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.

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. :)

This program consists of three major workouts a week: two quality days and one long easy run for mileage. A couple notes on terminology can be found at the bottom of this post.

• Sunday easy runs target a 65% – 79% heart rate
• Tuesday hard runs (Intervals) target a 98% – 100% heart rate
  • 400m at 1:20 – 1:25min
  • 800m at 2:50 – 2:55min
  • 1600m at 5:50 – 5:55min
  • 3200m at 12:00 – 12:10min
• Thursday steady state runs target a 75% – 85% heart rate
• Race pace targets a 80 – 90% heart rate and a pace of 4:09/km
• Flex days can be cross training or resting

This program was created with the help of the Calgary Road Runners and Daniels’ Running Formula.

On January 30th I ran my first scheduled 28km. Thankfully I’ve found a running partner that consistently braves colder temperatures than Sunday’s -21C. Brrr…

I love summer, every moment of it! It’s difficult to write a blog post or even digest tech content in the precious summer months.

A Summer Recap

Biking. I was able to get lots of mountain biking in. Although the conditions were usually wet and the trails muddy, I was still able to get out on the bike twice a week. Besides, according to my philosophy, the amount of mud you take home on your bike is directly proportionate to the amount of fun you’ve had. No mud, no fun. Although most my friends would disagree. :) I also picked up a bike for Steph at the end of this summer and we toured some of the easier albeit LONG rides (Elbow Loop, Goat Creek to Banff Springs to Canmore to Goat Creek).

Hiking and Backpacking. We managed to knock of a couple local hikes: Mount Baldy (photos), Mount Lawrence Grassi (photos), Moose Mountain (photos), Black Prince Lake (photos), Prairie Mountain (photos), Stanley Glacier (photos) along with a backpack trip to Floe Lake (photos) and another to Forks and Turbine Canyon (photos).

Europe. I FINALY got to Europe, something I’ve been wanting to do for a long-long time. Europe lived up to my expectations, we visited France (photos), Italy (photos), Vatican City, Holland, Belgium (photos), and England (photos). My favourite country while in Europe was Italy. Italy was more exciting, crazy, dirty, and entrepreneurial than the other countries, but Thailand is still my favourite country. I’m dying to go back to Southeast Asia.

Running. When I wasn’t biking, or hiking, I’d fall back on my trusty shoes, and you can bet I was running while in Europe. Running was an amazing way to experience a city. My favourite run was in Paris (running from Notre Dame, through the the Louvre gardens, to the Arc de Triomphe, under the Eiffel Tower, then back to Notre Dame). I want to do the Paris Marathon next year. I also ran the parameter of Lamballe France, through the rural country side and down a river near Gupry France (South of Rennes), the circumference of Venice Italy (I got horribly lost), through the hill paths between Manarola and Riomaggiore Italy (an hour long hill workout in the heat), a 12km session on a Belgium treadmill (yawn), and around the Royal Gardens of England (pretty). Yeah… I admit I am borderline obsessed with running.

So now that summer is over I’m back at it. A big thank-you for sticking around. :)

At the 32km marker a series of signs were staked into the grass along the course. The first sign read “You’re doing it!”, the next “Only 10 more kms!”, and the next “You’re running a marathon! You ARE a marathon runner!” A tear welled in the corner of my eye, perhaps from the pain in my quads, or the reality of still being 10km from the finish, but more likely because it finally dawned on me that I was indeed running a marathon – an event I’d been looking forward to since running the Half Marathon a year earlier.

Training for a Marathon was relativity easy. Basically you run one long run every week, in addition to running 6-10km 4 times every week, then rinse and repeat for 3 months. As boring as that may sound, once I got into a routine, and found a running partner, I looked forward to running. Here’s the schedule I followed (I know, I know, don’t laugh, it’s from the far from reputable About.com): Basic Marathon Training Schedule for Beginners.

My next goal is to qualify for a Boston Marathon (qualifying time is 3 hours and 10 minutes) and run alongside the 20,000 participants in the Boston next year. I’m not too far off the qualifying time, as I managed to finish in 3:22.

Get out there and run! :)

I ran my first half marathon this past weekend. Finding training resources online was difficult so I’m passing the tips that I found useful.

How to train for a half marathon:

• Ensure you can maintain 30 minutes of moderate running at least a month before your running date (this is the most important step)
• One month before your race, run 18 kms (6 easy, 6 moderate, 6 hard, don’t worry about how long it takes)
• 7 days later run 20 kms
• 7 days later run for 90 minutes hard
• 7 days later run for 60 minutes at a moderate pace
• 1 day before the race run for 20 minutes at an easy pace

The week before the race you should be feeling lazy, lethargic and ready for the race – you’ve tapered correctly. Tapering leads to improvements in running economy and muscle strength. Learn more here Tapering For a Marathon.

