Event planning…
The purpose of this entry is to write about an accomplishment that I’m proud of. For the past couple of years, I’ve been involved with my honour society in various roles. This year I was in charge of planning, organizing and running our new member recognition ceremony. It was a big task. I had to invite by email 300 new members. The people at Constant Contact make this chore easier. The next major task was determining many people were planning on attending. Using a combination of GMail and Google’s online spreadsheet software I kept tracking of ever growing number of RSVPs. In the food department, I ordered enough carrot cake for 300 people and in the end only about 10 slices of cake were leftover. A local coffee shop near the university was able to provide us with three large carafes of coffee and more than enough to serve the attendees. The ceremony was held in an ornate auditorium/chapel on the campus of the University of Ottawa. The chapel is high demand so we booked it in the spring. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I drafted the speeches that would be given at the ceremony. The speeches were a little tricky as they would be said in English and then repeated in French. At the last minute, I was asked to add a tribute to a new member that recently passed away. In the end I was able to meet an ambassador which was kind of cool. To save on paper we decided not to print a program this year and used a Powerpoint presentation to project the logos and the agenda for the evening. Much of my Saturday was spent bring all the diverse pieces of the event together in the right order. Some of my fellow executives became involved near the end when it came time to run the event. The event was a success. It’s quite an experience to address an audience of 300 people. I can’t remember the number of times that I practiced the speech. The final chore was to mail out the member certificates for people that couldn’t make the ceremony. This involved buying 250 stamps and putting them on the envelopes and dropping them off at the mail box. So, as I reflect on the past week it feels good to plan, organize and speak to an event of 300 people.
Road race timing innovations…
I recently finished my fifth Baltimore half-marathon and was pleased with the way I ran the hilly and tough course. This year was special as the race was celebrating its tenth anniversary. I was impressed this year by the new timing chips as it required no effort on my part. The timing chip help keep track of your finishing time as well as your mid-race split times. Over the history of the Baltimore marathon, they have used three types of timing chips. The traditional chip is a hard plastic disc that you fasten to your shoe using a plastic tie. At the end of the race a volunteer with wire cutters has to remove it from your shoes. This is a labor intensive operation when you have thousands of people crossing the finish line. Last year, the race used a different approach which was a loop of plastic which you fasten to your shoes laces. At the end of the race you pull it apart and put it in the trash. For both of these chips you have to remember to attach it to your shoes before the race. This year they used a really neat approach. The timing chip was attached to your race bib number. The only effort required was to fasten your bib number before the race and you are ready to go. What will they think of next…
2009 Baltimore Half-marathon adventure
Very soon I’ll start my second Baltimore adventure and thought I would take a moment to write about my most recent one. For much of the summer and fall the people I train with on Wednesday night at the Running Room had been gearing up for the Ottawa Army half-marathon race near the end of September. Coach Phil had designed a training program so we would peak for around that time. I was able to continue the program for another week. As I was heading down to Baltimore I knew that I probably should have done two more 12-13 mile long runs but if I had done so I would not be racing on fresh legs. I spent the final week detraining and allowing my legs to recover. This is a phase of training that I don’t enjoy as you cut back on your training volume and one feels grouchy.
On Thursday, before the race I picked up race packet and like the new system where you pick up your race number outside and then head into Raven Stadium to pick up your gear bag and t-shirt. Friday was spent giving my legs some more time to recover for the pending race. On Saturday morning, I got early and started the fueling routine of eating part of a book of Vector cereal. Jason drove me quite close to starting line area which was great. Thanks, Jason. If I’m lucky may be I can convince him to run the 5km race next year. I spent about an hour chilling at the Raven Stadium before eating my pre-race Clif bar. The idea was to stay relaxed while waiting for the race. About 40 minutes before the start, I headed over to the Inner Harbor to do my warm-up run followed by stretching. With about 15 minutes go I headed over to corral #1 to find a good starting point. After the national anthem was played we started on our 13.1 mile journey by heading north-west over to Patterson Park. The weather started to deteriorate in light rain which reduced one’s traction. On the uphills you would slip backwards and on the downhill you would slide forward. One of the race highlights was running in Clifton Park. A second highlight was running a loop of Lake Montebello before heading over to John Hopkins University before heading south to finish at Camden Yards. I was pleased with the way I finished as I had medical complications along the course. When I started off the racing I was sweating which is not a good thing. I had a migraine and severe stomach pain for much of the race. I was tempted to stop in at the medical tent at the end of the race but decided to pass. In the end, I was pleased with my time and place as I improved on my performance over last year and am looking forward to doing the race in 2010.
While in Baltimore I was able to do some geocaching in Falls Road area. I found a couple of geocaches in Falls Road Park before heading over to Robert E. Lee Park which has an awesome running trail network as well as mountain bike trails.
Some statistics on Wordabble’s first year of operation
Wordabble recently celebrated it’s first anniversary of operation and so I decided to calculate some statistics.
Words
Total number of words: 66,021
Fewest number of words per game: 19
Maximum number of words per game: 444
Average words per game: 178
Standard deviation: 73.3371
Points
Total number of points: 941,160
Fewest number of points: 127
Maximum number of points: 7,513
Average point per game: 2,550
Standard deviation: 1239.993
Happy Birthday Wordabble
Today, I achieved two goals one of which was expected and the other a surprise. 365 days ago I played my first game of Wordabble which is a word game that Jason Lancaster and Adam Douglass released a year ago for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. I’ve played every day and enjoyed the 300 word games almost as much as the games when there are fewer than 100 words to find in the 5×5 grid. There is one mystery I discovered today that I have been waiting for quite some time and that is, what happens when you find all the words. Today was my chance when there were only 19 words to find. I can say with a smile that it was worth waiting 365 days to see what was behind the magic curtain. Over the past year, I have earned 281,268 points with an average score of 771 points per game and in theory played for 56 hours which I think underestimates the actual time. I close by thanking Jason and Adam for a year of challenging fun.
