संसृति कुमारी

It's been a couple of weeks since I did the Run10k and I should probably write something about it, at least so that those that sponsored me (Thank you!) know I completed it. It's been a while and there's really not much one can say about a run like that, so I don't actually have much to write. The format is pretty simple - turn up at 10am, having been driven there by with C in tow, queue for ages to get into the car park (Actually, wasn't too bad - the queue moved pretty quick) and then it's just a case of waiting until the start and of course, take a few photos. They had someone on stage doing some warm ups, but I pretty much ignored that - on a long run, I warm up by starting off slow. There were something like 1,500 people or more doing the run so it was pretty busy - at least as many people had come to lend support, etc as to run.

Group start, all up against the tape that forms the line - I was near the start - the horn goes and we're off. Now, running isn't exactly a spectator sport so I'll save you the blow-by-blow account of my run around Hylands Park, but I'll give you the highlights: There's a lot of grass, the odd road and some trees. I wasn't in top form for the run, having been ill recently and only managing to fit in practice runs once a week. (I usually try to get out running 2-3 times a week) I suspect if I'd manage to fit in a little more training I was hoping to have managed it in under an hour, but as it was I managed it in an hour and two minutes - although according to the log from my GPS watch it wasn't quite 10km anyway. Still, I'm quite pleased with that time - I find doing a "real" race is always better motivation to push myself than training, even training with a target or race in mind. I couldn't have come close to that time even 3-4 months ago and 6 months ago I'd have been lucky to get more than 200m from the line at any pace before collapsing into a heap.

Crossposted to http://zoeimogen.dreamwidth.org/2745.html

Tags: running

Current Mood: accomplished

I've decided that I'm going to change my name to संसृति कुमारी. This is, as far as I can figure out, the closest you can get to "Life Maiden" (Zoe Imogen) in सम्भाषनसंस्कृत (Sanskrit). I shall write to everyone - banks etc. - and inform them of my name change. Of course, they'll all write back and tell me that they're very sorry, but their computer systems can't handle सम्भाषनसंस्कृत letters.

To which there's a simple reply - You can't handle the stupid apostrophie in my surname as it is without breaking things, why would having it in Sanskrit many any difference?

(Yes, this was a mini-rant)

Crossposted to http://zoeimogen.dreamwidth.org/2411.html

It's just over a month until I do my 10km run and training is going, I think rather well - 7.16km (Just under 4½ miles) today, in 44 minutes. I should be able to run the actual thing in about an hour, which is seems is reasonable going for someone who has started training fairly recently.

However, what I don't get is my heart rate, which you can see from the above link if you click on the tab on the graph at the bottom. My maximum, depending on the formula used, should be about 185-190bpm and yet I'm managing an average of 170 - 90%. That's actually lower than usual, my previous run I was averaging 175bpm.

I should be almost dead after 35-40 minutes of that sort of activity, and yet I'm not. Googling for "Heart Rate Too High" suggests perhaps I'm just a bit weird, and more research online even suggests that many people have the same problem. I guess I should do a proper maximum heart rate test at some point - run flat out and see what happens...

Crossposted to http://zoeimogen.dreamwidth.org/2205.html

Dear Apple,

Whilst I like your laptops and shiny media devices like the AppleTV, you really don't seem to "get" networking, do you? Stuff like "Error -6753" is rather... 1990, woudln't you say? And restricting the device so it can only be configured from it's wireless port isn't helpful either because there are multiple access points in the network and forcing a laptop to roam to that access point is non-trivial. Actually, I might have gotten somewhere with that one had it given me a helpful error message, but I was pretty fed up by the time I figured it out so I just reset to factory defaults - at which point I found out that the ticky box for "allow this device to be configured from it's ethernet port" isn't available in the automatic setup, so I locked myself out of it and had to start again.

Back in the year 2009, we have configuration of network devices via web/telnet/ssh/SNMP, so that people who are not using Windows or MacOS might have a chance too.

Of course, if it wasn't for the fact the device is too dumb to detect and act upon a loop in the network that it's caused, I wouldn't have to mess with it in the first place.

Edited to Add: And the AppleTV has messed itself up with a firmware upgrade again. *sigh*

This entry was originally posted at http://zoeimogen.dreamwidth.org/1589.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

As a result of signing myself up for the 10k run in a couple of months and also due to the Army thing, I thought it would be a good idea to get some sort of heart rate monitor or similar device for running to help me improve. The sergeant that was driving up to Grantham last weekend also mentioned he had a GPS training watch, so I thought I'd investigate and ended up getting myself a shiny Garmin 405 GPS/Heart Rate Monitor watch.

I'll skip the dull technology review but so far, after one run this morning with it on, I'm quite impressed although it will take a while for me to figure out all the functions and use it correctly. One feature I'm particularly interested in the "virtual partner" you run against to keep pace - I have a tendency to either start off too fast or too slow - but managed to mess that up by setting a pace of 9min/km. Oops - I was thinking in mines per mile, I wanted more like 6 minutes per km!

I was already vaguely aware that there's a target heart rate that's idea for longer distance training so I had a quick search online before going for this mornings run and found it's about 70-80% of "maximum heart rate", my maximum being in the 185bpm mark. I need to do some more research but I kept an eye on my heart rate during the run and slowed down whenever I noticed it was above 175bpm. This worked well - I managed a quite reasonable time. After the run I managed to get a nice graph of my speed and heart rate...
( Cut for image )

...oops, well outside the ideal zone. More reading required, but I think I need to start running slower, which explains why I'm improving on shorter runs but not over distance. I'm always pretty knackered after about 20 minutes, which is about right given that I guess I'm usually sitting in the top 90-100% zone (I don't usually back off as much as I did today) and you're not supposed to be able to maintain that zone for that long.

