Posts Tagged ‘Technology’

53 and struggling…

Aug 15th, 07 / 0 Comments

Let me start by saying, I love my job. I have been so lucky to find a place that I can really stretch myself and have loads of opportunity to excel. But lately, mainly just the last two weeks, my job has been playing havoc with my training. I’ve been crazy busy and my priority is work and my family, with running coming when it can. I have been able to minimize the impact to pretty much just a reduction in my cross-training, but cross-training is an integral part of the training program I am using, so I’m a little concerned. This week has been really tough, I missed Monday and Tuesday cross-training, and today I missed my speed workout. This is really the first run I’ve missed in a long time. So, here’s the plan:

  • Tomorrow – run in the morning, tempo run / swim in the evening
  • Friday – run at lunch, speed workout
  • Saturday – swim in the morning, before hose testing at the fire department
  • Sunday – long run, 20 miles, 9:10 pace

If I can stick to this schedule, I’ll still get in my minimum 5 workouts for the week. That wuld be a good thing after a rough start. We’ll see how it goes.

I had a good long run last Sunday – 18 miles, 2 hours 54 minutes. Not bad, but a little slower than I’d hoped. Really I felt pretty good all the way to the end – kind of exciting! Also, I did something a little different than normal during my run, I listened to almost three hours of Steve Runner’s Phedippidations Pod Cast. I really enjoyed it and will definately listen again and again. Steve has a way of really making the time go by. I’ll write more in another post about my thoughts on his thoughts – thoughts on thoughts.

Here is my route:

53 days to the Twin Cities Marathon.

Later…

Aaron

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Getting Things Done (4 0f 30)

Mar 17th, 07 / 0 Comments

In an effort to better organize my life, complete what I start, and make better use of the limited time I have available to get it all done, I am trying to implement the ‘Getting Things Done’ method of life organization. This process (for lack of a better term) was developed by David Allen – The Productivity Guru – in his book, “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”.

So far, all I can really say is that I am learning. And the learning curve is STEEP! This is not an easy process to implement (although I can see the benefit of a complete system) and it is taking considerable time and effort to get IT done – much less anything else. I’m trying to put things in place piece by piece and figure it out as I go along.

The one thing that I have had loads and loads of success with is managing my email. I have gone from literally thousands of email languishing in my inbox to zero. Here is my setup:

Inbox
@Action Needed
Work
Home
Calls
@Defer
@Delegate
@Reference
Various Folders for Search

Right now, I have 19 emails in need of action and zero emails in my inbox. Zero. Let me tell you, using this system for managing my email has helped me a ton. Seriously.

The next step is setting up my filing system – both electronic and paper. I have started by going through all of my paper documents and throwing what I don’t need to keep. For the stuff I want to keep, I am creating folders with labels (I bought a labeler – Brother P-80) and starting a system for filing.

My ‘My Documents’ directory on my computer is next – a huge task. I’m looking for ideas on how to tackle this monster and keep things organized. Any ideas? I’m open to suggestion.

Overall, this is a big project, I’m sure I’ll have more to write on it in the next 30 days. You will hear about GTD again.

Thanks!

Aaron – 4 of 30


Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

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Online Running Logs – a review of some of more popular free exercise logs

Jun 22nd, 06 / 0 Comments

***This is the first in a series of posts that will review and rate a variety of training/running/exercise logs or journals on the web.  I will start with some of the more popular and hopefully move on to others. The only constraints that I’m putting on what I review is that it must be FREE. 

I’ve been recording most of my training here in my blog for the last 6 months or so along with other ramblings and incoherent mumblings.  This, however, is not the optimal format for a training log.  There is no graphing, no mileage/time tracking, no heart rate monitoring, really nothing.   I know that there are multiple training logs out there and I’ve use a few.   Here are a few of the free ones I’ve looked at:

Each has basically the same features: the ability to log running, cycling, swimming or other fitness type activities on a daily basis with a web-based interface.  None of them require any type of download or installation.  I’ll go through each and kind of give my 2 cents on the overall experience…

The first one I’m going to start with is CoolRunning, I will follow up with separate posts on each of the others listed and more if I can find them.

CoolRunning.com

Basic Site Overview

Coolrunning is a solid, well known, established website and training log.  You can find a ton of useful information and articles on the site and there are many, many users.  Content, for the most part, seems to be well organized and fairly regularly updated.  There is lots of information on races, training, and fitness.  Additionally, you can find multiple calculators to help with pacing and training goals. 

