Approaching the Five Kilometre Mark

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

I am approaching the five kilometre mark now. I am getting close to being able to run five kilometres in a row once again. It is paradoxical that I find running hard, compared to walking and cycling. I was able to run up to 13 kilometres before. Now I’m aiming for half, to a third less.

If I ran somewhere flat I would find running easier. One of the challenges of running in this landscape is that it undulates. In theory I could also run around in circles like others do. I could run laps, rather than a long circuit but I don’t want to run around in circles. I am considering running around in a circle for the 4.8km run. I want to run around in that circle to focus on achieving the distance, rather than struggling to cope with the contours.

I have a tendency to speed up and wind myself, and then I struggle to regain my breath. I don’t give in and start walking. I just try to get my breathing and heart rate to lower, without having to stop or slow down. I sped up yesterday because I saw that people were going to cross my route, and I didn’t want to get stuck behind them. I succeeded.

I am working on my running ability but I don’t think I like running. I find it hard. I don’t find it relaxing. I have been reading about the 80/20 rule of training, and it’s good to know about it, but it doesn’t apply to me yet. I am not a runner so all runs are beyond comfortable talking pace, for the moment. With time I will slow down my fitness will increase and walking and talking will be simple.

For now the goal is to reach 5km in a single run. Once I reach the desired distance I will work on feeling more comfortable running that distance, as well as work on speed.

And Finally

I wish I was more inspired to write better posts, but that will come. We are still in winter and when I start going for more interesting activities my post worthiness will increase.

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Running In High Winds
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Running In High Winds

Byrichard

Yesterday I tried running and walking in high winds. I have cycled and walked in high winds but I had not yet had the sensation of running in high wind and it is quite interesting. In cycling you feel that the wind pushes your bike to the side, and you counteract the wind.


With running in high wind I found that if I ran with the wind then my body behaved as a sail and I could feel the wind pushing me faster than usual. Of course the legs and cardiovascular system need to keep up. It’s when you turn perpendicular to the wind that it becomes interesting. As the feet lift the ground the wind pushes them laterally so that the right foot bangs into the left leg. I had to avoid tripping.


wind speed and weather information
wind speed and weather information


According to Strava the wind speed was 40km/h. According to Garmin the wind speed reached 59 kilometres per hour. Coping with the cold is the second challenge. In such conditions you want to be dressed warmly. The more of you is covered, the warmer you remain.


Before the run I went to take video of the waves by the lake. I got hit by a few waves and my core body temperature fell. I then went for a slow walk where I could really feel the cold again. I didn’t expect to run. I was cold. Staying home made more sense.


I ran. I expected I would turn around and give up. I didn’t. I turned and my back was to the wind, and that’s when the wind eventually started to push me forwards and I had to fight it from pushing me too fast. Usually I reach a river, I run beyond it, and then I run down to the village and continue from there.


Yesterday I reached the running goal, and turned to head home. That’s when I turned into the wind, and had to walk into it. I stepped forward, but sometimes I had no inertia due to the force of the wind. I had to wait for the wind to slow, before being able to continue my walk.


This was the type of wind where only eccentric people, and dog walkers, walk. It’s the type of weather where you want to be wrapped in layers and protect as much as possible from the cold wind. I had a cagoule and a cap. I tilted my head downwards, and used the visor to protect myself from the wind, and to prevent it from blowing off.


I will leave you with this: an article about the consequences of the high winds.

A forest walk by Chavannes Centre
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A forest walk by Chavannes Centre

Byrichard

When I cycle towards Geneva i often pass by a forest near Chavannes centre. Usually I only skirt the exterior of the forest but I have twice passed through it on a bike on my way back from Geneva. Yesterday I drove the scooter to Chavannes centre and parked it where scooters and bikes can be parked.


I walked from there towards the roads that are closed to traffic and at first i tried going downwards towards the motorway and found a path through the woods but it was blocked by a sign saying, forbidden entry, danger etc. I don’t know whether it was put there by children or whether it was serious so i turned around and went back up the road, towards the jura. I passed by a road but skipped that path. I then found a path cut through the forest overgrown with vegetation so I pushed through.


The path i walked down Tall grass, trees on either side
The path I walked down


I am curious about the origins of this path. It is wide enough for vehicles to go through but it is so overgrown that you need to go from one side of the path to the other. There are plenty of fallen branches, twigs and other things to watch out for. The other thing to pay attention to are the sounds.


I could hear cuckoos in at least two parts of this forest and I could also hear another exotic bird. I caught a glimpse of it but no more. Another sound that I heard was the sound of rustling before something large ran away from me. As I was barely into the forest i questioned whether to continue. I think it was a deer or doe.


So far this spring I have seen three deers or does, a hare and plenty of birds of prey. I’m obviously walking where people are not having conversations and scaring away the animals. It’s funny to hear rustling and see an animal run away.





As you can see from the GPS trace I could have walked twice as far. It would be interesting to see whether there are smaller trails that we can walk along. What I’m looking for are small trail paths that we can walk along, without driving too far. If you do the walk I mention then make sure to have jeans, as there are thorns and tall grasses at moments. Also be aware that some sections are waterlogged so you need to walk on the side of the path.


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Listen for the cuckoo.

A post shared by Richard Azia (@richardazia) on

Signs of Drought

Signs of Drought

Byrichard

Today as I walked I could see clear evidence that Switzerland is now dry. As you walk by the side of the road you see that it is yellow, and that there is no growth. Crops are withering away and water gauges are now filling with dust, rather than rain.


We now go for weeks without rain. If I wanted to pick up the soil it would crumble in my hands and blow away as dust. I see that one of the local rivers is drying up again.


