Running Tips, Lesson 1: Equipment

First off, let me say that these are things that I found helpful and wanted to pass them along. They might not work for you, but they did for me.

First thing: don't go out and buy 500 $ worth of gear. You don't need it, and if you decide later that running isn't for you, you'll just have a whole lot of running gear sitting in the closet. Besides, if you are out running all decked out but don't know how to run, you'll look silly. Only go out and start buying more pieces of gear (shorts, shirts, ...) when you're at a point that not going out for a run doesn't occur to you. Wait till you get all fidgety if you're not running 3+ days a week.

Okay, having said that there is one important piece of equipment that you might want to get early on: shoes. At first when I was running I was going out in my nike hiking shoes and having a bad time: my knees hurt, my hips hurt, and I was getting bad pains in my side. Then I went out and got some asics, and everything was wonderful. But that's not how you get shoes. Go to a running store and tell them that you'd like to get some shoes and want their help. Now, the next thing that they should say is (and I'm not kidding): "take off your shoes and socks. Roll up your pant legs". They'll get you to walk up and down the store and look at how you walk. If they just go "humm, well, these are on sale", that's a good reason to believe that you are not in a running store and time to get out of there.

Okay, so you're walking up and down the store and looking like a fool. No worries. This is how they will pick the shoes that are right for you, and that's why you're there. Now, I have some serious pronation for my feet, so I ended up getting asics foundation 4's with some super feet (which I now wear in all my shoes). That's what worked for me. Also cushy socks. I'll figure out the brand name, but they're good.

Next lesson: breathing.

Listening to: Shawshank Redemption Soundtrack - Duetto Sul'Aria (Berlin Opera)

Longest run so far

Today I went on my longest run ever: 10.2 km. And I did it in 62 minutes, including water stops etc. That's better time that I did on my 8 k's last summer. And it was hot. And I sprinted the last bit racing Betty (and then promptly threw up). We did it slower than we used to do the 8, but we took less stops, and our stops were very short, and did it in less time. So, doing 10.2 I took less time than 8. Did I mention that I ran 10.2 km?

Time to eat and then brush my teeth...

Living at work

Alek and I were briefly talking about living at work. What do you need to live? Somewhere to sleep, somewhere to put food, a place to get cleaned up (showers etc). So, if you were new to the country and really couldn't find a place to live, you could live at work if you had to. I thought that I had just figured out our "fatal flaw" in our plan -> no laundry. But lots of places don't have laundry. And hell, there's a dry cleaners downstairs. Load up the fridge with some frozen food, grab your therm-a-rest and a sleeping bag, some soap etc. and you're good to go.

And the sad thing is, it's got so many pluses: location, closeness to food / drug stores, etc., right downtown, short commute, fast internet, great view, no bugs, great running paths, water pressure in the showers.... Okay, I'm stopping now 'cause I'm getting depressed. One thing: no place to store my kayak. :-P

Listening to: Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage

UN award

The higher-ups here at work have been pretty happy about winning a 2004 UN award (Category One). I think that it's pretty cool myself especially since it's not a huge group. Yay us! ;-)

Translating

I was thinking on the drive home tonight again about how I really wish that I could speak French. This probably came from the fact that I saw Seducing Doctor Lewis on the weekend (excellent movie, go see it). So then I got to thinking....

How would you get a program to recognize what is correct French / English, or how to translate it? It can be very hard to program all the rules and exceptions, and then it's still not going to be perfect. So I was thinking how my email filter finds spam. It does it based on stats on what is recognized as being spam before, and makes a guess of what the new email is. Could we sort of make something like this for languages? Start feeding in simple words, then short sentences, and then larger ones? Let the computer make a guess as what it is, and then make corrections as you go. I'm sure that I'm not the first to think of this and it's probably a bunch of people's master's / PhD thesis, if this isn't how programs like Google's language tools already work.

And there's lots of translated literature that we can feed through the program to "teach it". I'm sure that this solution is way too simple and I don't fully understand the problem, but I can dream can't I? That's how we got here. ;-)

Listening to: Chicane - Don't Give Up

Red is the colour of happiness

Just a quick entry 'cause I'm really tired and going to go for a nap. I picked up a Necky Eskia kayak today (make sure to mouse over the 3/4 view and top view to see it all). Not only did I pick up that boat (jpg), but I also got a pump, throw bag, paddle, and a skirt, and a couple of foam blocks for the roof racks (which I don't have) for my car. There are a couple more things that I would like to get before doing any tripping (like a paddle float). And I have to get a paddling jacket, but that wasn't as required as the other things today.

It was a boat used for rentals, so it's slightly banged up, but not too much. Does anyone know if there's a good way to smooth out minor scrapes on a plastic boat? If there is then I could make is an smooth as a baby's butt. ;-)

The seat is really cool... it's got a air pump that you can inflate and make it more comfy. Pretty cool... Now I just need a garage to put it in. :-P

Listening to: Jay-Z + DJ Danger Mouse - Change Clothes

Kayak sale

I've been looking at stuff for the kayak sale that I am planning to go to this weekend, but I don't think that it's just for used boats like I thought. It looks more like a "buy a new boat" sort of thing... I don't think that I have the cash to shell out for a new one, nor do I really want to get a new one. If I can get a used one, what I get will depend on if I fit in it. I don't know if I can fit in a boat for an "average sized" paddler... Ones that I'm keeping an eye on are the Caspian Sea Expedition and the Bering Sea. We'll see though... I hope that it's not a waste of time for me.

Update: It looks like it is for used boats as well. Yay!

Listening to: Darude - Sandstorm [Original Mix]