My First ParkRun

A colleague at work has been  trying to encourage me to join the ParkRun movement. He correctly predicted that I would find the event really fun, but the timing on Saturday morning wasn't ideal and so it was this week before I got a chance to join in the Porterstown event which is less than 2km from where I live.

It was a very icy morning so I had to be careful of my step as I ran to the venue. When I got there I could see there was a big crowd and a great atmosphere - partly due to the fact that it was associated with Operation Transformation, I was immediately put in a good mood by the positive vibe coming from the other participants.

I knew the focus was more on competing than on speed, but I checked the previous results to see the pace. I was delighted to see that the leader in 50-54 male group was someone I already knew. The atmosphere of the race encouraged me to ran faster than normal. I was timed at 28 minutes and 32 seconds. My normal is between 30 and 35 minutes for 5km.

It may be my first ParkRun, but it definitely won't be my last.

My new Headphone Hat

While I appreciate all of the Christmas presents I got this year, I was particularly taken by the usefulness of a present of a Bluetooth Headphone Hat.This is a regular knitted hat which has two small speakers hidden in the seam which allow it to act as a Bluetooth Headset.

.My initial impression was that this was a fun gimmick - an impression reinforced by the fact that the brand name is Techfun. However, I now realise it is a really useful and practical gadget.

I normally wear a Bluetooth Headset while running so that I can listen to podcasts. However, the action of running tends to shake many headsets off my head - which means that I need to choose a headset that wraps around my ears and can be quite uncomfortable to wear for extended periods. The headphone hat is quite comfortable to wear and while the sound quality is not great, it is certainly good enough for my needs. In addition I would need to wear a hat like this anyway while running at this time of year, this means that I can reduce my number of pieces of equipment by combining a set of headphones with a hat.

Fitbit steps for running, walking and cycling

I recently got a FitBit activity tracker and have been having great fun competing with family members who live abroad to see which of us can take the most steps. It is a fun way for me  feel connected to them by looking at their activity logs even if time zone differences make it impractical to actually speak to them.

As part of a discussion about one of our step challenges I was asked if the FitBit was giving me credit for taking steps while I cycled. (I think I might have been subtly accused of cheating in the challenge).

The honest answer was that I didn't know how/if the FitBit was giving me step credit for cycling. So, in order to test this out, I checked what steps I was given credit for when involved in various different activities.

This is my results:

• Running - I checked my FitBit before and after a few runs and found that it gives me credit for almost exactly 1,000 steps per km. This seems consistent with the fact that I probably have a stride length of roughly 1 metre while jogging.
  
• Walking - when I go for a walk with the dog, I get credit for 8-10% more steps than if I ran the same distance. This probably means that my stride is shorter while walking than it is when running. The fact that it is slightly more variable is probably because I wander around a little while walking the dog, but rigidly put one foot in front of the other when running.
  
• Cycling - Twice daily I cycle the route between home and work so I have lots of chances to measure how many steps I get credit for when doing this journey. My FitBit seems to give me credit for somewhere between 700 and 1,800 steps for this 8 km journey. This is a strange reading from a few points of view:
  
• I do tend to take a few real steps at the start and end of the journey as I wheel the bike in and out of the shed, but this would probably be 10s of steps not 100s.
  
• On the other hand, it could be argued that each time I push the pedals up and down this is effectively the same motion as a step. But, if was what the FitBit counts as steps, then it is seriously underestimating the number of pedal turns that I would do.
  
• The other thing that is strange is that there is so much variation in step count - some journeys were more than twice as many steps as others despite the fact that I was going on exactly the same route.
  
  I think (but can't prove) that the key factor is how often I wobble. If I was cycling nice and steady on a flat road, my wrist would be staying still on the handlebars and the FitBit would count that as resting. However if I was wobbling from side to side, the up and down motion of my left wrist would probably move up and down in a similar way to if I was walking. The amount of wobbling I do would probably vary from day to day depending upon traffic and other factors.
  
• Working - I work as a software engineer so my work involves virtually no physical movement (which is why it is a very unhealthy occupation). The FitBit should not give me credit for any steps while I work. I tested this one day by looking at my step count when I came into work and then checking it 1 hour later.
  
