feb 2020
Most excellent
minardi
9:14am, 15th Feb 2020

Server Downtime

11:54am, 14 Feb 2020

Just had a notification from our server company...

--

Positive will be carrying out an emergency maintenance window this weekend, between 00:01 to 04:00 GMT Feb 16th (early hours of Sunday morning).

This work is necessary for essential security updates & new infrastructure installations. There may be periods of UK network unavailability throughout this window. Rest assured, engineers will do everything possible to minimise impact.

Please check or follow @posistatus on Twitter for further details.

--

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

Noooooooooooooooo!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgh!!

etc
Angus Clydesdale
11:55am, 14th Feb 2020
So long as it isn't Monday Lunchtime, any other window is good.
Ocelot Spleens
11:56am, 14th Feb 2020
Shock, horror!
LindsD
12:20pm, 14th Feb 2020
Emergency maintenance window:

Sigh
12:53pm, 14th Feb 2020

Miles = Smiles

3:41pm, 10 Feb 2020

Come for a look at the Fetch Mile map:

fetcheveryone.com/mile.php

(K5 Gus: I've increased the max zoom-out, so you can move about the UK a bit quicker).

Each mile has been added by a Fetchie, and we currently have just 82 listed (but I hope you'll join in and increase that number. There's a badge for making your first one!)

You can click a mile on the map to view it (I will make the clickable area a bit easier to hit, I think), and it shows you whether you've collected that mile (by completing it) or not. There is also a leaderboard for each mile, so if being the fastest kid in the class is your thing, you can try to beat the best time.

But the miles are not just about being fast. I hope you will also add miles that highlight nice places that you like to run. When you create a mile, there's a description box so that you can add some detail; and when you've visited someone's mile (there'll be a notification when you do - coming soon), you'll get the opportunity to sign their guest book.

I've tried to make adding a mile as simple as possible. Take a look at one of your recent training entries, and look for the 'Build A Mile' link just above the map. Click that, and you get a page with a slider on it. As you move the slider, a wiggly red snake moves along your route. When the snake is in the right place, just click 'Yes I'm Happy', and you can name, describe and save your mile.

The more miles we create, the more momentum this can get :-)

Other things I will be adding:

1) notifications when you visit a mile EDIT the notifications are now in place. You get a notification for first visit, then one each time you beat your time.
2) a page showing the miles you've created
3) a leaderboard showing who has visited the most miles.
4) badges for creators and visitors.
5) ability to add an accompanying image

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

lovely, ta!
chunkywizard
3:43pm, 10th Feb 2020
I just made one, simples.
Ocelot Spleens
3:45pm, 10th Feb 2020
I love this feature, looking forward to seeing it grow!
Sigh
3:50pm, 10th Feb 2020
I just had a look at a mile that NightJar has created which is part of Gt Denham parkrun. It says that I have never visited. Do you have to visit after the mile is created or does it look historically?
Elsie Too
3:50pm, 10th Feb 2020
Can I edit an entry if I've want to make a minor mod, or do I have to delete it and recreate?
Diogenes
3:57pm, 10th Feb 2020
I've created a couple of miles. Hoping to do a few more interesting ones though! Do you have to run them in the direction they were originally run on the training entry in order to sign the guest book?
Pikelet
3:58pm, 10th Feb 2020
@Elsie - it doesn't do historic stuff yet. I might get round to that.
@Dio - not yet. But there is a delete button, so you could just kill it and start again.
@Sigh - I have high hopes
fetcheveryone
3:59pm, 10th Feb 2020
@Pikelet - you have to do them in the right direction.
fetcheveryone
4:00pm, 10th Feb 2020
Also - I'm with Katie (podcast Katie) - there are miles that I generally only run in the summer - I've found one of them and created that mile but I know there are others that I want to create to show off a local wood but I don't know when I last ran there. Isn't there a map somewhere that shows everywhere you have ever run (I may have imagined that). Could we use that to create our miles (if it exists anywhere other than in my head).
Elsie Too
4:00pm, 10th Feb 2020
I should have let NJ create it before I uploaded my parkrun!!! I'll just have to go back.
Elsie Too
4:00pm, 10th Feb 2020
@Elsie - There's no map as such, just the 'circles' feature in your training log (go to the Map tab) - but that doesn't let you click. You'll just have to go run it again soon. My long run from Sunday was fruitful - I pulled out 3-4 individual miles from it.
fetcheveryone
4:06pm, 10th Feb 2020
The circles was what I was thinking off I'm glad I didn't just dream that! I'll wait for a bit more dry weather and then go to the woods again. I'm glad I found the stretch next to the river so I don't have to go in my wellies!
Elsie Too
4:10pm, 10th Feb 2020
Thanks for the zoom out, that's a lot easier to move around the country.
How exact a match does your run need to be to the original ? My nearest is one that Dvorak created in Stirling, but it looks like he lost the GPS signal, and it's straightlined a corner across the middle of houses and gardens where there's no path. Do I need to ask him to delete and re-create, or if I have a greater than say 80 or 90% match would it count ?
K5 Gus
4:18pm, 10th Feb 2020
@Gus - the mile is stored as 10 approximately equidistant points, so minor intricacies of the route aren't always illustrated. For a match, you need to get within 40 metres of each point, in the correct order.
fetcheveryone
4:23pm, 10th Feb 2020
OK thanks, looks like it's cut way more than 40m off the corner - if you see this Dvorak have you got another run where you ran this mile that has a better trace ?
K5 Gus
4:44pm, 10th Feb 2020
I think you've misunderstood. To complete this mile, you need to hit each of ten points. Because the corner falls between two points, it isn't shown, so it looks like the corner is cut off. And perhaps there is a way to run less than a mile by cutting up a side street, but it isn't because D's trace was bad.
fetcheveryone
4:50pm, 10th Feb 2020
...and because there are ten points, they are approximately 178 metres apart from each other.
fetcheveryone
4:50pm, 10th Feb 2020
Ahh, ok I did misunderstand - I though the line showing was from the original trace, but realise it's not now. Apologies Dv for doubting the accuracy of your GPS device
K5 Gus
4:59pm, 10th Feb 2020
You've written 1066 blogs. Do you get a William I badge?
Bright Strider
6:46pm, 10th Feb 2020
Come on chaps and chapesses. Seriously? No miles in either Cambridge or Oxford yet? Get your act together!
CogNoscensme AHA
7:49pm, 10th Feb 2020
We've been busy composing requests for Fetchpoint.
Bright Strider
8:07pm, 10th Feb 2020
Ah, you have answered the question I was going to ask, which K5 Gus asked, using my mile as a reference. Inception! However, I think that using only ten points may give too great a degree of smoothing. Could an elevation graph be shown? That might be a key feature of some of my miles

