# Tracking Running Distance



## _gatecrasher_ (May 8, 2009)

Last night my BF and I were watching Olive running away. I'm a marathon runner so I'm obsessed with knowing the distance and statistics behind each of my own runs. I started wondering exactly what distances and at what speed she logs on her Cake Walk Supreme each night. 

This morning I was doing some maintenance on my mountain bike and realized that we should use a bike computer! For those of you unfamiliar, a bike computer has a sensor that is stuck to one of the wheels and then some minor wiring and battery-operated computer that logs cadence, distance, calories burned, etc. We're going to pick up a cheap one at the store and will hook it up. I'll just have to play around with the settings to ensure that it's tracking the distance based on wheel circumference/rotation. I will keep everyone updated on this experiment.  However, has anyone else done anything like this?


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## lane_m (May 20, 2009)

I have recently installed a cycling computer on both my hedgies wheels. I bought them at Wal-Mart for about $19.00 each

[attachment=0:3sq4mhfa]lunapic-124974802864300-6.jpg[/attachment:3sq4mhfa]

I have learned that my hedgies run between 3 and 3 1/2 hours each night. In this time they cover a distance of 5 - 7 kilometers (sorry, I'm in Canada, but I think that is about 3 - 4 miles). They have an average speed of about 2-3 km an hour. The max speed is unreliable, because when a hedgie changes direction it seems to the cycling computer that they made the wheel go all the way around in a very short time. So it misreads a max speed of 15 - 18 km an hour. I think it is more like 6 km an hour.

Also, I have noticed that if they have an extra long playpen session (more than 1 hour) they spend less time on their wheel.

I found that this post was very helpful when I set mine up:
http://hedgehogcentral.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1568&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=computer

Good luck! It can be a bit trying setting it up, but I think it is very valuable information


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Yup, I've known several people who have done this. Make sure you get one that will still record when the wheel is going "backwards", since hedgies often switch directions.


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## gyaku (Jul 9, 2009)

I think that would be the hardest thing with a spedometer. I tried putting one to my home made wheel it didn't read too well, I only paid $7 at Walmart


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## _gatecrasher_ (May 8, 2009)

Awesome!  Thanks everyone!

Fortunately, Olive ONLY runs in one direction. She absolutely refuses to run in the opposite direction. I was actually looking at the $20 one at Walmart. Thanks for the suggestion!


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