I mean literally, I created shapes of the alphabet letters by running.

“Voila” made of Strava web panel screenshots

Key takeaways

• Closest park is enough to express in a creative way
• It’s possible to connect/overlap different goals & rewards to increase motivation
• I like to engage in projects with clear finish line and visible output

How it started

Basically I wanted to get into better shape through running and I knew that if I won’t come up with some idea I will run the same circles every time and get bored quite quickly. I could do it but it didn’t seemed too inspiring.

At the same time I started experimenting with a new approach to goal setting based on figuring out additional rewards tied to specific goals. And it this case it occured to be… cordless vacuum that I really wanted to have.

And just for you to know I recently I finished my masters diploma from University of Arts in Poznan and after some time I started to feel creative void.

One of the sketches of the “x” letter made in iOS Notes app based on Strava map screenshot

I’m not sure how exactly I come up with idea that I will run letters — most likely I ran a “perfect circle”, what might be my go-to route for the next few months. And then number 8 and then I checked if it’s possible to go further than that.

And it turned out that the park close to my house has enough paths to create at least few letters. So I went with the flow and drew a few of them on my phone at first (Strava activity tracker map screeshots in iOS Notes app) and then ran along the marked paths.

Strava web screenshot — Letter “B” Sample

Soon I realised that the park was flexible enough to make full alphabet (from time to time some creative modifications were needed — my interest in typography was for sure helpful in inventing those unusual letter variants or shapes).

As I didn’t run on regular basis and the alphabet seemed to be a project that could help me with being more consistent and run as long as I want or can.

How I combined many goals into one

Creative expression through typography

At my university I took some typography classes — always liked square letters but drawing every part of shapes of the letters in the graphic software was simply too much for me.

Getting leaner

Beside my need of creative expression and the reward in form of vacuum — gradually over past few years I’ve been making effort to get leaner. Recently I’ve invested in an personal trainer and got more serious about this goal — I returned to counting macros and calories, got inspired to make simple meals full of nutrients and so on.

Actually this goal also has some metrics tied to it — I defined that I’d like to achieve 8% body fat (11% right now), this might seem a bit extreme but for some strange reason it means that my BMI is right now for the normal weight but very close to overweight — I’d like to change that and be more in the middle of the normal spectrum.

As for the counting calories part — I don’t think it’s really necessary for everyone. For me it’s more about creating new habits consciously. By counting calories I discovered that I used to under-eat when I wanted to get leaner (I ate much less calories than my body needed to function even on reduction. A healthy calories deficit usually lands between -200 to -300 kcal and I when I checked my habits — I ended up between -500 to -800kcal which was definitely too extreme.

I highly value having this kind of perspective so I started a small side project in form of instagram where I review fit snacks and share what I eat (https://www.instagram.com/mostlyspeedfood/). Some of my friends started to follow me and even requested counting calories of particular dishes. So it’s almost like (maybe it will be in the future) other people counted (to some degree) on my recipes and because of that I would need to find them, check them and document them. It would be very clear. This way I would not only achieve my goal but also help others be more aware of food choices.

At the beginning I ran the same shape of the letter multiple times. After some time I decided it’s enough for me to run the letter once.

Less guilty podcast & music listening with full focus

I have this thing that I like to listen to podcasts — from 15 minutes to 3-hour long ones (cheers to Joe Rogan) and there are days when I can digest like 6 hours of podcasts. I realised that I feel much less guilty about listening to some of those long podcasts when I run, ride a bike or walk while listening to them.

The frequent problem with making “other productive things” is that it’s easy to basically distract yourself by changing focus very often. But in the case of running — physical activity—it was easier for me to focus on the words, or my thoughts and ideas.

An additional benefit was that I could stop the podcast and run with specific thoughts that I found inspiring or moving (pun intened) for some time — and nothing was distracting me.

I also discovered also that running is a quite cool context to listen to whole music albums — especially the ones 40+ minutes long — which is perfect for longer runs (I listened to the new Iron Maiden album Senjutsu and I can say that it’s quite suitable for running).

I tend to seek different opportunities that are synergistic to keep me going and satisfied and it seems that currently my goal and reward list is tied to a web rather than a list.

2 letters completed in one run

Technical break

I like to plan and check the progress. It helps me to remember what I’m doing and what I can do next if in doubt.

So the project was recorded in Strava and sketched in the iOS Notes app using Strava map screenshot as I mentioned before but I also tracked progress on the sheet of paper on my desk.

Usually I sketched out a few letters ahead and run it while looking at the phone (less and less with time)

To create visualisations I used Adobe Illustrator and Strava premium subscription — just to be able to export run paths in gpx. Then I managed to convert gpx to svg files which were compatible with the most of the design software.

I simplified the paths in the Illustrator slightly, added some thickness to the paths and outlined them (changed multiple paths with thickness to sum of them).

The Alphabet was ran at the Park John Paul the Second Park @ Poznan, Poland

Some letters are capitalized, some not — it depends on the layout of the park paths and my preference of the aestetics of the letter (eg. “m” letter is small yet capitalized letter)

It’s definitevely a highly experimental type, not suitable for everyday use but it could make a good headliner type. Also it’s worth to mention that I mixed both sans and serif letters (quite randomly, not every path of the park allowed me to create serif letters). Usually it’s a big no-no in this the type design.

More letter shapes

J“G” Actually the funniest part was drawing those additional letter shapes (serifs), mostly because it’s super unnatural to run like that. Think about rapid direction changes.

In the end I thought that after I had managed to vectorise my type it would be cool to mess around with it a bit afterwards.

Additional runs — symbols

Fun Fact after I completed most of the letters I came up with a thought to try out creating some additional characters that are used every day. And the paths of the park with a dose of creativity also allowed me also to do that.

Ideas for future explorations

• Make a T-shirt for workouts 😎
  In fact — I just made them — link to the t-shirts

*Male model from cupsell store

• Convert additional symbols to vector format
• Convert vectors into font that you can install

What motivated me to start running in the first place?

It was quite funny actually. I started to work out with a personal trainer and increased my amount of the daily activity —commuting by bike instead of public transport.

But at some point my front wheel got stolen and for various reasons I waited for the repair for around 1 month. And during that time I started to feel the urge to do something more besides my weekly workouts with the personal trainer. Btw he’s really jacked, check out his instagram — https://www.instagram.com/szymonster_/

And that’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

PS. You can let me know if you would like to get the font or vectors ;)

Short bio

UI/UX Designer @ Apzumi (health-related softwarehouse) and musician who is into planning and notebooks.