This entry was originally posted at http://zoeimogen.dreamwidth.org/1339.html.

If you're going to run a British-themed pub in America, you need to get it right because chances are you'll have visitors that'll laugh at your mistake. ( Cut for image )

(Food was nice though and it's authentic inside, if a little 1960s for my taste)

Looks like google aren't the only people doing streetview, unless it's being contracted out. ( Cut for image )

I appear to have accidentally signed myself up to do a 10km run. Oops. I blame lack of coffee...

I tend to assume that I've lost contact with most of my ex-coworkers - particularly those from 8+ years ago. I'm always surprised to find that I may have lost contact with them but they haven't with me - every time someone pops up from the past, they know exactly who I am! I suppose it's obvious to anyone with enough clue to use google!

Not a meme, I was just surprised to find just that that the ever increasing pile of paper on the bathroom floor has:

• Three issues of G3 Magazine ("For Gay/Bi Women")


• A copy of Diva Magazine


• A Patagonia Outdoor Clothing Catalogue


• A copy of Trail Magazine


• Three editions of What's Brewing, the CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) newspaper


• A copy of Beer magazine, What's Brewing's sister publication.

In this household, I suppose that's quite predictable.

On a box of Puma shoes - "Average contents: 2". (So I might get lucky and get three shoes for the price of two? How useful!)

On the back of an animal food lorry: "None of our products are tested on animals". (So how do you know it's not poisonous to them then!)

Annoyingly, it seems the know-it-all shop assistants in Utah actually didn't know much. It seems quite a bit of the kit we've got, whilst just about OK for canyoneering in safety terms, really isn't designed for it - in particular some of the carabiners we have weren't even designed for belaying and the harness I have is for climbing, not going down - which explains why Sarah and Sylvia find certain things easier than I do.

Note for future reference - do not trust rude, cocky sales assistants in Utah outdoor equipment stores.

16:30 to run 1.34 miles. (According to my GPS anyway, Google Maps recons 1.5 miles)

I am unfit. I used to be able to do that sort of run in 10-11 minutes. Even allowing for age and transition, I should still be able to do it in 11-12 at worst.

As a result of today's impromptu expedition down a cliff, there's a few more bits I need to add to my list - eye protection, (For that added Colonel Carter look) abseiling gloves and the ability to tie a mule knot. (As demonstrated by Sylvia in the last photo) A lot of 5-6mm accessory cord would also be handy, as would some sort of assault vest or fishermans vest for camera bits and pieces. (Those ones are expensive and OTT for what I'd need though)

This seems to be creating quite a fuss - I'm not sure why though. I'm not going to get too wound up if some computer system only lets me choose Miss or Mrs, but labeling an initiative to get rid of it as "political correctness gone mad" seems a bit... patriarchal.

It's weird, there are Windows registry-based fixes for all sorts of strange complaints. Perhaps more on topic for this journal would be this helpful page.

(How long before they spot everyone linking to their site and fix this I wonder?)

• Figure eight in a bight for clipping carabiners on to rope.


• Alpine Butterfly (Both as a Bight and as a Bend) for anything where you need more than a figure-eight-in-a-bight


• Double Fisherman's for a basic bend


• Clove Hitch for Biner Blockers


• Munter Hitch for top belaying


• Prusik for ascending etc.


• Water Knot for anything involving webbing.

And I need to buy more Carabiners, 6mm accessory cord, webbing, Rapide links and a helmet. I think a ropebag might be handy too.

OK, so it's a deliberately tabloid attention-grabbing headline, but I don't think they realise what they're doing with this story.

As an ISP, this disturbs me greatly. We have customers that pay for bandwidth and the BBC are using that bandwidth? And did they bother to consider the fact that DDoS and spam attacks can have an detrimental effect on networks in the middle as well as their "willing" targets. The full BBC article makes it clear they just purchased an existing botnet from someone online, but supply and demand means this will just stimulate the botnet economy. The BBC even report themselves on the link between organised crime and botnet herders - fraud, blackmail, all that sort of thing. This isn't just scare tactics, it's part of my day job to deal with the fallout from such things so I've seen it first-hand.

And just because they didn't have "criminal intent" it doesn't make it legal - they freely admit to multiple violations of the computer misuse act.

Being ill I can cope with. Doing my back in because I slept awkwardly due to being ill is a complete pain in the... back.

I think it stems from when I was at school - I was one of the few people in my year that due to circumstances, never had a locker so I was carrying heavy bags full of text books round all day. I saw a consultant when I was about 15 for something unrelated (Glandular Fever) and he commented that my spine was curved. Now my back goes every year or so and I have to suffer for a few days. It's a bunch of muscles at the bottom of my back that are the problem.

Currently have private medical insurance via work - I guess I should ring them up and see if I can see someone about some tips to strengthen them to prevent it happening again.

Meanwhile, I'm walking round using a hiking pole. I look like I'm about 80.

Edited to add: Does anyone know if anyone makes a decent quality hiking pole that uses captive balls (Rather than screw in) for extending, has a camera head and also a walking-stick style handle? Closest I can find is the Camlink CMP1, but it doesn't say if it's captive-ball or screw-lock and it looks rather cheap and heavy.

Learn to fly
Learn to play the guitar

I'm sure there were others too...