  The FitBit said I took 7 steps in that hour - initially I thought it was giving me false credit, but then I remembered that during the hour I had left my seat once to look at a colleague's screen to help solve a problem he was having (his desk is beside mine so 7 steps sounds right for there and back). Therefore I think that it correctly gives me no credit for activity while working.
  
• Sleeping - I know that I tend to toss and turn a lot during my sleep. In fact my FitBit sleep data tends to show frequent periods of red in the middle of the deep blue sleep time (the red periods are times when the FitBit thinks I am awake/restless - I am not sure how it decides that). I thought that the FitBit might give me credit for steps when I was really just tossing about restlessly during the night. However, it seems that it doesn't.
  
  The FitBit resets its step counter at midnight and I would normally be asleep by then (or at least lying in bed trying to sleep). So I decided to check my FitBit on a few mornings straight away after I got up out of bed. It would normally give me credit for a small number of steps, but never more than about 10-15 steps per night.

Overall I think that the FitBit gives a reasonably accurate measurement of activity level even if it is off significantly when measuring cycling.

I have read on-line about a legal case over how inaccurate the FitBit heart rate monitoring function can be. I don't doubt that the readings are often wrong, but I think the real problem is why were people expecting that a simple wrist-watch with two LEDs built into it could really provide accurate readings? (Medical professionals use complex and expensive devices to take the same reading.)

Spotify's new running mode

Recently, Spotify notified me of their new running mode whereby their mobile phone detects the pace at which you are running and then selects songs with a tempo to match this. I decided to try it out yesterday morning as I went for a run. In general I was very impressed.

When you select running mode, you need to tell the app the initial pace to start the selection process from (probably because I was standing still rather than running when I launched the app). I started at 160 bpm as they recommend and then they asked me to select a playlist of songs from which they would choose music for me. I chose the epic playlist and it seemed to pick suitable songs whose beat encouraged me to stay going at the same pace (i.e. they weren't racing along like a Darude song which would encourage me to sprint and at the same time they didn't pick relaxing Whale sounds which would have slowed me to a walk).

Overall, I think that I like this feature and will use it again. In fact I ran 10km with this run rather than my more normal 5km route so this is proof of its effectiveness. One complaint I would have is the fact that it kept repeating the same song - maybe I was stuck at the same pace but still it could get boring on a long run.

One interesting thing I noticed is that Strava interacts with Spotify by turning down the music when it has statistics to report, so it is easier to hear. In contrast, BeyondPod pauses the podcast playback completely until Strava has finished reading out stats.

My Triathlon time is getting better as I am getting older

I did my first Triathlon in roughly 1 hour and 35 minutes in my 50th year. This year I returned to Loughrea to complete it 3.5 minutes faster in 1 hour 31.5 minutes. The main improvement was in my swim time which improved from over 20 minutes to under 17 minutes. This surprised me since I had only swam twice in the last year (both in the week leading up to the Triathlon). Maybe I am just getting better with age :-)

What was truly inspirational about the Triathlon was watching the athletes with various disabilities taking part in the national para-triathlon championship which was hosted in Loughrea this year.

Whether to use MapMyRide or Strava

One of the ways to make exercise more fun is to share records of your activity with your friends so that they can like and/or comment on it. I used to record my activity regularly with MyTracks, but as my phone got older and less powerful I got out of the habit.

Recently I got a new more powerful phone and decided to start recording again. It seems that the most popular apps currently used by cyclists are MapMyRide and Strava, but I heard conflicting reports about which was best. I decided to use each of them for a month and then use my experiences to decide which is best.

Just as I was ready to write up my review, I found an existing review which summarised almost exactly what I found myself. The only additional points I would make were:

• Strava now has support for saving routes which was one of the main features missing when the previous reviews was written.
• MapMyRide now has support for segments which was previously a big advantage for Strava
• There is a better social vibe on MapMyRide since it seems to have a wider range of people I know using it. Strava in contrast seems to be only used by more serious athletes whose main form of socialisation is to race each other up hills.

Overall the two applications are very close, but I decided to stick with Strava as my main app. The main deciding factor for me was the amount of annoying advertisements which appear in the MapMyRide app - they can seriously interfere with the usability.

A late starter for Movember

Last year many of my colleagues at work took part in Movember and so I resolved that in 2012 I would join them. However, 1st of November came and went without anyone reminding me of my resolution (perhaps many are taking part, but their facial hair is not yet obvious).

