the second shows my relief. That's Melodie, my regular running partner, who puts up with all my running issues.
Hopefully the next pics will be grad photo's... hehehe
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Two Oceans Finish
I bought some of the digital prints taken by the ActionPhoto guys at the Two Oceans. These are the best two I think. The first one shows my discomfort,
the second shows my relief. That's Melodie, my regular running partner, who puts up with all my running issues.
Hopefully the next pics will be grad photo's... hehehe
the second shows my relief. That's Melodie, my regular running partner, who puts up with all my running issues.
Hopefully the next pics will be grad photo's... hehehe
In the beginning... there was Word... but I prefer LaTex
I've officially started my writeup! Well actually I wrote the very first words a few weeks ago. My supervisor suggested I put together a Table of Contents to get my thoughts into order. I know theres a better way to do this... write up as you go! If I ever do ANOTHER degree thats definitely what I will do.
I managed to write about 2 pages tonight, and to add a few more things to my contents page. I also started adding people to my acknowledgements and adding items to my Appendices. I wrote my undergrad thesis in Word and I found it a nightmare and vowed that if I ever did it again I'd use LaTex. Ok, so I didn't but I did know before starting this degree that I would!
I really dig it, it's more of a programming language than a word processor. You need to tell it explicitly what you want it to do, which may sound rather daunting to anyone who hasn't programmed before, but it's not that difficult to learn. What do you get for the extra bit of effort? EFFORTLESS compiling of your document, no worrying about getting things to look right, or fonts changing mysteriously. If you need to insert a figure, everything below your figure doesn't change it's formatting. Whats better, if at the last minute you were to decide that you really DO need that introduction, theres no going through your document checking that all the numbering changed correctly or that the figure references are correct. LaTex does that all for you.
Anyway, thats my 2 cents worth about LaTex, perhaps I won't be as happy with it after 100 pages! Nevertheless it feels good to have made a start... anyone think I'm wasting time blogging about this? Should I rather be writing up?
I managed to write about 2 pages tonight, and to add a few more things to my contents page. I also started adding people to my acknowledgements and adding items to my Appendices. I wrote my undergrad thesis in Word and I found it a nightmare and vowed that if I ever did it again I'd use LaTex. Ok, so I didn't but I did know before starting this degree that I would!
I really dig it, it's more of a programming language than a word processor. You need to tell it explicitly what you want it to do, which may sound rather daunting to anyone who hasn't programmed before, but it's not that difficult to learn. What do you get for the extra bit of effort? EFFORTLESS compiling of your document, no worrying about getting things to look right, or fonts changing mysteriously. If you need to insert a figure, everything below your figure doesn't change it's formatting. Whats better, if at the last minute you were to decide that you really DO need that introduction, theres no going through your document checking that all the numbering changed correctly or that the figure references are correct. LaTex does that all for you.
Anyway, thats my 2 cents worth about LaTex, perhaps I won't be as happy with it after 100 pages! Nevertheless it feels good to have made a start... anyone think I'm wasting time blogging about this? Should I rather be writing up?
My first run back
I went for a slow run this afternoon. It actually turned out to mostly be a walk, which was fine with me, I'm still nursing my chest and runny nose, but it was nice to do a little bit of exercise after lazing around for so long. It was just 4km, nothing too strenuous. It was also fantastic that it is winter! I much prefer running in winter, I feel like I can breathe so much easier! Only problem is that by the time you are finished with your run it's pitch dark outside!!
Ok so tonight is the first official night of my new mission. I'll get to it! Hopefully I can squeeze out 2 or 3 pages before I fall asleep.
Ok so tonight is the first official night of my new mission. I'll get to it! Hopefully I can squeeze out 2 or 3 pages before I fall asleep.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The new Mission
It's not what you think. I'm not going to stop running, but for now I'm not going to have a running mission. I'm busy completing my Master of Science Degree in Mechatronics Engineering through the University of KwaZulu-Natal. My thesis has always been something over the horizon, but I would have liked to have it complete by June/July, but if I'm honest, the passed month has done me no good! Most of my efforts were concentrated on being certain of completing the race on 11 April. Then I got home and got sick, what it adds up to is almost an entire month of very little work.
