kentcowgill.org/blog

Another day, another run. I think I might almost start to be enjoying this. But ask me again after a few weeks - after all, isn't it three weeks to make a new habit?

Turns out the heart rate I've been clocking at the fastest is right at the suggested max heart rate for my age, according to several max heart rate formula. Or around 95% according to yet others. Most of the web sites where these formula and the meanings of the heart rate "zones" suggest that it's 'elite athletes' who train at 90-95% of their max heart rate.

"Elite athlete" I am not, but I know I've hit that heart rate spinning on my bike. Granted I never keep it that high for very long (sure, I know how to coast and cool down on my bike) - but it's a heart rate I'm familiar with. So I don't think I'm going to worry about it too much.

And my speed is all over the place. I thought that based on my last run/walk, I'd hit about 2.7 miles, given about .3 miles per run/walk set over 9 sets. Well I did my 9 sets, but after I got home and mapped out my actual route (since I forgot a turn or two) I find out I only ran/walked about 2.44 miles. And that was in about 31.5 minutes. So that's about .27 miles per set on average, which is less than what I was hoping for.

At least the new route kept me guessing:

View Larger Map

If I can keep up those paces, though - I'll be doing about 2.7 miles next time I go out. And then that'll pretty much wrap up week 2 of the plan. Which means I'll move to week 3, which will be 90 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking (no sweat so far), but then 3 minutes jogging (youch!) following by 3 minutes of walking (whew!). And then repeat that. Which means (if I keep my paces) that I'll only cover about 1.5 miles in about 18 minutes. If I repeat it a total of three times, it'll be 2.3 miles. Four repeats, 3.1 miles. However, my guess is that especially on the longer runs, I'll likely slow it down - so the real distances will be less. So I'm not sure what I'll do. But I've got a few days to figure it out.

BTW, I never got around to getting out the stationary trainer for my bike. There are other days, though...

So I'm not really sure what happened. After all my careful calculations, I ended up running and walking about 2.44 miles, at least according to Google Maps. According to my other Timex Ironman (the one that has a speed and distance GPS, but nothing to help me map my routes) I went a little over 2.5 miles - though I think it locked onto the satellites a half block before I started running.

I also tried to sneak a peak at both my heart rate as well as my speed every now and again, and all I have to say is that I'm not convinced the GPS is terribly accurate. At least at any given point in time. At least I don't think the speed of my walk varied from 3 mph to 4.5 mph. Nor do I think my jogging speed varied from 5 mph to 7.7 mph. All of these speeds made an appearance on my watch at various times throughout, and I'm convinced I just glanced at my watch before it was able to accurately average out the speed while between satellite updates. Or something.

But I think the heart rate part was pretty accurate.

Speaking of which, I'm going to have to find out if it's safe for my heart rate to be going as high as it was on the 90 seconds jog intervals!

The route I took wasn't quite what I had planned, but it was close. I had to make some last minute adjustments because I was pretty sure a road didn't exist where Google Maps said one did - a condition I should have spotted before I tied my shoes.

But I didn't go down the street because I was so convinced it was a dead end. What with the "Dead End" sign posted that I normally drive by every time I go north.

Regardless, it was a nice circuitous route with mostly right turns.

View Larger Map

My first two runs had mostly left turns, going around the park, so I decided my next two should go the other way.

I think for the next several runs, I'll plot a course with an equal number of turns.

Too bad there's no tool online anywhere that would plot these routes for me automatically.

So, the pyramids on Tuesday, physical therapy on Wednesday and Thursday, the doctor appointments for Matthew on Wednesday and Friday, altogether had me feeling pretty beat up.

And the the remnants from Hurricane Ike breezed through, flooding streets all over the place, but more importantly raining all weekend. I don't think I've mentioned this, but I really hate riding my bike in the rain. So no biking this weekend.

But a few weeks ago I stumbled on something that peaked my interest - the Couch-to-5K Running Plan. Work up to being able to run a 5K in 9 weeks. What is it with me and all these exercise-for-some-goal-to-reach-in-X-weeks plans?

This one seemed easy enough - especially when compared to the 100 push ups in 6 weeks. I had a sneaky suspicion that the plan outlined on hundredpushups.com was a little ambitious, to say the least. (I'll still go back to it at some point, though - I still think it would be a neat goal to reach). I'm still trying to decide if I want to actually run in a real 5K in mid-November.