With that said, the overall site does have a slightly dated feel and at times navigation is a bit tricky and muddy.  For example, finding your way to the Training Log itself is not a simple, one click task.  From the home page, you must navigate to the ‘Training’ tab (at the top of the home page) and then down on the bottom-left side of the page is a link to ‘Sign up Today!’ for the Cool Running Log.  This link then allows you to
log in if you all ready have an account.  I’m sure there are multiple ways to get to the training log, but none of them that I have found are any simpler.  There should be a big link on the home page to go directly to your log.  This would make navigation much quicker and more straight forward.  Again if I am missing it – let me know!

***UPDATE*** I was able to find a way to get my journal stats and a link to my journal on the front page of www.coolrunning.com. You can set this up in your personal preferences for your personal start page.  This makes it much easier to find and view your journal from the start page.  It did, however, take way too much digging to find this feature.

Training Log Overview

The training log is simple and easy to configure and use.  Here is the data it allows you to enter:

  • Date of Training
  • Time of Training
  • Workout
    • Sport (Running, swimming, walking)
    • Workout (Interval, training, tempo, etc.)
  • Location
    • Route (lets you store multiple routes and distances)
  • Stats
    • Distance (Tied to route)
    • Elapsed Time
      • Used to fill in a pace field
    • Weight
    • Heart Rate (Avg, Max, Resting)
    • Shoes (Tracks mileage on shoes)
  • Environment
    • Weather conditions
    • Temperature
  • Notes

Navigation through the entry of a workout is good.  All the tab stops go where you would think they should and the drop downs are populated and ready to go.  It does take a second or two to save an entry and it takes you to a separate page before reloading the Journal display page.  For usability, this is not the best design, but it seems to work consistently. 

Along with the data that you enter, the application actually tracks some data as well.  At a glance you can get the following:

  • Week to date totals by sport
  • Month to date totals by sport
  • Year to date totals by sport

The main journal view allows you to see 7 days of entries at a time.  This seems to adequate and is fairly readable.  Additionally, there is an option to view your data in multiple graph formats.  As you will see, while they offer a wide variety of data to put in the graph, the graphs themselves are not very detailed or overly useful.  Bottom-line, pretty basic.

Overall Rating

I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.  Pretty good, does what it needs to do, but not a lot of extras or flash.  Everything feels like it needs a little bit of an update…

Thanks!

Aaron 

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X-Bike

May 23rd, 06 / 0 Comments

X-BikeI found this interesting review of the X-Bike on Wired News (via Uber Review) and it looked really interesting to me.  If you go to the X-bike
web site, you’ll see a short video of how this thing actually works.  Basically, the premise is that the X-Bike more closely mimics the actual workout achieved from riding a bike on the road vs. a stationary bike.  The X-bike has revolutionary handlebars that actually rock and roll with the rider much the same way a road bike will bend and flex as the rider exerts force on the pedals.  The tension in the handlebars can be adjusted for the rider and the bike comes in multiple sizes for
different riders.

For about the last year or so I have been going to Spin class (indoor group cycling) at my local YMCA a couple of times a week.  I have thought for a while that a real road feel is one thing that the spin bikes lack.  They are almost too smooth and stable.  This solves that problem, it forces you to use your trunk a little more to provide upper body stability because it’s not built in to the bike.  It also allows the work you do on your trainer to transition a little better to the road. 
Bottom-line, your workouts will be more useful and provide a better base for real road riding.

Without actually riding it, I can’t say for sure that it really feels like the road, but judging by the pictures and video I’d have to say that they are at least on the right track.  I’d love to get my hands on one of these and use it for a while, but at $2,100 I doubt that I’m going to be riding one anytime soon.  From the X-Bike web site:

A single piece of cardio equipment that will satisfy all your personal training needs, keep you immersed and engaged while improving your fitness and above all, coming back for more.

The total-body X-Bike is the only indoor cycle that incorporates Trixter’s patented X-Bars handlebar mechanism that allows the rider to engage the upper body and core musculature along with the legs cardiovascular system. This total-body workout provides substantially improved fitness benefits while bringing the natural movements of outdoors cycling indoors.  

The handlebar movement also promotes improved balance and coordination functions further enhancing the effectiveness of regular X-Bike rides.

Cowling-mechanism2

Another difference between the X-Bike and traditional spin or stationary bike is that the X-Bike proves 32  gear shifting (rather than a typical tension dial) for different levels of resistance as well as a freewheeling drive train.  This is a complete 180 from typical spin bikes which are fixed wheel – if you stop the wheel stops – and this again seems much more realistic and true to road riding. 

Very cool indeed!

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Newly Redesigned Site!

May 9th, 06 / 0 Comments

Welcome to the new and improved engelsrud.com!

Thanks to aydin.net and the 3K2 theme, I think I have put together a much better site.  I hope you enjoy it. 

Some of the main features include:

I think this, along with my content, will make a much more usable, interesting site.  I hope you enjoy it!

As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Thanks — Aaron

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