I did a little mental arithmetic earlier and if I write a modest length thesis of say 150 pages and say that I have 94 days till the end of July, that means, modestly, that I need to write 1.6 pages a day if I work every day and there are no interruptions. But you can probably count on not being able to write for at least a quarter of those days, so I can comfortably say I need to be writing 2 pages a day and probably more like 3 or 4 a day.
Thats quite a Mission!! As you'll have noticed I've changed the blog a bit to recognise this change in direction. I won't be blogging content as that presents serious intellectual property issues, but I will try to describe my progress without going into detail. I guess this may change some of the readership, but I promise I'll get back to my exercise goals as soon as I've done this.
I did a little mental arithmetic earlier and if I write a modest length thesis of say 150 pages and say that I have 94 days till the end of July, that means, modestly, that I need to write 1.6 pages a day if I work every day and there are no interruptions. But you can probably count on not being able to write for at least a quarter of those days, so I can comfortably say I need to be writing 2 pages a day and probably more like 3 or 4 a day.
Thats quite a Mission!! As you'll have noticed I've changed the blog a bit to recognise this change in direction. I won't be blogging content as that presents serious intellectual property issues, but I will try to describe my progress without going into detail. I guess this may change some of the readership, but I promise I'll get back to my exercise goals as soon as I've done this.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
What now?
I've spent the last two years working towards agoal that I completed last Saturday, now I'm trying to get my mind around the fact that I got there... I actually got there! Also I'm trying to decide what to do next. The obvious thing is that I should continue running, so why haven't I? Well actually I'm sick at the moment and have been since I've got back from Cape Town. I've had a niggling cold that doesn't want to properly lay me flat, but also doesn't seem to get better. So I've been miserable for the passed week really.
But maybe it's a good thing, I'm giving my knee a good rest and perhaps by the time I feel healthy enough to go for a run again I'll have thought of another goal that makes sense. I've thought about doing the 94.7, or the Argus again, but maybe I should just work on running a better 21km?
But maybe it's a good thing, I'm giving my knee a good rest and perhaps by the time I feel healthy enough to go for a run again I'll have thought of another goal that makes sense. I've thought about doing the 94.7, or the Argus again, but maybe I should just work on running a better 21km?
Saturday, April 11, 2009
D day
I considered another title for this post but that would mean you didn't have to read any further, so I'll try to build the suspense.
I slept very badly last night, obviously I was a lot more nervous than I'd first thought! I tossed and turned, got too hot and too cold, looked at my watch regularly, received late good luck sms's and finally it was 4:30 and time to get up. I hate getting up before the sun, it seems so unnatural. After an apple for breakfast we were driving to the start, picking up Melodie on the way. Next thing, we are bunched up amongst a thousand other runners waiting for the start... 20 minutes... 10 minutes ... 5 minutes... 1 minute... 10 seconds... the start gun goes off and nothing happens! Not for a good minute and then another minute to cross the start line!
Then it was a fast walk for the first 10 minutes, which didn't quite work because I had terrible shin splints, so I ran a bit anyway, but my knee wasn't bothering me at all. Had a Gu at the first refreshment station outside Wynberg Girls and found that the little, but rather steep uphill at Carr Hill hardly bothered me at all. About 2km down the road on Constantia road my knee started bothering me mildly, but go progressively worse, I don't know how, but I managed to keep running my intervals which were 55/65 seconds run and rest respectively. My heart behaved well and I had a lot of energy, it was just really a question of controlling my gait to prevent hurting my knee. I managed to continue up Southern Cross drive at about 8min/km but running downhill proved pretty difficult and I didn't pick up any time as I normally would.
We got to the 15km mark in just under 2 hours which was exactly what happened last weekend and my knee was probably in the same shape. Thereafter I could steadily feel my legs getting more and more stiff as my altered gait took it's toll. I was convinced they were going to cramp up. Once again the little hill onto the M3 felt fine, but the little uphill coming into UCT seemed to hurt more than any other hill yet. Managed to run most of the way to the finish, but even the crowds looking on couldn't keep me from taking a few meters walk down the home stretch.
In the end my time was just over 2hours 48 minutes, considering everything I think thats fantastic and I can hardly believe that I did it... all the hard work, the bitching and moaning on my part and the early mornings where I really would have prefered to continue sleeping. They all paid off and I finished!
Now whats next?