So back to the running plan. All I really needed were some running shoes. A shoe recommendation from a marathon-running-coworker and a subsequent rainy day trip to the mall took care of that.

Then I just had to work out where I'd go, how long, and then program some timers into the interval timer on my sports watch.

The first step was to figure out a route to take that would be about 5 minutes at a brisk pace and lead me to the park. Easy enough - from the treadmill they chain me to at physical therapy I know that I can probably maintain a decently brisk pace of 3.5 miles per hour for the 5 minute warmup, and that works out to about 1540 feet, or about a third of a mile. Google maps to the rescue again, and if I go counter-clockwise around the school on the next block I'll arrive right at the park. And then I estimated that I'd jog about 420 feet in each 60 second interval and walk briskly about 462 feet in each 90 second interval. Eight sets of 60 seconds jogging and 90 seconds brisk walking ought to have me at about 1.3 miles total.

I think I jogged a bit faster than I was intending to, because after all was said and done, and if I remember correctly that I got around the park nearly 5 times (I kept losing count), then I walked/jogged about 1.6 miles, according to Google Maps.

The route I took was pretty boring:

View Larger Map

After I finished, I stretched out again and felt pretty good, except that my quadriceps were a little sore.

Heh. I complain about falling off of posting to my blog, and then I'm silent for nearly 6 days. So what's the story? Have I really stopped everything? Have I just gotten lazy in posting again?

Well, a little of both.

I mentioned I was getting discouraged with my inability to hit the targets for the push ups and chin ups. So I'm taking a break. I don't plan to stop altogether. I've been kicking around the idea of doing the pyramid push ups/chin ups/sit ups thing again. For a little while. Just to change things up for a bit.

I've been going to my physical therapy, and I bought a few things (ankle weights, lighter dumbbells) to help me do my physical therapy exercises at home. I also dusted off my stability ball and used that a bit, too.

I've also gotten out on my bike - with all the miles and miles of unridden road around me, I can't stay off my bike on the weekends.

Sunday I rode from my house, to Elmwood Park, River Forest, Oak Park, then up to nearly Evanston, Lincolnwood, Skokie, and then back home. It was about 41 miles, and looks pretty impressive on a map:

View Larger Map

I've already got a route mapped out for next weekend that should take me through Park Ridge, Des Plains, Mount Prospect, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, Itasca, Wood Dale, Elmhurst, Melrose Park, and then back home. This one will look really impressive, and will span about 48 miles.

Thanks to the long weekend, i.e. an extra day off, I got to go out on another ride today. This time I made sure to not run out of gas again like I did last time - I made sure I ate enough, and brought a snack with me to top off my tank at around the halfway mark.

Nothing particularly exciting to report today. I didn't take the route I was eyeing the other day. I wanted to be in familiar territory in case I bonked again.

I wanted to get back in a reasonable amount of time, but I also wanted to put in some serious miles. At least, more miles than I had been going the last few outings. So I figured instead of taking a bunch of streets through the north and west side of Chicago where I might run into traffic, stoplights, and stop signs, all potentially making it take much longer than it could if I were to take my old standby route, up to the Chicago Botanical Gardens.

View Larger Map

I suppose one of these days I'll start riding my bike in to work. But there are a few logistics I'll need to work out first - get the bike lockup area key, get the gym key, figuring out where the gym is, figuring out which bike lock I should take... I guess I'm still on the fence as to whether or not it's worth the hassle.

I was still feeling pretty beat up yesterday - lack of sleep for the last several days and a brutal physical therapy session, so I fell asleep early.

Today I got out on my bike. I tried to follow a route I found recently on bikely.com, but pretty quickly started missing turns, so I didn't quite follow the trail I had intended. I did take about the same course, and I did about the same mileage, give or take - but of course since I wasn't starting on any point of the trail there was a little extra mileage to get to it. I had to stop a few times and check my location on my iPhone map and see if I could get myself back to the trail I wanted to follow. Then I finally joined up with trail I was familiar with, and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way - to a point.

