Reflections on my Triathlon journey so far

The time has came around for some self reflection, on my transformation from casual mountain biker to triathlete, and with some luck the fullfilment of a long held dream of going long course to become an Ironman (in September IM Wales).

How far have I come?

Starting September 2009 I decided to tackle the challenge of doing "a" triathlon. Having not swam since school, my swimming was downright awful. Getting across one side of the pool was enough of challenge in itself, nevermind doing the sets the swim coach laying out. Running was my next challenge and put myself into a Liverpool Running Club as a starter. Still running is something that has never come easily to me, and still today prefer cycling away the miles instead. The cycle part was the least of my problems after I'd been doing a daily cycle commute of 15 miles.

Initially I threw myself into many Dualthons throughout the winter season, as part of the Paul Drinkwater series of events. After spending six months getting my swimming to a reasonable state, I put myself into my first Triathlon, Ampleforth Off Road Tri. Remembering some nervous pre-race conversations with fellow athletes about my own participation. Well the Triathlon went well, I wasn't blinding fast, but I completed it. The jump to Olympic distance followed with Coniston, Liverpool, Ripon, and finally Bala Triathlon.

Moving along to these present day, I'm just about in the fast lane with the top swimmers. My running seems to be getting stronger, and keeping the cycling up. My supposed obstacles of being one living with Ankloysing Spondalytis, and that according to my Doctor/Specialised. I shouldn't be running and avoiding impact sports. Still the truth of it, I was plagued by knee pain in both Liverpool and Ripon, but Bala went perfectly without any hitch. What changed? ...or was I more conditioned? Same shoes, same kit, and more effort in Bala.

Where do I want to go? ...or where do I want to arrive at?

On reflection I've tried re-arranging my mind, instead of thinking in terms of reps or blocks of time to think of a continuing state. For example; doing hills repetitions my thoughts are to be centred on form and pace rather "oh my god, I have six to go". This trail of thought came slightly undone when leading the run session on Tuesday when I was supposed to keep count!

Mentally I always refer to Forest Gump, and the scene where his long time friend/lover and eventual wife walks out on him. Upon arriving at his house and finding her gone, he bolts through the door, to the sign at the end of his road, next to the edge of town, onto the next town, to the nearby city, border/state, and across America a few times. That's what I feel like, and what I want, just to keep going and going and never stop until I feel ready to come down.

Ironman really represents a state which I chase after, and beyond that RAAM (Race Across Of America). Call it peace of mind, a search for god, a personal battle, just because, or somekind of knee jerk reaction to my disease, whatever you want.

Aside from my Ironman aspirations, ideally in an Olympic triathlon I'd like to slip under 2:15, and head more towards 2:10. Bala was a good race for me, 2:17. An aim for next year is to beat that time. First off I need a proper wetsuit, 2011 is the time to get a little more serious, and surfing wetsuits don't cut the mustard! Also Tri-bars, I need a set, and to alter my bike position to something a little more aggressive. So would each of those save me a minute and half? Then "if"!!! I can push myself to a 40 minute 10k run, I could be well within my 2:15 goal!? Still increasing my running speed is going to be tough, my body fat ratio is 7.5%, so I could loose a little there, but with my voracious appetite for food I'm not going to be waving my arms around in support of eating less. Plus after a little reading going down into the 6% area can make one more suspectible to illness, colds/flus, etc.

Here's to 2011, it's going to be a great year! Can't wait!

VR Danger Points

For a long time I've been suspicious about the direction of VR and the increasing realism within games.  After digging through "A Hitchhiker's Guide to Virtual Reality" by McMenemy, I came across an important piece of text by B. R. Whitby, highlighting the dangers of VR.

1. People acting out scenarios in VR might then do it for real
2. Some things are not acceptable even in private
3. People may end up preferring the virtual world to the real
4. The designers of VR can signal social approval and disapproval
   

Food for thought!

Withdrawals Symptoms on Google

I suspected this would happen long ago, one day my love of Google would fade.  Well today I've seen the tide has turn in my minds eye.  Perhaps the rebel inside me, awoke once more, perhaps the closure of Google Notebook started the inevitable question, and the following answer.  Why am I putting all user information needs and equally tools in the hands of others?  Google has every right to suddenly turn around and start charging for access to Google Docs. 

In using "cloud computing" applications I'm shooting down the very idea of open source and free access.  Long when the Amiga was the awesome computer it was, and in the less immediate past my computer was full of freeware applications.  Great, here's a freeware personal organiser, cracking I would think!  Lets use this application putting all my data slowly over time, and being locked in.  Over the next year the freeware author, obviously thinking he righteously needs a reward for his countless hours slaving away making my organiser all wonderful, so changes the licence to shareware.  I buy the licence out of necessity, thinking the new version will be provide features I might use.  Then hey presto a new Mac OS X update comes along, and with it a new organiser is released with a upgrade fees and fixing compatibility issues.  Now the application in question is iOrganize.  Frustrating!  After this I vowed never to be put into this cycle again!