This Friday, my daughter told me that she signed up for the Mo-Running event in the Phoenix park next weekend with a friend of hers and she persuaded me to join them. I think that the girls intend getting a moustache from a costume shop, but I though that I ought to take part fully.

While shaving yesterday, I left my top lip untouched. I don't think I will have much of a moustache by the race day next weekend, but I will continue growing until 8th of December to make up for the late start.

I don't know the logistics of how to donate money yet, but I created a profile on the Movember web site and once I find out the details I will share them via this blog. In addition I just turned on Google Ads on this web site and I will donate any money earned to the charity. I don't  want to violate the Google Ads guidelines, but if you want to donate a few cents to the charity the easiest way might be to click on one of the advertisements.

Improving the accuracy of the GPS in Your phone

The GPS device in your phone is normally very accurate. However. like all computer devices when it messes up it can often do so in a spectacular way (e.g., I once went running around Galway at a moderate pace and then found out that my phone thought I had been swimming around the Irish Sea at a world record speed)

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is an amazingly complex piece of technology, so I suppose it should not be surprising that it occasionally fails. However, there are a few things that you can do to to increase the accuracy of your GPS readings:

1. The software that interprets the GPS and other signals required to determine your location is very complex. The technology involved is constantly being updated. Therefore, if you are experiencing poor performance it is a good idea to update the operating system software and/or buy a new phone.
2. The preferences on your phone should include "Use Wireless Networks" and "Use Sensor Aiding" - you should be sure to enable both of these options. On Android devices this will be under the "Settings\Location and Security" menu item, I am not sure where the equivalent setting is on an iPhone, but I assume it is named something similar. If you enable these it means that your phone can use several other clues to help decide where it is located even if there are not enough GPS satellites clearly visible in the sky.
3. Don't start running until you have a good GPS signal. It might take a minute or two for your phone to lock onto the GPS satellites properly, if you are moving around while this process is happening you make it more difficult for the phone to guess its position. The RunKeeper app even has a useful feature whereby it will warn you if you try to start tracking a run without having already locked onto the GPS system. If your favourite app doesn't have this feature then it is probably worth installing a specialised application such as GPS status to check.
4. Change your privacy settings to allow Google/Apple collect data from your phone. This is a clear case where you need to trade off privacy versus a benefit for yourself. The way that the "Use Wireless Networks" feature works is that hopefully Google or Apple has a record of the locations of the WiFi points that are currently visible to your phone and since the range of a WiFi network is not very large, it can quickly narrow down the possible locations where you might be. However, if nobody has shared this information for the area where you are running, the feature won't work. I personally don't think this information is very private because anyone walking past your front door can collect the same information, but I know many people feel differently. In any case, it is in your own interests to help map the location of  WiFi points in your neighbourhood especially if you are going to be regularly exercising in the same place. If you are really worried about privacy, then enable it for a few runs along your normal route before turning it off again.

I hope this information helps. If not, remember Google is your friend and a quick search of some of the forums related to your brand of phone will probably provide you with plenty of other useful tips.

Incidentally, I previously posted that I was switching back to using MyTracks instead of RunKeeper. However, I sometimes find that it is interesting to have both applications tracking my progress. Both applications have a tendency to occasionally crash for no reason, so having both applications recording your activity means you are fairly certain that you won't loose any data.

At the moment I have RunKeeper configured to announce periodic summary statistics in a female voice while MyTracks uses a male voice. The way I have them configured the two application normally announce at different times and because of the voice difference I know instantly which application I am hearing statistics from. Occasionally the two applications decide to announce statistics at exactly the same time which ends up sounding hilariously like a married couple arguing about whether or not the speed limit is being breached.

Update: 21-Aug
In the tips above I forgot to mention the obvious tip - try rebooting your phone. I sometimes find that my phone won't lock onto a GPS signal even if I can see the screen clearly and everything seems to be set up correctly. In these cases, turning the phone off and then back on again will often solve the problem.

My planned mid-life crisis

I will have a significant birthday this year (I won't say what age I am, but I am approaching the half way mark in my bid to persuade the President to send me a congratulatory cheque). It is traditional for people of my age group to have a mid-life crisis where they try to make themselves feel younger by doing something normally associated with younger people.