I'm pretty sure I neglected to consume enough calories in the morning before I went. After a total of about 19 miles or so, I was really feeling like I had run completely out of gas. But I kept on pushing through, at a little slower pace, and finally got home.

View Larger Map

I'm already eyeing a route for Monday - looks like as the route is plotted on bikely.com, it's about 33 miles. I'll be adjusting it slightly for my start and end points.

August 23:

I got out on my bike today. Pretty close to the same route that I did last Saturday, though instead of cutting a straighter line through the city to get back to the house in time, I just turned around and went the same route home. The good news is that there wasn't the Air and Water show going on, so the bike path wasn't absolutely jam-packed with people like it was last week. However, the people who are there normally (runners, walkers, roller-bladers, and other bikers) just have no clue how to coexist in the world with other people. It's simple - keep to the right, but get to the left to pass. Once you've passed, get back to the right. Don't run 3 people abreast. Don't ride in a huge clump of people with opposing foot or bike traffic. Be aware of your surroundings. And that means get those earphones out of your ears! How are you supposed to hear me yell out "on your left" so I can safely pass you, much less "OMG LOOK OUT FOR THAT BABY".

I also had the incredible good fortune to have either a cross wind or a head wind going south, and then again on my way back. So my average speed wasn't great, but there were a few times I actually caught a tail wind and kept a pace of 20 mph. But there was more than a few times where I had to slog along at 12 or 13 mph.

View Larger Map

Sunday was a day of rest. I like those.

I'm posting a bit more than a day or two per post, hoping I can catch up to current before too much longer.

August 8:

I think I'm supposed to do week 3, day 2, column 3 for push ups today, but I'm not sure. I'm more sure about doing week 1, day 2, column 2 for chin ups. Regardless of what I've actually worked up to, this is what I'll be doing for the day.

Push ups: 27 then 19 then 19 then 15 then maxed out at 25. Resting about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 105 in about 8 minutes. I actually think I could've gotten one, possibly two more out of the max set before total collapse, but I just stopped at 25. But the really good news is that today, I hit all the targets for week 3 day 2. Hooray!

Chin ups: Not quite so good. 9 then 8 then 6 then 4 and two halves and then maxed out at 2 and three halves. Yes, I tried to get more than two on three separate tries. And failed. Rested about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 29 in about 7 minutes. This is definitely more than I've done so far, but it was still short of the target. I think I'll probably end up repeating this one, too. Small bummer. But overall I'm still feeling good about my generally forward progress with the chin ups.

August 9:

Just to wrap up where I've been along the path to 100 consecutive push ups and chin ups so far, I've created a little chart tracking my progress.

This gives me a lot of hope - I can see, now that I've laid it all out, that I'm making some real progress. At times it feels like I'm taking a step backwards for every two steps forward I'm making, but I can see the method to the madness.

Thanks to Lisa's parents being in town to help out after Lisa's wisdom teeth extraction, I got to get out on my bike both days without feeling guilty about leaving her with Matthew! I got out and cleaned up my CamelBak backpack, loaded it up with about 3 liters of water, filled my tires up to 110 psi, and took off. I went just a few more miles today than I did last Sunday, so the total was almost 32 miles. The route was pretty similar to what I did Sunday, just following the trail a little further. Courtesy Google Maps again, here's my route for today:

View Larger Map

Lisa and I interviewed a few potential nannies on Sunday, and we had to take her parents back to the airport, so I took another day of rest on August 10.

August 2:
I got out on my bike today. I had to raise the seat and attach the seat post rack to carry some tools, spare innertube, patch kit, wallet, phone, and my portable tire pump. But I couldn't find my portable tire pump, which made the tools, innertube and patch kit pretty worthless. Sure I could patch a hole or change the tube, but I still wouldn't be able to inflate the tire after fixing or replacing the tube. But I had spent so much time collecting everything and readjusting my bike, and my "Matthew's Nap Timer" was running out, so I just left it all attached and got on my way. Here's the route I took today:

View Larger Map

From my house to the turnaround, I took the longer path, and it's about 9.5 miles. I didn't measure the shorter route from where I turned around, but I'd guess it's about 8 miles. So today's ride was about 17.5 miles.