I do notice though that I have visited my latest mile and have a time #164, at Plean parkrun.
Dvorak
11:08pm, 10th Feb 2020
I've added another mile which is the end of a parkrun, which according to the routifier, twenty Fetchies have run. I've asked a few to have a look, so hopefully a wee leaderboard will build up. The mile as shown does look like it involves several

fetcheveryone.com/mile-view.php?id=167
Dvorak
11:44pm, 10th Feb 2020
I wonder if I’ve created the only one in my state? Some extra ‘zoom outing‘ would be needed to see though. And I wonder about in Australia or dare I say the Southern Hemisphere! 🤣

Great addition though! 🙂
JCB
12:14am, 11th Feb 2020
Cool! - Two minor issues - when you click on a mile the page has no title. And when you go back from it, the map goes back to default, not to the last location you were at. Hover over for name of owner might be nice addition. And easier to click on the A or B (my instinct) in addition to the dots in between! Thanks. I look forward to not competing with anyone on any of the miles, but might instead highlight prettiness! G
HappyG(rrr)
8:37am, 11th Feb 2020
I run the same mile every day (Pretty much) although some days I don't do the full mile! its going to be interesting to compare it day to day
BareHeadEm
10:31am, 11th Feb 2020

Build Your Mile

5:32pm, 7 Feb 2020

There's *another* new link just above the map on all your training entries.

Use it to build miles that are special to you. This isn't about willy-waving*, it's about showcasing interesting parts of your regular routes, and sharing them with others. There's a badge for creating a mile, and over time, there'll be more badges for collecting miles too. I hope you'll have fun plotting routes to collect them :-)

I need to put in some notifications, so you can see when you've run through someone's mile, but that's for next week.

Eventually, all the miles you create will come together on this page here: fetcheveryone.com/mile.php - but the starting point is to go find one of your own training entries that has a cool mile in it, and click the link to build it.

Please try not to break it before Monday, I'm off for a gin and ginger ale and to do some cooking with Katie. No, she's not the ingredients.

*there is a leaderboard for each mile too though ;-)

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

Oooh - I like this
LindsD
5:44pm, 7th Feb 2020
I've done this. I like this. I've got the Pathfinder Badge, rarity index of 0
GimmeMedals
5:47pm, 7th Feb 2020
Me too!
LindsD
5:48pm, 7th Feb 2020
You are so clever Fetch I this!
Rosehip
6:16pm, 7th Feb 2020
Oooooh!
Velociraptor
6:24pm, 7th Feb 2020
Ness
6:45pm, 7th Feb 2020
I remember this was one of your plans from a year or so back, great to see it come to fruition!
Sigh
6:47pm, 7th Feb 2020
Just created one; the "Fetch mile" page would be better if it showed the elevation under the route map. Otherwise, great!
Sigh
6:55pm, 7th Feb 2020
Nice. Could you perhaps change the colour or the route over the mile so we can see where the mile ends while selecting?
Nightjar
6:56pm, 7th Feb 2020
I like this. The difficult bit is going to be remembering when I last ran in a particular place so I can build my mile.
Fragile Do Not Bend
7:12pm, 7th Feb 2020
Yay! Thanks fetch!
BareHeadEm
8:11pm, 7th Feb 2020
What are these 'miles' of which you speak?
Oranj
8:24pm, 7th Feb 2020
I’m worried about waving the willy whilst cooking 😮
runnerbean
9:28pm, 7th Feb 2020
How can I see the ones I’ve created? And will this get me banned from football grounds?
Diogenes
8:59am, 8th Feb 2020
Anyone else having problems zooming out on the summary map fetcheveryone.com/mile.php ?
It will only zoom out one click, then won't zoom any more, so still very local, so can't easily search round for localish miles.
Tried it on Windows with 2 different browsers, and also on Android.

