Muddy horsetracks

The periodical rains of last week kept me from running. Not because of the rain itself, but because of the mudpools it would leave behind. Rain meant I would not be able to run on the horse tracks but only on pavements. Since I want to take it easy on the shins I just waited for better weather. When it turned out to be a bright sunny day yesterday I prepared to go on a run. This time I wore some new gear: shorts and an armband for my iPod.

I'm not really a shorts man but it was definately better then the usual jogging pants I wear. It has a small pocket on the lower back for keys or some change. Quite nice since that part does not move as much while running and I will not be bothered by moving coins or keys.



In addition I put on my new Griffin Aerosport Armband for my iPod. At first I was unpleasantly surprised when it looked like it could not accomodate for the nike+ receiver. But it actually does and its pretty comfortable. I especially like the cable clip.

Being all dressed up, I went on a run, on the horse tracks like I planned. But most of the tracks were still wet and there were huge mudpools. So I was jumping, snake-running, and some times running of the track in order to keep going. It got pretty messy!

The run intervals were at 6 minutes, but like usual, the first one was the toughest. I did the horse tracks two times in one session now and I think I need to start looking for another route. I'm eying another park wich is a bit out of my way but will possibly offer more long unpaved tracks. I'm not sure if it is nice since it looks like it has a big road running right through the middle of it. It's pretty lame that we can't even have a designated piece of forest without roads and pavements and such.



After my run I spent quite some time stretching. I also had a highly unconfortable shower with some hot/cold water therapy. I really hate that cold water it but I think it does really help. I think it really helped since I'm feeling quite recovered today. Or maybe it was the delicious spaghetti after the run :-)

Anyway, here are yesterday's stats:

I like to think that, were I not hindered by the mud, I would have got that 300 meters extra and got my first 5K!

New gear and new books!

I've bought some running clothes yesterday: a shortsleeve, a longsleeve, a short and a rainjacket with zippable arms as Montechristo advised. All made from reflective dryfit material, nothing too tight. The kind shop lady added a reflective jacket on the house. We had a short chat on my progress and I mentioned the pain and kramps in my shins. She gave me three tips:

1) take it easy, take some extra rest!
2) whilst taking a shower after a run, run some cold water on the legs for some time. After that run some hot water on them. Change again by cold water. Change three times minimum and always end with the cold. This is uncomfortable but one of the best things to do.
3) apply an ice pack.

After I told her I did not know what that was, she got one, gave a demo and putted it in my bag :)


Speaking of new stuff, the inner geek will soon be nurtured with some new books. First, I won 'Ruby in practice' by asking a few questions to Jeremy McAnally and Assaf Arkin, authors of the book. After that I got an e-mail from NoStarch press to do a review on some books, 'Greyhat Python' and 'The Manga Guide to Databases' to be exact. Pretty sweet! I'm quite curious about these books but first need to finish my current book 'learn to program'. I hope I get enough time over the long weekend to finish it. Lucky for me I'll do some more traveling soon and get to eat some books on the way :D

I just came back from a training with two four minute and one five minute and some lesser minute runs. The beginning, as always, was the hardest. As soon as I'm properly warmed up and into my rhythm all is fine, except for the shins offcourse.


I took on the short sleeved Adidas 'adizero' shirt. I found it to be a very nice shirt. At first I was affraid it would be cold but it kept me warm and mostly dry. Though having a soaked shirt from the effort had it's charm, it's just too uncomfortable. The new shirt is definatively better.

Anyway, here are the stats. No significant improvement yet, but apart from the shins, the workout felt a bit too lite allready. I guess that if my legs would have some proper recovery, I would do much better than these stats:



Time to eat and apply my new ice-pack!

Ready, set...

And off I was, running through the crowded streets. Somewhat misplaced, one man against the hordes of shop-melody-induced consumers. But the discomfort was not caused my going in against the mindless zombies. Noo, it was the sheer fact of way too fast bodily movement accompanied by a slight breathlessness and sluggishly carried by way too shiny new shoes.
Not too long before, the nervous spasms of my ankles and feet had been recorded, replayed, thourogly studied and commented. Normally I would have declared insanity on the pour soul who volunteered to put himself to such a drag and horrid display. The sheer horror of what was to come soon was unbearable to even think about.

I was in the running shop, long believed to be occupied by earths minions of Satan, to buy the things one needs to start running. What would drive such a big geek to do such a thing? Well first, offcourse, he is indeed a big geek. Second, it seems there is an interresting tech factor to running. Tech is fun, so I could make myself believe that running could be fun too. In any case I would get to buy some new gear. Since I had allready mostly ran out of toys on my wish list, I could use running as an excuse to buy some geeky running stuff!
So, reminding myself of all the gear one really must have and all the tech it would unlock, I dragged myself through the process.

The result was a bit of an expense stretch but let's just say thats a positive start ;-)


My footgear of choice was a pair of Saucony Progrid Omni 7's. The Omni's had a marking on their sole spelling 'SSL', at first sight that was appealing. SSL, in the geek world at least, stands for 'secure sockets layer', and is a technology used mostly in web technology. For example to provide secure communication with websites. A good sign, but things are not always what they seem to be. There is enough reason to not even just blindly trust even this technology. Fun yes, trust no. Remember that.

Anyway, though pretty advanced for a pair of shoes, the geek in me was not yet satisfied.

So I bought myself one of those Nike+ Ipod thingies and a clip to hook the sensor on to my shoes. It's amazing how each of my new toys provides ways for others to put me under surveillance. Anyway, it will most probably provide some more fun, maybe it is actually usefull in running and if not, there are other interresting uses for it like it and such and so.

Well, that provided a nice 'carrot' for the running. One last thing, I needed some bag to carry my things runner style. Since I always seem to cary some gear with me I always need some bag to put it in. So I bought a tiny nike shoe wallet as well, you know for keys or if I happen to possibly need some usb stick or swiss knife with me for the mc guyver factor.

So with this first blogpost on my new blog. I am ready and set for my first run!