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Runner’s Log: Week 38 - Ice, Ice, Baby

This week was a low mileage week. My left foot was still acting up throughout the week to the point where I had to cut my long run short. At that point, I’d tried various solutions. Thinking it’d affect my performance for the upcoming 5K, I tried the last thing on the list, which was icing it. It really should’ve been the first thing on my list, but at the time I had no ice and didn’t feel like making any (nor did I have any suitable substitutes) so I spent the rest of the day playing Tales of Vesperia while I let the ice maker do its thing. I figured extra rest and rolling the tennis ball during work would do the trick. Icing it was like a miracle. Right now, I feel no soreness, no pain, and was even able to pursue my track repeats today aggressively this evening. Hopefully my luck holds until this Saturday.

I mentioned also earlier this week that I obtained a Garmin Forerunner 305 and took it for a test run on Friday. I managed to get in my test run before some severe storms settled in (it was pretty much tornado alley in the southeast at the time).

That night before dinner I realized I had forgotten to get more pesto. Unfortunately it was at the time the storm started hitting hard. Luckily, the worst of it pretty much passed (or just missed my area because I was able to play some Street Fighter IV without any outages). At that point, it was just lots of rain (at least that’s what weather.com said). So I braved the heavy precipitation to get some pesto (I’ve driven through worse conditions, though under different circumstances that didn’t involve pesto). I don’t own any umbrellas so I was somewhat thoroughly soaked after this trip.

But at least I got my pesto.

Tags: ice, pesto, plantar fasciitis, weather

Preview: Dean Griffin Pi Mile Road Race

One week left before my very first race. To be honest, as exciting as it was when I first signed up, it doesn’t feel as exciting since I’ve already been training at higher mileages for the past month. Perhaps that’s a good thing since it reduces anxiety. Hopefully I’ll feel the same when the marathon comes around, though I probably doubt it.

Before signing up for any race, I establish 3 types of goals at the time of signup. They’re self-explanatory, but I stick to them to the T because it becomes a measure of improvement over time. The reason for the 3 types is to account for flexibility. Even completing the first type would be good enough. This is similar to a technique I was required to employ during my video game design class back in college.

Another quirk I have is that I’ll never attempt to race the course for practice until the actual day of the race.

Registration Date: February 16
Base Goal: Finish under 40 minutes.
Reasonable Goal: Finish under 35 minutes
Impossible Goal: Finish under 30 minutes
Fastest Time in Training: 31:45

Atlanta is known for it’s rather hilly terrain despite being a metropolitan city (at least I think so). The campus where the race is held is no different. From the starting line to halfway to mile 1 is all uphill. It goes downhill from there up until 60% of the way to mile 2. From there, it another hill until the U-turn to mile 3 (if you ran the ING marathon or half-marathon, it follows that similar route which led to the final hydration station before the finish line). From the U-turn, it’s all downhill into the finish line which is back at the starting line.

Tags: atlanta, georgia tech, pi mile

Tech: Garmin Forerunner 305

So I finally caved and purchased the Garmin Forerunner 305. I’ve been planning on doing so and did some research on it a couple weeks back, but after a rather trying experience with a cheap HRM I bought (bottom line, it stopped working for me and wasn’t that great in the first place), I deemed it time to get on the Garmin train.

In a nutshell, it works like a wonder (HRM included). I went out for a trial run just to see if it’d work and it was better than I expected. The best part, being the loads of data I get from it just waiting to be analyzed and visualized.

Below are pace screens between both the Garmin Forerunner and Nike+. They are both really close in terms of distance as well as average pace (it seems the Garmin does a lot more sampling or the Nike+ does a lot more smoothing). In my longer runs, the Nike+ tends to be a bit less accurate. I can’t say the same for the Garmin yet until my long run later this weekend.

Note: Faster pace as indicated on the y-axes of both charts are opposite.

The watch itself lets you customize several screens to show relevant data depending on your workout. I currently have screens set up for my long run (HRZ, pace, distance), tempo/repeats (current lap, pace, HRZ), and weight training (time of day, BPM, HRZ). It’s really nifty.

I think the best part of the Forerunner is just the things you can do with the data. It is possible to export the data into other 3rd party programs or even on the Garmin website itself to do some interesting analysis… or even just mess around with Google Earth and present a bird’s eye view of how much distance you’ve covered.

Even the GarminConnect website isn’t that bad for uploading data and visualizing it. For me, I use both GarminConnect and SportsTracks. Note that in order to get the Garmin Forerunner 305 to play nice with GarminConnect (complete support for the 305 still in progress), you’ll need to employ a different method. You can also look at my data that I created from my trial run.