The map on each individual mile zooms out all the way as you would expect.
K5 Gus
6:49pm, 8th Feb 2020

Pop Will Eat Himself: Update

4:51pm, 6 Feb 2020

Back on 14th Jan, I did a bit of a weigh in, and blogged about it, and said that I would review where I was in a couple of weeks.

Here are the headlines:

1) still no crisps whatsoever since the start of the year.
2) chocolate: the three force-fed Maltesers mentioned in previous blog, plus one half of a Snickers duo (we did a day trip to see Katie's dad on the IOW that meant we were on the road from 5am, and in need of something quick).
3) alcohol: bits here and there, but generally feeling like I've reduced my intake considerably.
4) snacking between meals has been only bananas or nuts, with one bad evening with the boy where I chugged a lot of salt'n'vinegar rice cakes smothered in Dairylea :-)

5) I feel like I'm more or less through the phase of feeling distractingly hungry between meals.
6) my weighing scales are useless. Walk into bathroom, take reading, check cricket score on phone, take second reading, weight has deviated by up to 1.5lbs :-/ The floor is tiled, so in theory it's not the surface.

The weight has plateaued a bit, which I am a bit surprised about, because I feel like I've cut down on a lot of the more unhealthy stuff - but (scales allowing), I am getting 12st6 or 12st7 most times I take a reading post-run.

But I'm more than ok with that, because I feel happier with my eating habits now than I did, and even if any weight loss from here on is imperceptibly small week-on-week, I am keen to keep on trying to do the right thing, and get a little bit closer to 12st. I'll do another update at the end of Feb.

Now then, for unrelated reasons, I need to find a decent way of finding local minima as I iterate through a data set. Good times :-)

Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

Are you doing any weights? If you you are that’ll make a difference to your weight.
runnerbean
4:57pm, 6th Feb 2020
I would always take a reading first thing in the morning as post run you will be dehydrated to that can effect weight. Always weigh at the same time also and before breakfast/ tea/ coffee/ water for consistency. Oh and buy some new scales! I think if you keep up the good habits and keep exercising then your weight will come down. Well done for the hard work so far.
chunkywizard
5:00pm, 6th Feb 2020
@RB - no, nothing like that

@CW - my usual consistent point is after my run, which is (more often than not) first thing in the morning. But the scales really can wander for no good reason. I'll put up with them, and save the money
fetcheveryone
5:06pm, 6th Feb 2020
Temperature in bathroom? Walking, walk everywhere, also agree with time of day rather than post run.
Ocelot Spleens
5:55pm, 6th Feb 2020
Have fmailed you (but then you already know that)
Sigh
7:48pm, 6th Feb 2020
I used to think my weight varied quite a bit from day to day. And then I bought some decent scales.

I still take an average over the whole week as a guide to form though (rather than looking at the daily weigh-in).
Oranj
8:44pm, 6th Feb 2020
In theory I have decent scales - weight still fluctuates day to day and based on the ones in the GP surgery they are about 4lbs too heavy
Autumnleaves
9:29am, 7th Feb 2020
I use the Speak-your-weight scales at the local pool. Last time I used them they said “One at a time, please!”.
Angus Clydesdale
9:30am, 7th Feb 2020
@AL - my scales can change their reading in the space of a couple of minutes

@AC - no coach parties please

@12barDavid - you should try it. You'll never doubt me again
fetcheveryone
9:32am, 7th Feb 2020
Get some withings scales, they are accurate, tell you more things (like body fat %), and wireless - might even persuade you to make them load in to Fetch!
boyband6666
9:43am, 7th Feb 2020
I love salt'n'vinegar rice cakes and I like Dairylea, but can't imagine a combination of the two being edible!
Carpathius
11:23am, 7th Feb 2020
Get back to me once you've tried
fetcheveryone
12:16pm, 7th Feb 2020
the re-education camp sounds like its going well even if the scales haven't got on board yet
DocM
12:18pm, 7th Feb 2020
CW speaks wise words, I've been checking my weight daily for well over 15 years and the best time to do it is first thing in the morning, straight after you've had your morning wee. Just bear in mind that some things can affect how your body retains water (and therefore weight), particularly taking NSAIDs (about 1 - 1.5% increase in bodyweight) and post-run inflammation, this always happens to me. I do a long run, hammer my body and it goes into survival mode, taking on water to protect itself (that's what inflammation is).
Northern Exile
12:52pm, 7th Feb 2020
How local a minima are you looking for? (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) works if no small fluctuations, but if you have fluctuations, put in a threshold? Or use the matlab "islocalmin" function.

Not talking about weight as I've not shifted anything in a year. Still 10kg to lose.
rf_fozzy
3:16pm, 7th Feb 2020

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