Thus to say my dabbling with shareware came to an abrupt.  Bringing this full circle in regard to cloud computing.  Richard Stallman called it "Worse Than Stupidity".  Like freeware with data hosted remotely too.  Where are the controls?  Is this just like barking up the wrong?  What is the long time objective of these lng term web applications?  My hunch is their "Google" aim build up a larger installed user base, and then start charging for it at a later date.  Of course, this depends on the market conditions.  You could never charge for IMAP access.

Anyway, to summarise this rant.  I'm slowly looking to move my applications away from google, and buy myself some freedom.

Reflecting on the new Bond

Quantum of Solace, the second bond film of the Craig era.  A film coming off the back of the cracking Casino Royale.  Impressions?

1. Hate the fast cuts.  I know movies these days try to be as frantic as possible, but this is just silly.  I honestly didn't know what was going on, and in the end it just gets frustrating.

2. The parachute jump!?  Oh dear, I fear the Brosman era of stupid stunts coming back.  This is the last thing we wanted.  No more icebergs getting cut in two with a laser from space, then riding the wave caused by the split.  Laughable...

3. Great film when everything slows down.  Gorgeous character development, great lines, and some great acting to match.  Just a shame they had to massacre the action sequences so much.

Sadness at Richard Wrights passing

Something is stuck in my throat, and making me listen Richard Wright's "Broken China" hammers this home.  Just how sorely he will be missed.  His beautiful piano / synthesized textures found in Pink Floyd, his solo works, and Zee.  Gonna really miss that man!  Always seems the quiet ones in the bands, determine the sound more than the main men.  George Harrison for one, didn't write many songs yet his guitar is heard throughout.  Richard Wright always looked the coolest, and the most absorbed without the ego of Waters or Gilmour.

Cut Copy, are simply perfect

Something has struck me these past two weeks, after downloading Cut Copy's latest album. It's grown on me to the point, where I'm listening to it constantly. An album so brilliant and so complete it's hard to nit pick at all. Firstly, Lights & Music. Oh my oh is that a great track. Absolutely incredible. I knew from their first album that this was a great band in the making, and wow. Do them justice and Google them now! They deserve to be as big Maroon 5.


Summary, lovely synths, beautiful production, varied songs, great singing, bloody catchy, well written, and finally love the little electronic interludes between main songs which really just pads things out to when it picks up again. If I was a reviewer it would get five stars. My last.fm account explains all.

Songbird Revisited

Today I was sitting in work, busily coding away when "hey presto!" a SongBird update comes through! Previously I've been running 0.4 on Windows, although I flirted with 0.5 RC 1 though it broke my extensions. Rightho! Thought to myself, better install this when I get home on Mac OS X.

First off, I was running 0.5 RC 1 at home, or should had this installed. Loaded this up, and check for updates. Songbird offered me 0.5 RC 2, eh? Shouldn't that be 0.5? Rebooting in 0.5 RC 2, 0.5 was then offered as an update. Okay, a bit painful but we're getting closer. :-)

Now Songbird for me represents so much potential, a multi-platform, multi-codec, wonder application to fulfill my audio needs. That's the whole reason why I keep living in hope. At the moment my audio needs are served very well by Cog, a native Mac OS X audio player with enough codecs to keep everyone happy.

On loading Songbird I'm greeted by a lengthy wait as my song collection was loaded. I've only got around 7000 songs and this wait seems just excessive. Plus every time, I switch to the Songbird mini player the wait is here again! Yawn! My machine isn't exactly a beast, an old Power Mac G4 with over a gig of RAM. That aside Songbird is now happily playing, in mini mode, but I've opened the Cheesy Video Window. Can't an option anywhere to close the damn thing!

Also worth noting is that Songbird uses much more CPU than VLC, even though I presume Songbird uses the VLC architecture for playback. To the point of surfing on Camino in a separate window causes playback to crack and occasionally pause. Ouch!

The theme has been cleaned upon and looks a whole lot better now. Except the toolbar has mountains of wasted space. Okay, if your running a massive desktop but I've only got two 15" monitors. The space is wasted either of the main readout.



Things done right
* - Mini player is coming along really well, the skin has been vastly improved.
+ - Jump to is much improved, a minor gripe of not scrolling to the currently played track has now been fixed.

Things to fix
* - Dog, dog slow! How hard can playing back an MP3 be?
* - Interface is really slow, especially library selection. Using Jump To without an artist selected can mean a couple of minute wait for the window to be populated.
* - Big wasted space on the main interface. Surely something should go there?
* - How do you close the Big Cheesy Video Window? The close button just stops the current song

References

http://www.songbirdnest.com/
http://cogx.org/