Spring flowers from a recent walk
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The Last Thing I learned

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

What is the last thing you learned?

I am currently learning to run five kilometres again. I’m one week away from completing the training program. This isn’t learning in the conventional sense of the word. It’s about fitness and endurance. About pacing and stamina.

I have run five k in half an hour in the past. I managed to run 10k and more. I stopped because my knees disliked my running. Now I am running again. In less than eight days I will have completed the challenge and I will be able to move on to something else. I ran 5.6km two days ago. The next runs are one or two short runs, and a 5k run.

The biggest challenge today, with the 4k run was running directly into the wind. At 21km/h according to Strava or 28km/h according to Garmin connect it almost stopped me when I ran into it. You just push forward, until you’re facing a different direction.

Today it was raining and I wore glasses anyway. They steamed up at one point so I took them off. Running in the cold and rain isn’t too unpleasant, until the rain blows onto wet trousers and you start to cool. I wore quick drying hiking trousers and I changed when I got home. It’s more comfortable than wearing rainproof layers and a winter jacket.

When it rains I usually wear the cycling rain coat. It has no hood but it’s light and practical for these conditions. For half an hour to fourty minutes it is fine.

Recently I have been running on rainy days, and having rest days on days with nice weather. I am getting to run in sub-optimal conditions.

Summer is almost back. I Hope that this year will be more interesting and inspiring than “I walked, ran and cycled in circles.”

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It would see that the newest variant is serious enough to quarantine an entire school with multiple campuses. We have to see whether this attitude lasts or whether it is short lived.


JSON, Custom HTML and a Rainy Walk

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JSON


Today I spent some time expanding my knowledge of JSON because understanding how JSON works, and how it works, opens doors. Every social network allows you to download your file as a JSON file. If you learn how to use JSON you can then re-use your data on a site of your own design, according to your own moral code.


WordPress and Custom HTML


I was also playing with static pages from the older parts of my website and trying to bring them into wordpress and for now it half, rather than fully works. My goal is to be able to have The Romans section with one look, the Geography section with another and the Environmental Systems with a third, to give just two examples. I found something promising but I haven’t understood it fully yet. It is a work in progress.


A Centralised Web and WEB 3.0


People are arguing that the world wide web needs to be decentralised, to become web 3.0 and yet the services we use are more and more centralised. Google, Amazon and Microsoft all have data centres and are getting a stranglehold on hosting and cloud solutions. Solutions like those by Infomaniak are much harder to learn about because they are still a small player, in contrast to the giants.


Facebook went down due to a misconfiguration error and two topics come to mind. The first is that Facebook shouldn’t have all three services on the same backbone because it becomes a single point of failure, and that was precisely what the Internet was designed to avoid. The second issue is that behemoths like Facebook should not exist, because they monopolise too much. When they went down IM went down for many, image sharing went down for many, and discussion groups went down for many. For a slice in time the world had to think of an alternative to communicate. Even Facebook had to.


This demonstrates that the Web, when it is too centralised, as it is via Facebook, has become fragile. I don’t mention Google, Amazon or Microsoft because they are giants, but they help the little guys be seen. Facebook doesn’t. It likes to capture and keep its traffic. We need to keep working on personal websites, to keep the web from being to vulnerable to outages.


And Finally – A Rainy Walk


As is usually the case, I did not set out on my walk in the rain, expecting to get rained on. I set off because although the weather app said there would be rain, did not say that it would be heavy, so I set off and for most of the walk the weather was nice. Not t-shirt weather nice, but bits of sun, and not too cold.


During the walk I took the Sigg original bottle. I put it in my coat pocket and forgot about it. By this I mean that it’s so small and light that it doesn’t get in the way of walking at full speed for an hour or two. It’s a good, small bottle, for when you want a drink, but you’re not in the middle of a heatwave.


And now for something else to read: Understanding How Facebook Disappeared from the Internet


80/20 Running into Practice
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80/20 Running into Practice

Byrichard

I have been putting the 80/20 running rule into practice. The principal is simple. Instead of running to your max you run at a comfortable pace for most of your running instead. Instead of pushing yourself to be fast, you push yourself to have endurance. You train at a pace that is 80 percent or less of your maximum, to perform better when you race.


Train for Endurance, Not Speed


The concept is rational. You could train to your max but by doing so you tire yourself emotionally, physically and mentally. Instead of improving you hit a wall. The 80 percent rule builds on the idea that by training consistently at a lower intensity 80 percent of the time you build stamina and endurance.


With the Garmin program by Greg I find myself having to slow down, rather than speed up. I find that I need to run at a pace that is easy, rather than strenuous. With other coaches they say “do 150-200 steps for 30 seconds, then do glides etc.” Others say “Run this distance” and “Now run that distance”.


I prefer the coaching I have now. “Run at this pace for that duration” It isn’t about distance, and it isn’t about duration so much as it is about pace. I have to consciously tell myself to slow down, to take it easy. It isn’t that far from running pace. I know I can run faster. I need the discipline to slow down.


I am avoiding speed because I want to keep my knees from hurting. I want to strengthen them gradually, by training at a lower intensity, to give them the time to adapt and toughen up. This isn’t about speed. This is about being able to run sustainably for longer distances, without discomfort. Today I felt that I am getting to that goal. I felt that I could run for longer.


A Dog Chase


I actually stopped running because a dog, that was not kept on a lead, showed interest in me, and then charged me. I left the road and it followed, so I stopped in a field. For an instant I was convinced that I would be bitten today. It felt that way. I thought it had finally happened again.


Normally I would avoid a car, especially one that stops there, because usually dogs jump out and tend to charge. I didn’t turn around and change route. My habit of turning around and choosing another route, is justified after what happened. I hate that I keep being attacked. No, the dog didn’t bite me, but it did run after me. Dogs do that. That’s why I walked with hiking sticks before. That’s why on one route I picked up a big branch.


Dogs scare me. They threaten me several times a year. If I had continued running it would have bit me. I had to stop, so that it would stop. I am tired of overcoming my fear of dogs on every walk. I am even more tired of having my fears confirmed by these attacks, several times a day. I class a dog that threatens or runs after me as an attack.


Next time I will walk the other way. I will not walk towards a car that is stopping. Once again my fear is justified.

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