So far I’m impressed with the device. If it performs consistently like it did today during my trial run, then it’ll have exceeded my expectations for it (being a novice runner, I had hardly any).

The device itself also plays nicely with biking (something I probably won’t be able to test anytime soon) so everything I talked about with the Garmin is in reference to running activity.

Triathletes interested in the device may want to hold off until the 2nd quarter for the Forerunner 310XT as it’s swim-proof and boasts a longer battery life (~20 hours). I went with the 305 instead of waiting for the 310XT simply because the 305 i bought was half the price of a 310XT.

I look forward to using this device in my runs.

Tags: 305, 310cx, garmin forerunner, nike

ING Georgia Marathon Hydration Station

I briefly talked about volunteering at the ING marathon at mile 25. Apparently it was declared the winner of the hydration station challenge. Though I can’t help but feel that being the last hydration station before the finish line gave a bit of an advantage… at least I would imagine so psychologically as someone who ran the race and voted.

I wonder if I would consider running next year’s marathon. If the one in January goes well, I don’t really see why not. Though I would imagine the course itself is brutal considering the elevation distribution. While Agnes Scott may not be as legendary as Wellesley in terms of marathon presence (ING Georgia marathon is still young), I figure it’d be at least over infinitely times easier coping with the Atlanta Marathon than it would be to try to qualify for Boston.

Tags: boston, georgia tech, ing marathon

Playlist: Prelude from Final Fantasy

Coming up with another excuse to add more content to my blog, I figured I’d have a posting once a week about a song that’s on my running playlist with some background information on it and why it’s in my playlist. Song links point to YouTube.

Starting off is the Prelude from Final Fantasy.

Information: Final Fantasy is a popular video game RPG series. The reason why it got that game title was because the company Square was nearing bankruptcy in 1987 and had essentially declared this to be their “final” game. Of course, to their surprise, it became popular and kept the company afloat (in which over the years they eventually turned into the company known today as Square Enix).

The music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, a well known video game composer. In it’s basic form, it’s essentially comprised of arpeggios. The song itself would go through variations as the video game series matured, but I found it best as a piano arrangement.

Why: It’s the first song of my playlist and it’s what I use for my stretching/warm-ups so I essentially loop it until I’m ready to begin my run.

Tags: final fantasy, Music, Running, video game

Runner’s Log: Week 39 - Practicing Restraint

So last week I mentioned that after my long run, my left foot came down with what I believe was plantar fasciitis. It was bad enough to make me miss my following workout day on Monday and on Tuesday I opted to do XT instead of my first short run. I was only able to put in 4 runs this week. In the past, I’ve done 5 runs a week. As I still tweak my schedule, I’m beginning to feel that 4 runs per week (of various types) should be sufficient. I would take the remaining 3 days and use them for XT.

Nonetheless, I also opted not to increase my mileage this week. Even though my foot started feeling better throughout the week and was good enough to run on for my long run today (with the exception of a bit of discomfort), I decided against it as I reached my 7th mile. I’ll probably adjust my schedule again to incorporate mileage increases once every two weeks. With the time I have left, I should have plenty of time to reach the peak of my training and taper off just in time for the marathon (about 39 weeks away).

I was pleased to find out though that my long run didn’t affect my foot much. While it was discomforting to walk on it for a bit, it was nothing like what I felt last Sunday. So even though the most sensible option would’ve been to not run, I just couldn’t do it. I’m at the point where if I were to miss a run, I would feel extremely uneasy. Of course, though I can always readjust as necessary and wouldn’t get to the point I’d give up because I missed a few runs, perhaps it’s more of a sign that I’m starting to care about running a lot more now.

After the long run, a friend and I hit up Jason’s Deli which was near the park where I ran at. I chose a park this week to minimize my run-ins into too many hills as I had guessed it played a part in my injury last Sunday. I’m also in the process of trying to incorporate a separate hill training day (Bobby Dodd hill will work just nicely for that).

Tags: atlanta, jason's deli, piedmont park, plantar fasciitis, Running

How It Really Began

Nearing the end of week 39, I thought I’d briefly go over how this all began.

There really isn’t anything philosophical or profound to begin with. It really just started with my rather late discovery of the Nike+ system. I was quite intrigued by the concept (despite whatever similar implementations were done beforehand). What I was impressed with was partnership Nike and Apple created with each other. They really complement each other, running and music that is. On top of that, Nike created a rather elaborate (though at times laggy and a tad over Flash-y) community site where you can track your run data, join challenges, and set goals with yourself or for everyone to see and partake in.