Other tips I picked up:

• If you’re planing on taking gels or sports drinks during the race then make sure to take them while training
• Don’t mix sports drinks and gels – take one or the other or you’ll get end up getting sick
• Avoid fiber foods 2 days before the race (you don’t want to visit the portables)
• Add more carbs and salt to your meals the week of the race
• Have your last big meal 10 hours before the race
• Have your breakfast 2-3 hours before the race

Running with 3000+ people for the first 16 kms was an amazing experience, after the 18 km mark I was questioning my sanity, and when it was over all the race participants were on top of the world. I highly recommend doing a half or full marathon. I raised some money for Team Diabetes and managed to finished in 1:58.  Next year I’m running the full marathon.

My training up to this point has been terribly lax, I’ve been running 7km in about an hour. At this pace it’ll take at least 3 hours to break 20kms – Ouch!

If you're interested in donating (or better yet, joining the run too), then follow these steps:

1. Visit The Canadian Diabetes Association
2. Search for Adam Kahtava
3. Donate

Anyhow; life isn't just about geeking out. I've got to run. :)

The topic of our discussions reminded me of something David Heinemeier Hansson said when talking about software development:

You don’t need to be a f***ing genius to make any of this stuff work, it’s not rocket surgery! – David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08

DeMarco and Lister also echoed this outlook back in the 80′s, and publicized: the High-Tech Illusion:

the High-Tech Illusion: [is] the widely held conviction among people who deal with any aspect of new technology … that they are in … high-tech business. [These people] are indulging in this illusion whenever they find themselves explaining at a … party, say, that that they are “in computers” … The implication is that they are part of the high-tech world. [These people] usually aren’t. The researchers who made the fundamental breakthroughs in those areas are in the high-tech business. The rest of us are appliers of their work. – Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams

If we were in the High-Tech business, then we’d be the bottom feeders (the parasites, the grunts), because our daily activities revolve around consuming other peoples research and work (programming languages, platforms, frameworks and the like). We are consumers, we’re not on the cutting edge nor are we in the high-tech world.

Perhaps building software could be much like outfitting yourself for a day in the snow. You head off to the local shopping mall, you acquire the functional items to keep yourself warm, but brands and store choice don’t really matter. Whether we’re buying winter boots or choosing a programming language, technology doesn’t really matter. There are an infinite number of ways to solve any problem, as well as an infinite number of technical permutations to form a solution. If we can solve the problem within the constraints of our problem domain then we’ve succeeded.

The High-Tech Illusion often permeates my world – I work as a Web Developer in the Microsoft realm. I continually see the High-Tech Illusion manifests itself in these situations:

• Colleagues talking in vague opaque high-level metaphors that patronizingly shield you from the inter working of what they assume is beyond your comprehension
• Fixations on specific tools, hardware, platforms, and methodologies while the problem that needs to be solved is diluted and any combination of these items could solve the problem
• Colleagues that assume superiority and can’t acknowledge that knowledge is acquired through research and a continual efforts to improve

Pretentiousness in the software realm (in teams, organization, and so on) is usually the byproduct of someone that’s living the High-Tech Illusion.

I’ve been guilty of subscribing to the High-Tech Illusion. How does the High-Tech Illusion permeate your world? How can we get back to reality?

Steph (my wife) and I had been toying with the idea of getting a dog, we've been looking at different breeds, visiting shelters, and emailing breeders – I have to give Steph all the credit, she did most of the research. Anyhow, we came across a post on our Kijiji for a mature Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. Now we have a dog.

Being a Geek and all, I wasn't sure if I was a dog (or cat person), but Belle is a great dog. Her constant need for a walks is a great reminder to take a micro break while working from home.

Belle, our dog.

My highlights:

• The session on Agile Project Planning With User Stories, and Refactoring Automated Unit Tests Using Test Smells and Patterns presented by Gerard Meszaros. I’ve been on a couple projects that could be characterized as “Bad Agile”, so Gerard’s presentation hit many chords, one of the comments he made really stuck out. He said something like: “it’s not about the Agile process, it’s about the results, it’s about delivering…don’t be dogmatic”. Sure it’s obvious, but it’s nice to hear it from someone else.  I’m currently in the process of purchasing Gerard’s book: xUnit Test Patterns: Refactoring Test Code.
• Mock objects with Rhino Mocks was another great session (by Shane Courtrille). I’ve been using Rhino Mocks for a couple months now, but there’s always so much to learn from someone with more experience.

I’m trying to make it a point to attend more of these events in an effort to expand my community.