The rest of the day, I decided to do nothing. That's right, absolutely nothing. I think I was starting to experience some of the symptoms of overtraining - basically I was going all out with just too many activities. I also think it was a mistake to split the chin ups and push ups into separate days - each exercise uses much more of the same muscles than I would expect.

But on Sunday, I got out on my bike for a little longer of a ride.

August 3:

View Larger Map

From my house to the turnaround, it's about 12.5 miles. I took the exact same route both ways, so that makes today's ride about 25 miles.

Drawing the lines of the route in google maps is a little tedious. Maybe next weekend I'll stick to some easier to plot routes.

This is, of course, assuming I replace my tire(s?) by then. I have a giant bulge in my rear tire, with thinning rubber that looks like it's just about to pop. Thankfully it didn't while I was on the road.

I'm glad a random stranger stopped near me at a road crossing to point this out to me by asking me if I felt the wobble. Having no idea what he was talking about, I thought he was perhaps crazy. But after he pointed to my tire, I saw what he was talking about. And of course I felt the wobble (ok, it felt more like I was riding over a bump) from then on - in fact I could think of nothing other than how bad it felt, how could I possibly have not noticed it before, and exactly what position will my body end up in when I have a horrible wreck due to tire blowout.

I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I'm very important. I have many O'Reilly books, and my house smells of computers.

Every once in a while, you just have to google yourself. I tend to do it while I'm alone - but sometimes I do it at work. I just finished googling myself a few minutes ago, and was happy to find that I am 10 out of the first 10 google hits for "kent cowgill" (without the quotes, even).

Even better, I am 39 of the first 50 google hits.

The other three Kent Cowgill's've got nothin' on me, even though one's a marginally popular medievalist author, one doesn't even have Kent as his first name and has written (or reviewed, it's not clear) a journal article or two, and the last is (or has been) apparently an english professor at WSU.

Don't be fooled, though. Even though meetup.com makes it look I'm from Lombard, I'm not. (I'm still in Chicago).

I also didn't attend the Chicago Hackathon in 11-06. I wanted to, but I was out of town that weekend :(

If any CPAN links show up, make sure you're looking at the most recent version of a module.

That's really my wishlist on page two. Feel free to get my anythingon that list. Or an iPhone. It's not on the list, but I won't mind if you go "off-list" for that.

I do have helpful advice about out-of-towners sharing cabs from O'Hare to one location, specifically when a bunch of perl geeks converge on Chicago for YAPC::NA::2006.

I was linked to from Sun's BigAdmin portal for my article about chrooting sftp on Solaris 8. I was really proud about that. Even though at this point it's completely out of date. UNLESS you happen to be nursing along an old Solaris 8 box.

I'm starting to give talks at my local perl mongers meetings. I'll probably post more of those types of things.

That's me at UniForm Chicago. My first meeting I'm presenting at, too.

I gave a lightning talk a year or so ago golfing perl, and David Romano wants to see it sometime. Now anyone can.

I helped Andy Lester a little with perl101.com. Just a little CSS if I recall correctly.

I also helped Andy with the name for his wiki, xoa. I just threw out a name or two, and one of 'em stuck.

I registered at the TWiki dev site. And gave some helful advice. And promptly lost all interest, as I no longer has a job requiring me to admin and/or work heavily with TWiki.

It appears Marcus Ramberg linked to my blog (this one!) on del.icio.us. A nod always feels nice from one of the core developers of the framework this very blog runs on.

I participated in a Catalyst BOF, and a Hackathon after YAPC::NA::2007 in Houston. I didn't do much other than help a lot with logistics - arriving early, procuring the room, finding network connectivity, hooking it up, figuring out why it didn't work, helping to rig up an intermediary solution... etc.. Did a little QA work with Marcus Ramberg and Jon Rockway on the mojomojo project - a catalyst based wiki.

I sought help trying to run linux on a handhelp ipaq (which I apparently posted shortly after I came back from my bike ride - having raised $7,080 for a worthy cause, and a heck of a physical challenge - hit the ride tag to the right for more info on that).

And the rest of the hits for kent cowgill either point to this blog, or variations on the themes above.

I recall the good old days (more like a year ago) where the primary things google turned up were 10-12 year old emails I sent to a MacPerl mailing list for a job many moons ago, about topics that frankly at this point, are a little embarrassing :)