I slept very badly last night, obviously I was a lot more nervous than I'd first thought! I tossed and turned, got too hot and too cold, looked at my watch regularly, received late good luck sms's and finally it was 4:30 and time to get up. I hate getting up before the sun, it seems so unnatural. After an apple for breakfast we were driving to the start, picking up Melodie on the way. Next thing, we are bunched up amongst a thousand other runners waiting for the start... 20 minutes... 10 minutes ... 5 minutes... 1 minute... 10 seconds... the start gun goes off and nothing happens! Not for a good minute and then another minute to cross the start line!
Then it was a fast walk for the first 10 minutes, which didn't quite work because I had terrible shin splints, so I ran a bit anyway, but my knee wasn't bothering me at all. Had a Gu at the first refreshment station outside Wynberg Girls and found that the little, but rather steep uphill at Carr Hill hardly bothered me at all. About 2km down the road on Constantia road my knee started bothering me mildly, but go progressively worse, I don't know how, but I managed to keep running my intervals which were 55/65 seconds run and rest respectively. My heart behaved well and I had a lot of energy, it was just really a question of controlling my gait to prevent hurting my knee. I managed to continue up Southern Cross drive at about 8min/km but running downhill proved pretty difficult and I didn't pick up any time as I normally would.
We got to the 15km mark in just under 2 hours which was exactly what happened last weekend and my knee was probably in the same shape. Thereafter I could steadily feel my legs getting more and more stiff as my altered gait took it's toll. I was convinced they were going to cramp up. Once again the little hill onto the M3 felt fine, but the little uphill coming into UCT seemed to hurt more than any other hill yet. Managed to run most of the way to the finish, but even the crowds looking on couldn't keep me from taking a few meters walk down the home stretch.
In the end my time was just over 2hours 48 minutes, considering everything I think thats fantastic and I can hardly believe that I did it... all the hard work, the bitching and moaning on my part and the early mornings where I really would have prefered to continue sleeping. They all paid off and I finished!
Now whats next?
The night before
I had a relatively chilled day, went out for lunch with some friends and avoided eating a very big or salty meal, also didn't drink anything and then had a simple pasta dinner for supper. To be honest, my heart is doing a funny skip every now and then, it's like it takes a quick beat, but then takes a long time on the next beat, so I'm not really sure whats going on. I'll just take it as it comes tomorrow.
I don't think I'm particularly nervous, but I am worried about being kicked off the course for not finishing in 3 hours, apparently they clear the course for the front marathon runners, so if you are too slow you aren't allowed to finish! My knee is ok at the moment but I'll only know how much it has healed tomorrow. I'm going to start by walking the first 10 minutes and then I'll only start my intervals. Hopefully that will allow my knee to warm up nicely. I'll also try to stretch as much as possible before hand.
Otherwise I'm pretty excited and upbeat about it and I'm pretty sure I can do it in the necessary time, however someone also pointed out that there are a good few minutes that are wasted just getting out of the starting area! Anyway theres not much point in speculating now, I'm gonna get out there and just do it! :P
I don't think I'm particularly nervous, but I am worried about being kicked off the course for not finishing in 3 hours, apparently they clear the course for the front marathon runners, so if you are too slow you aren't allowed to finish! My knee is ok at the moment but I'll only know how much it has healed tomorrow. I'm going to start by walking the first 10 minutes and then I'll only start my intervals. Hopefully that will allow my knee to warm up nicely. I'll also try to stretch as much as possible before hand.
Otherwise I'm pretty excited and upbeat about it and I'm pretty sure I can do it in the necessary time, however someone also pointed out that there are a good few minutes that are wasted just getting out of the starting area! Anyway theres not much point in speculating now, I'm gonna get out there and just do it! :P
Sunday, April 5, 2009
6 days to go
This morning's run was both encouraging and dissapointing. It was a really cold morning to the east of Pretoria and I rode there on my motorcycle, this made me really cold for the start and I didn't stretch at all, which was probably not a good idea. Nevertheless it took me about 6/7km to really start feeling my knee badly. We did the first 6km in 45 minutes which is a comfy 7:30min/km, and then I had to walk some to stop hurting my knee. About 3 km later when my muscles start complaining about the fast walking I tried a slightly different gait, to stop my knee hurting. I mostly kept my left leg straigh and did a lot of the work with my right leg.