I was interested in the whole concept of data collecting and visualization of running. I also like messing around with tech gadgets and gizmos. I ended up purchasing the Nike+ SportsBand and a pair of Nike shoes that were made for storing the Nike+ sensor. These pair of shoes would become my first pair of running shoes. This was done back in around June 2008.

Nike+ has been really good for me so far. Though, I’m getting to the point where I’m starting to eye the Garmin Forerunner 305. Now that right there is just simply a cacophony of data just begging to be visualized and analyzed.

Tags: garmin forerunner 305, nike, nikeplus, Running

Runner’s Log: Week 40 - And So It Begins…

…even though it has already begun. I’m using a countdown method so it actually isn’t week 40, but rather 40 weeks left until the marathon.

This week went according to plan despite all the crappy weather. For the most part, my weeks consist of 3 small runs, a medium run, and a long run (with off days before and after the long run).

This week’s long run was 7 miles and was done at Georgia Tech. Parts of campus was cut off for the ING Georgia Marathon. I also volunteered at the water station there. I figured it’d be an interesting experience to see what I may be going through come January.

I also came down with a case of plantar fasciitis. It was the first time in a long time and it sucked mostly because I had to pass on cross-training today. Hopefully it’ll be gone by tomorrow.

Tags: georgia tech, ing marathon, Running

From Tech 2 Disney

With so many things going on, I’ve had barely any time to really just sit down and blog about something. I’ve been keeping up with the gaming with Street Fighter 4, Eternal Sonata, and most recently, Tales of Vesperia. Tales of Vesperia has so far been an excellent RPG (Eternal Sonata, not so much)

But I think the biggest thing that’s happened is my recent declaration to run a marathon.

Thankfully, I didn’t just suddenly wake up one day and decide to jump on. It started off with signing up for a 5K. I thought snagging a “Pi Mile” shirt would be really cool. Then without going into details (in which about 50% of it involved research and evaluation), it sort of grew out from there.

So basically, I’m currently slated to do the Georgia Tech Pi Mile, Peachtree Road Race, Weather Channel Thanksgiving Half Marathon (technically not signed up yet since it seems they’re behind the times on online registration, but will eventually once I relearn how to send out snail mail), and finally the Walt Disney World Marathon. What a year this’ll be!

Coming from the guy who would normally rather play Grandia III or finally finish Final Fantasy XII, there must be one heck of a reason for doing this… and there is! But that’s something that’ll be kept under wraps.

In an attempt to add content to this blog (not that I’m expecting an audience of readers), I decided to try to give it the old college try and post at least once a week with updates on this whole affair.

Tags: 10k, 5k, atlanta, disney, georgia tech, marathon, peachtree, pi, weather channel

Beyond the Clouds, the Promised Place

Localized as The Place Promised in Our Early Days for the US (subtitled trailer), this is another piece by Makoto Shinkai

This time, it’s in movie format. Last work by him that I’ve seen was 5 Centimeters Per Second and I wasn’t too deeply impressed by it (sans the artwork and animation). So I thought I’d give him another chance and look up a work by him that’s considered a full length movie.

Despite this being a full length movie, it does have some of his style in it. Scenes are almost split up the same way 5 Centimeters Per Second was. Needless to say though that it still managed to feel like a movie as opposed to separate episodes.

Without spoiling much, the basis of the story (as I’ve interpreted it) is simply the idealistic dreams of childhood clashing against reality and war. What’s really interesting is that I feel the movie is littered with symbolism. At first, this movie almost reminded me of Pearl Harbor, but, without spoiling anything, it completely went in a different direction in the end.

There were times where I’d get slightly confused and forget what time or where a scene is taking place. I’m attributing that to one of the themes of the story. It’s almost like one of those movies I’d have to see again to try to guess the director’s intent.

Once again, the artwork and animation was wonderful. I might have to say, however, that the artwork and animation in 5 Centimeters Per Second was more captivating, but it isn’t by too much. Both movies look great.

A few really big unanswered parts persist by the end of the movie. I’d have to say though that I’m more satisfied with the ending of this movie than with 5 Centimeters Per Second. I’m starting to see a theme with Makoto Shinkai though. It seems so far, he has an affinity towards integrating the idea of unrequited love in his stories.

Tags: Anime, beyond the clouds the promised place, makoto shinkai, movie, the placed promised in our early days