  • A dry water meter
    A dry water meter – There is very little rain
  • View of Grass and the Alps
    View of Grass and the Alps
  • Dry grass by the river side
    Dry grass by the river side
  • Dry grass by the river side
    Dry grass by the river side


La Suisse bientot à court d’eau


Malgré la pluie, la forêt valaisanne est déjà en danger d’incendie

Minimal Walking – Day 2
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Minimal Walking – Day 2

Byrichard

I went for a walk with the barefoot shoes for a second day in a row. I didn’t regret it. I need to pay more attention to how I walk, specifically I need to make sure not to slam my heel into the ground with each step and this takes focus, muscle use, and discipline.
This time I wore socks with the barefoot shoes and the sensation is different. I prefer feeling that my feet are protected by the shoe, and by the socks. I don’t know why I dislike walking without socks in these shoes. I suspect that it’s a matter of adapting, psychologically.


Shopping Centre With Barefoot Shoes


I went to the shops to get two or three drinks with the barefoot shoes and in this environment they feel great. The ground is smooth so if you’re going shopping, minimal shoes are fine. I know we don’t buy minimal shoes to walk in supermarkets but by association if we’re at a winter club med, summer club med or elsewhere and we don’t want to wear normal shoes, these are fine.


Weathered Tarmac


Despite the shoes feeling good on lose stones that are used to cover driveways they do not feel good on weather worn tarmac that has disintegrated to leave chaotic stones around. In this context I felt the limitation of 6mm of sole protection. I sometimes felt discomfort. It’s intriguing because on a dirt path they felt fine but not on a surfaced road that has been allowed to degrade over several years, or even decades.


Feeling Calf Muscles


After two days of walking in barefoot shoes, and after my 5km walk two days earlier my calves still feel pumped. That’s why I will take a rest day today. It’s not that I don’t want to walk with the barefoot shoes today, but that I don’t want to risk injury from building up fatigue in my legs.


The Difference Socks Make


Wearing socks, with the vapour glove 7 does impact how hot feet feel. My feet felt warmer when I wore socks, than without. In summer the shoes are comfortable without socks, so it makes sense to save on washing by not wearing any but when it gets colder wearing socks will extend the temperature range within which these shoes are worn.


And Finally


I have walked 18km or so in about 3 hours over two days and so far the shoes feel fine. I do feel that I need to spend a little more time thinking about how I am walking, but I often find myself walking without thinking about the change in shoes. Walking barefoot is comfortable and intuitive. Socks make me feel safer despite them hardly offering any extra protection. Today I am taking a rest day from barefoot walking and tomorrow I could take them in case of technical issues when cycling. I think I was triggered to think about how I get around because I sold the scooter, so now I will either drive the car, walk, or cycle. Without that trigger I probably would not have pivoted.

On Potentially Removing Google Adsense from this Blog

On Potentially Removing Google Adsense from this Blog

Byrichard

Recently I have been toying with the idea of removing Google Ads from my site and adding a donation option instead. This escalated, when, yesterday I was seeing ads in the admin panel of my wordpress blog. Ads are disruptive enough for users, with full screen invasive ads that require you to acknowledge the ads, as well as others that take up the lower third of the screen.

These ads bother me so much because they’re impossible to see subconsciously. They’re not passive. They’re invasive. On quite a few sites the ads are so invasive that it interrupts your browsing experience. What makes this so bad is that we choose to give free reign to place ads as Google sees fit, but rather than place discrete ads that are noticed subconsciously they want ads that stop us in our tracks.

Initially ads would be inserted in the blog feed so that every few paragraphs or every few posts you’d see an ad. Now they interrupt your browsing experience on every single page load. Not only do these ads disrupt the browsing experience, and encourage people to browse away from our pages, losing views and interest but they don’t generate any income anyway. We’re bugging people for nothing.

Google is getting the long tail income from all those disruptive ads, and we’re providing a bad user experience to those that browse to our site, rather than read what we write, in feed readers.

Recover Revenue From Ad Blockers

It gets worse. Not only does Google Adsense spam us in our admin panel but it wants us to pester people to turn off ad blockers. People turn ad blockers off in the first place because of how obnoxious they are. If an ad fills your entire screen you’re likely to turn ad blockers on. If ads take up almost all the screen you’re likely to turn ad blockers on.

I used ad blockers on YouTube because I didn’t want to see a minute of adverts before watching a video for ten seconds before deciding that it’s crap.

A Need for Better Adverts

When I use Twitter I block every advertiser I see. Anyone that advertises on Twitter deserves to be blocked. I hardly use ad blockers because I do want websites to benefit from my visits.

iOS App ads

When I use several iOS games I sometimes watch ads to speed up game progress but in so doing I get frustrated that the ads last for thirty seconds to a minute, and that they’re for spam games, rather than fun games. I call spam games those that require you to watch crappy adverts to progress, and that pay for ads for you to play games that are so awful that they need ads, rather than word of mouth to gain users. Ads are barely ever for something useful or desired, despite “we want to show you personalised ads”.

Looking for Advertisers

I currently write blog posts every single day about a diversity of topics. That I have written daily for 317 days or more should be a selling argument for encouraging brands to pay me directly for placing ads on my blog, rather than taking the easy “Google Adsense” route. If my blog was niche I could target specific brands or companies, but because it varies from day to day I could find a number of advertisers, or ask for donations. It depends on how pro-active, or passive I want to be. Google Adsense was a good option but now it has lost steam.

And Finally

With what I have learned over the last few years I could take control of how Google ads are displayed on my site, to make them less disruptive. It’s simply a matter of taking the time to tweak the layout to display ads in a way that I am content with. If I switch my blog to Hugo then the change is very easy to make. With Wordpress it will take a little more time.

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