The result was that I finished the 15km in 1:56min which isn't that fast but it will get me to the finish line in under 3 hrs, 6km in 60 minutes is not too difficult. I'm definitely going to start the race, but what I'm also going to do is to rest my knee as much as possible. At the moment I'm sitting with a hotpack on it because it was actually really sore today, but thats probably because I've been sitting most of the time after the race. I flew down to Cape Town this afternoon on a very cramped 1time flight. I know what some people are thinking... that I'm doing damage, and you are probably right, but I've come too far to give up now.
This week I won't do much more than a few gentle walks. I don't think I can get any fitter now, and I'm pretty sure that the prep I've done will get me to the finish. Once I've done the race, I promise I'll let my knee heal!!
The result was that I finished the 15km in 1:56min which isn't that fast but it will get me to the finish line in under 3 hrs, 6km in 60 minutes is not too difficult. I'm definitely going to start the race, but what I'm also going to do is to rest my knee as much as possible. At the moment I'm sitting with a hotpack on it because it was actually really sore today, but thats probably because I've been sitting most of the time after the race. I flew down to Cape Town this afternoon on a very cramped 1time flight. I know what some people are thinking... that I'm doing damage, and you are probably right, but I've come too far to give up now.
This week I won't do much more than a few gentle walks. I don't think I can get any fitter now, and I'm pretty sure that the prep I've done will get me to the finish. Once I've done the race, I promise I'll let my knee heal!!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
9 days
I had hoped to go for an 8km run this afternoon, it was time trial which meant I could conveniently drop out after every 2km lap if my knee started to hurt. However I'm not sure what was wrong, perhaps I ran too fast, or perhaps it was something to do with lunch, which was the healthiest thing I could see on the menu, other than a salad, which would have had even less street cred. Whatever it was I wasn't feeling 100% and struggled to run most of the way. In the end I chickened out after 6km, which was ok, because my knee was starting to hurt. Whats more it was actually quite a good pace (for me) at 7:12km/min!
From my heartrate data, it doesn't really appear that I was taking strain. So thats why I thought it was a blood sugar/pressure thing. Anyway hopefully I can prevent that in the race. I'm thinking of not doing anything on Friday and just doing the 15km on Saturday. Next week I'm going to do very little running, as I'd prefer to stay off my knee.
From my heartrate data, it doesn't really appear that I was taking strain. So thats why I thought it was a blood sugar/pressure thing. Anyway hopefully I can prevent that in the race. I'm thinking of not doing anything on Friday and just doing the 15km on Saturday. Next week I'm going to do very little running, as I'd prefer to stay off my knee.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
11 days, I think my knee might hold
I went for a 6km run this afternoon and although I actually found it quite tough, probably once again because I wasn't strict enough about what I ate and how much fluid i drank. Oh well Wednesday will be better. My knee behaved much better today although by about the 5.5km mark it was letting me know it was there, but nothing near the pain of before.
I think resting it over the weekend was wise. I'll try run a 7km on Wednesday and then walk 4km on Friday and then see how I manage the Zoom Zoom Mazda 15km. It will really give me an idea how my fitness and my knee will hold up. If my knee gives trouble I will not train on it until race day, but will rather try to do comparatively length of time training on a bike. Hopefully then a full weeks rest will have helped it, because it seems like the orthotics are working, but perhaps there's just some left over swelling that gets in the way when I run now.
I had a gut wrenching moment this afternoon, I was approaching the 3km turn around mark when I looked down at my monitor and it said 210bpm!! Which can only mean one thing ofcourse, for about 30 seconds my heart (in the other sense) sank and I imagined going back for another shock, but then I noticed that the indicator that the signal is coded, a little line around the beating heart, was missing! I asked Melodie to step away so that I was certain to be picking up only my heart rate, and to my immense relief it dropped to a very respectabel 100 bpm. It remained within reasonable limits for the rest of the run... atleast my heart is happy with me :)
Not long now!!
I think resting it over the weekend was wise. I'll try run a 7km on Wednesday and then walk 4km on Friday and then see how I manage the Zoom Zoom Mazda 15km. It will really give me an idea how my fitness and my knee will hold up. If my knee gives trouble I will not train on it until race day, but will rather try to do comparatively length of time training on a bike. Hopefully then a full weeks rest will have helped it, because it seems like the orthotics are working, but perhaps there's just some left over swelling that gets in the way when I run now.