I considered buying a flashy sports car, but I didn't think that would suit my personality. I also considered going out to late-night parties, but since I used to fall asleep at parties even when I was younger I ruled out that possibility. Eventually I decided that the right think for me to do was to participate in a Triathlon in Loughrea on 9th of September. I am reasonably confident that I can competea 5km run and a 20km cycle should not be a major challenge, but the 750m swim will be a major challenge for me.

A picture of me modeling my new Triathalon swimming Goggles

I did a few practice swims in the gym before deciding to sign up and since they went fairly well , I am now purchasing the necessary gear for the event.

The fact that my nephew is also planning to take part should be a major help to my preparations. I don't know if we will be able to emulate the teamwork shown by "Mrs Brownlee's Boys" but hopefully we can complete it without any disaster.

Good luck to all participants in the Great ireland Run

For the past few years, I have run in the Great Ireland Run every year. Despite the fact that I entered this year, I won't able to take my place at the starting line for logistical reasons.

I would like to give best wishes to everyone taking part - I am sure it will be a great day. It looks like the weather will be very pleasant. In order to make up for missing the race, I ran my own 10km route in Galway. I was delighted that I managed to get the 10km run done in under the critical 1 hour barrier.

 
View Galway Run in a larger map

"Dunboyne Fun Run" lives up to its name

Today I entered the Dunboyne Fun Run on a whim, because I was out in Dunboyne anyway dropping off my daughter who was participating in the junior run. I must say that the organisers did a splendid job - the last-minute registration process was very smooth, the large field of runners was well marshalled and everyone enjoyed a run in atypically glorious sunshine.

I was pleased with my time -37 minutes and 6 seconds for a 4 mile route.

After the race was over there was even a bonus of a magnificent free spread of cakes and tea for all participants in the local community centre. They even had a band playing live traditional music. Definitely a day to be happy I live in Ireland.

Could I run a Triathlon?

I like to keep myself fit and healthy through a reasonable amount of regular exercise. However, I have mixed feelings about the idea of running a triathlon. On the one hand I think the athletes are foolish to subject their bodies to the strain of such an event, but I must also admit that I am envious of how fit they must be to be able to complete such a tough course without collapsing.

A colleague recently told me that he was entering into the Tri Athy event. This is billed as "The Perfect Introduction to Triathlon" because the relatively short course that involves a 400m Swim followed by a 13.6km Cycle and a 3.6km Run. I did give some consideration to joining him for the event, but then I chickened out at the end because I was not sure if I would be able for even this shortened version of a triathlon.

This morning I was visiting the gym and so I decided to do my own version of a mini triathlon to see how I would get on.

1. I started by swiming 20 lengths of the pool which is equivalent to 500m. This took me about 17 minutes which I think is a reasonable pace. I swam crawl all the way and didn't stop at all, although I slowed down quite a bit nearing the end.
2. Next I went for a cycle of about about 15km which took me slightly over 4o minutes. I was trying to be as close to triathlon conditions as possible, but I didn't run out of the gym onto my bike in my swimming gear. Instead I tried off properly and changed into my cycling gear. If it was a real triathlon, I think that the transition from swimming to cycling would be hard to do properly and I would certainly not relish the prospect of cycling in wet gear in Irish weather.
3. I was feeling Next I ran a 6km jog around a nearby park which took me 36 minutes. I was wondering how I would be sure how far I was running. I used the My Tracks application on my phone to monitor my progress and a new version of the application was pushed out just this week. I was pleasantly surprised that with the new version a robotic voice informed me as I passed each kilometer marker and it gave me statistics about my running pace so I never had to look down ad the screen to monitor my progress.

At the end of all this I was quite tired, but I am happy to report that I was not close to collapsing. Perhaps with a bit more practice, I will feel able to tackle the introductory triathlon next year.

Cross Posting from MyTracks to DailyMile

As I wrote before, I find that the My Tracks application from Google is a very useful and easy to use utility to use for tracking my running training. Howver, I have noticed that many people I know seemed to be using an application called DailyMile to post details of their exercise activity on Facebook.

