A Roman Catholic Sister on Daily Mile

I kept hearing Dailymile come up in the running blogosphere, and so I finally joined the network.  Dailymile has some similarities to Facebook, but it is geared particularly for active people.  When I first heard about it, I figured that excluded me, since at the time I was still trying to struggle out of the sedentary state.  However, when I got on Dailymile I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is easy to post workouts, no matter how small.  Similar to what our road race tried to be, Dailymile is equally attractive to fast, experienced runners and slow, inexperienced beginners.

For example, my profile from last week above logs the miles even though I am a walker and not a runner.  The green bar on the end without a number is a workout.  You still get the green bar, just no miles recorded.  I like clean, clear visuals, to this does the trick to motivate me to post workouts or walks.

Here are some reasons I like Dailymile:

1. It is fun.  Even if my morning fitness routine is a mere 10 minutes, I can post it, and it appears in the timeline alongside the posts from marathon runners who are sharing their training.  I can also share pictures and videos. 
2. It is easy.  There is even a pedometer powered by Google Maps to trace where you have been.  It calculates the miles you covered and your pace.  The only drawback to the pedometer is that routes are public, either to friends only or to the general public.  I think it would be safer, particularly for women who run alone, to have a private routes option.  One workaround I found is to use the map to calculate, but then don't save it if it is a route I don't want public.
3. It is social.  You can tie in and publish all of your workouts simultaneously to Facebook and Twitter if you want.  I always liked the upbeat attitude of the running community when I was doing races in NH in the late 90s.  That same positive energy is present on Dailymile on a much wider scale.  
4. It is motivating.  I was in a real slump about 3 weeks ago when I started.  Yet there is something really gratifying about posting a workout and having the data show up in an appealing visual format.  Between the encouragement of new friends I have met on Dailymile and the nice interface, I have managed to log 26 miles total in the past 3 weeks!

If you would like to check out my profile on Dailymile, this is the link:  http://www.dailymile.com/people/SisterMaryAgnes#ref=tophd

To check out the site and sign up (yes, it's free) here is the link:

http://www.dailymile.com/