Running training goal
Last week’s Running Room workout was not what I had expected. We were suppose to start our second round of 1,000 meter intervals on 60 seconds rest. The workout would be 4×1,000 meters with 60 second rest between each interval. We have been getting some much rain in Ottawa recently that our 1,000 meter loop in the arboretum has become water logged.
On paper, we would be doing a simpler workout 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy and 1 minute hard. We would do six of these sets. Over the course of 45 minutes we ran just over five miles at close to 85% of my maximum heart rate. I was suffering when I got home on Wednesday night. As we were running back to the store the coach mentioned why the change of plan. We would be starting our training next week to peak for fall marathons and half-marathons. I wanted to blog that my fall goal is to race the Army Run half-marathon run in the September, and either the Baltimore half-marathon or Philadelphia half-marathon later in the fall. So, next week it is back to intervals but with a long rest period (90 seconds) which is fine with me as I won’t be grasping for air between the intervals.
Sea to Summit — Bowl and Mug
When I go out camping and hiking I like to keep the amount of gear I have to carry to a minimum. I recently discovered an new innovation, the Sea to Summit
mug and
bowl. When you are not using them the mug fits inside the bowl and the result is a disc four inches in diameter by 1/4″ thick. To use either of them you push out the centre of the disc and you are ready to go. Before putting the mug to a test in the wilderness I decided to test it out in my kitchen. I added my favourite hot brew to the mug and discovered that it is best to the grip the cup by the black rim and to use two hands when drinking say a cup of hot coffee or tea. I was impressed by how well they worked. The next test will be to see how they operate in the arctic cold of Adirondack winter camping or a local trek in the Ottawa environs.
http://www.rei.com/product/767560
Sea to Summit bowl
http://www.rei.com/product/787278
Sea to Summit X-Mug
1st interval workout of the year
Last night, I did my first interval workout with the guys I train with at the Running Room. The bus strike and my recent soleus injury prevented me from starting the intervals a month ago. They are starting there second set where the rest time between each interals has dropped from 90 seconds down to 60 seconds. My workout took the form of a five miles warmup over to the experimental farm and then four 1,000 meter intervals with 60 seconds rest between. I was pleased that my legs survived the workout and my times are a little slower than they should be but using an horse analogy it feels good to be back in the saddle. After the workout I spoke my coach, Phil, and was pleased with my times but said to very gradually add speed back into my workouts as the intervals are always a jolt to one’s system.
For the record: 4:14/4:08/4:23/4:37
I was hoping to do something this week but was held off by the snow and that is to have a Jetboil dinner along the Ottawa River close to where I live.
The Old duffer and running
For the past little while I have been treating my legs with care as it has taken a little longer for my right soleus to heel than I would have liked. Last Sunday, I did my first 10 mile long run along the canal. I was on my way back and within 3 miles of the university when the hairs on the back of my neck went up. A speedster was closing and would pass me any minute. He thought I would be an easy target. He was in for a bit of a surprise and so was I. Very quickly he went by and opened up a lead on me. This irked me a bit. I caught up and increased the pace as it has been a while since I really stressed my legs. For the next two miles we both ran side-by-side with an ever increasing pace. Who would drop whom first? After two miles he disengaged. I eased up a bit as I could feel the lactic acid building in my legs. The university was quickly appearing on the horizon. I was feeling good as my legs were handling the pressure/stress. The old duffler did another surge and caught up with me. I responded with another surge and finished the workout with a smile of relief on my face.
On Wednesday, I did a 8 mile run and a 7 mile run on Friday. My strategy is to rebuild my base- training before add speed to the mix. On Wednesday, I will do my first set of 1,000 meters intervals. I’m a little behind my training peers but I accept that it may take a couple of speed workouts before my zest returns. Over the next little while I hope to do a 10km road race and may be a 13 mile half-marathon next month.
Time Capsule installation a success
Last night, I installed my Apple Time Capsule backup drive and it went really well. It was simple to do and fun at the same time. Apple makes the installation and configuration easy to do. The plan was to buy the Time Capsule to backup my Macbook and little else. When I flipped over to using WiFi so my iPod touch and iPhone could access the internet at home I have always faced the dreaded wifi drop problem. My iPod touch would find the wireless modem and I would surf for a few minutes and them BOOM out-of-the-blue I would get signal degradation. This was frustrating. I made an antenna out of tin foil and it sort of helped.br /br /While waiting at the Apple store for my GarageBand workshop, I started talking to concierge and explained the problem as his father had the same problem. He gave me some leads to look at. I downloaded Apple’s Designing Airport Networks guide and started to think about the scenarios. I opted to have an Ethernet connection from the modem to my windows laptop. I run another Ethernet connection from the modem to the Time Capsule. This allows my Macbook, laptop, Touch and iPhone to have access to WiFi. An added bonus is that my printer can wirelessly accessed from either computer. The wireless signal strength from Time Capsule is good. To reduce interference, I set the signal strength of the wireless modem to low. So, I now have a wireless network that I am happy with and a backup drive for my Macbook. The initial Time Machine backup took longer than expected but I really pleased that I was able to solve a major wireless problem. Thanks a href=”http://apple.com/”Apple/a.
