Adam.Kahtava.com / AdamDotCom

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a gear weenie, but I’m in good company – most IT workers share my enthusiasm. Friends in real life are cringing at the thought of the “Adam Paparazzi” in their face. Similarly friends on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and RunKeeper are rolling their eyes in agreement as they read this and see another status update roll by.

As a self proclaimed technology enthusiast; most of my activities are GPS tracked (along with my vitals), and a camera are close at hand. I enjoy sharing my experiences – most of my childhood friends and family live in Eastern Canada (2,500km away), so technology is the great connector. The way I see it; while having a camera on (or in your face) can be annoying at the time, eventually this media will become invaluable to your family, friends, and yourself as your memory fades.

My latest piece of gear is a camera that mounts on a helmet / bike and a YouTube Channel.

Here’s a video of Steph and I, on Mount Standish in Sunshine Village.

Here’s my rough running plans for 2012 – after all, an organized schedule means I can take advantage of early bird discounts, which translates into more events.

Calgary’s St Patrick’s Day 10km, March 17. I’ve never run this event before, it’ll be my second 10km event and my winter running motivation.

Calgary’s Police Half, April 29. Last year this event was pretty challenging – Calgary was blanketed with fresh snow the night before the race. Typically this race is lead by a police cruiser, but the car got stuck about a kilometer into the course, portions of the route weren’t cleared, and the snow covered ice was slippery, I know, I fell. This race is a nice ease into the running season.

The Vancouver Marathon, May 6. This event crushed me last year – totally my own fault, I didn’t take enough fuel and bonked hard. I really enjoyed Vancouver for its scenery, climate, and sea level advantage. I’ve got a bit more experience with long distance running and hope to crush it this year. :)

The Calgary Marathon, May 27. Where it all began – in ’09 I signed up for my first race ever and have been running since. This year I’m running for Team MitoCanada. Please consider donating to (or better yet, joining) my team.

Rundle’s Revenge, June 24th. My first crack at a race longer than marathon distance.

Fernie’s Furious 3, June 30th – July 2nd. A three day staged mountain bike race.

Powderface42, July 14th. It’s a 42km trail run around Powderface in Kananaskis, I’ve biked the route so running it will be interesting, painful, or all of the above.

My fingers are crossed for an injury free season.

Lake Superior Provincial Park is one of my favourite places. The lake itself is brilliantly clear, the water clean enough to drink unfiltered (provided you’re drinking it well away from shore). The shoreline is dotted with uncountable warm coves to swim in (August), few bugs (again, August), and breathtaking views, but… I’m entirely biased. This landscape is home (I grew up in the area) and both Steph (the girlfriend, now wife) and I were employed by this park while going to school. Steph as a Natural Heritage Educator and I as an an Interior Ranger.

Being an Interior Ranger had some great experiences; one day our crew flagged down a train, rode a boxcar with the doors wide open, got dropped off at Agawa Falls with a chainsaw and cleaned the trail as we hiked out. Then there were the multiday treks where we’d travel (portage, by canoe) through the interior of the park, self sustained as we assessed trail conditions, and explored old decomposing fly-in / hunting camps, and houses from decades gone by. I hiked all but one trail my first summer there. Man, I wish I had a camera back then.

Anyhow, back to the topic of this post. This past summer we retraced our footsteps as we hiked Lake Superior’s Coastal Trail.

The Coastal Trail is about 65km, but we chose our favourite stretch – the 25km stretch between Gargantua Harbour and Orphan Lake. This portion of the trail is affectionately referred to as the “rugged” part, but “rugged” is an understatement. Most of this stretch of trail is off camber as you follow the exposed Canadian Shield along the shoreline and when the trail’s not off camber then it’s ankle wrenching boulder beaches with rocks ranging from fist size rocks to the size of a cube van. There are no man made structures to assist in the undulating climbs, and the blue trail markers are few and far between (cairns mark most of the trail). Many times our route (well… usually MY route) would lead to a dead end, I’d scratch my head, Steph would roll her eyes, and then we’d spot a trail marker up on a distant bluff. If a storm unexpectedly kicked up you’d be stranded. Walking on wet lichen covered rock or bushwhacking your own route through the dense trees in search of higher ground with a backpack for 25km is sure to get you hurt. Good news though; it’s really difficult getting lost with the world’s largest freshwater lake on your side. The going may be slow, but the views, geology, and orienteering keep things interesting. This is my favourite hike, I highly recommend it.

View more photos here.

Beatty Cove 2001

Beatty Cove 2011

Well… I’ve run two marathons in the past month, three to date, and each has been a huge learning experience.

At the 2011 Vancouver Marathon I didn’t fuel properly and bonked hard (hit the wall). Aside from a couple cups of Gatorade I didn’t take any fuel – big rookie mistake! Running a marathon takes something like 3,000 calories, the average runner can store about 2,500 calories, and the deficit has to be made up by eating while on the run. I’ve never hit the wall before and the experience was incredibly frustrating. A kilometer from the finish my legs started feeling like cooked noodles, the finish would have been in view if my vision hadn’t been tunneling. I trudged towards the line in what felt like an intoxicated stupor finishing in 3:10, but my half split was 1:26 and last kilometer almost took 9 minutes – I met my rough goal of 3:10 (a 2012 Boston Marathon qualifying time), but was expecting to finish faster.

