now where was I?

Friday went a lot like this.

 Is there a minimum required sleep required to be able to say you had a night's sleep? If there is I am fairly sure I didn't make it. Harrie gave me a bit of a workout last night. I do the nightshift once the kids are off the boob. If Alex or Harrie wake up before midnight Sal is on duty and after midnight it is me. This, of course, is a stupid deal to enter into. The kids rarely - if ever - wake when bellies are full and they're knackered from the day. But once dinner has settled and they've had a rest...well, by then the clock has struck midnight. Add to the mix the two teeth Harrie has and that she has never got into the sleeping-through routine. Alex was waaaaay better.

So, for the time being I am sleeping on a foam mattress in Harrie's room. I wake easily when she wakes. Laying next to the cot I can distinguish the murmur from the approaching scream. If trouble is brewing I do a quick commando roll from my spot on the floor, gently pat her and she quickly nods off to sleep again. Reverse the roll and I'm asleep again in next to no time. Usually. In fact usually she'll wake twice and I have an interrupted sleep but lose no more than 30mins of my night.

Not so last night. I lost most sleep between 1 and 3; she would not settle. Roll, pat, snooze, roll back. Rinse and repeat. I tried picking her up, talking to her. Nope, last night was not a good night. At around 4:15 Alex piped up asking for milk and waking me from my maybe an hour. I got her back to sleep. She woke again an hour later; I relented on the milk thing and got up to walk Rowlf. (For the record, and in case anyone is interested, I do this mostly to make sure Sal gets a good sleep. I reckon sleep is the key to not going mad when you have babies and small kids. I can get by on far less sleep than Sal and am prepared to push it until I pretty much collapse in a heap. Running, I find, helps give me more energy to cope. I think. I'll probably fall apart in a heap this evening now i've said that. I digress.)

And so started janathon day 6.

I still hadn't given up on the Garmin but it was getting close. Switch on...nothing. Again...nothing...third time...wait...and we're on. And it switched itself off. Bollocks. Another couple of attempts and it seemed to get its act together. At the dog park I threw a ball for Rowlf with my garmin hand and it powered off. I powered it back on and tried again. Same thing happened. I switched it back on and then unclipped it from my right wrist, causing it to switch itself off again. Last night I had done a couple of device resets and had reinstalled the software. It was looking a lot like a hardware fault at this point. I put it back on my wrist, powered it on and it stayed that way until the dog and I got home.

Game for a laugh, I decided to use it on the way to work. An overcast and windy start to the day with the wind coming up from the south as I headed south. Somehow I was protected from the wind all the way to the deck of the bridge. I'd run exactly the same route as yesterday in case the Garmin decided to give up en route, but at the Bridge it was still happy. Not wishing to push my luck I didn't hit the lap button. in fact I didn't hit any buttons. At about half way a guy passed me. He was not running much quicker than me so, despite what I said yesterday about not entering the Commuter Olympics I stuck with him. He didn't seem to be racing, so I stayed with him unti near the end and then put my foot down, easily out-pacing him and maintaining my unbeaten record across the Bridge since moving to the new house. The Garmin was still ticking over, it was a coolish morning. I thought sod it, I'll grab another couple of easy kilometres. Instead of heading straight to the office I doubled back under the Bridge (Red Hot Chilli Peppers anyone?) and then head along Barangaroo, Sydney's developers playground in the making. I copped a full-on headwind as I did that kilometre or so. I wonder if that, plus the backpack with a change of clothes, will come back to haunt me later? I stopped the Garmin at a little over 14km.

And then I decided to check my pace. I hit one of the screen change buttons and the thing went bonkers, rapidly flicking through the three data screens I'd setup. Eccentric no more, the thing is clearly fucked beyond hope. I took a quick video of the disco inferno screen and switched it off. Showered and changed I went to grab a coffe. I ordered and while waiting I tried to power the thing on. No luck. I put it in the top pocket of my backpack. About five minutes later, coffee and toast in hand and in the lift up to my desk i heard the familiar beep of a Garmin Forerunner 305 powering up. My first phone call of the day was to Garmin support. Now, where is that receipt?

 

In happier Janathin GPS news my brother offered to leave his device with me and take mine back to the UK from whence it came, so it looks like I will be GPS equipped for the rest of the month and maybe not condemned to run the exact same route over and again.

At home time the Garmin seemed to limp into life so I fired it up again and headed home. To be on the safe side I ran the exact route I know and have mapped. Good job too, as the thing crapped itself around 500m from home. That was after it started doing it's disco inferno trick while I was running - no button pressing required. I put it on charge and it started to beep angrily at me. It really is not at all well.

