I love me a cool, geeky idea — and what could be geekier than plotting your exercise journey through Middle Earth or Narnia?
I really ought to exercise more, and the one thing that fundamentally tends to stop me is motivation. I’d probably rather curl up and read a good book, even if it’s one that I’vc read a hundred times before, like The Lord of The Rings.
But what if I could do both? That’s the fundamental idea behind Steps Through Stories, a web site that lets you log your exercise kilometres (or miles, or, as it notes, bowshots, cubits, shepperys or chthulhus…) against the lengthy journeys in popular fiction.
It’s very much a labour of love — and, full disclosure, it’s been pulled together by an old ex-uni mate of mine as a programming exercise — that lets you see how far along, say, Frodo’s journey you are each time you log in and stack up the exercise. Right now, I’m not very far out of Bag End at all…
You can check out Steps Through Stories here. The site requires email registration — largely so you have an account and can track your progress, of course — and doesn’t specifically mesh with other run or exercise tracking apps, so you will have to keep an eye on how far you’ve walked or run on a given day. Given that most phones, smartwatches and exercise bands will tell you that daily with minimal fuss, and it’s free anyway, that’s not a particularly rough deal.
For added amusement: I spotted this on my Facebook feed today, so I’m rather deliberately turning into “news”. Take that, Zuckerberg!*
(*He doesn’t care, sleeps happily at night on a big pile of money, etc…)