A new year in training

I made a draft of my training goals for this year just before the New Year. The primary goal for this year is to increase the amount of exercise and to run below 20 minutes at 5 km before the end of the year. Two simple goals. Should be no hassle eh? Well only time will tell.

The previous year
I think that I did something right the last year. I will try to sum it up here.

• I started this blog. They say if you want to achieve your goals you should tell everybody about them to keep the pressure up.
• I logged everything I did. Every km, time used etc. I even bought a gps watch to measure my running and cycling distance. It had really bugged me before that I did not know how long I had run or cycled.
• I attended 10+ running events. It makes it all more fun. (I am sure someone will disagree with me here.)
• Tried to reflect every month or so about what I had achieved. The log were handy here.

This year
My 5 km best time last year were 21 minutes and 40 seconds. So to go below 20 minutes then the amount of training need to be increased, and I also need to train a bit smarter. Cycling back and forth from work will not cut it. That mean more interval training, longer training sessions etc. My main exercises will be spinning and running. Below I have made a rough list of the amount of training during the year I will do.

Spinning : 150 minutes (week) : 130 hours (year)
Running : 15 km (week) : 900 km (year)
Cycling : 50 km (week): 2600 km (year)
Strength : about 2 times each week

5 km : below 20 minutes
10 km : below 44 minutes
Events
* 12+ running events
* 1 cycling event

Well that´s it. I cross my fingers that I will avoid injuries etc. Wish me luck.

One more thing. I came over this article at Wired titled The perfect human. It´s about the infamous Dean Karnazes that ran 50 marathons in 50 days. Yay!

Breaking the ice! New personal best 5km!

Last day I attended the regular local run vinterkarusellen (winter carousel) that is scheduled every 3 weeks during the winter. My long term goal is to run the 5km below 20 minutes. The best time I have run the 5km before is 22.08 and that were about 5 months ago, so I had a big hope to break the 22 minute barrier before going into a new year with new goals to be set.

The weather yesterday were really nasty early in the day, with heavy rain and zero degrees, not a good combination for a run. But luckily it stopped raining just before leaving for the event. The race is just 15 minutes bike ride away, so I use the bike as way to get there and the same time get warmed up before the run. I strapped on my biking helmet and set off. I arrived at the racing stadium, I got off the bike, found a pole to fasten the bike to, and headed for the stadium to do a 10 min warm up.

At the stadium I did some muscle stretching, and started running slowly around the track, when I noticed something were not right, hmm what could it be? Oh damn!!! I still have the damn bike helmet on!! Oh my god, I must look like a complete moron or something running with the helmet. I laughed at my self, took off my helmet and went back to my bike to put it there. I notice a bit of snickering among people. Anything to bring a smile on peoples face I thought.

Yay!, not a good start I thought. Well better get my act together and make this a good run. It can only go uphill from here on.
The run started a bit later, I did not get a good position in the crowd, being right in the middle. The roads are quite narrow in on the race course, so it’s important not to get to far back in the crowd. When running it were a bit problematic to get by people, running sometimes off track on the grass, darting back and fort to get by people. I felt good and strong in body, I held a steady tempo all the time, advancing and running by people. The last km I even had strength to quicken the pace a bit. I were happy to see the finishing line in the distance, and set inn the last of my strength for a spurt. When crossing the line I looked at my wrist watch and noticed with surprise that I had beaten my best time with nearly 30 seconds. 21.40 minutes were the time I got! I felt great joy and cheered at my self for my accomplishment. I promised my self to buy a cake the next day and celibrate with family, for entering into a new time zone and a good closure for the year in running.

I wish you all a happy new running year!

The results (Me at 83 place)
An article from the event in Kondis.no

Linux and beyond

Diving into the OS
I have been tinkering a bit lately with Linux at home and were pleasantly surprised. I tried first to install the widely popular Ubuntu Linux by Google, but somehow the screen would freeze during the installation. So instead I installed the Fedora Linux that is supported by redhat. The installation went very well, much easier then a Windows xp innstallion. The only minor draw back were there partitioning of the drive that could have been made simpler.
The first impressions of the desktop were very good. Crisp graphics, very similar look with what you are used to with Windows. The menus were very easy to navigate and programs were accessible with a few clicks. All the basic software that you need is installed as default. You will find among them Firefox, Open office, Gaim and some nice games like Mahjong etc.. Everything worked like a charm. I felt right at home at once and were happy surfing and tinkering around.. My first impressions are that Linux at this point has gone a couple of steps beyond Windows as a more user friendly OS.