The run home was borderline miserable. Chaffing again and I stopped to lube up. I was incredibly tired. When I got home my modem had died, I was on my last legs and the wheels of my week felt as if they were falling off. I stayed awake as long as I could and then that was it, bed time. Sal stepped on on the graveyard shift and I got a sort of reasonable night's sleep.

the commute

I think I should warn you...the general tone of this post changes dramatically at around 4:45pm and there could be a bit of colourful language. But before that, here is the write up for the run to work this morning

crane on a cliff, a photo by Auswomble on Flickr.

Vacation is over and it's back to work day. That means I didn't need to think about where to run. I've moved house since June(athon) and now live 3km further away from the my office if I take the (new) direct approach. My new commute is 10.5km, a nice social distance. There are few options to mix it up unless I feel like tackling more hills than I typically feel like tackling before breakfast. I will struggle to write about this run in any great detail after today, what with it being pretty much the same day in, day out. Anyway, today.

It was another fabulous night's sleep for me. I'd gone to bed a bit after 10:30pm and was woken by Harrie a little beofre midnight and at about 2am. Not to be left out, Alex woke me up at about 4am. Harrie was next at just after 5am. At 5:20 I got up to take Rowlf for a walk. The first day back in the office, my most productive of the year to date, will see me add next to fuck all value. Ho-hum. I don't think the boss reads this...I told the boss I was aiming to avoid any proper work until Monday; I hope he didn't think I was joking...I grabbed my new GPS, switched it on and it swiched itself off. Great. I switched it on again and it stayed on. Better. Rowlf and I headed up the hill to the park and at 2.5km the Garmin was still playing nice. I took it off my wrist and the screen went blank. Arse! I powered it on and hit start. It stayed on until I got home. It is an exccentric bastard of a thing and at this point looks as if it is going back.

Although there had been a southerly change in the weather it was still somewhat sticky, but I'l take 21C and 75% humidity. I got changed, kissed Sal and AJ bye-bye (Harrie was asleep, probabaly catching up. Oh to be able to...) and headed off, taking my chances with the new Garmin.

I expect heavy legs at this time of the year and was not disapointed. The first km of the run (1.13km to be a little more precise) takes me to and down the Gallipoli steps to Spit Bridge and sea level. Once over the bridge I loop back under the southern side - that's the sea level buit - instead of crossing the road. The road is normally ram-jam-packed, but today, half way through the school holidays, it was remarkably clear, hence the remark. I looked for and failed to find the four pelicans I often see perched on the piers out front of the yacht club. And then there is the slog up Parriwi Road. It's actually not to bad. It is steep, but not outrageously so, and it is long, but not horrifically long. I much prefer running up it than down it because my lungs are in better shape than my knees. You can distract yourself looking at the mansions hanging off the east side of the hill and between them out to the ocean. Every so often I race the slower cyclists to the top. Most of them don't realise they're racing (because usually it is only me who is.) It helps keep me from plodding every day. I think it is safe to assume I'll not be attacking the hill this month.

At the top of the street I get to Spit Road and continue to climb, albeit at a gentler gradient. By Mosman things flatten out as Military Road follows a ridgeline. Usually I will take a left at Neutral Bay, heading back down to sea level before up to the Bridge, that being the direct route. Today I didn't fancy it so decided to take avoid a sharpish descent/ascent in exchange for an extra kilometre. With far less traffic than usual on Military Road it was nothing like the lung-busting fume-fest I am used to.So I carried on along Military Road and then cut across St Leonards Park on my way to North Sydney. I stopped at a couple of bubblers in the park, but the water pressure on both was so pathetic that I shouldn't have bothered.

I ran along the side of the Bridge and passed Classic Throttle, drooling over the old Aston Martins in the window and wondering if the uber-rich would buy them on a whim after watching an old Bond movie. At Milson's Point I stopped at a far better bubbler and then it was up the steps to the deck level of the Bridge. I hit the lap button on my still-playing-nice Garmin. There was a southerly headwind as I went across the Bridge that was reasonably cooling. It was still humid and I was still sweating, but at least it was a cooler sweat.

The Bridge's 1.5km came and went in almost exactly 7min. Slow, but tolerably so. I'll need to discipline myself to not get involved in the "Commuter Olympics" this month; my best times on the way to work are usually when I've raced a bike up Parriwi and then decided to either pick off runners ahead of me or defend a lead.

And then I was at work in 11.5km and about an hour.

I've just re-read that, and although descriptive it is a bit of a dull read. Buggered if I know what I'll write if I decide to run home...

...that was written this morning...this afternoon, a little before 4:45pm, I got up from my desk and got changed into my running gear.

