July, 2009

This isn’t the article I intended to write, but after an hour of piddling (substitute for a stronger, more fitting word if you want) around with caches, cookies and plug-ins along with side-by-side tests with Firefox the strong echoes of the world of Windows that I thought I had left behind dominated my thinking.

If you use Windows (you poor, poor people), you will be very familiar with software that buggers up other software. Fortunately, on the Mac this is still quite infrequent. But, it is NOT impossible and I was disappointed that Evernote’s web clipping plugin stopped a perfectly normal javascript driven website from working (the management console for this blog).

Reading Evernote’s forum reveals that the developers are using the Safari plug-in API even though they are aware it is difficult to use due the fact it is not a properly published API. I got the impression they are frustrated with bugs caused by the imperfect understanding of this API. Well, if that’s the case then perhaps they shouldn’t inflict the nastiness on us, the humble users. I don’t even use the bloody thing – it was installed in an update and it broke something else I use.

Please, please, please, Mac developers, don’t ruin our nice Macs with stuff that wreaks havoc across application domains – if you want to publish something that is broken, make it stay in your own app, don’t spread the misery around the place – that’s the sort of thing I expect Adobe (try uninstalling Acrobat for a laugh) or Microsoft (registry hell) to do.Share

The most important thing I need to say is that I made it! It appears that concerns about my possible demise at the hands of the evil hills, by some, were misplaced. My daughter even took the worlds most unflattering photo of me approaching the finish line, which I hesitate to publish… But, as a warning to any of you who think that going from lard arse to runner is easy, I will let you see it…

The look of imminent collapse is priceless, as is the glowing aura I see to have gained – perhaps it was a precursor to a possible out-of-body experience.

The guy in the green vest, looking as fresh as a daisy, is Pete who decided that a gentle recovery jog would fit his training, so offered to keep me company and to offer support and encouragement. Thanks Pete!

The Brentwood 10k is a nasty, nasty initial race. The first hill was long and steep. Well, as I found out later, it was long. The second hill redefined my concept of steep. I was still struggling from the first beauty, and was already wondering about the remaining distance when this ugly monster loomed around the next bend. It’s a killer. Being “brave”, I suggested to Pete that we run/walk and like an idiot attempted to run up it a little, walked for a bit, and tried again. My legs were rubber, after that it was difficult to just walk. I wanted to lean on Pete, but didn’t want to break him!

After that, I started jogging again, but I was done in. Quite a few spells of walking came in over the remaining mile and I missed my goal of 68 minutes by 4 minutes – I think if the second hill wasn’t there I would have made it. Here’s my GPS plotShare

The unbelievable is happening. Tomorrow, I am taking part in a running race. I’m not sure I believe myself.

For a first race, this one looks like it could be a bit of a bastard. There is a distinctly nasty looking hill around about half way round. As if this wasn’t intimidating enough, there is another smaller (but steeper) hill toward the finish, just to finish off the unwary. This approximate map gives the idea – the graph at the bottom shows at 3 miles and 5 miles these nice steep inclines. I calculate them as being around 1:10 or 1:12. Evil, and nasty.

Over recent years it has tended to be a more serious race with mostly club runners. Probably, rank amateurs like me take one look at the hills and decide not to partake. Ha. Looking at last years finishers, I am likely to be in the last half dozen. Oh well, it is an important part of my training for the Great Eastern Run.Share

I promised an update at least once per week, no matter how little I had to say. There are lots of small things going on at the moment, but nothing of “enough significance” to write about. The highlights of the last couple of weeks are:-

• Getting a puncture almost half way round a 6 mile bike ride with Alison and James, and having to walk the bike most of the way home (before being rescued by Alison in the car).
• Deciding to start to harden my soles my walking around barefoot for a mile or so on tarmac, concrete and various bits of gravel, and getting really sore feet.
• Another bout of joggers nipple after my 10k training run on Saturday.
• Pissing myself off after finding my training logs on runningahead.com from 2 years ago, and realising that I was still quite a bit fitter than I am now (nearly 1 min/mile quicker and 2 stone lighter).
• Started a blog entry showing my running progress, and realising that I have started to plateau over the last couple of weeks.
• Lost another 5lb in weight, but still looking forward to another 25lb to lose.
• People at work have started commenting on the weight loss.
• Australia immigration is crawling along at a frustratingly slow pace.
• The latest batch of documentation to Australia has been sent.

The highlight is that I am preparing for my first ever race, running 10k at Brentwood on Sunday! Of course, checking last years results, I am likely to be in the last half dozen finishers – lol.Share