links for 2007-01-19

Nike+ Dissected

Hey, so the folks over at Spark Fun Electronics dissected the Nike+ sensor –

There is no MEMs accelerometer! The foot pod was designed to activate a simple piezoelectric sensor to monitor how long your weight is on the foot (the faster you run, the shorter amount of time spent on one foot).

This is interesting, especially in light of the treadmill data from the other day… need to think now..

Oh, and thanks to Mark for the link

Blogged with Flock

links for 2007-01-17

Bad Idea

I went too far today. Figured I’d run the loop – Old Mystic, down the Stonington side, past the Seaport, over the drawbridge, and back home on River Road – and get the 6 I needed, plus make up for the day I skipped this week.

Naw, that tickle I’ve had in my throat, or whatever it’s been that has had me sleeping whenever possible – that wasn’t going to affect me, not on a Saturday. No matter that it’s 40 and drizzly…

Yeah. Right.

After about 5K, just as I was passing the seaport, I just faded – hard.

I walked for about 5 minutes, and thought I’d put enough gas into the tank to make it home.

I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

The hill that beat Warren on the bike last spring? Killed me this morning.

Worst part was getting home later than planned, and letting the wife down – she was ready to head out the door.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day. 4 miles, and I’ll hit 18 for the week. Not quite on track, but not bad.

links for 2007-01-13

Shameless Cribbing

From Deene:

Find nearest book.
Name book and author.
Turn to page 123.
Go to 5th sentence and copy the next three to blog.

Leading Change, John P. Kotter

Fourth, quick performance improvements undermine the efforts of cynics and major league resisters. Wins don’t necessarily quiet all of these people (which is probably good, since diversity of opinion can keep a firm from blindly walking off a cliff), but they take some of the ammunition out of opponents’ hands and make it much more difficult to take cheap shots at those trying to implement needed changes. As a general rule, the more cynics and resisters, the more important are short-term wins.

I will admit that I cheated a bit and just grabbed the best 3 sentences on the page…

Staring at the wall

So, there’s good news in abundance:

  1. Looks like winter may actually pay a visit to New England this year, instead of giving us the illusion of passing directly from fall to spring.
  2. I’ve still been consistient with my running
  3. It looks like I’m on track to not have to run outside in shorts in February, despite the glitches in the Nike+ site.

However, despite all the sunshine, we need a little rain. I’m still a big old wuss. All my running this week has been on the dreadmill. Even though it hasn’t been bitterly cold, the little cold snap we’ve had was too much for my tender constitution to bear. Luckily, I’ve got gyms a-plenty to which I can go.

So, mileage is on track.

Interestingly enough, Nike+iPod has been lending credence to something I’ve believed for a long time. Y’know the old saw about  running on a treadmill being easier than running on the road? For Wednesday’s run, I kept the ‘mill on 0 elevation for most of the run, and at the end, I had to go to 4.2 miles by the dreadmill’s reckoning to have Nike+ give me credit for 4 miles of running. Yesterday, I ran the whole thing on 1% up elevation, and Nike+ and the treadmill’s odometers agreed within about 0.05 miles.

Today, it’s 4 miles outside, and another 15 minutes on the rowing machine.