So I managed to hit a new distance record of 5Km yesterday, again really starting to feel like this half marathon thing is within my grasp given my recent bout of successes. Though at present I have a monster blister on my arch which is probably going to limit me running over the next few days anyway. There is something interesting though about having a bit of an acute pain when you are running, but powering through it. In any case I’ll update more on the run progress as I have information. Oh, the cool bit, upon completing my 5km Lance Armstrong spoke into my ears saying “Hey I’m Lance Armstrong, congratulations on your longest run to date”, I love automated inspiration!

In other news I couldn’t help but turn on CNN last night and find my self amazed at the goings on. It’s been said millions of times before  that the media sensationalizes news, and more over reports on the minutia of everyday poloitics. However I was shocked to hear how CNN in particular was just laying into Obama (perhaps trying to downplay their liberal media bias….). Set aside their going on and on and on about what he wore to work on a saturday, what he eats, etc. The fact that he made a few little bobbles here and there (tapping a few seemingly corrupt people to serve in his cabinet) means that it’s back to business as usual on capital hill, as the put it on the daily show last night “The Honeymoon is Over!”

I guess his campaign of Change and Hope requires immediate change and hope… with no delay. I have started to get the feeling that he has set the bar so high for him self, and that if he is anything short of the panacea of our woes (I speak in the american sense of US) then he will be regarded as a failure of  a president.

I think Bush had a much stronger strategy in some regards, he aimed much lower, and so we were mostly impressed when he didn’t choke to death on his own food. 

I think I’ve learned something from this experience…. turning on the TV is a bad idea, or I should just watch the BBC from now on.

On another funnier note, which only Paul may appreciate, I was on hold with Apple today and the hold music was Cupid De Locke by the Smashing Pumpkins. I felt both dated for a song from my youth being relegated to hold music, and annoyed because I’ve always hated that stupid song.

.joe out.

I guess this doesn’t really affect anyone but me, I upgrades to word press 2.7 so far I really like it. They have used the dashboard metaphor quite nicely so now I don’t have to click to much to remove all of the spam comments and such.

Long live open source.

In other news, I’ve hit two more 4 KM runs, and am really starting to believe that this half marathon thing is going to be possible.

UPDATE: I also fixed the Nike Plus plugin to work properly for me… and turned it metric… since miles have little to no meaning to me.

.joe out.

So as per my previous post, and somewhat as per Leif’s suggestion I’ve invested in some tracking technology to help me work out my running. I purchased the Nike + iPod system, and I have to say so far I am quite impressed, the web app for one is quite slick and they appear to have a lot of interesting ways to help motivate you to push harder.

If you aren’t familiar with Nike+ it is essentially a pedometer that connects to your iPod nano / touch. It allows you to track your distance and pace, when coupled with the Nike+ website it allows you to generate graphs of your runs, calories, distance, and all manners of neat things (the graphs are quite cool looking, see below).

An example of the Nike+ graph, my first run to boot.

The first and most obvious down side is that the sensor you put in your shoe is meant to go in Nike shoes which are not the best running shoes for the avid runner. However a third party makes a small little pouch that you can attach to your laces, allowing any shoe to make use of the technology.

For my part, because I run at the gym (around a track) I like this system because it doesn’t require me to keep track of how many laps I’ve done. However, one thing that appears to be lacking is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to set a goal to hit a particular distance for a single run, which I would like. Specifically because I am trying to just hit some milestones in the near future (5km, 8km, 10km)

In any case you may now notice a happy little mohawked character on the left bar here, and he will let you know what my progress has been. I think they borrowed a page form the WII MII idea, right now my Nike+ Avatar is pumped, but I am told if I slack off, he will get less happy with me.

My first goal is to run 60 kM in the next 4 weeks, which I think its probably attainable. I had a great run today, and my knee appears to be holding up with the new shoes.

So the long and short of it is that I am well on my way to the running goal.

As for the book front, I am currently reading: The limits of Power, the End of American Exceptionalism… more on that later.

.joe out.