I had a gut wrenching moment this afternoon, I was approaching the 3km turn around mark when I looked down at my monitor and it said 210bpm!! Which can only mean one thing ofcourse, for about 30 seconds my heart (in the other sense) sank and I imagined going back for another shock, but then I noticed that the indicator that the signal is coded, a little line around the beating heart, was missing! I asked Melodie to step away so that I was certain to be picking up only my heart rate, and to my immense relief it dropped to a very respectabel 100 bpm. It remained within reasonable limits for the rest of the run... atleast my heart is happy with me :)
Not long now!!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
13 days to go!!
Two weeks today is race day!! How time flies!! I got my new orthotic inserts yesterday and I think they helped. I went for a 5km run yesterday, which I completed in 36minutes, which is well withing my target range, and I was using reasonable intervals. Whats more it was a relatively hilly route. In about the last 500m I could start to feel my knee again, but MUCH less than before, so it leads me to believe there is some improvement due to these inserts.
My heartrate is still good, following my effort, as it should. I've attached the heartrate data from Friday to prove it.
I then went for about a 3hr cycle this morning, as promised. It seems to be really difficult to find safe places to cycle in Pretoria with verges that allow you to get out of the maniacal drivers way! But we got home safely so it's all good. Ended up doing about 60km, which is also pretty good considering it's almost a year since I touched a bike seriously.
My heartrate is still good, following my effort, as it should. I've attached the heartrate data from Friday to prove it.
I then went for about a 3hr cycle this morning, as promised. It seems to be really difficult to find safe places to cycle in Pretoria with verges that allow you to get out of the maniacal drivers way! But we got home safely so it's all good. Ended up doing about 60km, which is also pretty good considering it's almost a year since I touched a bike seriously.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
16 days!! Saturday will be two weeks!!
I can hardly believe how close it is now! In just over a week i fly down to Cape Town and then it's a week till the race!
I went for a run today, it was Premier (formerly "Hell on tar") but not nearly as bad as the Sunrise Monster. I decided to try out a knee support, one of those sleeves that has a hole over your knee cap. It seemed to help at first but I still started to feel the pain in about the last 500m, so I did about 4.5km without pain... better than Monday. I also held an icepack to it last night and I'm sitting with one on it right now, perhaps it'll help, even if it's not really that sore when I'm not running.
Someone at the running club suggested that I do some form of exercise that gets me off my knee while keeping me fit, so I'm probably going to go for a 3 hour ride on Saturday. I'll keep doing 4s and 5s in the week to keep my running muscles going until I get used to the orthotics, which I should get tomorrow or on Friday. It's really strange that all the people I know who are running the 2 Oceans, who are in their late 20s and early 30s all have knee trouble at the moment. I guess its just when you start running more than you are used to.
Between my heart and my knee, the program I was trying to follow is pretty well stuffed, but I still think all the time I spent on the road before should put me in good stead for the race.
And for those of you who don't know what I do, I (try to) design robotic systems for a living, and my first system came properly alive today, which is really cool, and very satisfying :) There's still a lot of work to be done, but it is moving around all on it's own. Lots of fun :)
I went for a run today, it was Premier (formerly "Hell on tar") but not nearly as bad as the Sunrise Monster. I decided to try out a knee support, one of those sleeves that has a hole over your knee cap. It seemed to help at first but I still started to feel the pain in about the last 500m, so I did about 4.5km without pain... better than Monday. I also held an icepack to it last night and I'm sitting with one on it right now, perhaps it'll help, even if it's not really that sore when I'm not running.
Someone at the running club suggested that I do some form of exercise that gets me off my knee while keeping me fit, so I'm probably going to go for a 3 hour ride on Saturday. I'll keep doing 4s and 5s in the week to keep my running muscles going until I get used to the orthotics, which I should get tomorrow or on Friday. It's really strange that all the people I know who are running the 2 Oceans, who are in their late 20s and early 30s all have knee trouble at the moment. I guess its just when you start running more than you are used to.
Between my heart and my knee, the program I was trying to follow is pretty well stuffed, but I still think all the time I spent on the road before should put me in good stead for the race.
And for those of you who don't know what I do, I (try to) design robotic systems for a living, and my first system came properly alive today, which is really cool, and very satisfying :) There's still a lot of work to be done, but it is moving around all on it's own. Lots of fun :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)