This integration with Facebook seems to be great fun and it allows people to give and receive motivational messages, so I decided to register for DailyMile myself to see how it worked. When I started using it first I was surprised shocked to find that people are expected to manually enter details of the routes that they run. It struck me that there should be an application to automatically upload GPS traces to DailyMile, but when I asked a few friends nobody knew of one. However, my asking sparked a colleague Ben Hardill from IBM's Hursley lab to take on the challenge of building such an application. It only took him a few days to get it working and he describes his progress on his blog.

He has not yet officially released the application, but he asked me to be one of the Beta testers. It works brilliantly, with one limitation which means that you must use a regular DailyMile account rather than logging into DailyMile with your Facebook credentials. This bug is caused by a limitation in Daily Mile's implementation of OAuth rather than a limitation in Ben's code and in any case doesn't bother me, because I don't have any significant Daily Mile history to worry about abandoning

The existence of this application provoked me to go for a run this morning before work just so I had something to use to try out the application. I am glad to say that it worked great.

Great Ireland Run

Today myself and my brother joined several thousand other athletes in the Great Ireland Run.The sunshine was glorious and it definitely was uplifting to see so many people of varying levels of fitness out in the open air enjoying themselves.

All credit must go to the organisers who did a great job - coordinating thousands of runners cannot be easy.

According to the record I kept on my phone,  I took 1 hour and 3 minutes for the 10km route. I started recording before I crossed the official start line, so my official time will probably be slightly faster. However, I don't think I achieved my personal goal of completing under the hour mark.

Using a smartphone to keep a detailed training log

I am not really much of a runner, but I usually enter the Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park. I recently realized that the race is coming up soon and so I decided I needed to restart my training. I am mostly concerned that I am capable of running the full 10km and I was not really sure of the length of my planned route. I decided to use the My Tracks application on my phone, to record the route.


View Longer Loop Including Porterstown in a larger map

This simple, but powerful uses the phone's GPS to track exactly where I run. All I have to do is press the start button as I head off on my run and then press stop when I get back. The application automatically generates a map of where I have gone and record statistics about how fast I was running etc. (see sample above). If I want it can also the the application to export the data into a training log so that I can see if my pace is increasing as I get fitter (the training log can be private if you want, but I don't care who follows my running progress)

My previous run was slightly under 1`0km, so I added an extra loop to this mornings run to take it over the 10km mark. The run took me slightly over an hour, but I think I am on track to complete the 10km under the hour mark which is the goal I set myself. I think my training is not necessarily great, but at least it will be well monitored :-)

Android application missed part of my run

As I blogged earlier, I am using the My Tracks application on my Android phone to track my running training.

This Saturday I took a route that I thought would be approximately 10km long so that I would get practice at the distance for a forthcoming race. I was much surprised to see that the track had been measured as only 5.2 km long. When I looked at the associated map, it was clear that the application had simply stopped recording about half way during my run. As far as I remember a call cam etro my phone about this point in the run, I didn't answer the call, but it still seems to have caused the tracking application to halt.

I didn't want to miss out on credit for this long run, so I measured the full length of my run by manually tracing on http://www.runningmap.com/ and then I updated my tracking spreadsheet. My route was 9.83 km which is slightly short of the race route. My time for the run was almost an hour, so I will have to speed up if I am to meet my race target of finnishing under the hour mark.

My training runs have not been as frequent as I would like, but at least I have been doing longer runs and still managing to keep my pace up.

My Running Practice

I like to occasionally go jogging to keep fit, and as you can see from my running pictures on Flickr, I also like to occasionally enter for road races. I am currently just starting to train for the Great ireland Run which will be held in the Phoenix Park on Sunday 18 April.

I recently upgraded my phone to a HTC Hero and since this is an Android based phone I have been having great fun trying out the numerous applications that are available for this platform. One cool application that I have begun to experiment with is My Tracks from Google. If I turn this application on when I am running it will automatically keep a track of exactly where I am running and plot it on a map. At the end of each run I am given the option of uploading the track to Google where it will automatically be registered in a personal training diary.

By default the training diary is private, but I have no reason not to share my training data with the public so if you want to see where I have been running, just click here and you will see an automatically generated spreadsheet showing details of each training run I go on. It includes details of how long I ran and how fast, it even includes a link that you can use to see my exact route tracked on a google map.

I don't always remember to use the application and so it under estimates my running totals, but I think I will start using it in earnest as I begin to train for the upcoming race and then I will be able to see how much I am improving (if I improve that is).