29 days later I ran the 2011 Calgary Marathon. I played this one a bit too cautious focusing on hydration, and fueling. I was disappointed that I didn’t put more effort into the race. I may have taken a bit too much water as I suffered side stitches at 30km then my calves started cramping around the 35km mark. I finished Calgary in 3:15.

It’s been a great learning experience and there’s lots to look forward to. Long distance runners peak somewhere between the age of 30 and 37 and I’m just getting started. My next target is to shave another 20 minutes off my marathon time.

Here’s a video that gives you an idea of what hitting the wall feels like: Paula Newby Frazier is “Hitting The Wall”.

In other news Ueli Steck climbed the north face of Eiger in 2:47, that’s about 1800m (6000ft) of vertical elevation. Watch Ueli run up a mountain: Ueli Steck speed solo Eiger record.

Hey, what happened to all the bloggers? Well… we grew up, grew out, and moved on. Perhaps we’ve become tired of community based online learning, we’ve discovered greater meaning in palpable communities, we’re pursuing new hobbies and responsibilities. We’re finding our internet memes and funny videos on social media. As developers we’re bored of whining about decrepit technologies, we’ve found contentment in friendlier frameworks and work environments. Our confidence and abilities have grown, we’ve discovered that tools don’t matter, we’re no longer here to present the tips and tricks of the latest technology. The blog once established our street cred, but online reputation has transitioned to open source contributions and sites like Stack Overflow and github. The effort of a blog is befittingly employed elsewhere.

My taper for the Vancouver Marathon (May 1st) started this week.

Over this training session (Jan 1st – April 21st) I’ve logged 750km (466mi) in 60 some hours, gone through two pair of shoes, burned through 60,000 calories, and discovered the joys of running outside. Yes, in the COLD! The coldest day being -28C (-18F). I used to be a fair weather enthusiast, pulling out any excuse to stay indoors in less than ideal conditions, but after breaking my treadmill I discovered that I’m quite weather resistant. Running outside through the winter was fun. Every run was a chance to flip winter the bird, an excuse to wear shorts (well… usually), and each step brought the warm weather closer. Sure there were a couple tough days, but adversity builds character. Right?

This image is an overlay of my long runs in Calgary since January 1st.

Did you know that, the fastest time for the 2010 Calgary Marathon was 2:32, the fastest time for the 2010 Vancouver Marathon was 2:16, the 2012 Olympic Qualifying Standard for the Marathon is 2:15 – 2:18, and that the world’s fastest marathon (2:03) was run this year at the Boston Marathon.

I’m excited to see where this training will take me – hopefully to the Boston Marathon, but certainly not to the Olympics. :)

Focus on the present, the glory days of years gone by are becoming insignificant.

[An accomplishment] has a shelf life of two years. After that, it’s still an [accomplishment] – just with an asterisk. – The Runner’s Rule Book, Rule #1.51

Focusing on accomplishments from the past two years seems like a good rule of thumb – much like concentrating a resume on your past five years of relevant experience.

My Open Source Service is fixed. The problem being that Google Code’s profile page changed and the project list wasn’t being populated – man, I wish Google Code had an API. Anyhow; I added more tests, reduced some technical debt, cleaned up my page sniffer / scraper and things are working again. The Open Source Service is consumed by my Project Badge (image on the right). Check out the source code updates.

So many people … will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon … – Chris McCandless

The long term results of a sedentary career (desk job) and lifestyle are frightening. Like many software developer and other knowledge based workers, I can spend up to 10 hours, 5 days a week sitting in a chair looking at a screen. It has been suggested that “[staring at a screen] is associated with lower resting metabolic rate” (TV watching ‘makes you obese’), and regardless of being “slim or fat … every week spent inactive is roughly equivalent to smoking a packet of cigarettes” (Laziness will send us to an early grave). General health guidelines recommended that we “should do a minimum of 30 minutes moderate-intensity physical activity, five days a week” (How much exercise?), but exercising consistently five days a week is tough without a preferred physical activity.

Up until a 2005 (since University) I was focused on gaining industry knowledge and experience (being active wasn’t a priority) and nearing my 30th birthday I began to realize my sedentary lifestyle (career pursuits) were taking a toll on my health. I was becoming a pasty red-eyed developer. Going up stairs could leave me winded, riding a bike for 30 minutes was painful, and my metabolism was slowing down.

I made a couple attempts at becoming more fit. The bike; biking was my first attempt to exercise consistently. Cruising the city on a bike had a low barrier to entry, but getting out of the city required about a 2 hour time commitment, and riding in winter was tough. Rollers stepped in for the winter months, but seemed pretty easy without the resistance – I plan on getting a trainer next winter. Then came the gym, but the time limits on the aerobic equipment were frustrating and I didn’t have a desire to work on bulking up. Enters running. Running offered, the lowest barrier to entry (simplicity, tie up your running shoes and run anywhere), an efficient way to maintain cardiovascular fitness (an intense workout can take 30 minutes or less), and fun challenges (races, community, and competition).

I run because it reduces stress, simplifies my focus, makes me feel great, it’s social, and it’s a great way to maintain a fitness base for other pursuits like: biking, hiking, skiing, and even going up the stairs. I run because my career choice doesn’t necessarily facilitate good health.