But it can’t be all good, can it?
There is a couple of problems that I can point at. The first is the foundation of available high quality software on Linux is not that good as on Windows or Mac. This is a huge draw back that will keep Linux in the shadows for many years to come. The login procedure I think could have been streamlined a bit. That you have to enter both username and password to get access is not very user friendly, esp. if you want to use it as a family computer with multiple users.. There were other things as well. Like the package installer to install additional software. It would been nice with a more graphical interface with preview picture, link to additional info etc… It’s often the small things that make a system great. And I came over many such when exploring. But Windows are full of those so I can not really complain..

Will I continue using Linux?
Yes I think so, as it would cover most of my needs. But it will not replace my need for Windows softwarewise. So I have actually ordered a Apple Macbook lately that should arrive in a week or so. After I get my Macbook it will be bye bye Windows!

Mac and beyond
I have never used Mac before, and I have huge expectations for it. Some of my coworkers that were die hard Windows fans have bought a Mac lately, and they are loving it. They say that if you switch to a Mac you will never look back. I will blog about my Mac experiences later.

The future of Linux?
My personal guess is that Linux at one point will be the dominant OS in the future. You will find Linux in all devices, and what OS you run is not something that you think about. You can read the signs all ready. All the big companies embraces Linux or Unix. PS3 and Wii both uses Linux, OSX for Mac uses BSD(Unix variant). This makes it easy to make software for multiple systems. The end result down the road is that the Linux desktop users will enjoy more quality software. Esp. I think games will be easily ported to Linux from PS3, wii and Mac. This is important because the availability of games is what actually keep many from switching from Windows to Linux…

Below are some videos that show some fancy graphical effects on the Linux desktop that is possible with additional plugins. They gave me a Wow! feeling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpIhoLzDOTY&eurl=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z_EuDj9Srw&eurl=

Villain Chair – Evil becomes me

This chair set you in the mood to be an evil villain with the goal to conquer the world. hmm..? maybe I should add “Become a villain” to my goals at www.43things.com.
My nick name Morte (means the reaper in italien) should be perfect as a villain name. Muhahahhaaaa!
The price is really the most evil thing about the chair. You have to pay 3600$ to be the proud owner of the chair. Maybe you should start your villain carer by robbing a bank to afford the chair.

Off road running – Loddefjordløpet 10 of September

I discovered just days before that there were a running event in a place called Loddefjord close to were I lived as a kid. So I had to attend offcourse. I did not know squat about it, and were a bit surprised that 60% of the track were off road in the forest, and mostly up and downhill. It were a nice day, a bit sunny and quite warm, not many attended, but that were most likely because of short notice of the event. At the bright side I won an umbrella afterward that were picked on my running number, but I think at least 60% of the ones attending won something…
Article of the event on kondis.no

Me running and on the brink of throwing in the towel

I have also created a list of goals at 43 things that I someday want to achieve. I think it it’s great way to set focus on what you want to do. Check it out at http://www.43things.com/person/mortenbrudvik

Running on velvet – 5km, Personal best time! Knarvikmila 2006

I competed today at the 5km, in in one the biggest running events in Norway called Knarvikmila, that had a record high of 6000 people that competed this year. The race started with a countdown “3, 2, 1, BANG!” and at the same moment the gun went of it started to rain badly. But I felt very good, no injuries etc. It were like running on velvet. But the running course were a bit strange as it were going up and down hills all the time. I really tough I would get a bad time because of it, but when arriving at the stadium and crossing the finishing line I were surprised that I had got a new personal best time of 22 min and 8 sec. An improvement of 39 seconds since my last 5km run! Yahooo!!

5km results
Article from www.kondis.no