RRRR!

Rest, don't push it, listen to your body... I was getting that advice from nearly everyone, runners, shop keepers and even a physiotherapist who had suffered shin splints. I had been feeling increasing pains in both my inner lower shin and outer shin lately and felt my legs were heavy and tired all the time. I was really spooked by my possible 'anterior compartment syndrome' and even more by the possible 'tibia stress fracture'. So I took a whole week off, no running.

Ruby provided a way to keep my mind at least a bit focused on running after that. I made a beginning to write an application that can read my exercise data from my Nike+ipod. The app is not finished yet, only the parser part is. I still need to finish the part that gets the data from the database and shows you some nice trends. I'll put the code on github when I have that part running.

Reading 'Ruby in Practice', which I've won, gave me inspiration for my app. However, I did not even finish the first chapter or two other books were in my mailbox! Off course I started to read those, 'The Manga Guide To Databases' and 'Grey Hat Python' as well. To add to the book frenzy, I just found out I also won the ebook version of the ultimate Ruby bible: 'Programming Ruby 1.9: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide'! So yeah, get ready for some reviews ;-)



Running put the great week to a fantastic end. I have been feeling a bit jumpy the whole week, I really missed the running already. I guess it's quite addictive. Anyway, I did some googling and asked a physiotherapist I know about some stretch exercises for my shins. Yesterday I found the following stretches and they had an immediate effect:




Seated shin stretch
More shin stretches
'Swan lake stretch'

That last one did it for me so I decided to call it the 'swan lake'...

Ok...after that I decided to wear my new black-tech-ninja long-sleeve running shirt and go at it. This time however I really took time to do a proper warm-up. First a fast paced 1k walk, after that a 1k run. After that some stretches. Then I went off, I felt the inner shin hurting again quite soon. But then I saw a horse track, a sand path. When I went running on that, I felt nothing. The rest of the run was mostly a struggle because I had not ran for a whole week and was eating pizza and other badness while doing my geek things. However, when I got home I was pleasantly surprised by my stats: I passed 4K, nearly got to 5, RRRR!!

I'll get you next time gadget!

Having started with a slooow morning, it was time to get active and go out for a run. First I loaded a new podcast to my ipod and I checked the nike+ website again. And this time I could even register. All gadgets were a go and there was nothing to hold me back now! Though there was a lot of wind, I barely noticed when I got to the forest. I quickly loaded Evy's podcast and started out for a minute warm up run. After that a one minute walk followed by a two minute run. As I was just getting into the rhythm I noticed I did not start the podcast from the nike+ menu from the ipod.

Though a plus side of starting over was to have more Evy, I did not feel like breaking the pace. So no stats this time unfortunately.
I'll get you next time gadget!

Git on the good foot

Ooh!
Get on down like a...
Unh!

Whoo that was a good run for just the second one! It started bad though. I was in a hurried state of mind realizing it was getting dark, it looked like it would rain soon, I had no route still and I needed to fix my iPod/nike+ issue. Google maps showed me a possible track around the 'Peace Palace'. The 'palace' looks more like a church, is dedicated to peace and houses the International Crime Court and some other institutions dedicated to law. Unfortunately there seemed to be no nice way to run around it. So I decided to opt for a forest run in the nearby forest.



First I ran parallel to the forest for a while. After a long straight run I started feeling a bit of discomfort in my left shin. It was something like a cramp that was building up. Maybe it was caused by the tree trunks running under the tarmac causing uncomfortable bumps. Somehow I noticed that I started running unnatural, using my other leg more. I figured a bit stretching might help. Though Evy from the mp3 did not mention stretching. I always see many runners doing it so I figured it would not hurt to do it just a little bit. That helped!

After that I also needed a change of scenery and I took a turn into the 'woods'. It had been a long while since I was in a forest or anything that resembled it. When you have an allergy of trees, plants, flowers and such that does not seem inviting. However, it was great a green oasis. There was not a soul and no sign of my allergy. The run was good, I was eating trees so to speak. Though I felt my pace was slow making my muscles work extra hard. Maybe my next run will be a bit faster.

My training was announced to over just when my bike was in sight. Excellent, it looks like I've found my running grounds. There are many 'forks' in the road as well, so It seems there is enough variation for a while.


Speaking of trees, trunks and forks. Time to get geek. Last week I have been playing with Git. Git is an open source version tracking system. Basically it lets you track the contents of files. You get to see what changed, who changed it, change it back, label it with a version number and fork or branch it. I always felt I needed to know at least one version tracking system. And I recommend everybody who needs to track changes to files to give Git a chance.

I started out by first reading 'Pragmatic version control using Git, by Travis Swicegood'. This was a fine read, explained everything, nicely written, high value. recommend it. After that I found a few screencasts about git and git/hub. Github is a website where you can manage your git repositories and share and track code with from others. You can find me on github as well, it seems pretty cool and handy. But one thing to remember is that all your stuff will be shared publicly, unless you go for a paid account. The github screencast is from Pragmatic as well, but it's free. Then I found even more Git screencasts on gitcast.

Now I'm off to do some reading in my new-2nd hand 'Practical Ruby Gems' book which I stumbled upon and got for 10 euro's and get some sleep after that.

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!