Running 2008

You might have noticed my Nike+ widget has disappeared from the blog. That's because my Nike+ has disappeared from me when I run. It started getting very unreliable when I was running. After three or four 9-10 minute miles, it would suddenly say I was popping off 7 minute miles. I have no idea if it is a problem with the transmitter or the iPod unit. Either way, there was no point in using it if it was giving me wildly inaccurate statistics.

I am definitely still running. I took a bit of a break after the half-marathon in October. I never stopped, but I dialed things back to around 10 miles or so per week. I will probably run the same races I ran last year, so a 10K in May and a half-marathon in October. I would really like to do another half-marathon in July at the San Francisco marathon, but that's always a challenge from a logistical standpoint.

San Jose Half-Marathon

Yesterday I ran in my first half-marathon. It was a really amazing experience. Just running with 11000 other people is crazy and cool. I was very happy with my time, 2:03:52. I was very tired at the end, and I'm still a little sore the next day. I will definitely run another half marathon next year (gotta crack 2 hrs!) maybe in the San Francisco Marathon in July. Who knows. For now, I'm going to ease up on the running the rest of the year and probably swim a lot more. Running a half was my #2 resolution for 2007. It's nice to cross it off the list!

Michael Galpin: May 9, 1974 - October 14, 2007

It's official. I'm going to die on October 14, 2007. That's the date of the San Jose Rock n' Roll Half-Marathon. I've been training for it for a couple of months now, and I've stepped that up recently. I did a 10-Mile run about a month ago, and that was definitely a huge physical challenge. I've got less than six weeks to get ready for 13 miles! Definitely going to die...

54:16!

I ran my first 10K, the 2007 Human Race of Silicon Valley. My goal was to get under an hour. I thought I had a chance at under 55 minutes, because I had ran a 57 minute 10 K in training a couple of weeks ago. I was thrilled that my official time was 54:16. Here's a picture of me just before the finish line.


My next goal is to run a half-marathon, and I'm aiming for the San Francisco Marathon on July 29.

New Running Gear (and more iTunes/Vista Problems)

I'm running in the Human Race in Mountain View again this year. I ran the 5K last year. It was my second race, and I was really happy with the improvement I made on my time. This year I'm running my first 10K. I'm hoping to run a half-marathon, hopefully in the San Francisco Marathon, later this summer.

I made two purchases recently to help me with my training. First, were a pair of Sennheiser MX75 headphones. I wanted headphones that fitted more securely while I ran. I stopped using the original iPod headphones last year. I always thought their sound was ok for running at least. The fit was terrible though. I had to adjust them a lot and the cord caused lots of vibration and noise. I started using some Sony Fontopia headphones that I'm not even sure when I bought. I think I had bought them to use on an airplane, since I like in-ear headphones for riding in planes. Anyways, those were much better than the iPod headphones, but they still required occasional adjusting while running and had problems with cord noise as well.

So I ponied up for the Sennheiser headphones. They are as good as advertised. The fit is exceptional, though I had to try a few of the different ear pads before I go the best fit. The sound quality is good. Not as sensitive as the Sony ones, but better imaging. My only complaint is the cord. It is long and gets twisted easily. It can be a real pain sometimes.

The other new purchase was a Nike + iPod Sport Kit. This has seemed like a cool gadget that would be particularly useful to me, but I had two concerns. First, I don't wear Nike shoes and I'm not going to buy the "special" Nike+ shoes. I'm a bad overpronator, so I wear Brooks Beasts. If I wore Nike shoes, I would have lots of knee pain. So I was concerned about keeping the pedometer sensor attached to my shoe. Turns this is not a big deal. I slide it in under the laces near the toe of the shoe and it is very secure.

My second concern was with the iPod sensor. It attaches to the dock connector on the Nano, but I have Marware armband that fits very tightly over my Nano. I've been leaving the end flap open on the armband. I guess there is the possibility of sweat getting in that way, but it seems pretty but it seems pretty unlikely.

Using the Sport Kit is really easy. I need to calibrate mine. I have some pretty accurate routes I've drawn up, so I know it's a little off right now. My stride must be slightly longer than average. I'll do that later this week when I run some 400M intervals at the Santa Teresa High School track.

Uploading the workout data to Nike is the best part of the Sport Kit. Unfortunately I had some more Windows Vista problems. iTunes was unable to open a connection to the internet, though it could open a connection to the iTunes Music Store. To fix the problem, I had to re-enable Windows Firewall. That wasn't a typo. iTunes could not connect to nikeplus.com with the firewall turned off, but it could with the firewall turned on. It doesn't make any sense, but it's true.

Once I was able to upload my workouts, I had a lot of fun using the tools on nikeplus.com. It was really interesting to see the graphs of my pace throughout a workout. I could really see where hills were that slowed me down or when I "caught my second wind" and was able to pick up the pace nicely. It really gives me a good idea of my potential. I'm very confident in being able to run under 60 minutes for the 10K next month (I ran faster than that over a longer distance this weekend.) My new goal is to get under 55 minutes. I've looked at some VDOT tables, and I actually think I'm capable of around 50 minutes, but I doubt I'll hit that on my first 10K.

2007 Resolutions

1. Continue to lose weight. I should get down to my target weight of 185 lbs. this year.
2. Run a half-marathon. Maybe the SF Marathon this summer?
3. Pay off college loans. Finally...
4. Scripting languages. I've dabbled in Groovy, and have written some small webapps with Ruby (and Rails of course.) Time to write something that's actually complex this year.
5. Organize my documentation. I write a lot of documentation, I can't help it. I need to be more organized with it, though. Documentation (always before coding) really helps me think through my design, but the lack of organization makes it less than useful to others.
6. Play more chess. I started to play a little this year, but then stopped. I need to hone my skills, since I'll need to teach it to Michael, Jr. pretty soon.
7. Bike to work. Not everyday, but at least once or twice this year when it's warmer. My big problem with it is not biking to work, but biking back home at the end of the day. I'll just need to bike home before dark one day, or early enough to catch the train.