I stepped out of the office and switched on the Garmin. Well, I pressed the power button. Nothing happened. Zippety-squat. Shit it! I tried again. And again. Bollocks, dead again. Somewhat pissed off I put the Garmin in my backpack and got my Blackberry out. I went to the location options and told it to update my location. "Location update failed" it told me. I tried again. Same. I rebooted it. Same. I turned on location aiding. Same. Oh for fucks sake, this is just getting silly. I am endlessly frustrated with the Blackberry's "maybe I will, maybe I won't" GPS which today was firmly set to won't. I was around 850km south of where it said I was. I put that back in my backpack and got out my own mobile, a Garmin-Asus Nuvifone that rarely lets me down.

I went to the maps and hit "where am I?" and it correctly located me. Now we're cooking! I cleared the trip log and headed for the Bridge, somewhat annoyed that I had to carry my phone in my hand. But I consoled myself by deciding to run exactly the same course home so I could compare the results from the two Garmin devices. I kept an eye on the screen to make sure it was logging and was happy to see the metres climbing as I made my way home.

When I got to the north side of the Bridge the trip log read 800m. The deck of the Bridge is 1.5km. It seems the trip computer stops logging when the handset locks, something that doesn't happen when in the cradle in the car...but does when in my hand. Great. I mean really, just fucking great. Three - THREE useless GPS devices in my backpack. THREE!

So, dear reader, to the run. Apart from starting about 15minutes later than I'd hoped it was OK. It was overcast but not too hot or humid. The Bridge was a crowded tourist-dodge, but I made reasonably good progress and retraced my morning commute route as close as to-the-step as I could. No cutting corners that had been uncut earlier, plenty of crossing roads at the same spots, running on the same footpaths. There was one minor deviation at Spit Bridge; a little over 10km into the commute home I ran the 3m to a bubbler and then back to the path. If there is a US election style recount at the end of the month I would like that to be taken into account (hehehe!)

Once home I found I had no internet access and was about to go mental with this latest electronic absence until I realised that the desk was neat...I suspected Sal of tidying so checked the wires and popped the ethernet cable back into the modem. And we're back.

It took me a little while to find out how to save a map from a GPS upload on runningfree. Find it I did and that is how I logged the run home. It looks like I'll be doing the same commute each day for the remainder of January's working days, which is kinda cool because I don't need to think about it, but kinda sucks because it will be exactly the same. And it is all or nothing; either I do the whole and log it...or I don't. No getting 5km in and then quitting with 5km in the bag...and no sneaking in a few extra km. I know I could, but I won't because I'm a bit lazy like that. I still need to work out what to do at weekends after my brother and his working Garmin go back to the UK. Let's hope the Blackberry works out the difference between Queensland and New South Wales before he leaves.

Five days and the metric ton-up.

One last thing...I assume it is due to rounding, but the run to work was summarised as 7.3miles and the map created from that very run as 7.4miles. But hey, this is the site that allowed carrirmccoll27 to log  89hours in under two and a half days! I work with data and things like that irk me; not carrie, but the site not lending a hand. Grrrrrrr....

Seeya tomorrow janathoners!

woo-hoo!

How easy was that? OK, the location I selected to attach to my pic is a bit south of the spot I was standing on when I took the pic. But hey, I can live with that. I'll check before I commit location data to photos in the future, or more likely to fix this, I'll get my camera time closer to true. The app gave me three options and I just took one. If the camera and GPS are aligned I should be spot on with the middle location option. Dead easy to use GPSPhotoLinker to match the pic to the GPS track. Then flickr plonks the pic straight onto my map. It also takes the location names and creates tags. Cool huh? Yeah yeah yeah, I know I'm a bit slow on this techie uptake...

new toy

Today I took delivery of my latest toy, a Garmin Forerunner 305 wrist mount GPS and heart rate monitor. Initial results look very promising. I took it for a run at lunch and my ride back home from work. Plotting my route on a map it seems pretty close to true, putting me right on the roads and paths I had traveled. Even the elevation plot looks OK. Uploading data to Garmin's MotionBased website is easy, and once there I get, along with a load of graphs, a report of the weather at the time of the workout. Easy to implement, but neat and kinda geekily cool.

To add to the fun I downloaded a bit of freeware that will marry up my GPS data with my digital pics. I should be able to plot them straight onto my flickr map. Untested, but it should work...watch this space. Well, watch Flickr actually. Sal has expressed an interest in walking from Spit Bridge to Manly on Saturday morning - a perfect opportunity to take some pics and track our wander.

Two moments of disappointment. First, I seem to have lost - already - the spoke magnet for the cadence sensor I bought with the unit. That was disappointing. As was the realisation that I need not have bought the cadence sensor at all. I'm not interested in how fast I spin my wheels, only how far I go and how fast...and the GPS alone will tell me that. D'oH!

A final word on Garmin...thay have a GPS unit designed specifically for dog owners, allowing them to track where the little bastard has run off to. I'll take two...