Thursday 27 February 2014

Zombies! Run!

So for the past year I have been running 2-3 times a week using the Zombies! Run apps from Six To Start, I started out with the 5k app before moving on to series 1, completing all the race missions, totalling radio mode and now I have just two series 1 supply missions remaining before I start series 2!
The app is an addictive mix of audio drama and actual running and I absolutely love it! 
There have been some days where I've really not felt up to running and it's been raining or snowing but I've wanted to know what happens next so I got myself out there anyway! The downside is on the occasions when I've been too ill to run (or when it was WAY too hot in Tunisia) I've gotten a bit frustrated!

5k Training App

This is what I started out with, and I would recommend it to anybody interested in the apps regardless of whether you're a running n00b like I was (seriously the first mission half killed me!), or you're a bit fitter because it gives a lot of background on characters, by the time I had finished the 5k app I had developed the biggest crush on Dr Myers ever (not bad from just hearing her voice!), which I suspect I might not have happened had I dived straight into series 1, and I might not have been quite so emotionally involved in some of her storylines!
Basically the 5k app starts you out slowly, usually with Dr Myers (although as the missions progress you later meet most of the other runners and a few other residents of Abel), setting you tasks to build up your fitness. I managed my first 5k after two weeks and managed 7k by the end, though I plateaued there for a while.

Series 1

Moving on to the main app, I really enjoyed the stories in series 1, I laughed on many occasions and I even cried once (relating to one of the Dr Myers heavy stories that explains her pre-apocalypse life), and again the fantastic story telling pushed me onwards and upwards. I didn't get any further than 7k in a single mission during series 1, my stamina did however get a lot better, much less puffing and panting. The downside however was that a lot of my knee socks stopped fitting properly around halfway through the series because my calves are suddenly massive!
The cliff hanger at the end really upset me and I wanted so much to dive straight into series 2, but I had decided to clear all of the race missions, radio mode and the supply runs before I start  2.

Race Missions

These actually take place before the end of series 1 chronologically, but I ended up saving them for after series 1, but whatever works for you!
There are six missions, two 5ks (easy as pie!), two 10ks and two 20ks.
The 10ks were a bit of a challenge initially, I discovered that there is just over 10k between my house and my friend's house, and right next to her's is a great fabric market on Fridays, so my initial plan was to do the 5k on the Tuesday then run to my friend's house on the Friday, look at fabric and then get the bus home.
Except that I managed to get horrifically lost and her fiance had to come rescue me... Oops.
The following week I did a small run with some of the radio mode and then decided to split the first 20k in half and run to my friend's house again, which I managed without getting lost.
The stories were again very gripping, and actually a little bit more exciting than series 1, and give a bit of insight into what may have caused the outbreak.

Radio Mode

Next I decided to finish off radio mode, radio mode kicks in at the end of regular series 1 missions if you don't stop running, so I had progressed a little way through radio mode but was nowhere near completing it. Radio mode is (usually) a lot more cheery than the main stories and centres around Jack and Eugene trying to run a radio station using only the tracks you have in your playlist, and trying to get news out to people in and around Abel about the goings on in the area. Towards the end however they had some call ins about people's experiences of the apocalypse, and as gripping as they were there was one from someone who had been in Edinburgh that was a little bit too real for me, it's not a complaint or anything, if anything I suppose it just goes to how how well written everything is, but Edinburgh was kind of my safe place when I was away at uni, I would escape up to Edinburgh whenever I had the chance so that I wouldn't have to spend any longer in Galashiels than I had to, so to hear about places that I knew crawling with the undead was a little traumatic!
I managed to get another three 10ks out of what I had left of radio mode.

Supply Missions

I'm not really enjoying these as much as the others, they're still fun,but the stories are a lot less gripping.

In all though I'm looking forward to starting series 2, more awesome stories and (hopefully!) more Dr Myers, and with any luck byt the time I work through 2, the side quests, radio mode 2 and the airdrop missions series 3 will have started!

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